A treat from the states

Last Thursday we got to see our latest grandchild, Erik(, who has special significance to my heart), and of course his parents Val and Jason. The Mercados, minus the 3 older kids, are in Geneva for 5 days.thanks to the money from Grandpa and Grandma. So the world wind tour started with , a trip downtown in the area of the Institute. This is where the Reformation Wall is and they attended our New Testament class (which they struggled to stay awake in), Friday we did three big tours. Gruyere. (cheese factory and medieval town), Cailler (chocolate factory) and Chillon (famous prison and Castle) We began the day with a trip to the famous Prevessin Bakery.( For those of you looking for Humanities credit in this course. you will have to refer back to the more detailed info in our blog on all these sights that we visited at an early time).. Saturday we went to the famous Ferney Voltaire Marche, to load up on more good treats medieval town Yvoire, Dowtown Geneva and a Baptism. Sunday ,after Fast and testimony meeting at church we drove to Annesy France where Emily was our tour guide . There we saw the famous Eglise Notre Dame ,and Saint Francois de Sade ,and Womens Prison, Annesy at one time was part of Italy and is sometimes called the Venice of France. On the way back we saw the Pont de Caille bridge. Monday we got up early to feast on strawberry tarts and chocolate croissant. I took it easy hiking the Jura Mountains, just happy to have walked that much this week. Monday FHE was in Spanish and Mongolian and Jason got to use his Spanish missionary skills. Tuesday morning as the family prepared to leave for Paris we had a little time to make one more visit to Nyon, Switzerland to see some Roman Ruins, Pragnin chateaux ( area originally settled in 4,000BC! and much later by Romans and later still Voltaire and friends) So that is why this email is a few days late. We are happy to have the time and share the love and beauty of this area. This morning as I finish this email and later the blog and I reminded again of how blessed we are to be here. Am I tired after all that! YES, but my cup runneth over with love.

a visit with Lenny and Jo Lea and Jim to the auto show

The days are warmer and longer now, but we do not spring forward until the last week of March. This week we had the joy of spending the day,(well..kind of) with Jo Lea and Lenny in Dijon, Why Dijon? Well, it is half way between Paris and Geneva and as far North as we could go in our new Lyon, Fr, mission boundaries. We left early, 8h, and had a delightful drive up through the Jura Mts. pass skiiers, a small Marche, many chateaux, and Roman ruins, and, churches. The famous Owl on the Notre Dame Cathedral.was our meeting place in Dijon. Lucky for us we found parking and the meeting place, but, we had difficulty finding Lenny ,as half of him was missing!. Jim got a chance to go to an international auto show, where he says there were a least 100,000 people and he says, he passed out alot of missionary cards!.Later that day I taught at the Stake Youth activity,,, what else, health and yoga. This was my first time teaching yoga after 3 plus months struggling with my knee. I was reminded how much I love and miss our youth and all their energy, It turned out to be a full week of service, in which we also babysat and cared for various friends in need, But, our greatest joy is in preparing and studying for our lessons. This week we researched the life of Paul on youtube and found all kinds of interesting information. The best sight is our BYUstudy program each day, We look forward to General Conference,

back to normal...whatever that is

Back to our normal routine on our mission.. We had another Mongolian baptism yesterday and a dear American family is moving back to the states so we had a Linger Longer. Last.Sunday, we had dinner with the Stake Pres and Mission Pres! They prepared a typical Swiss meal = raclette. This is a melted cheese contraption that you melt the cheese on while dinning. Then one adds the cheese to meat, potatoes and other veggies. With the salads and conversation, even I, left the table happily nourished (those that may not know..I am lactose in tolerate ,,here in the cheese capital of the world!) We also said goodbye to our dear friends the Todds and hello to the new mission sec, the Jeppesons. We had zone conference,where we saw the great love all the missionaries have for one another. We made decorations for our dance "Pimp my shirt". But, best of all we are excited to say that we finished reading and dissecting Isaiah's writings. What a beautiful , creative prophet for all ages. Both of our health,..
continues to be a challenge. Jim has been dizzy. hoping that it is the crazy flu going around. And I have my arthritic knee. It has been since Dec1. so over, 3 months with knee pain!! . It isnt as bad as I thought it would be! I have found comfort in scripture study helps take most of the edge off . We are praying that I can walk without pain and continue serving.AFTER this mission. We are excited to start our decent back into the earth orbit as we begin to see family visitors here. Next week Jo Lea and Lenny will meet us in Dijon, France We are excited to share our love of the people here as family members come to visit

part 2 Southern France

First a little background on the Southern part,of France also called Provence. The Roman Empires had their central location was here , so this area prospered.. Romans set up infrastructure aqueducts for fresh water , good roads for trade and beautiful areas of entertainment. At one time there were 54 million people living in the Roman Empire (thank a teacher if you remember how important Rome was from 500AD-500BC). On Friday half of our group had to return to their Centres for their missionary activity. The rest of us continued to Orange, a 2,000 year old Roman settlement, with a famous Roman Arch and theatre. In the theatre the famous statue of Julius Caesar reigns over all the seats which hold 10,000.and the acoustics are still in tack. All could attend the theatre during these times with the most noble seated in the front. Around the side you can see that it is built into the rock/side of a mountain A few minutes away is the.Roman Arc de Triomphe of Orange erected around 19AD. From there we drove to Aix en Provence, a ville that I remember writing letters to Terry when she was on her mission. It is a cute town with a great Marche where we ate dinner and then went back the next morning for fruit and Madeleines (cookies). Then we drove to Marsaille. I was told by many missionaries that it was not their favorite place. so I was not expecting much... I loved it, It is second moat populated city in France, founded in over 600BC by Greek sailors. It is famous for the Count of Monte Cristo., We could see the island when we went to visit the Cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde, It started as an old fort on rocky limestone rebuilt from 1214--1536--1864.. It has Romanesque-Byzantine Domes,, very impressive inside too. Then we went to the Waters of Mormon where I touched the Mediterranean Sea and we bore testimony of the love of our mission. After we attended Stake conference where one of our Senior missionaries got very sick She had complications from a virus and we all ended up spending Saturday evening. night, and Sunday early at the hospital. . Try riding in an ambulance in the middle of no where,( oh wait I already did that in Nauvoo!), Our friend, Soeur Todd ,passed out and sadly her French is about as good as Jim's.Very scary!
for all of us! We united in prayer and grew even closer as we helped and served each other. So, our Senior Trip was a spiritual, growing, learning experience which we will always be thankful for.