Week 24 in France

Today we have been in France for almost 1/3 of our mission. Time has flown so quickly that we haven't posted as often as we did in the past. This mission has been very different than our other two missions and very different than we expected. When we last wrote we had just participated in two convert baptisms. We were just about to experience our first Christmas in Beziers, France. We thought that then things would settle down to the routine that we expected. That didn't happen. 

 We learned that there are several obstacles to working with young adults in France. First is distance. We were asked to live in Beziers because it was between Toulouse and Nice, were we would serve. We learned that Toulouse is two hours away and Nice is four hours away. This makes travel to the two areas for activities very difficult. The second problem is the pandemic. All activity stopped during the pandemic and hadn't really started up. Also, to make matters more interesting, there are no young adults in Beziers. We managed to attend a few meetings in Toulouse by Zoom but otherwise were feeling kind of frustrated. Don't think we had nothing to do, we were assigned 24 apartments to inspect every three months, and we taught "English connect" classes, and "Adjusting to Missionary Life" classes. Of course we tried to stay active in our branch, and assist in fellowshipping the new converts.  

Now our mission has changed again. Wayne has been called as the branch president in Rodez, France. This means that we will be moving as soon as we can find an apartment. Wayne has been in this calling for three Sundays now. It is a beautiful drive to Rodez, about two hours from Beziers. I'm not sorry to be moving there, I fell in love with Rodez the first time we stopped there to inspect an apartment the first week of our mission.

Viaduc de Millau

Our zone in France

Spring comes early in southern France. I planted these in February.

We picnicked here on one of our trips. It reminds me of Utah.

The Mediterranean coast is a half hour from Beziers.

The people you see are actually paintings. Many old buildings are painted this way.

That’s all for now. I’m (Janet) learning how to do this on my ipad so I can take over from Wayne while he works on church stuff.

Week 11 in France

 Chers familles et amis,

(Dear families and friends)

Three weeks later, "It's time for another blog", says Janet! Especially since Christmas is in full swing in France. Actually, "Bonnes Fetes" which means "Happy Holidays" is in full swing. We think it's sad that the true reason for the season seems to be lost for so many. Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ will always be foremost in our hearts during the Christmas season. He is our Savior, Redeemer, and King.

Still, we enjoy the festivities and lights, as you will see in the pictures below. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet at our mission president's home with the other eight senior couples on December 8th. After a raclette dinner we wandered around downtown Lyon to see the light shows. Maybe we were expecting too much, but we were underwhelmed. We thought the lights and decorations in Beziers were better done.

The most important event in the past three weeks just happened yesterday. The mother and son we mentioned in our last blog were baptized yesterday. Wayne was honored to be asked to baptize them. It was a very spiritual experience to help them follow in the Savior's footsteps down into the waters of baptism. The portable baptismal font in the Beziers chapel had never been used.  Wayne had to figure out how to put it together without any instructions. The wood frame went together nicely, but the vinyl liner would not fit. Even with Janet's help, it just wouldn't go in.  After a silent prayer, the thought occurred to try using some clamps Wayne had purchased a few weeks ago for another job. That did the trick, the liner was stretched into place, and the plumbing to fill it even had an adjustable temperature control.

Some other events in the past three weeks include travelling to Toulouse twice: once for a stake conference and a week later for a zone conference. We loved meeting with our leaders and with the young elders and sisters serving around us. We had to hurry home from Toulouse to teach another English Connect 1 class.  We are preparing to teach another class for new young elders and sisters to help them adjust to missionary life.  The class is called "Strength in the Savior", and it offers suggestions on how to deal with the many challengers these 18 and 19 year old young adults have to deal with.  

Now that we're done cleaning and repairing apartments, we're looking forward to focusing more on our original calling to work with the young adults. We have a Zoom meeting next week, and we'll let you know how it's going in our next blog sometime after Christmas and New Year's.

We hope in this season you all enjoy the warmth and love of one another and of God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!

Elder and Sister Wayne and Janet Sumner

It wouldn't be Christmas without English toffee

Janet at the Auchon mall

Riding in a two-reindeer open sleigh

Galeries Lafayette

The decorations in Beziers

more Beziers decorations with Sladjana and Yugi

Beziers decorations with us

Light and fountain show in Beziers, mostly done with American Christmas music!

