Emotional, international and cookies finally in the oven.

25 March 2018

Pictures below.

A new record set—this week Branch members were at Church from 9:30a until 4:20p (and we from 9a until 5:30p). Normally the Branch meets 2 hours vs 3 hours (sans Sunday School class...but change is on the horizon—Sunday School books have been ordered and have arrived). And yesterday, being the 4^th week of the month, the Stake visits and we have an hour-long Self-Reliance class followed by a potluck lunch. The rest was pure visiting. We’re just amazed at how they genuinely enjoy the fellowship and love they share with each other.

This week’s miracle—3 weeks ago a less-active member (for more than a decade) called his sister-in-law at 2am Saturday night and said, “Pick me up for Church in the morning.” Then he reported he wanted a calling. So he accepted a call as an Elder’s Quorum Counselor and had an interview for his Patriarchal Blessing! How so you might wonder? The new First Counselor in charge of giving talks and knowing this brother for decades called him up and said, “You’re giving a talk in 2 weeks.” The less-active member came to Church the week before to get reacquainted. His smile and glow from within show his newfound joy in activity.

Why emotional and international?—Last Monday our Cambodian member who “happens” to live around the corner from us, came to our apartment. In the 18 years he has been here (with annual visits home and weekly Facebook contact), this was the first time he was able to Skype and SEE part of his family while he was talking with them. When he called from our home and found his twin daughters at home, obviously, they were ecstatic to talk to their father. But when Marc was able to set up Skype for them, and that first visual contact was made, tears started flowing. They were tears of joy from both ends. What an incredible moment to witness!

The daughters speak English very well so we were also able to talk with them. This good Cambodian brother invited his children to hear the missionaries. We then spoke to the girls and explained how much his father loved the Church and how he wanted them to be able to learn about the Church there in Cambodia. That was another emotional moment. To help smooth the transition, we are in weekly contact with the referral missionary at the Mission Office in Cambodia who is helping to coordinate the missionaries who are in the area where his family lives. The family lives VERY close to a chapel there. That was one of our main worries…how far away they might be from a chapel, since the church is relatively new in Cambodia. Now that we know there is a chapel nearby, we were able to invite them to hear the lessons. They expressed a desire to hear the missionaries. So that is our next step: set up a Skype session with the family, the missionaries there and our member here. A bit tricky with work schedules times 4 of them and our member’s work schedule here plus the time difference. But as the saying goes, where there is a will, there is a way. We proposed a date and will wait to hear if that works for all involved. Wish us all luck!

Cookies in the oven—the long awaited day arrived where we could finally bake in our “Barbie-sized” oven. It sounds easy enough, yes? After down-sizing our new oven to accommodate our old wiring, we found we needed to make a shelf so as not to be cooking off the floor level. All well and good with Marc’s supply of tools at home—saws, screws, boards, screwdrivers, hammers, etc. But DIY projects do require a few tools at one’s disposal and not thousands of miles away. As missionaries, it’s just not in our larder cupboard. We managed to buy a small, small saw and some 2x2s. But then the shelf turned into a fire hazard in that it was too close to the oven door. Now we had to Gerry-rig yet another arrangement. Finally we got the oven raised and safely on a shelf not too close to escaping heat. 220 volt is much hotter.

So, make the cookies…..sounds easy enough. First convert the cups to grams and the ounces to milliliters and Fahrenheit to Celsius and bake it on a non-air bake variety cookie sheet. We were prepared to burn the first batch or have a too runny batch of cookies from some mis-measurement. The margin for error was potentially large. But alas, the first batch was a success! It took longer, but not as long as we anticipated. It’s always nice when things go better than expected. Whew!

Let the fun begin—delivering said cookies!! Like Santa’s elves we went to work delivering cookies to those on our list, making visits to a Mexican member, a member from Romania, another from Reunion Island and of course a member from France. We tried to help mend a broken and aching heart, repair an insult resulting in less activity to church and celebrate a birthday.

It was a beautiful day and a full day as we drove 72 kilometers one-way with stops along the way through beautiful towns and countryside. We picked up the Elders to deliver with us and give messages of comfort. Then we picked up another member at our last destination. He in turn took us to a friend’s home who lives in a chateau on the side of a mountain in the most beautiful, breath-taking panoramic views of the Pyrenees Mountains.

The young friend is the son whom our member has taken under wing for some time now. He is quite the Renaissance Man (at 22 years old) with many interests including fixing up his chateau built in 1786. To put things in perspective as to the size of the chateau, the chapel connected to the chateau can seat about 20 people...comfortably. We lost count of how many rooms there are in the chateau. Well upwards of 30. The surrounding acreage was equally impressive….and beautiful as the eagles were soaring overhead in the updrafts.

The young man stands to inherit the chateau and wants to restore it to its original grandeur. No small task….rather a full-time employ twice or thrice over managing all the inevitable challenges of a spacious chateau built centuries ago and the surrounding acreage meant for a king. He gave us a tour of the chateau complete with its history and including a tour of the certified chapel on the property where he was baptized as an infant into the Catholic Church.

That’s where we started to talk about the Gospel. Included with all the typical Catholic art and statues were 2 framed pieces of LDS artwork on the walls: one of Jesus Christ visiting the Americas and the other of Christ in his red robe. They were gifted to the chapel and family by our member who is a friend of the family….more like trusted family, as he has his own personal key to the chateau to come and go as he pleases. We have been invited to come back anytime. We set up a future appointment to do some service projects with him as he, at 22 years old, is solely managing the chateau for his parents while they are on their international speaking circuit. And Marc is quite the do-it-yourself. As for the parents, they live in Belgium for easier access to their international speaking engagements. The chateau is their get-away home for the holidays and some summertime relaxing in the country.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have all that…..AND the gospel too? Therein lays our pleasure and joy. May we have words at our command.

Une bonne semaine, a la prochaine….