Three Kings Day; Sainte Croix du Verdon

6 January 2019

Our Church Week—What a full and rewarding week with lots of celebrating, French style. The Christmas Spirit and The New Year still fill the air….cold as it is (turned 12 degrees F this morning). We’ve had a very wonderful week gathering with different Church families and individuals since everyone is still off this past week. Tradition continues to unite France’s people and it has been fun to celebrate age-old traditions.

We’ve received yet more chocolate boxes and gifts. We will be in good supply for many weeks, if not months, to come. And of course French cooking, dinner dates and conversation is in extra supply these few weeks along with all the sweet treats.

Earlier this week, we had Jean-Claude over to practice reading the Scriptures. He has been taking the Temple Preparation classes and was planning to attend to attend the Bern Temple (Switzerland) this week with a friend over the holiday break. We read an article together and discussed the use of imagery in both the scriptures and in the temple. These are precious moments for us and we cherish those times to read together with another. We received many sweet treats over these past 2 weeks; but we see these moments as the sweetest of treats. To share in another’s spiritual development is sacred ground and we feel the sacred nature of the moment and the accompanying, incomparable joy.

Louise, our 80-year old investigator, made crepes for the 4 of us on New Year’s Day. Technically, we are out of “crepe country” so this was an extra treat! We have missed having crepes that we have enjoyed on other trips to France and in other areas of France. It’s often the first pick of the menu for us. Meals and snacks are just not “fast-food style” here; the making of the food and eating it is meant to be savored and enjoyed as much as the conversation that accompanies meals. Louise has fresh eggs for her crepes; she has 2 hens in her yard. We never knew hens were so curious. These “girls” kept coming to the kitchen door to see what we were doing. They just seemed to like to be around the activity and would peer into the door to see what everyone was doing. It added to the atmosphere. Elder Gardener would do his chicken imitations and the hens would really perk up their heads to see what was happening. We were quite amused.

After a long meal of crepes, we came out to the living room and read from the Book of Mormon. Louise has struggled through the Isaiah chapters of the Book of Mormon and was feeling discouraged not being able to understand them. It’s a tough plunge so early in the book. So we all read Alma 32 (much later in the Book of Mormon) which compares the planting and growth of a plant seed to planting seeds of truth and watching them (the seeds of truth) grow in ourselves. What a breath of fresh air for her! We actually never tire of reading it ourselves. But it was a turning point for her after struggling to understand some more difficult passages to reading a great metaphor with lots of imagery. She said, “I will end up believing”. What music to our ears and joy to watch her embrace the Book of Mormon as scripture.

We also met with Evelyn both last week and we’ll have her over again this week. Evelyn works in Marseilles, 5 hours to our East in the French Riviera. She works for the Police Department and spends weeks at a time in Marseilles then comes to her apartment in Tarbes for holidays and occasional weekends. The Yellow Vests demonstrations have been keeping her working extra and longer hours during the day. Sundays are usually her return days back to Marseilles so it makes going to Church difficult for her. When she is in town she visits her parents and we meet up with her with the Missionaries and provide spiritual messages. This week we all watched a video of the Restoration of the Church. She was VERY touched to remember all those beginning years of the early Church. Marc also set up her account to do some genealogy work, one of the focus goals Church-wide this year, really every year but we are giving it some extra “oomph” this year.

Evelyn is here one more week so will join us Wed along with Valerie, our around-the-corner Church neighbor so they can meet. They both love traveling internationally and are eager to meet each other. So we will have a luncheon here to introduce them. Valerie will bring the traditional Feast of the Epiphany “gateau de roi” (see below). We are just delighted and very excited to make these connections to be able to buoy each other up when Evelyn’s circumstances make it difficult to be in Tarbes regularly. That way when she can be here, there are Church friends eager to embrace her. Valerie is just the right match and is a friend to all.

We had Chevez and the Missionaries over for dinner this week. Chevez was baptized 7 months ago so we are helping to prepare him for his Patriarchal Blessing and continue to help navigate the Scriptures, Church Resources and all that “LDS esoteric lingo”. A Patriarchal Blessing is given to an individual by a Patriarch likes in biblical days of yore. It tells us which Tribe of Israel we belong to and offers and individualized list of blessings pertinent to our lives, our families and our missions here in this life. They assure us God knows us individually and personally. Chevez is going the road alone, being the only Church member in his family. He is so appreciative of the invitations and we of course love to watch him grow and embrace what the Church has to offer.

