Some of our Branch Family and some of Tarbes

March 11, 2018

Pics and video after text.

This week: We are now getting into a nice rhythm working with "our" Elders. It's amazing to watch such young men (18-22yrs) take the lead in organizing their days and selflessly looking for opportunities to be of service to others. We have now been out with "our" Elders several times on teaching appointments and have watched them deliver spiritually up-lifting and individualized messages for each of the families and individuals we have visited. These are the very moments we have been waiting for: visiting family households and watching their lives change ever so slightly as they learn how to align their daily lives with that of JesusChrist. And then? We learn from them!

The high tech world we live in: We have a member here who is from Cambodia. He has been here in Tarbes, France working as a Sushi Chef for 18 years while supporting his wife and 3 children so their children could get a University Education. What an amazing sacrifice he has been making, and for many years. He makes an annual trip home and of course communicates regularly with them through Face Book. We have been in touch with an Elder we know through our daughter who happens to be serving in.....Cambodia! This church member here grew up Buddhist, came to know the LDS Church and now desires his family to learn more about it. So we have been working on narrowing down where the missionaries are serving in Cambodia and how close they are to a LDS chapel in Phnom Penh, the capital city. We are in the process of trying to coordinate a Skype lesson with the Elders in Cambodia and us here in France so we can introduce his wife to the missionaries in Cambodia. It's a process and of course the time change makes it a bit more challenging. We are continually amazed at how technology can even get us to this point!

A previous and successful Skype session: A young female missionary from Tarbes, France is serving her mission in Montreal, Canada (the same mission as our youngest daughter). And we have a young man here who has been taking the missionary discussions whom we have been involved with the teaching. The Elders here in Tarbes set up a Skype lesson with this sister missionary in Canada who knew our young man here in France. Voila! He accepted her invitation to be baptized the week after she returns from her mission to Tarbes on 14 April. He is preparing now and is very excited to enter the waters of baptism. He is counting the days, and we are too!

The weather in Tarbes: CHANGEABLE! We've not been here long enough to know if this is a "normal" year weather wise. Perhaps coming from San Diego's mild climate, we only seem know two type of weather: wet/dry or hot/cold and the days in between full of sunshine. (Although we did hear it was quite cold and quite suddenly, but that things are back to normal.) But no day here is the same. One moment we feel the icy cold wind blow down from the snow-covered mountain at the end of our street, then the next moment it is warm and we feel over-dressed. No rain predicted….it rains. 100% rain predicted and it's a beautiful blue and cloudless sky day….or moment, since it’s forever changing.

It seems the Pyrenees Mountains create local micro-weather patterns. Yesterday we were driving back with "our" Elders to Tarbes from a smaller outer-lying village about 45 minutes away. Things are beginning to green up as spring makes its appearance and it was during those golden photography hours. It was absolutely beautiful and captivating. The sun was setting and we were enjoying the changing colors created by the clouds. As we were driving, we came up on a rise in the road where a collection of clouds were hanging on the hilltop. All of a sudden the clouds began to race across the sky but in a swirling fashion. Yet the clouds were light, airy and wispy and seemed to be dancing with the light. Within the clouds there was a fierce activity of changing colors and light vs the dark seen in a raging and brewing thunderstorm. It was the total opposite—a light storm brewing. The clouds, now colored with various hues dancing in changing light from the setting sun were just alive with activity....like Dorthoy in the Wizzard of at Oz or a scene from Back to the Future. The clouds seemed to be in some fast forward, speeded up motion picture creating some mystical vortex or “portal” that would take us to another world.

Youth temple trip planned: France now has a LDS temple in Paris as of April. It’s hard to believe it’s almost a year now. It's quite a miraculous story that unfolded during the Mayoral election in Paris. Long and short of it: if the opposition won, no temple; if the incumbent won, temple. The French people throughout all France now benefit from that election’s result. For our branch, we have 2 youth that will be attending. They are the only 2 of age in our small branch. What an experience for them! Here is a video tour of the Paris temple. Notice the use of “French blue” and stained-glass….two very French features. Beautiful voice if from a former Sister missionary.

New Paris Temple video

Around the corner, down the street

"Our" Elders helping assemble our extendable dining room table

We asked the Elders to "sign" our table like Sister Dalton

(her father laid the carpet at the Conference Center and she wrote"Stand Ye in Holy Places"

Little did she know she would be speaking from that very pulpit.

At the corner of our street

Looking out our apartment window to the right

View to the left

Near downtown Tarbes, typical in some period homes

Off Place Verdun

We have palm trees here! Very surprising as it snows here.

More nice architecture

Even the doors are unique

Very French

A chocolate store--it's like an art museum. This shoe is all chocolate down to the stitching.

A branch member from Romania. She helps me with my French.

At zone conference. She is from Tahiti. I saw her name tag and thought

I saw a resemblance between she and Nadya's MTC companion. So I showed her the pic on my phone. They are sisters! She serving in Lyon France and her sister (on the phone) with Nadya.