Just what the Doctor ordered

Our Church week—We’ve really not had a “bad” week here yet. That says a lot. That’s not to say we don’t get tired or feel exhausted at times or wonder if we’re really making a difference or have challenges to work through. But the tide always changes rather quickly and we are assured we are moving forward, even if incrementally We’ve had a lot to pull off this week when we were running low on energy and all the problems seemed to converge all at once. But then an hour or a day goes by and we regain our momentum, have a good lesson, get a reprieve or things turn around for us. We definitely feel the Lord’s hand in what we are doing and at the end of the day we know He has been with us, guiding us, strengthening us, helping all those details come to fruition.

This week we have been coordinating a move for a single Mom and her daughter. They are actually moving right across the street from us! Literally a stone’s throw away and we can see their window and they ours. It is an excellent location for her—in a newly-remodeled apartment building that is set up with new energy-efficient savings, on the first floor, closer to school for her daughter, 3 blocks from Jardin Massey and is on the free city bus line. Now with the missionaries closer to us and she moving close by, we now have 6 households living within 3 blocks of each other.

Then we have another couple who are empty-nesters who live 45 minutes away from Tarbes….and Church. She is a long-term member from childhood and this is her second marriage. Her husband is now taking the discussions and desires baptism. We take the missionaries out to teach them and visit with them. We LOVE being a part of those discussions and lessons!! We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again and again and again…we just never tire of watching others come to the newfound knowledge of the Restoration. She also just bought a new smart phone so Marc enjoyed setting it up and adding the apps that we normally use, including our Gospel library that has all the scriptures in it.

But on Sundays there are no local buses running and the train is too expensive for every week, times two people. So they are the next family we are helping to move closer to church. They have wanted to move to Tarbes for some time and now with her renewed Church activity, they are actively looking again. As it is now, our Relief Society President goes to get them, brings them to Church and returns back home to get her own family to come to Church. She does the same thing after Church--that's just under 4 hours of driving. That is dedication and love. We are trying to help them find a good area on the city bus line for local weekly shopping and within walking distance to Church….all on a limited retirees budget. Not an easy task as that’s what everyone else wants as well. The moving deposits are expensive here so that’s another challenge. But they are all in. This definitely calls for prayer.

Tarbes has its economic struggles. From the 1700s Tarbes was a thriving and booming industrial area. Mechanization has changed that landscape and with no major Universities here, young people go to other areas for school and eventually work. The horse industry was world-famous in Tarbes back in the day, but alas we all drive cars. Mom and Pop shops are part of French fabric. We REALLY hate to see the local butcher, the baker, the candle-stick maker close their shops. They are giving way to the local mall. That is SO not French. We like the sense of community the local bakery brings. We’ve seen 7-8 businesses close on our street alone, since we’ve been here. That’s 7 months.

We had 43 people at church today. Several were gone for various reasons including a wedding, one is in Paris visiting, another with an illness and another with a job opportunity on the Atlantic Coast. Kaman blessed the Sacrament again today and was just called into our Young Men’s Program. Jeny is back from her summer job on the Coast and Juliette is back from Thailand. Jeny has to work some Sundays but she said just today she misses Church, particularly Sacrament. So she is going to make a concerted effort to ask way in advance for Sunday’s off. She sees the value in being at Church and will approach her employer to let them know it is important to her to be at Church. Next week, two families will be gone and we will be gone as well for the first time on a Sunday. There’s still a lot of shuffling around and we don’t seem to have everyone here all at once on any given Sunday. Our numbers are few to begin with, so any one not there is notably missed.

It was a warm fall today so we had our “repas” outside today. Afterwards we had our lesson on Self-Reliance. The 4^th Sunday is a very full day—3 hours of Church, the “repas” then the our additional class. We arrived at Church today at 9am and there were 5 people waiting for us at the door. We came home around 5pm after the last few departed. That’s a full day. But every one chips in and if smiles tell the story, all the happier.

Tillac and Saint Saver-de-Rustan—The previous Branch President and his wife invited us to their home yesterday for lunch and a trip to the country to see 2 Medieval towns. We had no idea these 2 towns were so close to Tarbes. We had a beautiful fall day. It was planned 2 weeks ago so we didn’t know if the weather would be in our favor. We really needed a break and this was the perfect prescription. It was none other than all French style—a leisurely, typically French multi-course meal with appetizers, salad, entrée, cheese and dessert. The meal span over about 2 ½ hours. Conversation is rich here and we love that. They were very patient with our “French”. A lot of days we feel like we are regressing with our French as we don’t use it every day. For that we are sad.

We drove out through some scenic countryside ripe with corn and drying sunflowers. The smell of fall is in the air but it was in the high 80s. They apparently have hot Indian summers here—for you West-Coasters who only know varying degrees of warm, warmer and hot—that’s a “second summer” during fall. It can be in the 80s then suddenly when it’s over, real fall temperatures catch you off guard and the snap of cool autumn temperatures fill the air. Short sleeve shirts and sandals quickly give way to sweaters and light scarves. Backed up against the Pyrenees we imagine it will drop quickly. Time will tell.

We have increasing admiration for this faithful previous Branch President who served 3 decades…all the while raising his own 4 children, working and volunteering his time and talents to the Tarbes Branch. His pedestal grows higher and higher as we see the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making a Branch run smoothly. And hats off to his selfless wife who is just as faithful and sharing of her husband’s time while he served this small flock. We just marvel.

Michelle is a talented: a painter and a fantastic cook. We had a regional Basque chicken entrée, local cheese and blueberry pie. In Tiliac, we picked walnuts that are in season and ate a few on the spot. Then we got a nice history lesson from Patrick and Michelle about the towns. Back at their house we had some “bio” juice. “Bio” [Bee-O] means organic. The French are VERY organically-minded and love their locally produced fruits and vegetables. There are no chemical pesticides here and stores have huge large sections for organic products such as juices and hair product lines and the like. All locally-grown produce is organic. It’s a given.

Patrick has been keeping bees for quite some time and has 10 hives. He gave us some of his floral honey. He runs several seasons of honey including an oak honey. Oak trees have no flower and therefore no nectar for the bees. But there is an insect that bores a hole in the acorn that produces a nectar-like by-product and the bees profit from that nectar. Patrick showed us several wild-flower species on our outing that his bees frequent. It’s more of an art than we realized.

We had an absolutely wonderful time. We learned so much. The weather was perfect. And they were so giving of their time to show us FRANCE. The thought of leaving gets harder and harder on days like these. This is one incredibly beautiful country with down-to-earth people who give of themselves and relish time spent with friends over conversations on every topic under the sun while savoring freshly prepared meals lasting hours on end. We’ve rather lost this art of dining in the US with our frozen meals, fast food and quick meals before our children’s next soccer game. We love our country, our freedoms, the Constitution, our Founding Fathers and American principles; yet we savor every bite while we’re here…..figuratively and literally.

A la prochaine.