The Snyders in the France-Paris Mission

 The Beauties of Brittany Traveling to the Brittany region of western France is a bit like traveling to the west coast of Ireland. Rain, green grass, coastlines, sailboats, seafood, and pride in being a Celtic/Gaelic-speaking area of the country.  All street signs in both countries are in Celtic (Breton in France and Gaelic in Ireland) and French or English. The walls are part Roman and part 12th, 15th, 16, 17th, and 18th centuries. Europeans don't tear the old down as much as build on another layer. The bulbs are all blooming--it is warmer here than Paris.  This town reminds us of York and Canterbury. We walked all over the Medieval town center, enjoying the amazingly colored beamed buildings. There are cafes and patisseries all over France named after me! We ate a meal of savory galettes (made of buckwheat flour) and sweet crepes. No wonder Brittany is famous for its food.  And its butter has large granules of salt in it.  Absolutely delicious. We work hard, t...

Bonjour à tous nos amis.  We have been in Paris for a month now. What an amazing mission we are having. At the end of every day we can name three or five or seven ways we see a heavenly hand in our day. We will share some of these stories in future blogs. Phil Bearing Testimony at Zone Conference But today I, Delys, am going to share with you some ideas about music. I wrote a hymn in 2009 about the Holy Ghost. Phil and I were in England for a literary conference, and we traveled to the Cotwolds to hike in the beautiful countryside. But Phil got ill and had to rest and sleep to recover, so as I sat by his side, I thought I should use this downtime to write the lyrics for a hymn (a first for me). At home I revised the lyrics and wrote the music, and I turned it in to the Church's yearly Music Submission contest. I won an award for this hymn. The lyrics draw on 2 Nephi 31-33, so the words should sound very familiar if you are doing the Come Follow Me readings.  Now the hymn is pu...

We made it to the France Paris Mission! We have a beautiful apartment in Le Pecq, which is a block from the Seine and an hour of walking and riding a train from the center of Paris.   We attended the Paris Temple and enjoyed the beautiful grounds (just down the street from the over-the-top Palace of Versailles).   Today we attended the Paris South Stake Conference, which was held in an auditorium right next door to the Palace of Versailles, It was a spiritual feast.   We work several days a week at the Saint Marri Family Search Center, which is in the center of the Marais district of Paris, a few blocks from this beautiful buiding, Hotel de Ville, the Paris City Hall. And on our preparation day we climbed the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed the view. My French is at the intermediate level, so I read and pronounce well but I understand little.  Phil's French is coming back to him, though. He understands much better, so he is the one to talk to people in the Fami...