Category: Mission

Tim Frodsham. 23 December, 2023

We decided to explore Lyon last Friday and do it in French style: take the Metro. We popped out of the metro at several plazas downtown, enjoying the sights and planning future excursions. Our last stop before heading home was to the train station, just to find out where to go if we needed to take a train to Paris or Brussels. Heading back to the metro stop, we were both a little tired. My mistake was to reach for my wallet and open it up in front of the metro station to pull out our tickets. While on the train, A young, petite French girl saddled up to us and asked Catherine about her perfume. She scurried out at the next stop, and unbeknownst to us, my wallet with her. Not more than 15 minutes later Catherine got a notification of potential fraudulent charges on our credit cards. I discovered my wallet was missing and we immediately got on the phone to cancel cards. Unfortunately, also missing were my driver’s license, copies of my passport, visa, and other documentation. Credit cards can be quickly canceled and replaced, but I was worried about identity theft. 

It was about midnight on Saturday when I was startled with a thought! I woke up and realized that there was an air tag in my wallet. YES!!! I have no idea why I didn’t remember that before. Just two days earlier I had gone through all of the air tags, making sure that they were working and connected to both mine and Catherine’s phones. Checking the app, I found the air tag dutifully reporting its position, not far from the metro station of our petite voleur. Tender Mercy, number one. That morning, while preparing for the day, our Internet went down and right now we do most of our work remotely, through Zoom or Teams conversations. I was working on the Internet issue while preparing a burnt bagel as a sacrificial offering for my wife when the power went out. Not to worry I thought, according to the previous couple, in the hallway just outside of our apartment is a small electrical room with a breaker that needs to be reset. Problem: no doorknob. While solving the second issue, I neglected to realize that Catherine was still in the shower and our tiny bathroom had no windows. She had to finish completely in the dark. 

At this point, I committed the cardinal sin and used my wife’s scissors to open the electrical room door. The width of the blade was perfect for reaching in to turn the latch. I understand that desecrating a wife’s precious sewing scissors is automatic grounds for expulsion from the Celestial Kingdom. I thought, no worries, the nick in the blade is teeny tiny and she will probably never notice. I reset the breaker to no avail, the power was still out. I figured there must be some type of breaker box just for our apartment, but there was nothing in the electrical room. While I was searching, someone approached the door to my neighbors, and I asked him if he knew the number of the concierge. He replied that he was just visiting and had no idea. He knocked on the door, the tenant answered, and rather than asking her about the concierge, he greeted her quickly and closed the door. Unbeknownst to me, Tender Mercy number two. 

While I was puzzling over this issue, another gentleman came up the stairs. Our little apartment building is a quiet one and this was more people I had seen on the stairwell the entire time that we have lived here. He was helping a friend move in and had no idea about the concierge but informed me that there was always an electrical box somewhere inside the apartment, powered by the breaker on the outside. Tender mercy number three. He graciously came in and together we searched the apartment, but came up empty, we could not find the box. After contemplating the situation for several minutes, I decided to carefully search the entire apartment. That box must be somewhere. I went from room to room, moving furniture, checking walls and opening cupboards. I finally ended up in our tiny toilet room. The throne in our apartment is located in a room smaller than most stalls in a public restroom. I turned around, looked up and saw the light. Well, at least the light switch, high on the wall. One has only to sit on the throne and contemplate the heavens. The breaker was indeed tripped and we soon had power. Had our neighbor’s friend not assured me that there was a breaker box somewhere in the apartment, I would not have done such a thorough search, Tender Mercy number four. 

Cold, burnt bagels consumed, we headed for the metro station. While tracking my wallet, it appeared to move across town. Catherine pleaded with me that I was on a wild goose chase. My wallet was buried in some trash can or in some thug’s apartment and we would never find it. We went home, but I could not get it out of my mind, I kept having the thought that I should follow the air tag. Tender Mercy number four. Over Catherines objections, I again headed for the metro and popped out of at the station of our petite voleur. I walked around the Plaza until my phone told me that I was on top of my wallet. I activated the tone on the air tag, but it was not in range. I may not have been on top of my wallet, but I was on top of a metro entrance. I descended the stairs, activated the air tag, and could hear its characteristic chirp. Tender mercy number five. 

