13 million people live in Paris

It has been a very busy week because we helped prepare a dinner for two different missionary zone conferences that were held at the St. Merri chapel.  We fed over 100 missionaries with the help of the other two couples who serve in the visitors center.  Elder John Prince served with me 47 years ago in Limoge, France and he along with his wife, Beverly, arrived a couple of weeks ago to replace Elder and Sister Hadfield when they leave next month.  Elder Prince was a dentist in Midway, Utah, and Elder Hadfield was a Brain Pathologist, Virginia.

 

We are finally legal in France.  It required a 2 hour exam including blood and Urin tests, Chest X-ray, blood pressure, Eye test, a visit with a doctor and finally a stamp in our visa saying we are legal.  I thought it was bad before our mission but this took the cake.  The French love red tape.

We enjoyed a 5 coarse meal with Brother and Sister Euvrard at their home in the country about 15 miles away from our home in Bussy-St. Georges.  They have 2 adopted sons from Nepal, India who were there, along with their friend Fabian, the Paris East Stake Young Adult Representative who is a member of our Torcy Ward.  Elder Szuch and Elder Simoes, our Torcy Zone Leaders who live in Bussy-St.Georges joined us too.  We had a wonderful dinner and then Brother Euvrard and I discussed the content of the institute class I will begin teaching about Family History in February.

I am really excited to teach Family History which I think will help the students to better prepare to increase the temple work here in the Paris area.  We will be placing an emphasis on preparing to share their family stories using the media that is currently available.  It will be interesting to see how well it is received because it is one of three different classes offered during the next semester.

This will be our first Christmas away from home as it is also for Andrew, our grandson who just arrived in his mission field and is serving in “Many Farms”, New Mexico among the Navajo people.  He is teaching where people are few and far between and we are working in Paris, a city of 13 Million people.  He and his companion, Elder O’Connell, drive a truck around the reservation while Dixie and I travel into Paris by train, about a 35 minute train ride plus about a 15 minute walk to our Center at St. Merri.  The transportation system here in Paris moves about 3 million people a day.  Christmas Eve is not nearly as important to the French people as New Years Eve. 

Notre Dame Cathedral - Paris, Franced

However they do spend Christmas Eve with their family for the most part.  Many of them go to midnight mass in large cathedrals around their city.  Dixie and I look forward to a nice quiet couple of days at home without the crush of people.  Later in the week, we will join Elder and Sister Prince to see some of the sights of Paris.  The longer we are here, the more we love the land and the people of France.  It will even get better when we can understand their language completely especially the everyday language that you hear on the streets.  During my first mission, I became acquainted with the gospel language, not so much of the everyday language.  We hope to also, not only understand the accent, but be able to speak it too.  You can understand the grammar but unless you speak with a French accent, people can’t understand what you say.  In fact many of the French people don’t speak grammatically correct themselves, just like Americans don’t always speak grammatically correct.  Merry Christmas to everyone and may the new year bring more prosperity than the current year.

Christmas time is also busy in Paris

What a great week.  We have begun to meet and remember the names of many of our Young Adults who come to the Center.  We have also attended some parties for the Young Adults. 

 

Brother Gilger (standing on my right next to the door ) is a counselor in the Paris ward Bishopric and his wife is the Relief Society President.  He works for IBM here and they invited us along with the Young Adults in the ward to their apartment near the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris for a Christmas party.  We had a wonderful time with them and were joined by Elder and Sister Hadfield and Elder and Sister Prince who direct the work in the Visitors Center at St. Merri.  We enjoyed wonderful food as well as singing Christmas carols and watched a great presentation about the birth, life  and mission of Jesus Christ.

Snow fell for the first time this year during the week but didn’t stay long because it had melted in the rain by the afternoon.  It did remain cold for a couple of days and we saw frost.  The English conversation class is going well with about a dozen people attending.  We will be busy next week preparing Christmas snacks for two Missionary Zone Conferences.

 I was particularly pleased to sustain along with the other members of the ward a couple (pictured here with Dixie) from the our home ward, the Torcy ward, to serve as ward missionaries.  Brother Lazerus is a retired medical doctor who has helped many missionaries with medical needs including me.  He and is wife speak good English and will be excellent additions to the missionary work in the Torcy ward.  As you can see they are younger than Dixie and I because people can retire earlier here in France.  We look forward to other couples joining them.

Starting to visit sights in Paris, France

Everyone who heard that we coming to France expressed envy and so we have started to visit the famous tourist sights and will share them with you over a period of time.  Of course the most famous is the Eiffel Tower and we took some pictures there from across the Seine River where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has sung.

 

    

 

We also visited the Versailles ward where the new Paris Temple will be built.  While there we visited with our Mission President, President Poznanski and his two daughters.  They are French and are doing a wonderful job.  Dixie particularly loves the fact that they speak english and help her by doing so when she is around.  They took us to lunch one afternoon and we had a delightful visit with them.

 

 

 

Unlike the St. Merri chapel that very old, the Versailles chapel is realatively new.  It is a little smaller than our chapel in American Fork, but it does have a cultural hall with a stage.

 





Life in France doesn't occur just in Paris

 

Lest you think that life only exists in Paris, let me tell you about where we live in Bussy St. Georges.  Although construction in Paris involves renovating existing buildings, Bussy St. Georges is a planned community about 30 miles east of Paris along side the train tracks not far from Disneyworld Europe.

 

There is plenty of room for new construction, although the houses cost about $750,000 and appartments sell for $250,000.

Our appartment is located about 2 blocks from the train station.

