The record has been broken! Happy belated Valentine’s Day!! Pic du Midi

Our Church Week—The earlier part of the week, Meg finished up decorations for the special Valentine’s “repas” and we took them over in several trips to the Church. So that is this month’s theme—Valentine’s Day. Decorations were made from anything red we could find. We’ve been drinking Badoit mineral water these past weeks. Why you ask? The bottle is red, of course! With a few touches, it’s a great Valentine’s Day table decoration. We have a limited budget and we make it stretch every which way we can.

During the week alongside our full-time Young Missionaries, we made several visits to hand-deliver some special invitations to our Conference and meal afterwards to several friends of the Church who are learning about the Restored Gospel.

Customarily, our Branch “repas” is the 4^th Sunday of each month. But this month, we’re having the repas a week earlier to accommodate our Branch Conference (where the Stake, next level up comes to offer insight and assistance).

This month’s church theme has been about the principles of Christ-like love and Christ-like service. Today, Marc was asked to speak about this past year and the upcoming year. It was a nice recap of small but mighty changes that have taken place over the year. Then a few members of the Stake spoke. We have a representative from each of the organizations: Primary, Young Women’s, Young Men’s, Relief Society, three from the Stake Presidency, Stake Clerk and a special person this month conducting a survey. Depending on distance, some of the organizations bring 1-2 of their counselors, sometimes a spouse. Then each auxiliary organization met with their leaders. We borrowed every room possible and every corner available in our larger room. These are all volunteers as we have no paid ministry. They devote their time, talents and energy each doing their part to build up the Kingdom. The Second Councilor to the Stake came from Perpignan, 3 ½ hours one way, stayed overnight in a hotel….. and on his own nickel. That is dedication. Our previous Branch President of the Tarbes Branch stayed cleaning up and vacuuming after the feast was over. That, too, is dedication. Everyone chipped in setting plates, heating food, saying the prayer and helping their neighbor. That is dedication.

We provided the meal and the Stake provided the spiritual meal of an uplifting message and support from our Toulouse Stake. And….drum roll, please: we had 66 people in Church today. That is a record for Tarbes! We were pulling in chairs for our Sacrament Meeting from every possible room to accommodate our Stake visitors and our local visitors. We love growth, visits and bumping into everyone as we try to move 3-5 feet. It is a good problem to have, even if for the day. We were busting at the seams; some were sitting in the hallway, including Meg. The Nursery we set up for our Branch only a week ago for our 2 attendees, was filled to the brim. It could not have been timelier to have set it up when we did. Primary doubled from 5-10 today. AND we had a piano for all to sing together.

It was just wonderful. The sun was shining (unlike last year we’ll remind you) for the whole week and into today, Sunday. The day was warm. Our Camilla bush was showing off its pink blossoms at the Church’s entrance. The food was wafting all kinds of rich aromas in the hallway and out the open windows. Children were playing nicely inside and out; adults were catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. We had piano music in Primary and children were ecstatic to have new friends for the day. Discussions on how our Church is different from the Catholic Church, Jehovah’s Witness church, or Protestant Churches were topics for new visitors. There was laughter and hugs and little ones walking under foot. We heard several times from those from larger units how they love the smaller family feel in Tarbes. It’s a sacrifice of time and money for them to come but they feel richly rewarded. If time spent with us is an indicator, church was over at 11:30a and we exited the door today with our last 2 visitors at 4:15p.

We get stretched thinly; we are far away from others of the same faith. Distance challenges us. Today it didn’t matter. Ah, what a nice day for Tarbes!

Let us introduce you to Richard. Richard is our Elder’s Quorum President (men’s group). Did you ever meet one person that can do the work of many, do circles around everyone else? That is Richard. He is energetic and service-oriented to help whomever, whenever. Richard lives about 45 minutes from Church. Last week he picked up 4 people who could not get to Church since their normal rides were ill. So Richard did it. But it’s not the first time he has driven double his distance and out of his way to bring others to Church or to help with a service project far away from him. He spends about half of his weeks visiting his children throughout France and the other half helping others. He is going to donate 2 years of help to his son who is in the process of buying an Intermarché, a local international-type grocery store. Richard, an architect by trade and will help him convert a building they have a bid on into a grocery store. He will help build his son’s clientele base and get things up and running. He will soon leave our Tarbes Branch and move to Paris to help his son. That is Richard. Anyone who knows him, will say the same.

