Tag: missionary

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.

Sister Liz Hardy (Office Sister) with Catherine

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.

The Frodshams and the Snyders with Momo and Pascale Djamai

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.

Catherine with a young woman scheduled to be baptized on the 3rd of March

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.

The best German Chocolate cake I have ever eaten

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.

Tags europe, france, grandchildren, missionary, Missionary work, missions, temple, travel

Mission

Friends, 15 February 24

Catherine and Tim Frodsham 15 Feb 24

First and foremost, Happy Birthday to Catherine. Her birthday is the day after Valentines Day, which makes it easy to remember.

This will be more of a photo blog of the people who have touched our lives in the first three months of our mission. When I was young and foolish, age having solved one of those issues, I loved to take scenery pictures. On walk-abouts with my children, I would focus on the scenery and take the occasional people picture. The people pictures are the only ones I look at anymore, so no, this is not going to be a travelogue.

These family pictures were taken when we were set apart to serve this mission the 4th of November, 2023. We entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Sunday the 5th.

We flew from Sacramento to the Salt Lake City airport, and Adam Shaeffer and his family picked us up there and drove us to the MTC.

We met several young elders we knew while at the MTC. Tim was the home teacher, then ministering brother for the Istook family. The Rodriguez family were good friends in the Oregon ward as well. Gabby and Ella were Catherine’s seminary students, attending school at BYU. Sheila is a long time friend of Catherine.

Catherine is a magnet for friendship. At times, I step back in awe and watch her magic as complete strangers become lifelong friends. We worked with the Hatfelds in the MTC and the rest in training in Frankfurt, Germany. She still converses with her friends in Frankfurt, even though we were there only a few days.

Missionary couples we are working with in France. The Gannaways and the Hardys work in the mission office, taking care of the auto fleet, apartments, visas and finances for the mission. There jobs are much more defined than ours, which is a good thing. At times, we struggle a bit with the ambiguity of our mission call, but we love following the spirit to define many of our contributions to the saints in France

The McBrides serve as the mission medical for both the Lyon and the Paris mission. Bernadette McBride was right there to help when we arrived in Lyon, sick with COVID. They are stationed in Chalon, but we get together every time they come to the mission office in Lyon. We traveled to the Chalon branch the 2nd week in February to speak in Sacrament Meeting and to present the self-reliance courses the second hour.

Youth missionaries we work with in Lyon. Elders Guiernot, Dane and Last are Chinese speaking elders in the area (Yes, there was a transfer between photos). We spent a day with them, cleaning an apartment which had been locked up for months. Unfortunately, the last elders there turned off the refrigerator before leaving . . . We picked up Sister Nash at the airport, flying in from the Provo MTC. Her arrival was delayed so she was the last missionary to fly in for that transfer and there was no one in the mission available to pick her up. We remember our arrival in France, so we were delighted to welcome her to her mission.

The sister missionary trio are media specialists for the mission. They are teaching Machilo once a week in our apartment.

Most of all, are the friends we have made in the ward, or should I say, the friends Catherine has made in the ward.

After she bore her testimony in Relief Society, Soeur Meyer came up to her and exclaimed ” You have to learn French, and you have to do it now!” Yes, I used an exclamation point. For those keeping track, It has been at least a decade. She wanted so much for Catherine to push through the language barrier and testify to the people here in their native language.

In the collection, I had to add the shop keeper in the silk district who was Catherine’s best friend from the instant we walked into the shop. Also included is the street musician she befriended outside the Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon. He was a charming, articulate gentlemen and they did their best to converse in between numbers he played for her.

Last of all, I am including some photos of us as we have worked and traveled in our mission. We are not here as tourists, we are here foremost to push forward the work of our Savior in France. During our assignments, we have a goal to visit Lausanne, Switzerland where my grandmother was born, Marseilles, France where Catherine spent some months as a youth, and Normandy, which has so much history for us as Americans.

The Frodshams at the Basilica Notre Dame, overlooking Lyon

Every day we grow to love our mission and the people of France. We miss our children and grandchildren terribly, baptisms, ordinations and as we just heard, the first wedding of one of Tim’s grandchildren. If we were to wait till there is nothing to miss at home, we would be waiting forever. We know that innumerable blessings will come to our family because of our service here, we have seen His hand already.

