our LAST official Post for This mission,, or the end of the middle

We began our mission going to a Spanish speaking baptism our Saturday and are ending with several this weekend. Way to go young Elders and Soeurs!

 In President Uchtdorf message this month..we are in the middle of our life journey and will continue on life's path in service!

 Our goal is to leave this place better than the way we found it! So we continue to clean,paint, and give away.

We have had many parties so say goodbye. again and again! From barbecues,to Italian. French, Swiss, Germans, and United Kingdom

Here is  our location for the next two weeks, as we will Probably NOT have internet and we are not taking our computers

Tuesdaywe take a train up to Northern France, Renne, also called Brittany (American History ,,WW II)

Friday we talk the train to Paris and then fly to Denmark for the weekend

We fly to Preston England and stay in Jim's first mission area for the week.We are happy  to visit our Family and Church history sites and serve in the Temples in those countries. We fly back to Geneva, wash, sort, and repack for our flight home ,very early Aug 15, We don't know about internet use for these next weeks.But, we do know that we will continue our blog and email when we can. We are still Missionaries, and happy to continue so .I just gave out two Livre de Mormon !(  to friends we see every week at the marche (dry fruit guy!) )

SInce I started writing this entry, there have been many challenges and changes. In solving these we have seen the Lord's hand,, Briefly,,our train ticket was reserved for the wrong day,,it was either Jim not understanding french or ..but, it turns out that we need the extra day that we lost on our vacation to solve other problems. For example, our reservations with the B@B were canceled in Denmark.  AND we  think we have solved that problem. 

 But we had lots of good stuff has transpired. Friday, after helping the Sisters, we went for our last drive in the Saleve Mt above Geneva.. we had already packed the tomtom ( liahona ),but last minute I ran back to get it.. And sure enough, we  needed it! We began the way we started this mission,,, getting lost and almost running out of gas. we even needed help at the "gas station" but luckily I have now had enough French and practice describing our problem.  The bonus  of our beautiful travels is viewing the beauty that God has created.. Our little adventure ended at 3pm. and when we returned there was a message,," Come swimming at the Bishops house,", exhausted,, Jim slept,, but I was too excited to rest, as I have not gone swimming outside for 2 years.!! With out air conditioning here on one of the hottest days, it was a great blessing!

Happy BIrthday to JIm. my sweet husband , who has loved serving continually

The Field is White

We have tried really hard to find and talk to our neighbors about the gospel, but, it looks someone else will have to harvest our seeds!.We talk to everyone (As Cousins Debby and Claudia got on their recorder ) but  feel sad that we did not have success in that area, Our greatest success has been with those in transition, those from somewhere else coming to Geneva for.... a job, a better life,,the gospel?

Good news for us, though!  We have finished our goal of reading and studying the 4 Standard works--with the help of BYU tv.. So, we started back to the beginning and are ready the Book of Mormon.. I have only to finish the Livre de Mormon with a few more chapters to have finished that goal also.. Of course, both these goals did not include comprehension! And , of course the good news of our Mongolian friends!

More good news,, We finally got to go to Lyon for business and pleasure. We went to the Institute and to the Mission office and settled some of the organizational problems with leaving our apartment , car, cell phone,, plants, extra food and clothes,, all of the same problems we had to deal with before we left,, deja vu!

Our drive took 2 hours, through beautiful mountains and fields. Lyons is the gateway to the North and South since ancient times, It started as a commercial and military capital, Gaul , founded by Julius Caesar in 44BC. So we visited the Roman ruins o  which the city was built, the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere and the Cathedrale St, Jean, The town was famous for Renaissance mansions and homes of bankers and silk merchants.... but we were DEAD Tired when we returned.

But, sleep did not come easily for me, for I knew that my oldest daughter Karina was probably in labor 8 hours away, After a sleepless night, we received the information that baby Nikolas is healthy and all is well with MOM, after a hard labor and delivery, being as he is 9"15 and 21inches. We say Felicitations to the McDonald family!

So, the joy of a healthy baby boy is a miracle and I am so happy to be a part of this

Hoe to the end of the Row

ho, ho. ho,  or the beginning ot the Good byes .Starting this second week of July none of the Presidency in the Bishopric or Relief Society in our Geneva l Ward! is in town. The UN couple missionaries and us are in charge of our ward, Since Jim is on the High Council, we also have an assignment in another ward to speak in french, luckily they are at different times.It is necessary to wear many hats for these next couple of weeks. Jim is finishing painting with a family.   I continue to sort and pack.  and I get to help with various neighbors an their babies.(preparing to renew my skills with our  grandbabies).