I spent about 15 minutes moving a few feet and activating the air tag, moving a few feet and activating it again. Finally, I poked my ear between 2 kiosks, there it was, loud and clear. Unfortunately, I could not reach it. The space was too narrow. I had probably already incurred the curiosity of Metro Security, watching me on their hidden cameras and I decided that a trip to the local police station to explain why I was rocking one of their ticket kiosks back and forth was not the best way to spend a Saturday. I needed a stick or something slender enough to reach in between.  At that exact moment. An older, refined, well dressed black woman came down the stairs, walking with a cane. I stopped her politely, briefly explained my predicament and while I trying to figure out the French word for cane, she quickly handed it to me. It was a matter of seconds for me to reach between the two kiosks and extract the wallet. Thanking her profusely, we went on our way. Cash and credit cards were of course gone, but inside my wallet were my driver’s license and copies of my passport, visa and other papers I kept with me.  

There were several tender mercies in that brief exchange. Number six, the metro station was quiet at that time of day, and I was able to hear the air tag. Number seven, the fact that this gentille woman appeared in the first place, she was only one of a handful of people I had seen at the stop in 15 minutes. Number eight, she was walking with a cane; number nine, when approaching her and asking her to borrow it, she didn’t bend it over my head and scream for the gendarmes. Wallet in hand, I made my way back home. (When Tim got home I felt terrible that I had not gone with him when he felt so strongly. I learned a huge lesson to listen to my husband. A humbling experience for me.) 

It’s the Saturday before the Christmas weekend, our Internet was down, and I had little hope of getting anything done until after the new year. Internet service was provided by the area headquarters in Frankfurt, and I had no idea in whose name it was, or even what address was used. While sorting through all of this our Internet was restored, just in time for the senior couple in the mission office to call and check up on our predicaments. Tender Mercies ten and eleven. We were delighted to inform them that everything was resolved, all was well. I counted eleven Tender Mercies in that short span of time, but I am sure the Lord’s angels were watching out for His fool, and the Tender Mercies extended that day bordered on the infinite. For example, why had she discarded my wallet between the kiosks where no would have found it for weeks or months, when there was a convenient trash can right there, recently emptied? 

The Lord never promised that when we are on His errand, we would be spared the trials and calamities of life. It was a prelude to Christmas Eve I will never forget. He did promise His help, his angels, his Tender Mercies. Of that I testify.

Today is Sunday Dec. 3, 2023. Tim and I went to church for the first time since we arrived in France. The first 10 days I was very sick with Covid and was in bed most of that time. Luckily, I had a good mission nurse in France and a good mission doctor in Spain who started me on antiviral medicine and Exomuc which is just like it sounds: “get rid of the mucus”! I already had an inhaler to use to help my lungs. I always felt at peace that whatever happened I was in the Lord’s hands. Tim was positive for Covid as well but did not get as sick thankfully.

Preparing for Christmas in our apartment

Our mission President, Roland Lepore and his wife Aimee are wonderful, kind people and not much older than our oldest children. They have been serving a long time in France as a Stake President and now Mission President. We are serving as Welfare/Self Reliance missionaries, but we can also do humanitarian efforts as needed. We have a WSR Manager and church employee over us named Momo Djemai. He is a joy to work with and is a very humble servant of the Lord. Tim and I are very happy and feel blessed to be on this mission/adventure together. We love the people already and enjoy the beauties of France.

Today was fast and testimony meeting. They had put our picture in their ward bulletin for today and gave us a warm welcome. There are 3 sister missionaries and 2 Elders that are Zone Leaders working in our ward. The ward meets in a large building that might also hold apartments? not sure but we have several floors and an underground parking garage with a very tight opening for small cars. 😉 We chose to park on the street which is also very small with very small parking that take work to fit our car in! Tim is very good at manipulating the car in tiny spots. I have not wanted to drive yet. I usually love to drive but I’m holding back.

Shopping
We parked and started to pay at the kiosk on the street and a beautiful sister came up to us and said we don’t have to pay on Sunday to park. We thanked her and realized she was going to our church. Her name was Sicily. So, we walked in to our church and were greeted by the Bishop and the missionaries. Alot of people speak English and seems as though they like to speak it with us. The bishop said we would like you both to bear your testimonies first. We said OK. (Just before we left our apartment this morning I felt as though I should bring my testimony that I had typed in French.) Listen to those whisperings of the spirit. There were about 80 people including missionaries. It is not a huge chapel. ON the first floor there is a gathering place and Bishop’s office and a place to hang your coats then you go up 3 flights of stairs or an elevator to the 2nd floor to the chapel. There is a 3rd floor that has a baptismal font and a large wood floor room where we held Sunday School. In the chapel, the primary was practicing for their program which will be next week. Oh, how I love the little children. I always love to go to primary to see if they need a substitute or a music helper. So next week is the primary program. YAY!! They don’t have that many children, so I am so excited to see it. I met Vanessa who was all alone and Liz and Lydia and Teresa and her son Ceasar and Alicia and others. I am going to try and remember people’s names. It is so important to remember names. I will try hard.Shopping

