Le garçon avec les lunettes folles

He swears that huge blue glasses are all the rage in Paris.

I am doubtful.  Sounds sketchy to me.  But, if anyone

can pull off such a fashion statement, it is either

Mr. Magoo or Tony.  

No Better Friends...

May everyone be blessed with the kind of friendship that this

group of amazing, crazy, strange, loyal, devoted, brilliant,

athletic, strong, dedicated and insane men/boys have!!!

de retour à Paris 2012

Tony is heading back into Paris after spending three months loving Belgium (see new address). "I love Paris and the people, so going back there will be great. Belgium was a great place to live and teach." Thank you to Rhonda on the NATO base who fixed Tony his favorite Christmas morning meal (French Toast Casserole) and called me for the recipe. LOVE mothers who look out for missionaries far away from home.

Outre de en la Belgique

Tony is on his way to Belgium. The new mission boundaries include this country now, and Tony

is heading east this week. He will celebrate his 21st birthday in Mons, Belgium.

"It will be hard leaving this ward and the people I have been with for six months now. Didn't think I'd hit up Belgium since I didn't have any Belguique papiers, mais je voyage là mercredi avec un nouveau compagnon aussi. There is a military base there and we will be living with an American family at their house. That will be sweet. American food!"

Akin got denied and will have to go back to Nigeria, but Tony said he has such a great attitude about it and he has learned so much from spending time with Akin. Life changing lessons.

Les photos de mon fils

Une pyramide des missionaries!

Bottom row - second to the left...hmmm...something familiar. Not sure how the missionary at the top fared, but from the look on his face...somewhat terrorized!!

Nice close-ups. Tony stayed in Antony for another transfer and is so happy about that. Loves the people and the ward members.

"We ate some freaking amazing West Indie food yesterday with a member. I will finish the Book of Mormon in French for the third time next week. Everything is going well. We have a whole lot of potential people to teach, so we will see what happens there. Hopefully good things are going to happen!"

Le bleu

Tony juste rencontré sa nouvelle compagne. Il est d'un bleu et est vraiment très bien. Ils ont un baptême prévu et ils sont très heureux à ce sujet.

Lisa et Tessa sont mes merveilleux amies!

What better friends can you find than those who are willing to take time out of a senior trip through Europe to track down a missionary in Paris, feed him and his companion, take pictures and ask fabulous questions??? Well...I have them...and I am blessed!! Merci Lisa and Tessa.

la vie de mon fils

Les amies de mon fils

Les jeans j'ai acheté mon fils avant qu'il soit allé en France. Il est trés mince aujourd'hui.

Mon fils et la famillie à l'eglise.

Le poulet pour mon fils!!

Vraiment????

Our amis are going well. Florence will and should have a baptism date this week. She really like the church and all the people are really nice to her. Aurore and Bruno are new but she is ready for a baptism date and he is a quiet guy and we cant get a good read on them. but they are both ready for baptism. We have samuel after that, he is our dmps son. He is prolly now the most ready he has ever been to be baptized. He has taken his time, but he wanted to know if it is true, just like I did. So I cant blame him on that one, and I can relate. The ward is amazing. If it was bigger it would be like a smaller utah ward. The people are solid and really like us and even feed us usually. We eat at Bens house basically every week. He is the one who fed us for Christmas....cavair, oyster, duck!!! It's all good here.

Ce qui est celui? C'est le genou de mon fils!

What exactly is this picture you ask? Well, it is the result of a "tweaked knee" in France. Random swelling, strange pain and a kick to the back of the knee resulted in this odd photo. One MRI at the American Hospital in Paris = synovium inflamation. Possible fixes = cortisone shots to see him through his mission, biopsy to figure out why, surgery or all three. State of mind of the missionary with the bum knee = positive and determined. State of mind of the mother of the missionary with the bum knee = a wee bit worried but glad he is a tough kid with a missionary tag who keeps on doing the Lord's work! C'est la vie, oui?

