Frère Dimon; Spring in Tarbes; Orange, a bit of the Archaeology museum in Grenoble, Annecy a start of winter

Our Church Week—Most of this week revolved around getting things in place for the funeral of Frère Michel Dimon. We met both his and his wife’s extended family in planning his Memorial Service. Michel Dimon was a beloved Father, Grandfather, Brother of a twin, Uncle, former Branch President, Stake Clerk, and Member of our Tarbes Branch. During the services, so many nice things were said about him and many from far and wide came to pay their respects and hear of very accomplished life. What a dedicated servant of God.

The departing of another, causes us all to think about our own mortality and purpose here on this Earth. Our time on Earth is short by comparison to all of Eternity so it gives us all cause to ponder our priorities, choices and standing before God.

Burial in France is normally in a granite tomb 4 coffins deep. You are buried on top of those who precede you in death. There is a hydraulic lift controlled by a remote-controlled device to remove and replace the granite top.

Marc spoke at his services. We know we will all see each other again. Yes there were tears. His wife Martine was very devoted to Michel and doubly when his health began to fail. This will be a very big adjustment for her and those who love him. Martine is faithful and surrounded by her large family. Of course her Church family is also eager to support and help.

Here are a few quotes used during the Memorial Services. The first is a statement that the President of our church, Russell M Nelson, made last year during his talk at our October General Conference. He said this:

‘’How I longed to teach those individuals that death, though difficult for surviving loved ones, is a necessary part of our immortal existence. Death allows us to progress to the next world.''

By the way it is interesting to note that President Nelson is 94 years old, a doctor, and a pioneer in open heart surgery.

This next scripture comes from the Book of Mormon, a book of scriptures that we use along with and in companionship with the Bible. This is from the Book of Alma.

Alma 11:

‘’42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God…

44 Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.’’

When we resurrect, we will gain a perfected body. All our missing and non-working parts will be made whole. Jesus Christ’s atonement will not only heal the sins that we have repented of, but will make us whole from all the hardships that we have been faced with in this life.

Here is an online link to the Book of Mormon if you would read parts of it.

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm?lang=eng

Our new Elder, Elder Church—also arrived this week from Switzerland. He grew up in Saudi Arabia. That sure makes for an interesting conversation starterJ. He is ready to work and is getting to know his way around Tarbes. It will be fun getting to know him. He has been on his mission the same amount of time we have left on ours.

Maria—We found out last Sunday that Maria has less than a month to move. An unfortunate comedy of events has left her quite beside herself. Her first language is Guarini (Paraguay), then Spanish, then French. Their daughter moved to French Guyana a few months ago and while there had a serious car accident with the car rolling over several times. As soon as her grand-daughter completed her course of study here, she left France to help her Mom and younger sister in French Guyana. That was about 6 weeks ago. Suddenly their home was larger than they needed.

So Gils and Maria decided they did not need such a large apartment with everyone gone. Gils gave the required 3-month notice that they would be moving. In the meantime, he had a stroke and is out of commission for what will be 2 months. That has left to find an apt and move herself in a foreign culture with a different system. France requires everything but your blood to rent an apartment.

Meg got some background from Maria in Spanish and now gracious Christine and Christian have stepped in to help her find an apartment and work the French system. In Maria’s old-school Paraguayan culture, the husband as head of the home makes all the external decisions. So Christine and Christian have agreed to help find apartments on-line and send them to Gils in the Hospital for final approval. That way he can still be in charge.

We went to visit him and found him looking really good.

General Conference—We listened to our semi-annual General Conference for Church today. Really it is Saturday’s morning session because of the 8-hour time difference. Those who speak English remained for the second 2-hr session. It takes half a day to get the rest of the French translations done. Then at home we listen to the remaining 2-hr session Saturday night and two 2-hr sessions on Sunday late Sunday night. No matter the time of day we listen we feel very spiritually fed and are sad to have it end. The BYU choir was absolutely magnificent!

Lionel—We taught Lionel after the first session of Conference. He is quite versed in scriptures and for the first time, attended General Conference. It’s slow going with him since he wants to know everything first….then use his faithJ But he is making progress and understanding more about the need for proper Authority to baptize and the need for Prophets and Apostles per attending this Conference. We are eager for him to hear the remaining sessions.

Other—we got Nadya registered for College. All went smoothly with her classes. We did need to reschedule one Religion Class that filled up quickly; but she is happy with her schedule. It’s amazing what you can do across the globe by the touch of a button. Plus, being 8 hours ahead, we had the advantage and didn’t have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to get her matriculated at midnight when registration opened.

Towns of the week—Orange, Annecy, Tarbes in Spring. Orange is south of Lyon and we actually saw it en route to Lyon last trip. Orange has a large and very intact Roman amphitheater. It’s miraculous what remains. Annecy is en route to Geneva when we did that trip to hear Elder Cook. Annecy is a lake and mountain region that is beautiful any and every season of the year. Being so close to Switzerland, there are many Swiss there. We also show some pictures of the archaeology museum in Grenoble, France. It is the site of a very old monastery.

A la prochaine.