So, it came time for Tim and I to bear our testimonies. I don’t get scared speaking in front of anyone actually but it’s very different when I don’t speak their language. So, I went first, and I said slowly into the microphone – Je ne parle francais. (I don’t speak French) Everyone smiled at me. I called up Tim to translate for me and I said “I am excited to be a missionary in France. We are newlyweds. Both of our eternal spouses died about 10 years ago. When we got married 7 months ago (Tim said 8 and people understood I said 7 and he said 8 and they started to laugh! Haha. He was right in fact, its nearly 9 months!) When we got married, we both wanted to just go on a mission together. I was a difficult teenager so at age 16 my mom sent me to live with my aunt in Marseille. So, when we opened our mission call I said, “I’m going home.

We have 11 combined children and 40 grandchildren. “Then I told Tim I would do the rest by myself. I pulled out my testimony I had written in French, and I read it. It was from my heart. It was a wonderful feeling when I told them I loved them. I feel that they love me as well. When senior missionaries and even the young missionaries leave their homes to serve any ward or area in the world, we do it because we love God’s children, and we are here to serve them anyway we can. Tim and I honestly feel that love for our new ward. We felt Gods love in church today and I didn’t have anyone translate for me. I didn’t want that. It is distracting for all around to hear that, so I tried to understand words here and there, but I knew what they were talking about because of the spirit.

I wish I could have had all our children and grandchildren with us to know and feel what it is like to attend church in a different country and culture and feel the same spirit that we feel in our home wards. The church is the same. We testify of Jesus Christ throughout the world. We love one another and offer service to each other even those not of our faith. We are all God’s children on earth. We all have stewardship to love one another.
God works through any of us who have ears to hear and willing hearts to serve His children. May all of us have ears to hear and willing hearts this Christmas Season as we remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
I sure love you all!
Cathy Shaeffer Frodsham
((inside story: After Sunday School a cute Dad from Belgium who speaks great English came us to us and said his son was listening to my testimony and he said, “Dad how can they have 40 grandchildren in 8 months??????!!!!!!” hahahahahhaha. We all said at least he was listening.))

while in the MTC, our travel plans changed from flying out Saturday the 18th, to Monday, 20 November. We wondered at the change at the time, but in retrospect, were glad for the extra days in the MTC. We finished classes on Thursday morning and had Thursday afternoon, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the MTC with no classes. Both Catherine and I camedown with something and we’re glad that we had Friday Saturday and Sunday in the MTC to rest and recuperate. During the flight to France, I felt a little weak but otherwise OK, Catherine was really struggling. After our visit with the mission president on Wednesday, Catherine turned for the worse and our mission medical sister recommended we both test for Covid. Yes, we were positive. We are spending the week in our apartment, so much for hitting the ground running.

I went to three pharmacies before I could find one that would fill Catherine’s paper prescriptions from a mission doctor in Spain. We are spending the time resting, especially Catherine who spent the first few days here sleeping. The medication is helping and we are hoping to be fit and ready to go to our training in Frankfurt on December 4.

We are en route to France, and. If the flight tracker is correct, we just flew over Idaho Falls. During the last week in the MTC, we covered the humanitarian and self reliance programs in the church, and the software programs they have developed to track them. It reminded me of books I read on the subject during my doctorate program, describing why almost all humanitarian projects in other countries fail. For the most part, governments and non-profit organizations come into a country, assess the needs they perceive and then implement projects to fill those needs. The problem is, they do not stop to ask local leaders and local people in general what their true problems are, and what they need and can sustain.

One of the videos shown. During the week was of a TED talk outlining a project done by the Italian government to teach farming practices to the people of Zambia. The climate was exceptional, the soil fertile and their crops of Italian tomatoes and squash flourished. The tomatoes were huge and ripening when a herd of hippos came out of the river and destroyed the crops. The Italians were devastated and demanded of the locals why they didn’t tell them of this problem. “You never asked. That is why we don’t grow crops”. The Italians felt bad until they looked around at the projects done by the américains and other European countries, and realized that at least they fed the Hippos.

The church is learning, and learning well how to taylor projects to local needs by working with the locals and then designing projects that utilize local resources. Rather than purchasing goods and services to be brought in, they work with locals suppliers to vitalize the local economy and teach them to be self sufficient. Projects are measured by how they reach and sustain the local people. If the church doesn’t have local resources or local knowledge, they reach out and work with organizations that do.

