Humanitarian Aid Conference for Senior Couples

Our One and Only Humanitarian Aid Conference

Sister Erickson is excited about our conference.

We went to the home of King Louis XIV

After two days of travel we arrived in Versailles, France.

We had a conference with thirteen other senior couples.

Tuesday night we met as a group and had a special fireside at the visitor's center of the Paris Temple.  Elder and Sister Wood assigned to the visitor's center shared with us many of the special experiences that occurred during the construction and after the dedication of the temple.

The beautiful Paris Temple

We were able to attend one endowment session which will probably be the only one we can do on our two year mission.

Our conference sessions were in the mornings followed by afternoons of special activities.

The tree representing the Tree of Life in the Temple gardens

Since Cape Verde is in the Europe Area, we met with other humanitarian couples mostly working in Eastern Europe.

The temple gardens are simply beautiful.

 One afternoon we toured the Palace at Versailles.

This was the first time on our mission that we have been cold.

The Diana Room

Since we did not take coats with us on our mission, the area staff from Frankfurt loaned us theirs.

The Hall of Mirrors

We had no idea how large and ornate the Palace and surrounding gardens are.

Welcome to the Street of the Missionaries in Versailles

Many words in Portuguese are similar to words in French.  For example the name of this street would be "Rua dos Missionários" in Portuguese.

On our way to and from Paris, we spent the night in Lisbon.

This hall is the entrance to the subway or Metro that we rode to and from the airport.

Which is the way to the airport?

Fortunately our Portuguese was very useful in Lisbon.

Elder and Sister Lindsay, when they visited us in Mindelo and trained us for one week.

The Lindsay's are serving their fourth mission.  The first was a humanitarian mission to Egypt, the second as a MLS (Member and Leadership Support) couple in the Philippines, and the third as the senior support couple working out of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake.  Now they are working in the Europe Area office in Frankfurt, Germany as Area Welfare Specialists.  As such they train and support senior couples serving as humanitarian missionaries mostly in Eastern Europe as well as Cape Verde.  They were largely responsible for organizing the conference in Paris.

Now we are back in Cape Verde enjoying the wind, sweat, sunscreen, and beautiful people.

A wonderful Sunday dinner with Sister Pereira and Sister Rowan.