We are close to parks and play grounds.  One of the things that has changed since I was here in 1965 is that you can find a Big Mac almost anywhere.

 

Thanksgiving in Paris 2012

I know that it isn't very attractive from the street but this is the entrance to our Paris chapel in the St. Merri street.  People can park in the court yard as you can see.  This is where the missionaries ate thanksgiving dinner.

And where the Young Adults meet for family home evening on Monday night and on Tuesday and Thursday nights for Institute classes as well as to socialize at other times.

What a great place to meet and share activities with others your age and with the same wonderful standards.  We already love them and want to make sure everyone takes advantage of the facilities and experiences.  There are at least 3 different languages being spoken at church east Sunday: French, English, and Manderin Chinease.  We had 3 baptisms during this past week one person who is French, and 2 from China.

First week in Paris, France

         The sun was shining brightly above the clouds but the weather in Paris is gray and gloomy. Some sprinkles but no down pour. The Elders met us at the front of the airport and drove us to our apartment. It is in a five story building that was built in the 1980's I believe they said. We are on the second floor and there is no elevator so we clime the stairs. We have a living room/dining room, kitchen/washroom, 2 bedrooms, and a bath. The toilet is just what they say -- a closet -- all to itself, and not conveniently located by the tub and sink. The kitchen is about 6'X15' but it has everything we need including a clothes washer and dryer for which we are grateful.  Dixie can cook anything there as soon as I figure out the Centigrade.

 

The Young Adult Center (pictured above) is located in an old mansion built in 1641 and is located close to the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and is really beautiful on the inside. The outside looks VERY old. The church owns 2/3 of the building and it houses the Paris, St. Merri Ward as well as the Young Adult Center.  The ceiling is the original wood rails.

The Young Adult Center is located on the second floor and we get there by climbing this grand staircase.

Our office is just inside the door on the second floor of the building.

The institue Director's office located down the hall as well as a lounge and meeting room for the young adults next to a small kitchen where we will prepare a dinner for Monday night home evenings as well as refreshments for the institue classes. 

We teach an english class every Saturday with about 12 non-members attending who take the class very seriously.  We even have a pediatrician attending who treats several English speaking patients.

          Our days will be going to the Center around noon and staying until 9pm or so. Dixie will help the Young Adults plan and cook a meal for Monday Family Home Evening and treats for Institute nights Tuesday and Thursday. Friday they might have an activity so we will be there for that and sometimes on Saturdays for an activity. We will go there for our Sunday meetings so you can see we will be using the transit system a lot. We purchase a month's pass and we can use it for the trains or buses.  We traveled to the Versaille chapel, just outside of Paris, last Friday for a meeting with Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve on Friday.  It was our first mission conference and was so exciting for us. So far all the missionaries that we have met came through our MTC Branch so that is fun to see familar faces.

          We attended the baptism of a Chinese student today.  He was baptised by Elder Hadfield who, with his wife, are the visitor center directors.  The visitors center is located on the street level of Paris - St. Merri ward building.

Ready to leave for Paris France

          Dixie and I met Sister Alvine from Paris, France who just arrived at the MTC in Provo this week.  She will be serving a mission on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  So if you see her there, stop and say Hi!  Sister Alvine was very active in Stake Young Singel Adult Program (Young Adult Center in Paris) and it is wonderful to see the fruits of the Young Single Adult program in France.  She joined the church 6 years ago in Lyon, France and moved to Paris about 4 years ago.  She is the only member of the church in her family for the present but I am sure she will see many people join the church through her enthusiasm.

          We have finished our training this week after spending 3 days in training with the Church Education System and are so excited to fly out on Monday November 12th for Paris.  We spent an enjoyable evening last night with our children but it was hard to say good bye.  We have been assured by several leaders that they will be watched over and blessed in our absence.

It has been a whirlwind week full of 14 hour days at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  We have completed our “Preach My Gospel” training and it was really fun as well as challenging. 

There were about 86 senior missionaries and because we have a car, were assigned to stay at the Provo Mariott Hotel.  We went there after a couple of hours of orientation and introduction of each missionary.  We also had dinner at the MTC and sat with other couples called to many different places around the world and filling several different assignments such as Church Education, Perpetual Education Fund workers, and Leadership Support.  It is wonderful to be with so many qualified and dedicated senior missionaries.

           Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we were assigned into groups of 4 couples and sent to classrooms where we practiced teaching.  Those of us assigned to foreign speaking missions met Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for 2 hours polishing our skills in those languages.

          As you can see in this photo of us, Dixie and I are pointing to France where we will serve in Paris Stake Young Single Adult Program.  We have already seen the fruits of the program in as much as there are three sister missionaries in the MTC right now who just left Paris where they were active in the program.  We will arrive in Paris on Tuesday, November 13th.  We will post more next week.

Going on a mission to Paris France

It finally came and we couldn't be happier.  We thought maybe our missionary papers had been lost but when we found out that we have been called to serve in the France Paris Mission,  we could hardly contain ourselves.  To top that off we have been assigned to the Young Adult Center in Paris.  You can read about this new program in the June 2012 Ensign on page 62.  We love to work with the young adults and have been serving with them for 3 years in our stake and for the past 3 years at the MTC.  We will enter the MTC in October for a couple of weeks and then off to Paris.

As if thirteen children were not enough, Dixie has added about a thousand more as she serves with her husband, Russell, in the French Branch at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  What a great opportunity to watch these young missionaries develop in preparation to enter the mission field.  Dixie is shown standing at the main entrance to the MTC on Mothers Day 2012.  We hope to join the ranks of these missionaries soon in as much as we are presently waiting for our full time mission call.