One particular week, about 3 weeks ago, our Elders were discouraged. As a general rule, they experience a lot of rejection in a day, in a week, in a month. It adds up. It’s hard work; and the more secular the society, the harder their work is. France, for all its beauty, love of country and wonderful people, is one of those very secular societies. France has gone from a very Catholic nation in the Middle Ages and onward, to a very secular society. Add a rainy, wet, cold day; mix it with getting over the flu that’s been lingering in some form or another over 3 weeks and try to stay cheerful. That’s a young missionary’s day more often than not.

About 3 weeks ago, they were trying to keep their chins up after a discouraging week of their own flu, cold weather, rain and lots of rejection. They were out contacting people on the street and getting lots of negative feedback. They were commenting to each other, “Oh ye of little faith” and wondering if their own faith was strong enough to push through. They summed it up as the low point in their week. Just as soon as they said that to each other, they were rounding the corner and ran into a young woman who did want to know more, who did want them to teach her more about Christ and who shared her contact information with them to discuss how to become closer to Christ, learn about the Restored Gospel and what the Elders had to teach. She said she was just thinking she needed God in her life and around the corner they came. We call that a miracle. They came over on their way home to share their Good News.

It’s like the Pony Express—through wind, rain, sleet or snow, the mail must get through! Likewise we have “mail” with a very important message—the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ—and that mail must get through, no matter the conditions. Hats off to our hard-working Elders!

We went to Carcassonne yesterday—3 hours over, 3 hours back and the 3 ½ hour meeting in between. We generally LOVE going to Carcassonne (largest Medieval Fortress) and it’s always nice to get away. And we like the meetings as they are uplifting and important information is shared. We will say this trip was harder because we often stay over the night before because of the long day. But this time we did not go a day earlier as we were making food preparations and decorations for Sunday.

For your information and amusement, a full tank of gasoline is not enough to make the round trip from Tarbes to Carcassonne. We thought we could make it and knew we still had lots of food to prepare when we got home; so we were eager to get on our way. Maybe too eager. It seems the first half of the tank goes down rather slowly; the last half tank drops REALLY quickly. Our gas light came on in a very dark, remote area between towns. It was not the night we wanted to be walking to find a gas station and return with a gas can to our car in some dark part of the freeway….and knowing we have a gas can at home full of gas sitting on our balcony we bought for yellow vest demonstration days when we have to travel, did not help matters. That was the rub. Of all days not to bring it. Thankfully, we have a hybrid car and we were able to come the rest of the way into Tarbes on the battery charge. As you can imagine, we said a prayer of gratitude as we came into that (thankfully open) gas station.

Town of the week—Pic du Midi at La Mongie. Pic du Midi is the mountain; La Mongie the town where you can take a cable car up to the top, well two cars as there are two stations to get to the top. Pic du Midi is in the Pyrenees and is famous for the Observatory that has been built atop. It was quite a feat to get the equipment, telescope and restaurant up there in the first place. You can see for miles, and miles, and miles and we had a super clear day. You can see Tarbes, 33 miles as the crow flies and we can see Pic du Midi from Tarbes. So we’ve been waiting for just that right moment. And of course we wanted snow-covered to view the beauty of the mountains. They had several telescopes set up for viewing the moon and sun with its solar flares. There are just a few rooms where you can spend the night and stay a for a night viewing which we did not do. This trip. It’s on our bucket list.

A la prochaine!

Showing Anne how to make Rice Krispie treats

Valerie brought daffodils....spring flowers are blooming already at lower altitudes.

Our High Councilman and his family. They all came, minus one.

Previous Branch President

Phillip and the Missionaries

Outskirts of Tarbes

Pic du Midi is the higher, pointed peak right of center

Pic du Midi at far right of picture

Society here is very secular, yet many fields and towns display Christ on the Cross dating from the Middle Ages and onward.

Common roof line near mountains

Finally at an altitude above the snow line

Road going over pass closes during winter for skiers.

School rotate 2 weeks off over 6-week period so families can ski in non-crowded conditions.

At the intermediate station, 7680 ft

Up at 9438 feet. The air was so clean and fresh.

Model of Observatory

Looking south towards Spain

Viewing telescope of moon

Star-gazing telescope open for research and those spending the night
Scientists partly fund their research thru tourist money; tourist can benefit during viewing nights

Looking Northeast

Sky walk bridge

Tarbes to lower left, 33 miles away

Sky walk....standing on plexi-glass

Sky walk

Cable car coming up

Educational i-pad to tour area and identify peaks

Heading back down; we were texting Nadya on the way down as it was her Preparation Day.
Never tire of the wonders of technology--Canada to France, instant messaging and sending her pictures as we descend. What an amazing time in history!