Neuchatel  1929

harbor and all of a sudden, a gust of wind caught the sail and we were off. During the next half-hour we pretty well learned to operate the boat and had a lot of fun going up and down the lake. In fact we were having such fun that we did not see the clouds gathering and before we knew it we found ourselves out in the middle of the lake with a squall blowing us about like a cork. I am sure that if the sail boat had not had a deep counter balance on the bottom we would have overturned. As it was the boat-bent over so far that water came into it. We were fortunate to ride out the squall and finally get the boat back into the harbor.

Another interesting experience which I had in Switzerland was to visit a family that lived way up in a little village in the tops of the mountains. To reach them we had to take a finicular that went right up the side of the mountain. It was a cable car that operated much like a ski lift, only much longer. As I recall, this tramway was about 20 miles long and went right over two or three mountains. While this seemed to be very much of a novelty to us, this type of tramway is very common in Switzerland and people take them for granted.

From Neuchatel I was,transferred back to the "Midi" to Marseille as president of the Marseille district. I had under my jurisdiction the towns of Marseille, Nimes, Montpellier, and for a time Tulon. Later on I was to have the experience of opening up the town of Bazier. Marseille was our headquarters and we stayed there with Sister Castelli and her daughter Mme. Lavassort. When I first went to Marseille at the beginning of my mission, Mme. Lavassort had just had a baby and the missionaries had talked about her husband having run away and left her because he did not wish to be bothered with children.


YEAR (FILE ) SUBJECT
---- ------- ---------------------------------
1929 (9052) John Griffin with missionary
1929 (9060) John Griffin and Marseille district missionaries
1929 (9059) John Griffin on tennis court
1929 (9048) John Griffin with missionary companion
1929 (9056) Mme. Lavassort and son Robert

When I returned as district President, the baby who they had named Robert was about 2 years old. All the missionaries called him "Bob". We enjoyed the Castellis very much and no one could have been nicer to us than they were all during the time I was there as district president. Bob later came to the United States to study and when I last heard from him about a year ago, had married an American girl and was teaching at the Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

(MISSIONARY JOURNAL OF JOHN GRIFFIN - page 34)

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