Sushi, training in Carcassonne, and more fall leaves in the Alps

- November 11, 2018

Our Church Week—We had our District Meeting in Pau (45 mins to our west) this week. District Meetings are two times per transfer (6-week period). One of the young Missionaries is the District Leader calls the meeting to order and conducts the 2-hour long meeting, and then it rotates from Missionary to Missionary over their course of 2 years. For us, this is the beauty of the Restored Gospel: On Sunday, Marc is the President of the Tarbes Branch; but throughout the week as a Senior Missionary, we belong to a District of Missionaries. So during the week, he is then in the “student” position under a young Elder District Leader. Any business items from the Mission President are disseminated and discussed under the direction of the Young Missionary. We coordinate any baptisms and always brush up on our teaching skills. At the end, the tradition is that we sing the mission song, take a picture of our District showing which transfer we are currently in and the Missionaries prepare a meal. We bring the desserts.

This last District Meeting was unique because it was Elder Templeton’s last District Meeting. This time, the Missionaries held him up in a reclining position; sometimes they stack 16 chairs (representing 2 years’ worth of transfers) and hoist him up on the stacked chairs. Either way, it’s to honor their selfless service and commitment to a life time of serving their fellow man.

Elder Templeton has become quite the cook these 2 years. He’s adopted a few French recipes, namely Raclette…a favorite cheese dish and Sushi. Over his 2 years, he’s bought a few of the sushi making reed rollers, chopsticks and special dipping dishes. We gave him a Sushi “maker” that says “MERCI MYSELF.” We thought that was apropos for his French Mission and love for making Sushi.

Saturday, we had an 8-hour training meeting in back in Carcassonne. We were quite saturated with French after 8 hours. We are proud of what we do understand; but we are telling you it’s not 100%...far from it. But we generally know the Church Organization and the new changes beginning in 2019, so that of course gave us a leg up.

The French Alps and Geneva trip—Not much to report on this week by way of history or culture, just a continuation of fall beauty in France and western Switzerland over our many miles covered these past weeks.

A la prochaine.