13 Apr 1928
John Griffin to Mother / Montpellier, France
Here it is Friday the 13th so I am writing home for good luck. Nothing very special or unusual has happened since I wrote you last. Last Sunday we held a meeting as usual and had about 20 out. I spoke the longest I've ever spoken in Frency, 25 minutes. I think Frere Johnson though it was about 20 minutes too long. Anyway I thought it was a pretty good meeting. As you know, last Sunday was Paque, or Easter. Over here it is a big day and all the churches put on special programs. In spite of that we had 20 out. Monday here is a holiday too. So Monday we went down to Palavas with the saints. The sea was awful rough and it was quite a pretty sight. While down there I lost my glasses and that silk hankie that Rowland gave me. I think someone stole them. I don't know now what I'll do for glasses if my eyes ever get so I'll have to wear them.
Sunday after meeting we went out for a stroll in the rural district around here. The trees are starting to sprout there leaves and you can feel that spring has come at last. It surely felt good. I suppose spring has come at home and you are enjoying that lovely spring weather that we don't get over here. here the seasons are not well marked. One just slides into another and you never know when one is finished and the others started. here you have to go out into the country to tell when spring has come. There are no trees or grass in the city. At least not very many. Today has been a wonderful spring day - one of the best we ever had. It has been quite warm and feels like summer is just around the corner.
The work seems to be going along about as usual. We seem to pretty well fill the hall each Sunday but yet the people seem more curious than interested. Since Easter the people seem more disposed to talk to you and of course that makes the work much nicer. Frere Johnson thinks that the work down here compares nicely with that of Geneva and Geneva is supposed to be the best. So we can't kick even if we don't baptize someone every month.
The last few days we've been fixing up the hall a little. We are going to paint the walls about three feet up all the way around, put in a curtain down at the end and hang a few pictures around. This will make it lots more cosy and not so bare.
There has been no one sent down to Tulon or to Paris yet, so I will have a hand of getting moved. However I really think that it is a dim chance. I don't know whether I want to get moved now or not. I would like to work in another city so to get to know as many cities as possible, but I am quite in love with the city and work here. I hear that Chuck Everett is coming over here in about June. I would surely like to be his first companion. I will probably a branch about then. I'm second in here and so as soon as four more missionaries go home I will have a chance to take over a branch or else senior elder in a city where there are four missionaries. It would surely be great to have the chance to work with him.
A missionary surely learns a lot on a mission. He is given a companion, one he has probably never seen before. He has to live with him, work with him and get along with him. Sometime it isn't very easy to do and you have o live with the ones that are hard to get along with as well as the ones who are easy. You can't change when you wish. You have to learn to put up with a lot of things you otherwise wouldn't. One has said that it is mighty good training for married life. I was surely fortunate in having Frere Cowles for my first companion because when I was new I hadn't learned how to get along with everybody. And so that is why we wish for the opportunity to work with someone we know and like.
We have just come from the class with the Madame who has asked for baptism. I don't know whether she will every be ready for it or not. She things she sees spirits, etc. Sometimes I think she is a little out of her head. For a time she seems to forget all that and then after it all comes back again. In a way I feel awfully sorry for her.
Was Stanley married in the temple? and Ellis? Also who is Bishop up in Newton? When I read about you fixing up he back rooms with drapes, ec, I surely long o be home and live in a home once again instead of living way up in a couple of dark stuffy rooms way up on he second story of an old apartment house. We have only one window for the two rooms and that is the big french door at the end. But I guess I shouldn't complain as we have it much better than lots of the others.
Well, Friday the 13th is about passed and nothing terrible has happened. I got a letter from Perce Barrows the other day, and I wonder if the reason he is quitting school isn't that he has matrimonial plans for the near future. I'll be the last yet.
Give my love to all and write long and often. With love, John.
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