Hello from the Jefferies in Clermont-Ferrand,
Tomorrow
is P-Day here in the land of 1,000+ cheeses and your sons may not be
able to get to a computer to write to you. Transfers were announced
Friday, and they are both heading to Lyon to pick up new companions.
Elder Russo will be teamed with a "two-transfer" missionary (fairly new)
who speaks Spanish on the side. This is sort of exactly what our
Bishop Allanic has been hoping for. He has asked the Mission President
and the Stake President for at least one missionary who can speak
Spanish, to stay with us for two transfers to do a triage operation....
the ward is slowly shrinking in size as nearly all the new baptisees
from the past 3 years are either refugees or students who do not stay
here more than a few months. And... they have largely been young men as
the Elders seem to avoid teaching pretty young ladies. ![]()
For this reason, many times there are only young adult males at Soiree
Familliale. Can you imagine all the testosterone at les soirees
familliales (family home evening for the young adults at the church)
where all the young men play a mass ping-pong game around an improvised
table? I'll post some recent videos for you to look at on my Facebook
site. If you want to see them, just "friend" me: Jane Jefferies
(missionary application photo of my companion & me - for ID if there
are more of the same name).
It
looks like Elder Russo will "die" here in Clermont-Ferrand. That's the
strange language of the Elders. When they come to their mission they
are "born." and their first companion, their trainer, is called their
"Father." As they near the end of their mission they say an Elder is
"growing old," and when they ship out for home.... sigh.... it's akin to
"dying." So, Elder Russo, the athletic & competitive, will be here
for the next six weeks with his new young companion, and then he will
return to that mortal family who gave him life.
As
for Elder Smith, who reminds me of a combination of Joseph Smith (his
stature) and Brigham Young (his wisdom), is saying good-by to us today
here in this Massif Central region, a cold, and sometimes snowy land, to
head to Lyon on the train tomorrow morning with Elder Russo at 8:30
am. There our two stalwart Elders will meet their new companions, and
Elder Russo will return around 5:30 pm while Elder Smith will get his
new trainee and depart for the south... the home of one of our Young
Adults, and also the home of our Eveque Allanic. If you don't hear from
him tomorrow, Smith Family, write back to me and I'll tell you where he
has gone. We will miss him a lot. One good thing about his going, is
that he has resisted buying a thick wool coat and has shivered a bit
through the coldest days of winter... but now, spring is coming and he
is heading south. He will be fine!
It's
the Bishop we worry about now. He is a young man, just 37 years old
with all the responsibility of first a branch and now this ward with its
list of nearly 300 members... most of which have moved away or died. We
have only 97 known active people, and most of them are well over the
median age for life. We just learned that Bishop Allanic has a
fibrillating heart. The first treatments, after a few years of
medication, were yesterday in a clinic. The procedure did not resolve
the problem. The medics threaded a catheter up a vein from his leg to
his heart and he was given some kind of electrical treatment three
times to attempt to reset the control region of his heart. And it had
no effect! I wonder if the stress of managing the ward and his business
is making the problem critical? He's an osteopathic physician who
works alone and manages everything... and the landlord of his building
has other plans for Bishop Allanic's doctor's office and treatment room
as he plans NOT to renew the doctor's lease in September.
We
are trying to take some of the pressure off. Our task is to locate the
missing members and ship off their records either to the genealogy
vaults or to the ward of their new residence. When we are finished, our
young Bishop will have a better chance to properly manage home teaching
and visiting teaching as he ministers to the needs of his actual ward
members. As it is, the ward grows continually smaller. Baptisms among
the student population just get our hopes up until the semester is over
and the students depart.
THAT's
why the Bishop needs a Spanish-speaking missionary for just two
transfers. He's been begging for one for many months, now, and he's had
a bit of a time getting some of the Elders to understand the plan.
Because the stalwart ward members are all aging rapidly, and because we
have very few families and only 7 children off-and-on in the primary,
and because the three young families with children are all moving away
this year, the ward is very close to returning to Branch Status. The
Bishop's inspiration involved taking advantage of the most recent wave
of immigrants from Spain which happened due to a poisonous political
atmosphere in Spain several years ago. Since these people are still
humble people, as they do not qualify for the national social security
doles, they turn to God for guidance... like the people that Alma and
Ammon worked with in the Book of Mormon times. AND their children are
rapidly approaching young adulthood... the time when they will choose to
either become one with the national culture or to embrace their
parents' religious values.
"Upon
such a full sea are we now afloat" and if we can take advantage of it
by having the missionaries seeking out these Spanish/French-speaking
families now, we may both save them and save the Wardby buffing up the
number of actual resident families. As the Bishop says, "In these times
of change, we must change how we work." He would also like to see the
location of missionary apartments change every five years to give
different neighborhoods better exposure to our Elders and , hopefully,
Sisters. As the official Clermont-Ferrand lobbyist to President Roney, I
am looking forward to the 70 new missionaries that are destined for the
France Lyon mission when the 18-year old Elders and 19-year-old Sister
Missionaries arrive! He has said he would give us another team of
missionaries.
I will wish you well as I turn back to my missionary projects.... but first some photos! Check the attachments ![]()
The Elders are posing with Sister Patricia Hughes, and Englishwoman who
lives out in the country... she makes "teddy bears" out of amazing
fabrics. The Elders left so quickly after the services today that I was
not able to properly immortalize them with my camera. Elder Jefferies
and I may see them off in the morning. If so, I'll try for better
photos for you then.
Regards,
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