France Trip Post #5 - A Day of Rest

May 18 – Sunday – Church

Sunday was truly a day of rest for us. And, boy, did we need it. We slept in and had a slow morning. The ward in Marseille does its meetings in reverse order, with Relief Society and Sunday school (the smaller classes) before Sacrament Meeting (the main meeting). Since I don’t understand any French, we decided to just go to Sacrament Meeting. Spencer wasn’t sure how long it would take to get there, so we left with extra time, just in case. The metro stop was a ways down the road from the church, but it was a nice, shady walk and Spencer reminisced about walking down that street (Ave. du Prado) as a missionary. We got there about halfway through Sunday school, so we sat in on the last part.

Sacrament Meeting was nice. I didn’t understand a word that was spoken, but the hymns (French translations of hymns I know in English) were really powerful to me. Talks do get a little long when you don’t understand them though! After church was over Spencer got to meet and talk with members that he knew when we was here 4 years ago. It was so fun for me to see people light up with excitement at seeing him. Most of them needed help with his name, but they recognized him right away. He’s a good guy, and you can just tell that some of them members here really loved him. He introduced me to everyone and I smiled and shook hands. Some of them spoke English. A few people commented that they like my name, so that was fun. Most of them commented on the pregnancy, asking when I was due and if we know the gender. Spencer set up some times to meet with a few of the members, or at least talked to them about planning something through email and then we went home. 

One of the women in the ward told us she'd show us which bus to take back to our apartment so I wouldn't have to walk back to the metro stop (which really wasn't that far). She and her daughter rode the bus with us. When we got back we listed to the book and took naps and had ravioli for dinner again. It was a perfectly relaxing day, which was exactly what we both wanted. We needed some time to recharge before the next week of adventures.