The Frodshams

Tags france, grandchildren, lyon, missionary, Missionary work, missions

Mission

19 January 23, Gratitude

We are learning not only the Welfare Self-Reliance programs that the church offers to the world, but also how the French people understand and accept these programs. The pace of the French in society and in the church is different. Not better or worse, just different. We love how our ward ends Sacrament meeting. After the closing prayer, everyone remains in their seats for several minutes. No one talks, we just sit in reverent silence. Once the bishop gets up, everyone gets up and begins to socialize. It may take 10 to 20 minutes before people move from the chapel to their respective meetings. After church, the saints linger and talk. One Sabbath, an hour after church, people were still chatting.

Dinner with our boss (second from left) and the WSR leaders in Clermont-Ferrand

In a recent Area devotional, the Area manager spoke about the expanding work in Central Europe. One of their desires is to cultivate native workers in the Area office and native missionaries; both senior couples and young missionaries in the field. It reminded me of a discourse given by President Kimball on how missionary work would spread throughout the world. Countries that depend on American missionaries would become self-sufficient and in turn, export missionaries to others. That is the goal of the European people. Local missionaries to fulfill their needs and an excess to export to other countries. Right now, many French missionaries are sent to the US. Some stay or return to the US because of the opportunities here. The saints and the leadership of the church here in Europe want to open opportunities for their missionaries as incentive to stay.

Catherine and I discussed this after the devotional and concluded that saints from the US look at the French culture through the lens of our own culture and experience. We remembered a conversation with a Senior couple in the Area office while we were there for training. They were rather upset at an affiliate organization that had received humanitarian funds from the church. Rather than using them as agreed, they gave them to another organization in country and then publicly took credit for the donation. The funds were not necessarily misused, but credit was not given as we would expect in our US culture.

Outside the Cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand

A big question we ask ourselves is if the work we are doing here is sustainable. Are we just blowing hard on the coals? As soon as we leave, will the fire die back down? We have seen couples so excited about pushing the work forward that they push local WSR specialists out of the way in order to do it ‘the right way’. The work glows brightly for a while, but when they leave, the local saints called to this work are not prepared to take over. Our goal is to build a strong, sustainable source of heat and light by training, and more important, sustaining the local leadership in the responsibilities to which they were called. President Kimball delivered a landmark discourse in 1974 on how the world will be converted. In that discourse, he quoted a discourse by Brigham Young in the April, 1852 General Conference:

“This kingdom will continue to increase and to grow, to spread and to prosper more and more. Every time its enemies undertake to overthrow it, it will become more extensive and powerful; instead of decreasing it will continue to increase; it will spread the more, become more wonderful and conspicuous to the nations, until it fills the whole earth.” We are moved to be a part of that work.

Catherine in the Cathedral, surrounded by stars made by the local children

We recently met with a couple in Clermont Ferrand, called as Welfare Self-Reliance specialists for their stake. I watched with awe as Catherine embraced these fine people, both figuratively and literally. She adores and is adored by all she meets. Catherine speaks little French, and the sister spoke little English, but they instantly became lifelong friends and communicated in ways far beyond mere spoken language. Catherine worries about how little of the French language she commands, but she communicates far beyond anything I can do. This couple is excited about the work and have a testimony of the Church’s Self-Reliance programs. Catherine and I pray continually for the inspiration and revelation necessary to sustain them.

It is a joy for us to work as WSR (Welfare, Self-Reliance) missionaries. the MLS (Member Leader Support) missionaries in our mission have somewhat well-defined responsibilities, particularly those that work in the office. Our job is nebulous. We are left to figure out what we should do and how to do it. We would enjoy the more defined MLS responsibilities if that were our call, but we are embracing the lack of definition in our current callings. We find opportunities to learn and to serve wherever we can.

