Marseille   1929

We then went home and knelt down on our knees and prayed fervently that the way would be opened up for us to do missionary work in this city. When we returned to the Mayor's office that afternoon we were promptly shown into the Mayor's office. We were very surprised to receive a cordial welcome. After explaining our work to the Mayor, he said that he could see no reason why we should not be able to do missionary work in Bezier and that he would get in touch with the Chief of Police. He suggested that we go over to the Chief's office again. We did this and were cordially received, and were told that we could tract, hold meetings, and otherwise carry on our missionary labors. He told us that if we had any interferance, to get in touch with him.

I had been promised in my patriarchal blessing that my prayers would be answered instantly when the occation required. I believe that this was a fulfillment of this promise as I have never seen such a complete change in a man in the space of a few hours as there was in the Chief of Police of Bezier on that day.

While I was president of the Marseille district, they were holding an international fair and exposition at Barcelona, Spain. As Barcelona was only a short distance down the Mediterranian coast from Bezier, I decided to write the mission president and ask permission for the missionaries in the Marseilles district to go to Barcelona and visit the fair. I was somewhat surprised when the permission was granted. We all gathered at Beziers and then boarded the train for Barcelona. This involved a trip through the Pyrenees Mountains. It was a beautiful trip and involved a lot of climbing. The train seemed to just barely move at times. When we reached the Spanish border we had to change trains as the gage of the tracks is not the same in Spain as in France. We found the Spanish trains newer, cleaner and more desirable than the French trains.

At the border we all purchased some grapes. They called them muscats but they were nothing like the muscats that we have over here. They looked very much like a tiny football and were white and very sweet and as I recall, they were seedless. They were the best grapes I have ever eaten. I have purchased grapes here in California that look very much like them but have been greatly disappointed when I ate them. There is no similarity in taste.

One of the missionaries spoke a little spanish and as spanish is a romance language it was not too difficult to get about with a knowledge of French. When we got off the train we were besieged by hotel and boarding house representatives that wanted us to come to their hostilery. We finally decided on a boarding house and climbed in cabs along with the representative for the trip from the railroad station.

I found Barcelona to be a very beautiful city with wide streets, beautiful homes, and many modern improvements that cities in France didn't have at that time. We finally arrived at our destination and found a middle class home where a lady conducted a boarding house. There were quite a number of young people staying there most of whom were from South American countries. Among them were some very beautiful spanish girls. We later learned that these girls were mistresses of the young fellows that were there from South America who were reputed to be very wealthy. One of the bedrooms assigned to our group was separated from a bedroom occupied by one of the South American fellows and his mistress only by heavy drapes stretched across an alcove that joined the two rooms. It was a good thing that we were all missionaries with our minds and thoughts on things other than girls.

(MISSIONARY JOURNAL OF JOHN GRIFFIN - page 41)

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