Lost Sheep Returns; In Flanders’s Fields; Gorges de La Bourne

Our Church Week—We are still traveling quite a bit with one more week to go.  It will be interesting to see our mileage by mission’s end.  Certainly these past few weeks will bring the average up.

We were just commenting how we seem to be in another phase.  The beginning weeks and months brought about a lot of change.  After a few months we were able to “settle in” and to a rhythm.  Sometimes the phases are clearly marked by an event, other times by the close of a certain long-term task that ends or a holiday period begins, certainly the beginning and end of a school year mark time, and sometimes we seem to just find ourselves in another phase via hindsight.  This week and today at Church, we definitely feel another phase of growth; we can just look back and see how we, as a Branch, have grown—yes in numbers, but definitely in spirituality.   

With Marc’s assignment as Branch President (Pastor), our weeks are defined by Sundays.  But the Mission is defined by transfers (6-week periods).  We are now in our 7^th transfer, soon to be 8^th transfer.  You don’t talk to Missionaries, the Mission President, or the Mission Office about a calendar month; they will tilt their heads and try to compute that to how far into the transfer we are.  It’s the transfers that act like cog-wheels.  The Senior Missionaries are odd man out on that timing device since, for the most part, we stay in one area.  

Wednesday we drove this week to Bayonne again on the Atlantic side for District Conference since a portion of the train tracks were being worked on and the Young Missionaries could not get to Pau for that day.  Afterwards, we completed an apartment round to our farthest west-lying Missionaries. We picked up several items for them from Ikea—microwave stand, pots and pans.  Ikea is our go-to place here.  They are just a few in France in larger cities.  But being that Ikea is a European concept, the Ikea here is a mega-city.  Ikea is designed for small spaces and functionality within space spaces, aka Europe.  It’s so “non-French” in the big box store sense since it’s in a “mall”—a relatively new concept in France.  (France’s timeline goes back centuries compared to the US, so it’s all relative.)  But the contemporary Swedish flare is VERY French.  So are the colors.  Ooh-la-la!  Now that is French!!  Got to have color if you want to be truly French….it’s a given.  And Ikea has color.  But we felt like we needed a map to navigate the parking garage connected to the store.  They have a unique system in Bayonne with red/green light sensors when a car pulls in/out.  You can look down the LONG aisle and see if there’s an open space by looking up at the red/green lights.  Very smart!!  And really helpful.  Inside Ikea, we could have been in any city since the layout is a mirror image.  But the inside café….we knew we were in France.

That was a 12-hour day.    

Thursday we got our own Elders a dining room rug as the feet “protectors” on their chairs were digging into and pitting the extra-soft, spongy and newly-laid wood-grained linoleum….just not a good combination nor for the wear and tear it is going to receive over the next decade or so.  It’s a preventive measure; we, as homeowners, could see that these “protectors” were not really protecting; their soft flooring was a recipe for disaster….spelled a huge expense for the Mission to replace a damaged floor when the apartment is vacated.  Marc also fixed their living room light and determined their dryer was indeed not working.  Earlier their washer gave up the ghost, but he was able to fiddle with some wires and revive it.  But now, a few months later, only one cycle works.  So we are going to recommend the 2 in 1 washer/dryer that we have.  It is certainly space-saving and you don’t have to transfer the wet load to the dryer.  And, it’s half the price of buying 2 units.  That’s always a nice plus when things are less expensive than anticipated.

We did our usual run-down of planning during the week: prayerful goal setting, trouble-shooting and brainstorming of ideas, scheduling and all the “behind-the-scenes” work that goes into our work week.

And our favorite of all favorites—after many visits, prayers and the like, we had one return to the fold today, after about 15 years of absence.  That is why we are here.  Everyone played a part; but she did the work.  Sometimes we aren’t the ones who get to see one of the flock return to Church.  What is more, today was Fast & Testimony Sunday (The first Sunday of each month we Fast for 2 reasons—give the money from our meals to help those without, and to become more spiritually in tune with God; the Testimony portion is a free-will, unprepared “testimony” reporting of our experiences from the last month on how God has been evidenced in our lives).  And….drum roll….our lost sheep come home gave a BEAUTIFUL and heartfelt testimony on prayer, reading the Book of Mormon daily and announced her return.  Other than a newly baptized member, it doesn’t get much better than that.  Just complete joy.

Gorges de la Bourne—We traveled through this is a beautiful gorge on our way to/from Switzerland.  It’s in the Alps so think big, really big.  Several tunnels were just notched out of the road and only one-lane wide.  Unfortunately the pictures don’t really capture the panoramic views or enormity of the mountain bases in one picture frame. 

Nov 11^th, Armistice Day—When Meg was in Elementary thru High School, Poppy flowers were always handed out.  Every teacher and student wore a Poppy on Nov 11th.  Here, the Poppy is given out at the beginning of November and worn until Armistice Day.  France has had two World Wars on its soil.  Meg’s Grandfather fought in WWI in France so it is extra meaningful to be in France on November 11th.  In the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies growing in battle-scarred fields to write a now famous poem shown above called 'In Flanders Fields'. 

A la prochaine.

Next Sunday is the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI on French soil. 

After the First World War, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of Remembrance

Missionary Conference with Elder Cook in Geneva, Switzerland.  All present and accounted for in the Lyon France Mission.  We are much smaller than years past now.  French-speaking Africa is growing in leaps and bounds, so we have fewer Missionaries. We just have to work harder and smarter.

Marc doing the weekly paperwork at his office

Finally feeling better from a several week cold

The tradition when and Elder is about to go home.  It's our Elder that leaves in 2 weeks.
Two years is 16 transfers.

In the Gorges, the sky is up there about 3x the height of what is showing

At the entrance of each town's first round-about, there is a 

display of what that town is known for.  Here we are in high-pasture country,

hence the large cow and calf grazing on the hillside

In the Gorges near the entrance so not very deep here.

It can be very much early afternoon but because the mountains are so tall, 

the shadows appear very early in the day.

Look in the center at the mountain that is tilted.  These mountains really reveal 

how they were formed and all the up-lift that took place many moons ago.

Close up of above.  The rock formation is vertical so you know it is up-lift. 

The rest of the base of the mountain is below these trees.  Quite a drop. 

Some boulders on top of the protective covering.

The river is below in the ravine about the same distance of the height of this mountain.

Parts of the Gorges remind us of Yosemite. 

Red sandstone in some areas leaving the Gorges

That is one mountain base, just unfathomable. 

 Directly above road sign in top mountains is a Medieval Fortress.

Rugged yet serene. 

One lane, you toot to make sure no one is approaching.  One of you may have to back up....whomever seems to have more road at whatever given moment.  You also 

pray that mountain hanging in midair does not decide to let go when you are going through. 

....the tilt is in the rock, not the camera.
.....another good time to say your prayers as you pass by.