2 Apr 1928
John Griffin to Mother / Montpellier, France

I was so glad to get the mail this morning and hear all about Frere Cowles reception, etc. I imagine it must have been quite thrilling for him. Dot thinks he is quite a nice fellow and I don't blame her. I am surely glad that you had the chance to go down to the party. I remember many a night that we would talk about when he would be home and what he was going to do . . . he would get out his old accordion and play the old tunes. Now we are leaving for Marseilles in an hour or so and I'll never forget the first time I went to Marseilles with Frere Cowles. It was the day after I got down here. Really I liked Frere Cowles better than any companion I have had yet. I surely hopes he goes up to see you some time. As I said, we leave in a little while for Marseilles for conference. There are liable to be some big changes at this conference. I don't know whether we are going out to the island of Corsica or not. I think we can if we want, though.

Yesterday because of the article that appeared in the local newspaper we had 26 out to church. I was in an awful humor though and so didn't do so good at speaking, and Frere Johnson is no public speaker, so I don't know what they all thought. As I said we had a big article on the front page of one of the local papers. It was a good article and I am sure it did a lot of good. I will send you the paper and Ben can translate it. It quite tickled me and also the sisters and Frere Johnson.

Last Wednesday Frere Cortez came to pay us the regular District President visit. He expected to stay for Sunday but Saturday night he got a letter telling him to go over to Nice because they were having baptisms there Sunday. They baptized two over there yesterday so we didn't have him here to speak Sunday. Saturday morning we played tennis all morning and then Saturday afternoon we went down to Cette to see the city because Frere Cortez had never been there yet. The sea was awfully rough and it was surely pretty to watch the waves break against the rocky coast. We went down on the rocks to watch it and were standing there ... when along came an extra big wave which hit the rocks and sent a wall of water a foot think over us. I didn't have my overcoat on and so was just soaked. The other two Freres surely got soaked too. Right after this we ran all through the town to catch the train. The natives surely goat a big kick out of it. Saturday night I made hot cakes and they tasted pretty good for a change. At least everybody ate them and seemed to enjoy them.

I received your photos. I think they are real good. The sisters think I look just like you and that Ben looks like Dad. Thanks very much for them. I also got the full-view of Dot. I like it much better than the little one. I also got four letters from Dot today so that makes up for a little in the past. They surely seemed to have a good time down at the reception. The packages have all arrived in good condition and the duty has been exceptionally low. Those amber beads - I am sure I can get them here just as cheap as Merrill did so if I can find some gold between now and your birthday I will see what I can do.

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