Happy Belated 4th of July; A week of lasts; Najac and Cordes-sur-Ciel

Our Church Week—Well, it has been a week of lasts with next week the same. Last Zone Conference, last District Council, last week of travel, last good-byes to our zone, last good-bye to our Senior Missionary friends, then our last good-bye to our district. We love the organization of the Church. It runs like clockwork and we will miss the missionary arm of its organization.

We were really short on people this Sunday as it is camping weekend for the children in Primary. That affected 13 people. It was more quiet than usual since it was the children who were missing; but we also felt that lack of energy and life they bring. It’s obviously when just one of us is missing because of illness or travel, etc. Our new Branch President and his wife were also with the Stake Primary camping trip. But things ran smoothly just the same. Everyone knows their part.

And we had our last meal with our angel friend, Valerie this week. What a good, good person who always seems to put others before herself. And you can’t keep up with her. She does circles around all of us, texting us….who needs help this week? Said is done. She has just amazed us over and over again.

Three sets of Senior Missionaries and our Mission President and his wife all had dinner together the night before zone conference. It was fun getting to know each other better.

We have a hymn in the Church that has a phrase, “….time flies on wings of lightening, you cannot call it back”. That seems to sum up how our mission is suddenly winding down and is almost behind us. It just does not seem possible; yet the calendar tells us it is so. Sure there were days that seemed long; but the weeks, months and year and a half are just a mere glimpse of time.

The rest of that verse finishes with:

It comes, then passes forward

Along its onward track.

And if we are not mindful,

The chance will fade away,

For life is quick in passing.

'Tis as a single day.

That last line equally sums up what we’ve been calling our “mission” seeming “as a single day” in retrospect. It was always in the future, part of our future. Now we find it merging into our rearview mirror as we go through our last 2 weeks of “lasts”. We imagine a lot of that has to do with Marc’s release which set all else into motion. We’re feeling sentimental, with good reason. We have wonderful sentiments, good memories and are so thrilled to have met and served with so many wonderful, wonderful people. Nothing like it!

Happy belated 4^th of July—There would have been a time that as a missionaries we would have sung The Star-Spangled Banner here—meaning it was an “American” force of missionaries. But not now and that’s a good thing! We have a world-wide representation just in Tarbes—4 missionaries, ourselves from the US, 1 from Singapore, 1 coming from Saudi Arabian (American but he’s lived there the last 12 out of 18 years). In our Zone, we come in many different international flavors—several from Tahiti, several from Canada a few from Denmark, many from England, Taiwan and the list goes on. That spells growth; and that is why we are here. It’s work and it’s incredibly hot and extra hot on the streets; but it’s an honor to be involved in that very work.

Elder Lee—Elder Church will leave us this week and an Elder from Taiwan, Elder Lee, will join Elder Loh. They both speak Mandarin, French and English. Who would think Tarbes has an Asian population; but apparently we do with many more than meet the eye. It seems they are hidden mostly in the woodwork. We do have several sushi places and an Asian specialty food market. But on a daily basis in town we never seem to cross paths. So this will add a new flavor to the mix and we’ll be glad to see that eventual growth.

We sang to Elder Church after church. It’s always emotional to have them leave. You get attached; there’s no way around it and with our smaller numbers, we really notice their absence. He will head toward Marseilles (6hr East). It’s REALLY hot there. But he’s lived in Saudi Arabia for 12 years so he’ll at least be used to the heat. It’s drier there so that helps beaucoup.

Town of the week—Najac and Cordes-sur-Ciel. We took our Preparation Day after our Zone and District Conference and drove East of Toulouse. These are two other Medieval gems are located in the Occitanie Region of France of which our Department and town are both a part. In addition, both Najac and Cordes-sur-Ciel have been given the distinguished award of Plus Beaux Villages (most beautiful villages of France). Cordes-sur-Ciel is a Ville Fleur (flowered village), meaning they go the extra mile in beautifying their town with flowers EVERYWHERE. Tarbes is also a Ville Fleur, mostly because of Jardin Massey.

Najac has a chateau and bastide—castle and a fortified/defendable town which sit on a ridge overlooking the Aveyron River. The chateau was built by villagers in 1253; the Catholic Church was built by the towns people as punishment for those with Cathar beliefs.

Cordes-sur-Ciel is a hilltop town, larger in size and in population—past and present. It was built in 1222 and also built as a bastide under the Count of Toulouse. In this case, the town was built as a resettlement for those burned out of their towns during the Albigensian Crusade. It became part of France through a marriage alliance in 1271.

Currently, both towns depend on tourism and agriculture. This is grape-growing country and sunflowers. The sunflowers are just short of peak season. Driving through this countryside in peak sunflower season would be breathtaking as there are hectares and hectares of fields of ripening sunflowers.

A la prochaine.

Valérie, Meg, and Marc at dinner

The Woolstenhulme's, Soeur and Président Giraud-Carrier, Marc and the Graff's

The Rapp's, Marc and Meg

Elder Church's going away. Small but mighty this week.

Marc and Richard

Toulouse where the Zone Conference was held

Château de Mauriac

The proprietor of this chateau is an artist--a prolific one. He has painted ALL the walls and ceiling work as well as hanging artwork, screen work and portraits.

Incredible floral detail taking the owner 1 year to paint the ceiling

Above 3 and 1 below--where we stayed outside Toulouse, peaceful and hard to believe it's so close to a major city

Najac

Najac castle

It was SO hot (upper 90s) we jumped leap-frog style from shady spot to shady spot.

Very thirsty poppies up top

From the Najac castle looking at the town of Najac set on the ridge

Carved in symbol is stone-cutter's signature so he can get paid for his daily work.

No railings on these ancient steps; a pure act of bravery

just climbing them (which we wisely did not do)

Notice inside that the steps just stop mid-air

A very steep drop down; these castles were strategically placed with a workout going up

Church built by townspeople as punishment for Cathar beliefs

Fortress stairs always favor right-handed combat (stairs descending to left) and sword-yielding for the defenders going down, another clever defense tactic for the period.