senior missionary trip to Southern France part 1

there is so much to tell and show that it will take two emails and blogs: so; LETS start at the very beginning. We left early with the Todds Wednesday morning and arrived in Avignon 4 hours later. The first afternoon 24 missionaries visited Palais des Papes which is famous for the headquarter of the Catholic church for about 100 years when 6-7 Popes were looking for a more secure place ( in the 1300's), away from Rome. This is also where Pont d' Avignon (a very famous children s song talks about dancing on the bridge. hence.me dancing on the 1/2 bridge --Hitler blew up the other 1/2), Then we had an evening of training with Pres. Murdock, The next day, again bright and early, we left with our tour guides, the Larsens. to The Pont du Gard.This is a bridge and part of a Roman aqueduct that carried water... Roman Aqueduct--Pont du Gard-- 31 miles long carried 44 million gallons of water a day to 50,000 people in Nimes, built 1 century AD , We saw a 2,000 year old Olive tree. Then to Arenes de Nimes, the Roman Arena built in 70AD, smaller but better preserved than the one in Rome. It held 16,399 spectators with gladiators, Christians and wild animals, In the same area, we saw Maison Caree, the best preserved Roman temple from 16 BC. .And then, my fav. les Baux de Provence ,A medieval town, with a Santon Museum (famous dolls),chateau ruins, and a fortress at the top built from 11th century. Les Baux is a mineral Bauxite from which aluminum is extracted, and the descendants of Balthazar one of the 3 Wisemen is believed to have settled there. The Mistral winds were so strong,I gave it the nic name ..LES BLOW. That is basically our first two days. Besides all the old ruins that we traveled with (Seniors!) we, also saw many old, well preserved ruins.. It was great fun to visit and study and learn about the areas where Christianity started, Our testimonies are strengthened each day when we serve and study. We are thankful to be here and see many things we have studied about.

one goal accomplished

At the start of our mission we bought a french Book of Mormon .I spent our tutoring time at BYU trying to read and comprehend while JIim, bless is heart, was learning un peu. I was lucky with my imited french studies in Jr and Senior High school and then repeated again at BYU to know un peu. I stopped taking french when I wasnt getting A's at BYU as I didnt want to ruin my GPA. In 8th grade I received a warning in french the first semester and vowed to get better ( this warning was for talking too much.in English!) So. after studying how to pray. shop greet. and meet in french and a limited missionary approach I continued to read the Book of Moron in french, But there was little or no comprehension. Our Geneva I ward Bishop challenged us to read the Book of Mormon this year. We finished on Valentines Day, and loved every minute ,(we used the BYU round table discussions to help with comprehension). The other highlight was a trip up to Bern Switzerland, the Temple. We had planned on going on Wed but when we awoke to the snow, we prayed and as Jim was saying the prayer it came into my mind who needed us more that day. we visited with our good friend who was watching his 3 grandsons that day. They had NO English, so I taught them how to play Spoons,what a blast.! So , Friday, we went to the temple and had so many wonderful experiences,.Just to name a few, visiting with Pres Speriling (my cousins Elaines friends) , the Foxes (in Charices ward), the Simonets ( our CES instructor ), a YSA from Caledonia (by Australia) and her family(she had met us while at the YSA conference and was in the Yoga class) and we continue to be amazed at our opportunities and good people we have met here, like the Chalk family who are here from Texas ( in the photo). As we continue to study and grow , we are now taking on Isaiah!.

more freezing, more study, more love

The Siberian weather system continues to be a blessing for us in a strange way. It is too cold to go out walking and exploring which helps in the healing of my knee and the chance to fire up the scriptures to keep our testimonies burning. We had an interesting mix of Latin and Mongolian night at FHE with 22 (not including the 10 missionaries.) Our stake Saints Valentines Bal had a good attendance of YSA with two couples doing the half time entertainment with ballroom dance, One of the dances included a Mongolian investigator with an X BYU ballroom dance teamer- Gab!. Then we participated in the baptism of Angii (I Cant even type her real name on this keyboard - something like Ohoyhearalnnh - over half of those letters are upside down and backwards!) The most exciting news of all was our interview with our Mission Pres. He told us in four different ways what a Spectacular Job we are doing here! Then we discussed our release, as he and his wife will be released before us, And their secretary couple go home in a few weeks. We wanted to take advantage of their expertise in flight arrangements before they return to Utah, So, we now know that we officially only have 6 more months to go :( We are already missing many things, but also know that there are many of our loved ones that we haven't even seen and will be able to serve. And so it is with a heavy heart that, yes Jason, I get out my suit case and begin to figure out what is most important to bring home. Many of you may think is is trunk y, but no....I really need to start now so that I can again get rid of many important things that I know my mother would have wanted me to keep! At the end of the mission we will do some traveling up North to honor our families who were first inspired by the gospel message< who sacrificed their lives so that we could grow up in America with the Gospel in our homes. And, for this I am truly thankful. Happy Valentines day to you all

Siberian weather system hits

We are finally having our winter weather, which is really a little more than we bargained for! All over Europe people are suffering, It is -12here! with a strong wind. So, normally I would love to be out playing in the snow, but with the continued challenge of the knee and keeping caution with the hips, I havent a leg to stand on! That is how we are being protected.More time to read and ponder. And we are really enjoying our study time. The final for our Institute class (new testament) was last week It was applying the scripture mastery scriptures in our lives in various circumstances, In our class we had,one French, one french/german, one Mexican, one Portugal.one Paraguayan, the British girls never made it, and the Virginian came late! In the other class, the final was in french only! Our Mongolians want a Book of Mormon class in Mongolian so we are trying to figure out about how to get that going.We are continuing with more and more Mongolian amies, today 3 new sisters, When we came here we were thinking we would see small families and week we found out that are french neighbors are expecting their second set of twins, so we are on Service Alert! And thus the reason for the photo of our place inside and out. It is cold outside but warm inside our apt. as we find protection from the storms of the world around us