Sunflower Psychology

Our Church week—This week we taught Kaman with the Elders out in his home town, 45-minutes away. Here is an example of a member friend “opening her mouth.” Kaman and Carole work together. Carole is our member and she asked Kaman one day at work if he was spiritual or religious. He said he was. She asked if he was searching for anything more. He replied he definitively was. So she invited him to Church….and he came!! He came once and liked it, then twice, then three times, then to the baptism of the two children earlier this summer. That baptism day made for a long day for him—a 45-minute drive to Church, 3 hours of Church, a “repas” (pot-luck meal) at Church, shuttling over to another member’s home who had a pool, the baptism, dessert and visiting after the baptism, then another 45-minute drive home. His day with us went from about 8:30am to 5pm. That’s a full day!

He was convinced. He began the lessons the Missionaries teach a few weeks ago and would like to be baptized, next Saturday! We couldn't be more thrilled.

We also met with Evelyn during the week who is a member of the Church, but is not able to attend often. So the 4 us met with Evelyn at Church for some cookies; we talked and got to know her a bit. She actually works in Marseilles, about 4 hours to our East. So she is not in Tarbes every day. But her parents and an aunt that live here so she has ties to Tarbes. She invited us to come to her home next Tuesday before she returns to Marseilles. She would like to begin relearning the lessons and work on strengthening her faith. We look forward to meeting with her and sharing those teaching moments together.

We also encountered 2 couples from the States traveling in France. They will be doing some hiking here in the beautiful Pyrenees in Spain. They picked a gorgeous location, that's for sure. They were spending a day in Biarritz on the Atlantic Coast and that’s where we met them. Marc heard English and they struck up a conversation. One of the men stayed behind and was interested in the fact that we have no paid ministry (that we actually pay to come) and heard the fairly recent press release on “Mormons” vs “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”. It’s one in the same church and we’re often referred to as “Mormons” because we use the Book of Mormon along with the Bible. But the official and formal name of the Church is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” He had learned that. But he was a big tease and “caught” himself saying “Mormon” rather than the formal name. It is shorter and rolls off the tongue a bit more easily; we’ve caught ourselves saying “Mormon” as many people are more familiar with the shortened name. In France, we are often confused with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Doctrine differs quite a bit. But we truly ARE the Church of Jesus Christ and we will honor His name, and His Church.

Other--The apartment we did an entire make-over on passed with flying colors! Whew. We also had another apartment inspection in Bayonne/Biarritz which is why we were on the Atlantic Coast. We'll send pictures of that area in a future post. We ended up having to recaulk the tub, as the water was leaking into the wall cause mildew.

School starts on Monday so traffic patterns will change. Just in the last week our school-aged children look at bit taller, a bit older in the face than a few weeks ago and we notice their peers in the stores buying their school supplies. In addition, we have three members who work in the schools.

Fall is in the morning and evening air and leaves on deciduous trees at higher altitudes are slowly giving way to greenish yellow. The nights are slowly getting darker earlier, between 8-9pm depending on altitude. We hope to have some nice fall colors in October.

Sunflower Fields—What a beautiful sight! The sunflower fields are beginning to wane but we have really enjoyed their colors. We understand why Vincent Van Gogh and others loved painting sunflowers and why sunflowers are on beaucoup French tablecloths. They just brighten up your day and it's definitely a happy encounter with them in the landscape. It’s hard to go too far and not see one field after another. We just wish the photos can do them part the justice they deserve when the sun is shining on them. Some photos not shown are over-exposed as they radiate back all that light. It’s been fun to suddenly come upon a field as we round a corner; there they are unexpectedly radiating such a brilliant, happy yellow, as if the sun was caught inside of them, radiating back a gladness that just fills your heart and soul. Over the past several weeks, we come upon flat fields of sunflowers and sunflowers on contoured hillsides. Each scene brings another “oooh” or “aaaah”. We got out one or twice and photographed a few. That’s when they started to look almost human and we began to notice different sunflower “personalities and human traits. Hence “Sunflower Psychology”J

A la prochaine.

Ever wonder where that classic French blue and yellow come from?

Marc realizing he isn't as tall as the sunflowers.

On the way to L'Eclerc (Wal-Mart) 8 minutes down the road

Ever feel like the soil is just too parched or you've run into a "dry spell" ?

Just hang in there, the rain will come

We took the long way home from Zone Conference through Castres....kind of a "little Venice." Castres means "fortified place" This town has an older language, Occitan, which is a Romance language (not to be confused with Basque which is an entirely different language and region ). About 1.5 million people speak the Occitan dialect. We had dinner in the plaza where they had their special summer fete (festival) we just happened upon. Every small town has their own summer festival and we lucked upon this one while we were eating. We ate in an outdoor cafe while the regional dancers in local dialect entertained us singing and dancing.