Custom French Suit...seriously???? Oui!

I had to buy a new suit. The old ones were looking bad. I'm rocking a crease and pin stripes. How can amis turns me down? I am staying in Lille through another transfer which is great. I am loving it here. Lots of people to teach. We have 4 or 5 lessons this week with people that can be new amis so hopefully all works out well. The lady who moved up here, who knows. She doesn't answer her phone! I think a lot of people move away to get away from us, but at some point we will get a hold of her and get her back in the loop. Had some bad food poisoning after eating a sketchy meal. No bueuno. Our mission is being made bigger soon. They are changing the boundaries so that will be interesting.

Mon missionnaire et le château

Quatre images d'un jour pendant la vie de mon fils.

La voiture est trop petite pour mon fils! Il marche dans les rues à la place!

La jour de soleil à Calais

Il fait froid, oui!

Un dîner de thanksgiving pour tout les missioniares à Calalis et à Lille aussi.

Christmas Day phone call...

Us: How was Christmas Eve? (feeling very sorry for Tony that he wasn't enjoying our little family dinner that night)

Tony: Well, it all started with a 12 course meal at a member's house (no longer are we feeling guilty). First course was caviar. Second course was goose liver pâte. Next course was oysters...(and he went on to list the remaining 9 french courses...I think he ate at La Caille!).

Us: How is the missionary work? (assuming he is able to actually move and teach after a 12 course meal)

Tony: Très bien. President gave us a challenge to pass out more copies of the Book of Mormon than ever during Christmas. We were able to give 17 away in 2 weeks. Lots of teaching appointments came from that.

Us: What are you doing after this phone call? (again, feeling very sorry that he isn't home to watch our annual Christmas evening movie)

Tony: Oh, we are going to ride this huge open air ferris wheel that looks over all of France in the evening (did I mention we were just going to watch a stupid movie?)

So, in summary...pizza vs. 12 courses, huge success with Book of Mormons, Toy Story 3 vs. a view of the Eiffel Tower at night. Un Joyeux Noël indeed!!

Les amies de les grand parents de Tony

I met the friends of Grandpa George and Grandma Chloe in Lille. I leave to go back there this week for transfer. I'm way excited about it, but not excited about dragging all my bags and Christmas packages on the train. Luckily Ford is coming with me to pick up his new blue so he can help me carry it all. I am living with the zone leaders and my new comp. It will be tight. I don't know where I will have Christmas yet. Last week in Calais we found a lot of people to teach so that will be good for Ford and his new blue.

Note from Ruth: This is the child who wore flannel and sweatpants (together!) Tony is now going pure Parisian with his jaunty purple scarf casually tossed around his neck. If he starts wearing capris and les chapeaux, I am going to fly out to France and have an intervention.

Joyeux Noël de Lille, France

Les missionaires qui travaillent bien ensemble

Novembre est froid mais je l'aime.

Yvana (name on the sign) is a neighborhood prostitute who leaves her name and number on street posts. We called...and she is not interested in the church. But hey, we tried!

So now I am in Calais which is right by England on the English Channel. We can see the cliffs of Dover when it's clear outside. We are on the border of Belgium too. It has actually gotten a little warmer this week here. So that is a plus. But soon im sure it will get cold again. What is Dad going to do without me as his slave this year to go out and shovel all the snow for him?

We had an ami show up to church and we are going to get him a date this next week for the 18th of December. He is way ready to be baptized so I'm excited for it.

The new ward here in Calais has some way cool people, one guy looks like Mr. Magoo, another looks like Cameron from Ferris Buhler's day off. So that always cracks me up seeing those two at church. They are both totally cool though. There is a way big guy that is tight too, and then our DMP is way sweet. He is trying to move though, so when he is gone things will be a little harder here. My best learning experience of the week would just be reading the NT and then studying the Christlike attributes with it all. Its been really good.

Les missionaires de Paris qui sourient toujours