When we prepared to  come on our mission we knew we would return back to all of our friends in the states,  But, this is different.  We know we may never see many of our new and dear friends here.

So,,this week we cleaned some more, but mostly we worked on our humanitarian project for Africa, And in the cleaning of our stuff, we added to the shipment.

Today is French Independence day and last night there were alot of fireworks, today most places are closed and it is Saturday, The french people take their vacations very seriously and dont worry as much about the income they are losing.!

But, we did make it to the Ferney Voltaire Marche.  We were told today by our UN missionaries who have lived abroad that this is the second ,next to New Zealand best Marche they have been to.  And we will miss it dearly, fresh fruit and vegetables from local and exotic places.

We are planning a Rondez vous Labor Day weekend in Draper, hoping to see family and friends in the SLC-Provo area.  We will send more info as we have it

pack up , load up. catch up

OK<< OK<< I admit it, I am ready to see you all  and return to the land of my inheritance. It is time for us to pack up all of our treasures,  This will take the whole month because, as many of you know I treasure everything,.. some of which will not be coming back to the states,  I am loading up on repeat visits to our favorite places and people and of course yummy smells and tastes,  For the 4 th of July we got together with another missionary couple and went to le fonderie de cloches where they make the cow bells and then to  chateau de Joux . Chateau de Joux had a beautiful settling on a high hill side in the French Jura Mountains, with a Rapunzel tower and get away rope. It was a great day,  Thursday we met the new Mission President, President Rondy, with his wife and 4 of his sons.  We had a great pep talk and we are ready to re inlist. (YES, even though I am homesick,he was a great motivator for love)  He  has a great spirit and I see that alot of good will come when he is President.

.And the catchup,         I finally figured out why  all the stress, I have always had a plan,,,go the college ,get married, have children ,teach, go on a mission,,,been there and done that,,,now what,,catch up  That is what we will do when we return to the states. We want to catch up with all of you, see you, hug you, and take the time to get together again.

Does this sound good to you?  I cant wait. But, for now, there is still some work we need to do here. We are both preparing talks for the next two weeks, Mine will be. one in French and the next week in English, I think Jim's will be English only!, We also will work with our replacement, Elder et Soeur Cairns, and try to get a short day trip to the new Mission Home in Lyon,France 

the good old RED< White and blue

final tour with Annette and Elaine

The delight of this week was a tour of all the Bern Temple and grounds with Elaine and Annette, my cousins, daughters of my moms Brother ,Uncle Lee. One of the things we got to see is where the missionaries stay that serve at the temple! The Apartment's are very nice,,,it is tempting to re-up here in Switzerland, Too bad, we dont know German ,Italian, French we are working on. This temple uses more languages than I can list, with the most used Italian. On the way back we enjoyed getting up to date on the family, We stopped at Murten Switzerland, founded in 515 by the Romans, It is situated on a Lake, such a  beautiful area. Later a German Duke re established it in 1170.  So, typical of these old developments, it is walled and protected.  I continue to love the vineyards as we drive home,so , of course , I am always taking lots of photos

Thursday we did Geneva, jet d'eau, St Pierre , the Wall, longest bench,, John Calvin church, and plenty of flags from all over.

Friday Elaine and Annette went to the UN while Jim and I shopped, I needed more Cranberry medicine and my knee has been hurting since our climb throughout the temple. This is sad news for me , the pain in my knee is back big time so I am trying to slow down. 

Saturday at the Marche, Annette and Elaine win the shopping spree award for the most shopping of all of our visitors, This is good or bad news depending on their luggage allotment..later we went to Fete de Voltaire at le chateux de Voltaire,which is only a few minutes walk from our apartment

But  no  family trip is complete without keeping the hills alive !

Today we took Annette and Elaine to the train station after church. This is our trial run to the Gare, as we will be taking the train July 30 to begin or end our Tour of Northern Europe and the end of our mission. Typing this brings tears to my eyes as I am again reminded of the many blessings and adventures we have experiences the last two years.