Paris

Thus far, I think Zone Conference is my favorite part of serving a senior mission. In order to serve a mission in France, the young elders and sisters have to have completed seminary, which they need in order to get a minister’s license here in France. In part, because of that requirement, the missionaries here are incredibly faithful and motivated. Zone conferences are run mostly by the young missionaries, with the assistants to the president, the zone leaders and sister missionary leaders making the presentations. The theme was chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel. “How can I improve my teaching skills” but they spent a lot of time on finding as well.

President Léporé spoke at the end of the conference for nearly an hour. He encouraged us to “bind our selves to Christ”, and to seek those “look moments”, referring to the admonition of the angel that led Nephi through is vision, encouraging him to “Look”.

Our contribution to the conference, green salad and a large container of ranch dressing. It was the dressing that was a hit, Ranch is simply not available in France. (Some of the missionaries have eaten at our home and they know Elder Frodsham makes a mean green salad with so many goodies in it. When we brought the beautiful salad, the missionaries said “that’s an Elder Frodsham salad!!”)

Saturday morning we were up before dawn and driving to Paris. We wanted to make the 11:15 session at the temple and meet another couple serving as Welfare Self-Reliance missionaries in the Paris mission. Using headphones, I have listened to the ordinance session many times in French, but this was the first time I have attended a session entirely in French. I have been studying French for several years now, and it surprised me how much I understood as we progressed through the ceremony. (Cathy again…I had headphones to hear it in English but they didn’t work so I listened in French and knew what was going on. At the veil I had Bro and Sis. Allen from the US who was called to be a new sealer there.)The Paris temple is within walking distance of The Palace of Versailles. It does not have a huge front entrance and we didn’t get a picture of the front. We will have to do that another time. It is beautiful, and is the only temple in France. Many of the workers drive from all over France to get to the temple to work their shifts. We are very blessed to have temples close to us in California.)

From the temple we drove to the town of Évry to assist with a Welfare Self-Reliance devotional Saturday evening. It was a small ward, but there were nearly 80 people in attendance and many of them signed up for one of the self-reliance courses. Momo Djamai, our manager here in France gave the presentation. He had the baptism of a young lad in his branch a few hours before, was in a hurry to get to the Évry ward building and forgot his bag with computer and sign up materials. He borrowed a laptop from the Bishop of the local ward and gave a stellar presentation on the fly. He later admitted that the presentation he gave that night was far better than the one he had prepared.

WSR devotional in Évry

At the end of the devotional, Catherine and I stayed during the potluck meal just to chat with the members. One young woman took a liking to Catherine and came to our table several times to converse. Catherine asked her genuine questions about her life and goals, to which she answered honestly. I think she enjoyed that someone cared. We realized we were very late getting out and excused ourselves quickly to leave. The ward had music playing in the background, the the number playing at that time was perfect for a Hustle so we danced for a few minutes in the middle of the floor. I do not like to be the center of attention in normal circumstances, but I felt that we should show the members there that senior missionaries have a life as well and we can enjoy it.

We drove to Amboise to spend the night with our manager here in France, Momo Djamai and his wive Pascale. It was a 2 and a half hour drive and we did not want to arrive after 22:00. We were late, but not by much.

Pascale was an incredible hostess. She was born on the Island of Jersey in the English Channel, and was educated in Scotland. She welcomed us into her home with grace, charm and humor. The next morning, we traveled to Tours to attend Sacrament Meeting where the four of us spoke, all in French. Again, Catherine mingled with the sisters there with such ease, making fast friends.

We spent several hours back at the Djamai’s home, eating dinner and conversing around the dinner table. I love the French custom of lingering over a meal to talk. Laughter binds us together and we made many bonds that day.

We lingered a bit too long at the Djamai’s home and knew we would not arrive back in Lyon until after nightfall. In addition, there was rain and high winds most of the way home. During the calm stretches, I went with the flow of traffic, and the tattle-tale electronics let the mission president know that I exceeded the speed limit of 130 kph (80 mph). I must tell you in all honesty I did not exceed 160 kph (100 mph) at any time . .(One would expect this of me…not of Tim ;-))

We do have a life in Lyon. Catherine celebrated her birthday the day after Valentine’s day and decided to made a cake to celebrate. Yes, I should have made the cake, but I was busily putting together a major presentation our manager requested at the last minute, and wanted us to present that evening to church leaders in Central Europe.

We enjoyed several slices and then shared with missionaries and investigators alike as they wended their way through our home.

We are also working on a humanitarian project, putting together the supplies for homeless kits the missionaries will use in their work. They will assemble the kits during zone conferences, add a card and personal note, and then distribute these kits as they travel through their areas.

No, Nutella is not part of our humanitarian project, but I am addicted to the stuff, and during our visit to a local “PromoCash”, a store somewhere between “cash and carry” and “Costco”, searching for homeless supplies, I couldn’t help taking a picture of the two things I love most. The other picture? Out on a walk, we discovered a tiny restaurant serving Kabobs. It’s sort of like a falafel, but with a French twist.

There are a lot of things going on at home and we are missing out on so many events in the lives of our children and grandchildren. There are always reasons to delay a senior mission, but my advise is to go. Go now. We miss our families terribly, but we can see the blessings our mission is having in their lives as well as our own. We love our Savior and have placed ourselves in His care as we serve as His hands.