Winner!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I won a giveaway. I am excited to win. Thanks Jill from Jill Can Blog. To see her cute buttons go to: mybuttonboutique.etsy.com. Can't wait to get my fun prize. Thanks again to Jill.

A little update on my darn shingles. I am still suffering from excruciating headaches and face aches to 1/2 of my head and 1/2 of my face. Weird isn't it? I am taking some nerve medication now and with the help of the mission Dr in Germany we are trying to get just the right dosage. So far, I am doing much better, but still can't sleep at night because of the pain that keeps me up. Finally last night was a lot better. I am having a bit of a hard time concentrating on writing blogs etc. because of the pain that distracts me. I usually have a very high pain tolerance, but this thing has really gotten to me. Sorry don't mean to complain but must keep my journaling up.

Frankfurt Temple

Tomorrow we are going to Frankfurt, Germany to this temple. We are going with the Petrovs to act as escorts and I will also be translating. This is the closest temple to France that has earphones with translation into Bulgarian that they will be able to use for the session. They will have to rely on me for the rest of the translating. Oh how I hope I will be able to do it well. It's one thing to translate just everyday conversation, but a whole other thing to translate ecclesiastical terminology especially that of a sacred nature. I'm praying for divine help in this matter. It is about an 8 hour drive from the church to the temple. We will do some visiting and then spend the night. Saturday will be the temple day. I'm really excited and looking forward to it. Our Bishop has volunteered to drive all of us as we really cannot take our car outside of our mission boundaries because of insurance reasons. I think it's really nice of him to do that. Now I have to decide what to take for all of us to eat on the road because Bishop asked me to do that. Lucky me gets to cook again. HA.

Today we taught a young couple from Nigeria. He was actually baptized as a young boy, but really doesn't know much about the church. They were very nice and receptive to the concepts which we taught them.

Then we went to the church and the Petrovs got their Patriarchal Blessings. I acted as translator and it was so awesome. the Patriarch was so kind and wonderful and they were totally thrilled to receive their blessings. They have come sooooo far since they came to France not quite 2 years ago. Hayrie says that she knows she came here not to receive light in her eyes through an operation as she originally thought. She now knows she came here to get the light of the gospel.

A little update on my shingles. :( I am really much better and most of the rash is gone and the swelling is almost all gone. However, I have had horrible headaches (only 1/2 of my head) and sever pain around my forehead and eye since then. In fact it's been so bad that I've not had much sleep because of the pain keeping me awake. None of the meds I've been taking have helped at all with the pain. Today the main mission Dr. called me from Germany and he said that I need meds that will calm my inflamed nerves. It is actually a seizure medication. I am very happy to start taking it because I am ready to be pain free.

Can't wait for our trip to Germany. :)

Just a few blocks away from our apartment, near the border to France is this memorial which is attached to a cemetery. This one is in memory of the British Expeditionnary Force. Even though this particular battle took place in 1940, soooooo many years ago, there are always wreaths and flowers placed here. I am always amazed at the amount of memorials there are all around Belgium and France. I always feel so sad for all of the lives that were given up for the freedoms we enjoy today. It was always some of the best that each country had that gave their lives. So sad.

Our activities with the youth are slowing down a little bit. Institute is over for the summer. Many of the JA's are going home until fall because school and exams are over too. We will still have FHE, sports night and movie night. We will also have some other activities such as LDSFest, picnics, dances and such to fill the summer months. In August many of the youth are going to Campus which will be held in Switzerland this year. This is a time when they get together for classes, dances, activities and other events for the LDS youth in Europe. They have a lot of fun and everyone looks forward to it all year. It's kind of like EFY only for the "older" crowd.

We had a fun FHE Monday. After singing, prayer, and lesson we played Loup Garou (Werewolf). They just love this game. I think I should bring it home and teach it to my grand kids. Of course, we always have treats afterwards.

Napoleon

Sisters Curran and Pobst ported a really nice Russian lady, Vikoriya. She has been in France for only 1 yr and 4 months. Oh my gosh, her French is perfect and she is a speed talker. It has been so much fun to meet her and to talk to her. This is her daughter, Alyena. Alyena is 10yrs old and on the Olympic gymnastics prep team. She is a darling, friendly girl. The Soeurs are helping her with her English pronunciation. She too speaks French fluently. We are teaching Viktoriya the gospel. Her husband is Portuguese and he will start the lessons this coming week.

Last Saturday we went there and Viktoryia had made this delicious Napoleon. I haven't had this treat for many, many years. It is a lot of work to make because of the many layers. We all appreciated her efforts making this dessert especially for us.

