A silent Sabbath

     Yesterday we attended our first church meetings in the Victoriaville Branch.  There were about 65 people in attendance, so this is a substantial branch.  Interestingly, in France or Switzerland it would probably be a ward.  Perspective, perspective, I guess.
   Paul and I each bore our testimonies.  Mine was short, his was a bit longer for obvious reasons.  And speaking of my language deficit, I might as well admit that I understood at most 10% of what was said during the three hours.  I am beginning to recognize, however, the accent which is famous here.  I would have to say that it isn't pretty--the normally melodic French words are more sharp and have a definite "twang" to them.  However, most everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming.  Apparently the wife of the senior couple who preceded us did not speak any French when they arrived and by the time she left she was communicating quite understandably.  I needed to hear that because yesterday I felt very isolated; the term "warm body only" came to mind. My scripture app which shows me both the French and English side by side was a life saver during Sunday School, but I don't have anything similar for Relief Society. I tried to see which pictures were on the page in the manual which the teacher was using and turn to that page.  Didn't help me much, but at least I looked like I knew what was going on.
    In the afternoon Paul gave a plate of cookies to our upstairs neighbor.  When he answered his door, and Paul told them these were for him, he asked, "Why?"  Paul told him it was just because we are now neighbors. He looked pleasantly surprised.  Our thoughts are that we will not bring up anything about the church (Paul did tell him we were for 18 months to support the members of our church), and then later, when they are comfortable with us we will introduce some doctrine.  Now that I've used my signature chocolate chip cookie recipe, I will need to be more creative.
     We then drove out to the first counselor's home.  He and his wife live on a beautiful, small lake which is 30 minutes from town.  We had a nice visit (I mostly smiled silently) and then, just so we would remember we "aren't in Kansas anymore", the brother reminded us to look carefully for moose on the roads!
    Today is Preparation Day so I will try to write about it tonight.  Hopefully I will remember to take some pictures!