Relief Society Temple trip

I guess that they really did understand by talk on Societe de Secours (RS) a couple of weeks ago, because I was asked to organize one of the four buses going to the temple to celebrate RS birthday.  Our trip to Bern Switzerland included well over 200 sisters in a full ,very long day of Temple activity.  In our bus we had 5 languages all filled with the spirit of sisterhood and joy at attending the temple. We had 33 from Geneva 1 ward and equal number of YSA sisters throughout the stake.  The activities included the various ordinances inside the temple and classes in the adjacent ward for the others, lunch, and a meeting after,

Also this week I got a break  to take a girls day out with our friend Eliane . We went to Annesy, a favorite ville also called little Italy. that is at the base of the Alps and used to be part of Italy,  We shopped,  and went to many art galleries, as Eliane is an artist. We took the traditional 2 hours lunch break, but only for half of the time, as the rest was spent walking around the Venice- like roads. Two days without rain and in two days we will celebrate MAY DAY

Ca va ? Ca Va!

We hear this every day and everywhere. Ca va?  it means,, HOWZ it goin?  Its good..  and then you say back the same thing until one of you stops.!. And I am ca va.  I am so much better this week as we got to go to the  Bern temple. Then , of course it was my birthday. This is the only year that two Beatles songs work for me, Very early on Friday I awoke with a laugh,,ha!...when I'm 64...Well, here it is! How does it feel?..and same,., back to bed.  Friday night the YSA planned a service project and a karaoke night, The food as prepared by our Mongolian friends, And good missionaries that they are,they also brought non members.  We also had a two Latin visitors who joined in the fun.  Music has no language barrier so the night was a great success.  At one point they called me up as all us" Babes"sang <, Oh baby baby> (Britney Spears style) and it was great fun to see that ALL languages knew how to vamp the song!.. As we were preparing to leave (Missionary bed check! ) pretty soon I heard  the beatles",,na na na na na na na they say its your birthday,", and up I jumped (totally reminding myself of my mother ((bless her heart)) and  ran (with limited steps so as not to hurt my healing knees and surgical hips)  to sing along Karaoke style.  When I got up to the microphone, there was just the photo of the Beatles and NO Words.. Do any of you know the words the that song?  So I tried to come up with some words as everyone clapped and laughed and again I felt like I was grandma Joyce in all her glory.  She brought me into this world and didnt want to let this birthday go by with out some extra fun and joy, Thanks to you all for sending the love. It really means alot. Missions are very rewarding, but they do call it Missionary Work. We had two more baptismes - Eki and Edwin from Nigeria.

 It continues to rain,but the cows are out and the fleurs are blomin..All is well

April in Paris

Last night we watched April in Paris, after almost 2 weeks of rain. With Doris Day - singing and dancing-- it was just what we needed for our date night, Thanks to Val and Jan, we had LICORICE , both red and black, Just letting you know what we are missing,,is good ol American waxy licorice, yes.! I think I have finally had enough of the chocolate,,, The reality of coming home has finally hit and I am struggling with it all. It was a hard week for me. Alot of tears. What kept us on double track this week was preparing for our talks today,..30 . minutes worth. My assignment was taken from Sis Becks talk on Relief Society, My talk is in french about Grandma Ceilia and her influence on me and my testimony on the importance and history of Relief Society . My testimony started with Grandma Ceilia sharing her testimony to me through her actions of love and service through the community ( about 50 years in the DUP Presidency and many years in the RS Presidency ) , The value of passing on my testimony to my grandchildren is strengthen as I prepared for the talk. Jim is on the High Counsel and he spoke on Covenants. I asked my neighbor to help me with all the french , little does she know, she received the history and importance of the Society de secours.
So the talks are finished and several in the congregation said,BON Courage. Mine took almost 20 minutes, but the last piece of advice I received from Eliane was... doucement....slowly,, and that is the same advice my Dad used to give me...Slow down.
No. we did not go to Paris, we brought Paris to us..and the rain brought spring in all its glory

Joyeuse Paques

Here is earth's gift outside our room, what a view ! . They don't celebrate the same here, It is hard to find anything that isn't chocolate. Where are my jelly bellies when I need them? Jim has been very busy this week with three big projects,,, the quarterly report ( a very detail accounting of all our contacts, marriages, and visitors at the Institute), an Easter talk, and Priesthood lesson. Me,,,,nothing, extra!, We are adjusting to our change in routine by being at the Institute all day, Today it was crazy, One of our friends wanted to give another friend a birthday party at the Centre, the Zone leaders were preparing a street meeting with 5 giant poster boards and Jim and I were just trying to get our New Testament lessons ready for presenting, In all the craziness I had no place to be, Every time I went somewhere,someone else wanted the space, I got a little testy but ended up reading the Livre de Mormon with another set of Elders and that took all my brain power, We had a great activity called "So you WANT to be a millionaire" where one of our YSA who happens to have a job in helping prepare and find jobs gave and evening activity to aid in these skills. It was a great success. was the planned a street meeting right by the Reformation Wall in Geneva. On Sunday we got to have dinner at the Mission home and then a fun Easter egg hunt. Now I am preparing my talk, in french , of course for next week at a different ward as part of a High Council assignment. Bonne Chance, lucky for me, my subject is Relief Society,

conference blessings

I could not let this conference go by without mentioning some of our favorite, inspiring words. First, Pres Uchtdorf quoting Pres Kimball STOP IT!. Boy,that was right in my face. Then President Monson " We are not like Toy Boats....Come back, Come up, Come in, Come Home,...Come unto me. But, most endearing to me was Russell Rasband's talk on his little grandson, and all children born into this world with less that perfect bodies. I, too, said, " Why me?" but after many years I understand,, Why not me? to be so lucky! to hold an angel. The Sunday afternoon session seemed to me very powerful in the importance of family and for this I am gratified for all of you that are family or feel like family. Hopefully the many mistakes that I have made will not be repeated by you. The more I feel the Savior in my life the more I want to learn and grow and serve. I am glad that it never too late. Again, I say thank you for your prAyers and support as we are far away. With out your prAyers and love it would be much harder. The challenges of a mission are similar to our full time on earth...that of remaining faithful and staying the course, along with invite and testify and in our case do lots of cooking and listening to the problems of our YSA

Back to work!

We loved having the kids here, and after a few hours and clean up we were back to our routine. But now, we will be adding many more hours to our Serving at the Institut, per request of our Mission President. So instead of studying at home and resting during the afternoon, we will now be at the Centre. We have been trying to get there earlier each day. Since we have received this information , Jim has had 2 hour long naps... me.., I like to "nap"every day. The nap for me is usually my free reading time. Here we have been studying European history and the apostasy, to connect the church as it was during Pauls time to what happened? So we are learning about the Crusades (ugh!) France, England, Scotland, Denmark,,The other news this week is the..Fleurs..beaucoup de fleurs! everything is in bloom. Today I met the new assistant to the Prez at the Centre while I was communicating to several YSA, and he said,,"where did you learn French? I said,, Philadelphia!! ( later , I asked him why,, and he said that my french was SUPER ! ) Super is a french word, which means....great (duh!) The other news is, of course,, we are excited for General Conference. We are 8 hours behind, so it gets a little confusing, but just the same, we love it.