Report for Week Two

Our second week consisted of more training in our jobs at the office.  Mom is buying train tickets for all the missionaries who will be moving around the mission next week for transfers.  It's mind-boggling!  I've been looking for apartments.  I've identified possibilities in 4 or 5 cities, but haven't actually had a site visit yet.  Next Monday, Suzanne and I will do our first site visits in Villefranche sur Saône.  Meanwhile, I'm arranging for missionaries in the other cities to visit the prospective sites in those cities.  I send them a checklist of criteria and problems to look out for.  They fill out the form during the visit and take lots of pictures.  Then we will consult and decide if any of the apts look promising.  From there, I have to get approval from the other office elder and maybe the Mission President, before we can tell the realtor to prepare a contract.  So, I've done a lot of research and correspondence, but I have yet to score my first done-deal.

In addition to travel tickets, Suzanne is also arranging for people to come in to Lyon for their periodic visits with the police to keep their residency permits current.  (We call this "legality.")  We may have her also help with ordering supplies, since it does not require much French.  But, so far, I've been doing that because my trainer Elder Kunz had that portfolio, and Mom's trainer Elder Manwaring has been keeping her swamped with the travel and legality.  Kunz and I did an inventory of supplies in the office, and found Books of Mormon in 103 languages!

On Thursday we hooked up our Magic Jack and were able to call (and receive calls) anywhere in the USA with our old landline phone number.  (801-523-8146.)  That made Suzanne happy!

On Friday President Roney came into the office for a planning meeting to make sure everything was lined up for next week's transfers.  What a major operation that is!  I had no idea.

So, the week flew by.  We still feel very much like greenies, and inadequate in our assignments.  For P-Day Saturday ("Preparation Day") we decided to drive out into the country to see if we could photo some French quaintness.  Driving is not for the faint-hearted.  It was supposed to relax us, but the driving tends to wind the tension tighter.  The plan was to go to Thizy-les-Bourgs (about 73 Km from our apt.), where there is a cluster of little villages that should offer some photogenic charm.  The drive was so stressful, with traffic, not knowing the way, being confused by the GPS,  inadequate air conditioning in the car, and Suzanne’s difficulty with winding roads (especially when she has to read the GPS instead of looking out the window), that we turned off the road at Chåtillon sur l’Azergues to stretch our legs and see what we could find.  It was quaint enough, so we snapped off some photos.

When we were refreshed a little, we pushed on toward the original goal.  A couple of missed turns, with the GPS correcting us, the car too hot, and the roads too winding, and we were getting to the end of our patience.  Just then we saw a sign for Thizy 35 Km!  We weren’t even half-way, and I knew we had not yet come to the really RURAL roads.  Suzanne said “turn around.”  I knew better than to insist on ploughing on.  So, we did demi-tour, re-set the GPS for home and started back.  We stopped once at Chessy, which we had seen on the way out, for a photo of the beautiful yellow flowers and the chåteau, below.  (Plus another interesting dwelling on the other side of the road.)

From there, we stopped at Lozanne (about 20 Km from Lyon) for some lunch.  We found an inviting pizza restaurant, with outdoor seating on a shaded patio.  The pizzas were good, and refreshed us.  At the next table was a family with a cute little girl.  Suzanne composed a sentence in French and asked me if it would work, I approved.  When I got the attention of the father and said my wife had a question for him, she asked, “Would you like me to take a photo of your daughter and send it to you by email?”  The man and woman said "Yes," so Mom took then to an isolated corner of the patio and did a quick photo shoot.  No translator.  Just her and them.  I don’t know if she used English, French, gestures or all of the above, but she seemed to do just fine.

We then drove home with only minor mix-ups, and ignoring the GPS that had somehow re-set itself for Lyon city center, instead of our house.  After a stressful day on the road, we're ready for the safety of the office!