My head and face are still hurting a lot, but I must go on and do my duties.

I have been busy getting the Petrovs ready to go to the temple. They have now had all of the temple prep classes, which I have translated for them. They have had 2 very lengthy, about 2 hours long, interviews with the Bishop and today and equally long interview with the Stake President's Counselor. I also attended and translated for Vasil's Melchizedek Priesthood interview. It was the first time for me being in a mtg for priesthood, but I was the only one able to do the translating. You should just see us. First I translate and then if he doesn't understand the Russian, Hayrie translates to him into Bulgarian. It's quite the procedure. The plan is for them to go to the temple next Sat. We are hoping to get permission to accompany them. Their Bishop will be the driver. I think that is great of him to go the extra mile for this awesome couple.

Also today was Stake Conf. It was so great. Now they broadcast it from Salt Lake and it was awesome. They talk so fast though and I translated the whole time. Luckily this time it was from English to Russian---much easier than from French. Ha.

Shingles update and MTC JA

I was going to post a picture of shingles, but they are too grotesque to post. All of the images I looked at on google were way too scary to post too. UGH!
We were supposed to go to zone conf. in Paris yesterday, but instead we got to go to the Dr's again. The night before I hardly slept due to lots of eye, face and head pain. Also a lot of the redness was coming back. Because my eye is involved we felt it important to go back to the Dr. again. The Dr. said that my eye was sleeping. That means that because of the virus, the eye is less sensitive and does not react to outside stimulus. Therefore, it doesn't close when it should to protect itself. Also the eye is somewhat dry. She prescribed some different eye drops and more pain meds. She said that the virus was very aggressive and strong and that it will take quite a while for me to totally heal. So lucky for me, my eye is fine and the eye itself is not damaged. I am soooooo grateful. We stayed home all day because I just didn't feel very good.
Today I am much, much better and we are back to our activities.

Last Sunday after church we had MTC JA. This was a fun activity for the youth. MTC are the initials for Missionary Training Center. JA are the initials for jeunes adultes (young adults). This was the last of 3 sessions. We all had lunch together after the meetings and then we had a great presentation by Manu, Alexandre and Yves, the Hi Counselor over JA's. Then many of the JA's got a chance to participate in role plays. Some of them took the role of investigator while others took the role of member or missionary. They had several scenarios that they acted out. It was lots of fun and we all had a good time together.

Kidney Stones

Well my dear friends, I am asking for some special prayers. My daughter Andrea is having her little baby boy in 4 1/2 weeks. Meanwhile she has already been hospitalized 5 times with kidney stones. The poor girl is just miserable and because of the pregnancy, they really cannot do anything for her at this point in time. They put her on IV and pain meds, but she just has to suffer through passing the stones. She is so brave and doesn't complain at all, but I know she is going through a horrible time. She is still working a full time and a part time job and she says she just loves working, but we all know how hard it is to do that at the end of pregnancy.
I am praying that she will have a healthy, normal little baby and that she herself will come out of the experience well so that she and her hubby will be able to raise this little boy unto the Lord.

Brigitte

Saturday was the baptism of Brigitte Baron. It turned out to be a very unusual baptism. This tiny lady has a big testimony of the gospel and a huge fear of the water. Soeurs Houtz and Christensen taught her the gospel and she got a testimony of the truthfulness of it pretty quickly and wanted to be baptized. Brother Demeyer was the one who was to baptize her. They got into the water and he said the prayer, but when it was time to put her under, she would stiffen up and would not let herself be submerged. She was really, really scared. I have never seen anyone so afraid of the water. Well, they tried about 4 or 5 more times. They tried with her on her knees, sitting on the step, and trying to go forwards. Each time she would not be able to let herself go under. By this time she was visibly shaking. The Bishop spoke to her and several of the elders also were talking to her as well as the Soeurs. She still wanted to be baptized. Finally Elder Perez changed his clothes and got into the font with them. He put one of his arms under her knees and put her legs between his. She was holding onto his other arm with all of her might. Brother Demeyer said the prayer again and after the word Amen, Elder Perez quickly pulled her under and Brother Demeyer actually put his hand on her face and pushed her down. It all took only a moment and she was baptized. She came up out of the water with a big smile on her face. She had done it. She faced had her fears and she was able to make her covenant with the Lord. Even though this is such a sacred ordinance, we could not help but clap for her because of the joy that was felt in the entire room. Brigitte was so glad that she could be baptized and so were we.