Sunday, July 16, 2017

Wonderful Memories with great people

As we have said before, one of the very best things about our mission is the connections and friendships we are able to make with very dear people.  Last Sunday we went to church in St. Etienne, the home ward to our friends, Les Jo's-Jos, Joseph and Joelle Galleti.  He is the stake high councilman over self reliance.  He and his wife live in a two-hundred year farm house out in the country near their city.  They have worked hard to up-date the inside of the house, and it is magnificent.  The outside probably looks very much like it did 200 years ago with surrounding gardens and fruit trees.  Brother and Sister Galleti have been a great support to us in our Self-Reliance work.  They come to firesides to help out any way they can and hold video conferences with us, the Stake President, and the ward Self-Reliance specialists in each ward.  We discovered that Joelle attended school at BYU-Hawaii at the same time that we were there.  Our pictures are in her year book.  Small world in the church.

The distance between wards and the circumference of the stake are astounding. These devoted members think nothing of spending 1/2 hour to 1 1/2 hours to get to church and back. They will often have a pot-luck lunch (which they call sale or sucre--salty or sweet) right after the church block and before our self-reliance devotional.  We just love these good saints!

It's also been a joyful experience to get to know so many wonderful senior missionaries.  Elder and Sister Klematz have been serving as MLS missionaries to the Saint Etienne ward .  They were with us at the Galetti's home since it was their last Sunday in that ward.  They too had to drive all the way from Lyon, about 45 minutes to get to church.  They have just been reassigned to Bezier in Southern France where they will once again work "their magic"  helping and loving the members.

7 comments:

  1. That's awesome that you're getting to know some fun friends. A 200 year old farm house in the country sounds amazing!!!

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  2. Thats crazy that that house is 200 years old.-Claire

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  3. I think St. Etienne was in my mission. I've never been there before but I've definitely heard of the place. Love the 200 year old farm house.

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  4. Hi nan and pap Pap It looks like you are having a good time. I am! I miss you so much. Thank you so much for being the best grandparents ever.

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  5. Dear Elder and Sister Geddes, Our mission call came two days ago on July 20th. We have been called to serve as self reliance missionaries in the France Lyon Mission. Our first thoughts were on how to contact you to share the wonderful news and to learn about what we will be doing. Reading your blog has been especially helpful. We report to the Provo MTC on January 15th and will serve for 23 months. We loved serving with you at the temple open house and can't wait to see you again in France. Our email is wasum1@msn.com, and we would love to hear from you. P.S. Did you have anything to do with this surprise calling? We thought we'd be going back to the South Pacific as ITEP and TVET missionaries, but are delighted to be going to serve in France. Janet is already working hard on her French.

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  6. So many wonderful people! (But to me, YOU are the most wonderful.) And the Jo's-Jos sound delightful, as does their abode!

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