This window display cracked us up.

dinner with President Lepore's family and senior couples

a missionary lesson in our apartment

portable baptism font with ladders to get in and out!

ready to perform the baptisms

Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter seen from our back patio

Week 8 in southern France

Today is Sunday, November 21, 2021, and though we have been on our new mission to France for about 2 months, we have been so busy we haven't made time to blog. Also, we didn't have internet until just 2 weeks ago. We had been struggling to get by using a VERY slow hot spot on our phone.

We arrived in France on September 28th.  Two days later, after (mostly) recovering from jetlag, we were asked to visit four long-empty missionary apartments in Le Pontet (by Avignon), Montpelier, Beziers, and Rodez. We travelled for three days by car, and I remembered how crazy it is to drive in France.  On the main highways, called "autoroutes", the speed limit is often 130 kilometers per hour, which converts to about 80 mph.  However, there are trucks which aren't allowed to go nearly as fast, and "zoomers" (as we call them) who want to pass you doing at least 90 mph and probably faster. Once you get off the main high speed toll highways, the one-way narrow alleys make it hard to find your way anywhere without a GPS.  Fortunately, our Toyota Yaris Hybrid has one, which I (Wayne) very quickly learned to used out of absolute necessity.

The following week we drove to Switzerland to visit 5 more empty apartments in two days. Finally, on October 9th, we drove to our apartment in Beziers. We only had a mattress on the floor to sleep on for the first week.  Our Ikea bed frame was delivered on October 18th, which I assembled myself. But to get the bed into the bedroom, I had to disassemble the bunkbeds and move them to the smaller storage/bedroom.

Our toilet was running constantly so badly that the mission office had received a notice of excessive water consumption.  I figured out how to disassemble the French flushing mechanism and fixed it, and installed a BioBidet as well.

Then we visited, cleaned, and fixed up missionary apartments at Gap and Vitrolles.  We made two more visits to Le Pontet to fix a hole in the wall and put back up the window shades.  In the process, I had to clean out a window ledge filled with a pigeon nest and pigeon poop.  YUCK!

We were supposed to get internet on Wednesday, October 28th, but the technician never came because my cell phone had quit working and he couldn't get ahold of us.  I had to buy a new cell phone to replace it, but the next available appointment was two weeks later.

On November 2nd we drove to Carcassonne to pick up the two elders so they could ride with us to our first Zone Conference in Lyon on November 3rd. Late Wednesday night, on the way back from Carcassonne to Beziers we discovered the access to the main highway was closed, so we had to noodle our way through lots of tiny towns and roundabouts to find our way back to Beziers at 1 a.m.

The following week is when disaster struck. We had to drive to Lyon again to get our long-term visas finalized, and fix up another apartment in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon. On the way back from our visa appointment my wallet was stolen.  By the time I realized it was gone and called our bank 5 hours later, the thieves had drained our checking account and maxed out our overdraft account. What a hassle to get that straightened out.  Fortunately, Visa covered nearly all the fraudulent charges, and I only lost the cash that was in my wallet. I still need to replace my Utah driver's license and insurance cards.

Today we returned from Toulouse where we attended our first stake conference.  We were able to meet some of the leaders with whom we will be working to serve the young adults of our stake.

We have been teaching a mother and son from Montenegro along with the young elders, and they are planning on being baptized on December 11th.

We are teaching an English Connect 1 class Friday evenings from 8 to 9 p.m., and expect to soon start teaching another class to help young missionaries adapt to mission life.

I've been asked to accompany the Primary children's program next Sunday, and I play the piano for church most Sundays.

As you can tell, we've been very busy since arriving in France, but the Lord has blessed us with health and safety.  After fixing a few things and lots of cleaning, our apartment is starting to feel like home, and we even have started putting up a few Christmas things.

Janet with President and Sister Lepore

Santon display (Santons are small figurines)

Us with Elders Voisin and Risher and Sladjana and Yugi

Painted building in Lyon

The Pont Neuf (New Bridge) in Toulouse is 400 years old

Narrow street in Toulouse

Beautiful lady in front of beautiful flower store front

Wonderful cook serving a wonderful Raclette Dinner