For Sunday, we were the last senior missionaries in the MTC. The rest had departed for their field of service on Friday or Saturday. For church, we met with the senior couples branch Presidency for Sacrament Meeting. There were five couples there: The president, his counselors and their wives, plus one other couple that headed out just after sacrament meeting. We had second hour with just the eight of us. Powerful testimonies of missionary work and His place in the last days. Sunday night, we attended our last formal function of the MTC, the decipleship devotional. The subject was compelling, testimony vs. conversion. Testimony is a gift. Many missionaries who render powerful testimony on their mission indeed have a testimony, but they are not truly converted. Conversion is a choice. Peter, even with his immense faith of Jesus Christ and His mission, was told “When thou are converted, strengthen thy brethren”. Those who are converted make the choice to follow Him. President Caulderwood of the MTC stressed the point that many of the missionaries who served with him when he was a mission president have fallen away and that this plague will continue as long as missionaries and members refuse to seek personal, on going revelation as President Nelson implores.

We will soon be in France. We were told that we would not have an apartment when we arrived in Lyon, but that we would have to stay in an Air-B&B until one could be found. Just a few days ago, we got word that a Sr couple in the mission had to return early due to medical reasons and we would have their apartment. I would have much rather had a different answer to our prayer. The area Humanitarian and self-reliance director will pick us up at the airport when we arrive in Lyon tomorrow and take us to our apartment. We have an appointment with the mission president the next morning, so it appears we hit the ground running.

Tim and Catherine Frodsham

We completed our first week in the MTC. The emphasis was Preach My Gospel, not something related to our primary calling as Welfare / Self Reliance missionaries, but pertinent none the less. Missionary teaching aids have changed so much since I was a missionary. We had a set number of discussions which we had to memorize, even the questions. Today, there are four lessons, but they could be broken up in any manner and it is all teaching by the spirit. It is so much more effective. The focus on teaching this week was how to teach and how to invite, and just as important, how to follow up.

One of the devotionals for those just coming into the MTC is called the Character of Christ. It is based off of a devotional that Elder Bednar gave to the MTC some years ago. The focus of Christ ministry was always looking outward, not focused inward. They had several speakers who demonstrated those attributes.

This is a powerful place. When we walk the campus, the young missionaries are all so respectful and cheerful. They are taught to respect the senior missionaries, and to defer to them in places such as long lunch lines where there invited to encourage the senior missionaries to go to the front of the line. They do that every time and are so cheerful about it. As Catherine and I watch these new Missionaries, we are impressed that the church is in good hands with the next generation. Yes, there are some goof off and a few elders and sisters who should not be here, but the vast majority are well prepared with powerful testimonies and a deep love of Christ.

This week, we are focusing on our primary calling in France, Welfare and Self-Reliance. Though that will be our primary focus, I am sure we will have a lot of time to serve in whatever capacity we find.

We will not be posting every day, we plan to post about once a week, but we want to describe the start of our mission.The quote of the day came from President Calderwood, president of the MTC mission. “You senior missionaries are living the law of consecration. Some of you have sold your homes. You have left behind children and grandchildren. You are devoting your lives and paying for your mission. You are devoting your life and your monetary means to serve the lord.”

They asked each couple several times why we chose to serve a mission. The responses were varied, but for us it was something that we had individually desired all of our married lives. The first thing we talked about, even as we were first dating, was serving a mission. We want to serve to bless our families. We know that as we serve the Lord, his angels will watch and protect our families. Hearts will be softened, spirits uplifted, families strengthened. We want our grandchildren to desire to serve missions for themselves and follow in our footsteps.

This is a special place. The spirit is very strong here and we are glad to be a part of this. We look at all tumult in this world. The chaos, confusion and anger that surround us. This is the lords answer, the thousands of young men and women here are phenomenal. We, with them are gathering Israel and will be instrumental in healing the nations.

We were set apart this evening as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We leave tomorrow morning (Sunday, November 5th) for two weeks of training in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

President Juarez set us apart and blessed us with a gift of language, a gift of testimony and a love for the French people. Our family asked us if we were nervous, and the answer is definitely no. We will miss our family, our children, our grandchildren, but we are doing the right thing in choosing to serve the Lord for the next 18 months.

Lavender Fields France (Rosalie Kenney-Poyntz)

We have been called to serve as self-reliance Service Missionaries to the France Lyon Mission of The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We were called on 20 June, 2023 and will begin our service on 6 November, 2023. We will post mission updates, photos and commentary in this blog. Tim and Cathy Frodsham