~10 Dec 1927
John Griffin to Mother / Montpelier, France
...I will be happy with the thought that you are all happy home and also that I have had the opportunity to come on a mission. And then after two more Christmases have passed I'll be home to enjoy it all again, and will be much better for having been here.
It's surely funny how one begins to see things that they didn't even know they had at home. But when they get out ere on a mission they see the things they had at home and begin to miss them a little. Anyway I'll really be able to appreciate those things when I get back.
The work continues to be plenty difficult. We don't seem to find many friends. They seem to be be friends for a while, and then when we start talking religion they freeze up and drop off. I'm afraid there aren't going to be many people in France saved. They are surely hard hearted toward a religion It seems as though we find a friend one day and loose them the next day, but I guess if we keep up the good old work we'll find some that will stick. It seems that someone has to do the pioneering and after it's all over I'll be glad that I was one of the pioneers. However I'll be glad when my time's up down here and I get moved up into a large branch.
I suppose that there is a lot of snow home now and that you are having a good old fashioned winter. Here it rains almost every day, and tries to get cold but doesn't have much success. They say - that is the natives around here - that it has never rained here as much as it has lately for over 20 years. It doesn't help our work out much either.
I think that we will either go to Nimes or Marseilles for Christmas. The saints here are going somewhere for Christmas so if we stayed here we'd be alone and it would be terrible to be left here alone without even our saints. If we go to Marseilles and I find a little money somewhere I think I'll spend a day in Nice, the "Paris of the Midi." That reminds me they have opened up a branch in Paris, so maybe someday if I'm lucky I might work in Paris for a while. They have also opened up several branches here in France. The work is growing.
Next time you send anything include also a couple of pads of each #2307 and 386 IP loose leaf pads. You can't buy them here. Again I wish to thank you all and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Your loving son, John
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