This has been a busy week, so we haven't taken many pictures. The week started on Sunday when Wayne was asked to play the organ in church. We got there an hour early so he could practice, especially on the pedals. That evening we had a senior missionary couple get-together to welcome a new missionary couple and the new second counselor in the temple presidency. 
Monday was especially frustrating. We had to stay in our apartment waiting for the technician to come and install our WiFi. He spent over an hour looking for the optical fiber connection, but couldn't find it. Here's the sign at our apartment building entrance plainly stating that our building has been connected by Orange, the French WiFi company, for the optical fiber network! Oh well! Maybe next week.
Wednesday evening we had our first guests in our apartment: from left to right: the two sister missionaries, a young friend of the church and her mother. Janet fixed a wonderful four course French meal starting with a salad bar, then some tasty home-made beef stew, then a French baguette with a nice selection of French cheeses, and, after a brief discussion, we send dessert home with them because it was getting late. The dessert consisted of Costco chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, the senior couple missionaries got together for a pie fest. We skipped all that turkey and stuffing and such and went straight for the good stuff! Janet made a delicious cherry pie with lots of help from Wayne. We learned that sour pie cherries are called "Griotes" and that whipping cream is not called "Creme Fraiche". We tried whipping the Creme Fraiche without success only to find out that we were trying to whip sour cream! Whipping cream is called "Creme Fleurette". After whipping it, it's called "Creme Chantilly". Ah, the things you learn by hard experience!!
This week the workers started to set up the"Creche" or manger on the temple grounds, much to Janet's delight. This is the only decoration the temple will have; no lights like at temple square in Salt Lake City. I told Janet that it would be better to wait until after it was finished to send a picture, but she wanted to show you the progress NOW!
This afternoon the senior couple temple missionaries were invited to a real Thanksgiving dinner at the home of the Paris Ward bishop, Bishop Hall. There were 20 people there with an amazing assortment of gourmet Thanksgiving foods: everything from turkey to mashed potatoes to gravy to fruit salad to baked vegetables to French baguettes to a wide assortment of pies. What a wonderful evening it was! The picture on the right shows Bishop Hall with three of his 6 children.
Time is flying by. We are so busy at the temple that the days seem like minutes. We miss our families, but we were able to stay up until midnight on Thursday after our pie fest and "Messenger"with 5 of our children. We tried but were unable to reach Andy and Jane, our Taiwanese children. We have so much to be grateful for, but above all, we are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to live for us and die for us so that we might repent and return to our Father in Heaven.
So fun to read about your adventures! I had an experience with crème fraiche as well the summer I stayed in France. I thought it was creme cheese and used it to make beef stroganoff. I remember it tasting more like baby spit :(. Anyway, I will write soon and tell you about our second Thanksgiving Saturday. Things got quite “exciting” in the kitchen ;) but it was fun having everyone but Paul’s family over. Love you! ~Kim
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