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| The line we were in to do legality. It was cold. |
Over two weeks ago, we began our quest for our Carte. We traveled by metro and tram and on foot so
that we could stand in line starting at 8:15 a.m. with hundreds of other
foreigners awaiting the 8:30 a.m. opening of the doors of the Lyon prefecture
building. We briefly visited with our
fellow line mates including a woman from Morocco. Fortunately, the weather was relatively
nice. When the government offices
opened, we were given the numbers of 92 and 93 at the entrance and then sat in
a waiting room to see which government helper would have the honor of helping
two well meaning Americans.
We were summoned to window 26 at 11:30 a.m., and the lucky
woman began to examine our papers. It
didn’t take long for her to get confused with how to legally handle these
senior citizens. After conferring with
her fellow workers, she informed us that one of our documents, our birth
certificates, needed a traduction (translation) into French. My offer to translate the document from
English to French didn’t help. My
earnest pleading that hundreds of missionaries in other cities were not
required to have a translation fell on deaf ears. One fellow worker was friendly and spoke
pretty good English, but his English knowledge did not overcome their
supervisor’s insistence that the legal requirement in Lyon for a professional
translation of our birth certificates applied to us. So hat and documents in hand, we retreated by
foot, tram and metro back to the office after stopping at a McDonalds near the
metro stop.
Two traductions to our birth certificates in hand and almost
two weeks later, we bravely returned to the battle ground where we had once
been defeated to try again. This time,
we forgot our map and a nice lady was placed in our path to give us directions
to the prefecture. We arrived to stand
in line at 7:45 a.m. hoping to receive a lower number and visited with a man
from Bosnia. We were rewarded with the
numbers 62 and 63. I jokingly informed
Sister Jeppson that our friendly English speaking worker from two weeks ago was
seated near to us behind window 14 and that we deserved to be summoned to his
window this time. At 11:00 a.m., window
14 was matched with number 62 and we succeeded in providing each legal document
that our friendly opponent requested. We
proudly departed the prefecture with a temporary document in hand that supports
our legal status until we obtain the real document that allows us to stay for
another year. We have the opportunity to
return to our increasingly familiar location around the end of May but at 1:30
p.m. instead of the morning to pick up our cartes de sejour.
We have moved from the third floor of our apartment on Rue
de l’Abondance to the third floor of an apartment four blocks away on Rue de la
Bannière. It was hard work to pack up
and move boxes and furniture to the new place.
While waiting for the availability of the mission van which was on a
zone conference tour, we were anxious to take advantage of a few moments in
between rain drops and snow showers. So
we asked the missionaries to take a load of boxes on our mission’s four wheel
cart on the side walk and across intersections from one apartment to the
other. We then decided that we would try
to move a few loads ourselves while the weather was good. During our first try, we were doing very well
until we came to a place where dog poop was strewn along the middle of the
sidewalk. While trying to maneuver
around it on a slight incline, some of the boxes fell off and their contents
ended up in the gutter and on the dog poop that we were trying to avoid. We bravely salvaged most of our things but
had to throw away some Ensign magazines.
The next day the Lord blessed us with a partial day of sunshine that
allowed the missionaries to move two loads of heavy furniture in the mission
van from the old apartment to the new apartment. Just as they finished around 5 p.m., it
started to rain.
We now have a longer walk to the office, but this apartment
has several advantages for the future: a
parking place for our car in a locked garage in a parking area under our
apartment building, storage in the back of the garage and in a cave (storage
unit) for missionary materials to free up office space, and an extra bedroom
where new couples arriving in Lyon can stay before they travel to their new
assignments, a small grocery store near the apartment, and four blocks
closer: the mall, railroad station and
our famous pencil shaped building that you see in the background of our mission
blog.
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| Standing, Bishop of the Gerland Ward, from Gabon |
We continue our edifying experience of attending baptism
services for converts from different countries.
Two weeks ago from Saturday, Allie, a student from Sydney, Australia was
baptized by President Roney. His family
and the Ecully ward were instrumental in fellowshipping her. Sister Green , who directs the Young Single Adults Center
with her husband spoke in English with a French translator. A student from the USA who speaks excellent
French spoke in English but translated her talk into French while she
spoke. We hope that Allie’s twin sister
will progress towards baptism also.
Yesterday, we attended a baptism service for Gavin from Nigeria who
attends the Gerland Ward. He has been
taught over a five month period by sisters and then elders. One of the elders returns home on Tuesday. A sister from the ward gave a heartfelt talk on baptism in French and then Soeur Hyrkas, a
sister missionary from Finland, gave a wonderful talk about the Holy
Ghost. The bishop of the ward who
conducted the meeting is from Gabon. Gavin
was baptized by a member of the Gerland ward who is French and his wife is from
Utah. He speaks excellent English. Gavin then had the courage to speak.
Sister Jeppson and I participated in some ward and stake
activities recently. We went to a
relief society activity in the home of one of the sisters in the ward where
Sister Jeppson operated a sewing machine to sew clothes for needy
families. I spoke in the place of
President Roney at a stake fireside where three coverts, a ward mission leader
and a stake high councilman also spoke.
I knew that people from areas as far as two hours away would be coming
to the fireside to hear President Roney speak so I really needed help from the
Lord. I felt guided by the spirit as I
prepared and delivered the talk about the blessings of the gospel in our lives.
NOS PETITS-ENFANTS
We just moved to an apartment on 1 rue Bannière which means
banner in English. In English we can
also compare a banner to a flag. Our
American flag is a symbol of patriotism.
Our French Triple Combination scriptures dictionary states that the Book
of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ are symbolic bannières (banners) for
all the nations of the earth. We feel
very blessed to serve as missionaries and in our own way raise a symbolic
banner of the church as we wear our missionary badges and represent Jesus
Christ in France. We hope that you will
set good examples of our church for other people and prepare to one day raise a
symbolic banner as a missionary.
