18 May 1928
John Griffin to Mother / Montpellier, France
I am 8 months old in the mission now and just think four more will make a year. They say that the summer months pass awfully fast over here, so I suppose the year will be up before I know it. I t is a week ago tomorrow since I got any mail from home. The mail got in, because I got the newspaper, but no letters. I suppose that is just a sign that I am becoming an old missionary and as they all predict, as soon as you become an old missionary the amount of letters drop off considerably. I am not complaining because I know you write as often as you can, but my other friend seems to have forgotten that I am still over here.
Yesterday was a holiday over here so we did not do very much work. There is no use going around to the houses when the people are not home, so we celebrated and went down to Palovas. The season is on down there now and I got a chance to see what a real seaside resort looked like. Although it was a little chilly there were quite a few people in swimming. I didn't go in because it was a little cold and there were too many spectators. The Nimes Elders are coming over tomorrow and if it doesn't rain I think we will all go down and take a ducking. I can see now why all the rich Americans come over here to spend their time and money. Nothing could be more pleasant than to pass the summer down at a place like that (if you have the gold). This resort here is only a plaything compared with Nice and Cannes. The country around the city is most beautiful about now. All the farmlands are in vines and right now they are all green. If a man just had enough money he could certainly live a keen life over here. But it seems that as soon as he gets money and starts living a fast life he forgets his God and then he is more unhappy than ever. However I would surely like to find a gold mine just long enough to come back here for a honeymoon.
The work seems to be going along about as usual. the people seem to be real hard to do anything with. However we are not discouraged and we are plodding along just as hard as ever. I am working a new district now among some of the rich people of the town, so you can imagine that is isn't the most pleasant work. This morning we received news that a week from next Sunday, on the 27th we would have another big conference. So today we've been tearing around getting a hall, etc. We have received permission to hold it in a big public hall here and now if we can just get the crowd out, everything will go off all right. We have next week to notify all our friends and put out 4,500 handbills. It is to be a speaking conference and I don't know whether the people will come out to it as well as they did the other or not.
On the first day of June we will have our missionary meeting down at Tulon. I suppose that President Cortez will get released. I would like to be changed but I don't suppose I will be, at least not at that conference. I think now that I will stay down here until I am made senior Elder. However one never knows and I may get it tomorrow.
My pen is broken and leaks all over everything. I suppose I'll have to get another. This one never was any good. It is clouding up and I suppose it is going to rain some more. I surely wish it would get through raining.
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