Valerie was off visiting her large family over the holidays but on her return, invited us to a Saturday market-day café for a hot chocolate. There was extra hustle and bustle in the air with the holidays and of course we got caught up on her visit to see her family. We all knew that Anne goes to Saturday market (vs Thursday market) and we met up with her for hot chocolate. It’s another traditional event to meet and greet friends and neighbors at the market as well as buy organic and fresh produce from local growers and of course the indoor market hall that sells traditional items, fresh meats and other coveted items that aren’t sold in the outdoor market. Even though we don’t go to market each week, we love the culture of market day. And of course we sit and enjoy each other’s company…..such a lost art in some of the western world or large cities full of fast-paced living. It’s like having a family reunion weekly. Anne and Valerie are both vegetarian so they share that in common.

Anne invited us over along with Chevez and the missionaries Sunday to break our fast: we fast from food and water the first Sunday of the month, donating money spent on that food to those without. Also it helps us grow spiritually by concentrating on the spiritual vs the temporal for that day. Anne is all heart and feeds the missionaries throughout the week…..every week for the last 20 plus years!! We are always touched by her goodness, generosity and how she selflessly gives of herself. In French, Happy New Year is Bonne Anneé (good year)….but we just drop the last “é”and call her Bonne Anne (good Anne).

Feast of the Epiphany—Being in a predominately Catholic country, France along with many predominately Catholic countries, celebrate The Feast of the Epiphany. This holiday is 12 Days after Christmas and falls on January 6^th. Christmas remains the religious and Church-going holiday; January 6^th is celebrated as the gift-giving holiday. The origins being of The Feast of the Epiphany is when it is thought that The Three Kings brought gifts to the Christ Child.

Particular to France, there are two types of cakes to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. One is a ring-shaped cake with candied, dried fruits inside and topped with large sugar crystals. The other is a round, solid cake with an almond paste filling. This particular cake is quite novel as in the olden days, a lima bean was placed in the cake. The youngest child would hide under the table when the cake is cut into slices. Once the cake is cut, the child under the table says to whom the server should give the piece of cake. Now everyone has a random piece of cake, one of which has the hidden bean. When everyone has their slice, the child joins the others at the table. The tradition is to eat the cake and whoever has the lucky lima bean in his cake slice gets to wear the King’s Crown, and will also be the host of next year’s “gateau de roi” (King’s cake). Nowadays, the lima bean is a ceramic figurine baked into the cake. Each year it varies from a cartoon to a person to an animal, so it is always fun to be surprised each year by what the figurine will be as well as who gets the figurine.

Town of Sainte Croix du Verdon—We have more pictures than weeks in the year. If the truth be known, we likely have pictures for a lifetime. Such is beautiful and picturesque France. These pictures are from our previous trip to Switzerland (10 hrs to our East on scenic secondary roads). As we shivered today just walking from the car to church, they seem very out of season (during late summer into fall and at varying altitudes).

Happy Three Kings Day!

A la prochaine.

..it's well below freezing these days with an iciness to the air.

You can feel the cold water droplets in the air against your face.

Elder Scharman is from Utah, hence no hat. Elder Gardner is from southern Virginia.

Marc, from Alaska, has grown soft living in San Diego.....:)

Henny and Penny. Louise has 2 chickens that lay a few eggs each day.

We were so surprised at how curious chickens are.

Louise fixed us crepes

Chevez learning more about BYU.

Dinner

Chevez with his chocolate Santa

We went to the local market and ran into a group of Gilet Jaune (yellow vest)
demonstrators in Tarbes upwards of 500 we'd guess. Their strategy has changed from gathering behind barricades at toll booths and round-abouts to walking (and therefore delaying traffic)
on main plaza roads where city buses gather for local rides. Buses were backed up for quite some time. This was a peaceful demonstration; numbers are growing.
This is their 8th weekend in a row of demonstrating.