Hello and Goodbye: Sweet Sorrow

- April 15, 2018

15 April 2018

Saying goodbye—One of our two missionaries, Elder Masters, completes his 2-year mission in 9 days. It is always amazing the responsibility these young missionaries take on. He has been a Missionary District Leader (in charge of 10-12 young missionaries) for the past 4 months here in Tarbes. District Leader responsibilities include watching over his “flock” of 10-12 other missionaries, going on exchanges (2 missionary companionships pairing off with 2 different missionary companionships for the day), conducting interviews, filling out reports and a variety of other tasks needed to keep the missionary work running smoothly. He also makes trips to adjacent missionary areas coordinating exchanges with those Elders. He conducts a 2-hr long instructional meetings every 3 weeks for his peers (District Conferences). In addition to those duties, he is also a full-time missionary himself. When we arrived here, he was also serving as the 1^st counselor in the Branch Presidency (small congregational unit) and watching over that “flock”. In that position, he was responsible for assigning speakers each Sunday, depositing tithing checks at the bank, visiting members and a few other as sundry items. Of course that is all in French, with customs different than our own. Elder Masters also played 4 hymns during the Sacrament Meeting. He literally held this branch together so the branch would not have to close: the branch was on the table slated to close but thanks to his service, the branch remained opened. Between it all, he was asked to find a well-situated apartment for us, make the arrangements and sign the contract. Well done and hats off....to all of it. That’s a lot for a 20-year old! He knew what to do and he did it well.

Saying hello, small world—Sister Martin, originally from Ireland but living in France most of her life left on her mission from Tarbes, France. She returned home Saturday night after serving in Montréal, Canada, for 18 months. She was in the same mission as Nadya!! They met up just before she was to come home. She is another stellar missionary who was a Sister Training Leader over 2 zones on her mission. She traveled quite a lot also doing interviews, training teams of missionaries, and teaching about 60 missionaries each 6 weeks at their Zone Conferences. She’s a splitting image of her Mum. There was a lot of excitement and “electricity” today in each of the meetings. Sister Martin should be plenty jet-lagged. But sleep can wait (at least when you’re 20). She was so excited to see her friends, family and church family. She gave a wonderful homecoming talk telling of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is wise beyond her years as she stood at the pulpit sharing the conversion stories of others as she helped them make the small changes in their lives to be part of the fold and experience the joy of living a Gospel-centered life. She was just beaming and of course very touched by her Mum who returned to church to hear her daughter’s testimony of the saving ordinances of the Gospel. She will now serve as a Branch Missionary.

Another miracle in Tarbes—Philippe came to church today after a very long absence. He is a Pharmacist by trade and a Scientific Researcher, and he “happens” to live on our street! Our missionaries visited him this week with another member of our branch and invited him to come to our farewell/welcome home dinner after our regular meetings. Just like that, he came! But then in walks a returned missionary visiting for the day. And not just any missionary, mind you. This missionary served in Tarbes 18 years ago. He now lives in Houston but had business in Toulouse, 2 hours from Tarbes. He could have gone to church in one of the larger and much closer wards in Toulouse; but he wanted to come to Tarbes. Little did he know that Philippe would be there, returning JUST TODAY from an extended absence. Do you want to know who taught Philippe 18 years ago and brought him into the church to begin with? Yes, you guessed it, this return missionary, Ben. What a coincidence of timing... They sat side-by side and enjoyed catching up with each other's lives. So another divinely-orchestrated blessing comes to Tarbes.

It was quite a day—2 blessings, 4 people set apart for a "call" (service within the church ), 1 homecoming, 1 farewell and 1 dinner…French-style (5 hours), and 46 people today at our branch. Today the food was more than just physical. It was food for the soul as we supped with each other and communed one with another. Lots of rejoicing today.

A la Prochaine.