Alright, this post is only a week late. I don't think that's too bad, right? Last Sunday, we went to church at the ward here in Toulon. We took a bus there and it was pretty easy to get to, luckily. The members all seemed really nice, and Jacqueline said that it seemed like they've been having a lot of baptisms in the ward lately, so that's cool. But I was looking forward to meeting these people:
This is the sister and parents (the Coucourdes) of one of the best members in New Cal-- Soeur Guidi. We spent many a hysterical day with the Guidis as missionaries and just loved them so much. I had known that Soeur Guidi had lived in Tahiti for a long time, but I never knew why. Her mom was kind enough to explain:
Apparently when missionary work started taking off in Tahiti, some church leaders decided that they needed to have a French school so that the members could become fluent in French as well as Tahitien. They searched everywhere for a teacher, and had no luck until they contacted a young Madame Coucourde-- a convert of only a few years. They asked if she wouldn't be willing to spend 3 years in Tahiti teaching French. She somewhat reluctantly agreed, and they all moved out there. After that 3 years was up, they asked her if she'd like to stay another 3. And then another 3. A fourth time, they extended for another 3 years, but this time it was cut short. It was decided that the French school wasn't really needed anymore, since the generation who'd been taught was grown up and could then teach their own children. So the school was torn down. And do you know what went up in its place?
That's right--the Tahiti temple! Soeur Coucourde laughingly said how humbling it was to have come from the dust of that temple. I also loved hearing her talk about how the missionaries who taught her probably had no idea the ramifications of her joining the church: she now has somewhere around 40 members of her family who are all active in the church, living in different parts of the world. So amazing! And it's awesome to see how her daughter is now a part of the New Caledonia's Church history, as the wife of the island's first stake president. Anyway, it was just wonderful to meet this family and hear about some true latter-day pioneers!
(Here's some stuff I was reading about the Tahiti temple... read if you're interested)
Jacqueline and I passed some beautiful flowers on the way home. Reminded me so much of New Cal!
After lunch, we went for a little walk to the beach. Well, okay, we took the bus to the beach, and then walked around once we got there.
Some Marine thing on the beach... I could look it up, but I'm too tired to. It was pretty though!
This was my first time going to the beach in Toulon. It was so beautiful!!
What's funny about these beaches, as you can see from this picture I got from google, is how they've set it up to have several smaller, round little beaches instead of one big long one. Not quite sure the reasoning behind that, but it's sure pretty!
The water is just so clear! It's insane.
Hanging out on the beach. We had a nice little conversation about how life certainly never goes as planned. Poor us, right? It's hard to complain when you're sitting on a beach in the south of France looking out into the Mediterranean. No complaints here!
So, yeah. We'll be going back to the beach as often as possible, next time hopefully in our swimming suits!
No comments:
Post a Comment