With the Sister Missionaries and acouple being taught in our apartment

We are learning how the church works with the French government. It is not better or worse, just different. An integral part of the French Revolutions was throwing off the suppressive yoke of the Catholic church. I don’t know enough about French history to make any kind of judgement here, but that is certainly the perception of the French people. Because of this, as a culture, they are very suspicious of religious organizations. The church understands not to fight it, but to work with it. For example, EnglishConnect classes can be taught in some church buildings but not in others. It seems arbitrary, but it depends on ownership of the buildings. The church cannot directly own buildings in France, not even the temple. They are owned by subsidiary or affiliate organizations. The way the church owns each building dictates if EnglishConnect classes are seen as competition with local public universities. Some buildings in our Stake can host EnglishConnect classes, some cannot. We work with that. Where we cannot hold physical classes, we do so online.

While serving here in France, we are re-learning how to pray. I was reminded recently of a discourse on Prayers of Gratitude. Sometimes our prayers turn into a list of “monotonous pleadings”. Rather than a long list of requests for our work and our families, even though these requests may have the best of intentions, we have been offering prayers of gratitude for all the blessings poured out on us. We thank the Lord for his help as he blesses us the way he blessed the People of Alma. He did not remove their burdens, but he made them light. In the coming weeks and months, I will try to describe the answers to our prayers, most particularly our prayers of gratitude for the support He gives our families while we are in His service.

Tags christianity, church, families, grandchildren, jesus, missionary, Missionary work, missions, Prayer, Spencer Kimball

Mission

2 January, The New Year

We attended our first Zone Conference during the week between Christmas and New Years. The Mission President gave an opening testimony and then had the Assistants to the President and the Zone Leaders present most of the material for the day. I was impressed at how well these young leaders taught and testified with faith and power. The Elders taught about testifying and extending invitations to those investigating the church. It is important to understand that as they embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His restored Church, trials and hardship will not be taken away. In fact, the adversary will exert even more effort to dissuade and disrupt our lives.

Break time at Zone Conference

They gave as an example the People of Alma and what they had to endure. The Lord did not lift their burdens, but he strengthened them so that they could not feel them (Mosiah 24:13,14). When we strive to follow Him, the adversary has no power over us (Helaman 5:12). Several years ago, I wrote an article about the People of Alma and Limhi and how the Lord interacts and helps His people based on their faith and obedience. The presentations of these stalwart missionaries reminded me again that the future of the Church is in good hands.

Sister missionaries at the Zone Conference

President Lepore concluded the conference with a testimony about the work in Europe. He cited President Nelson in a recent address to the Europe Area. “The Church has an unparalleled future in Europe!” The wars raging around Europe are bad, but the Lord is using these events for His own purpose. People are being displaced to areas where they can hear the gospel. There are twenty missionaries called to the people of Turkey. All of them reside in Germany and extend the invitations of gospel learning online. When someone from Turkey is converted, missionaries along with appropriate leadership as prescribed by law, fly to Turkey to perform the baptisms and then return to Germany.

Lyon from the river near our apartment

Pres. Nelson also said of the missionaries called to serve here, and I paraphrase: “You were born to do this. Europe has an unparalleled future because of you. You have access to the power-God’s power- that will literally change the future of Europe. As you keep your covenants with increasing precision, you are the hope of Europe, and you are the hope of Israel. You are the ‘children of the promised day’ “. Great things are happening in Europe. Among other indicators, baptisms are up 60 % in the mission as compared to last year. Our contribution to the conference was bowls of fruit and a large batch of cinnamon rolls.

At the Tete d’Or park

We spent New Years with several families. The faithful members here are generous to a fault and treated us to magnificent multi-course meals in their tiny apartments. At our New Year’s Eve dinner invitation, the wife got a call to go into work later that evening. She is a PA for a local hospital and was needed to assist in a multiple transplant surgery. Her married and engaged children were there, all intelligent and conversant in both French and English.

Prettiest thing in the park

On New Years Day, we took a long walk around the city. From our apartment, it is a comfortable walk to the river, to the Tete D’Or park, the mall and several shopping areas. We are still exploring the richness of the city around us.

The new year, we will start traveling in our assigned area to train stake leadership and self-reliance specialists in the church programs. Catherine has been bringing me up to speed on these wonderful programs and the power they can bring to wards and stakes in binding their people together and extending a hand of gospel fellowship to others.

Tags Book of Mormon, christianity, church, missionary, Missionary work, missions, teaching, Zone Conference