28 May 1928
John Griffin to Mother / Montpellier, France
We have been awful busy this week and will be up until Sunday night. I don't know whether I'll get this finished tonight or not but I'll finish it sometime. We have had 4,500 handbills printed and have put most of them out. We are having 2,000 more done and expect to put them out before Sunday. The man who wrote the article is very nice and I think we will have another article (in the newspaper) before conference, and besides, we are putting a big add in the paper. I surely hope that we have a big crowd, because this will probably be my last conference at Montpellier.
We have obtained the best hall in town and it surely ought to go over big. I hope that President Rossiter is able to give a discourse that night. The Salvation Army is having some conferences also an so we have some competition, you see.
Last Saturday the Elders from Nimes came over and played tennis all morning. it rained all afternoon so all we could do was sit around and watch it rain, and take a bath. Saturday night we went down to Palavas but everything was closed so we came back home and went to bed. Sunday we held meeting and had 16 out. We all spoke a little. Frere Willy, a cousin of Merrills, is surely having a hard time with the language. He has been here over 6 months now and he can't make himself understood at all. I think the big reason is that he doesn't study. In my opinion he is just wasting his time over here.
Monday I received the registered letter with my allowance. That is a good way to send my money, except if I should get moved. Tomorrow I had to go visit the saints last night and so couldn't finish it. I will try and finish it this time before we have to go. We have a visit for tonight and tomorrow night too. We work all day putting out bills and then all night visiting.
You asked about my finances. They are all right, right now. But we have a conference down in Tulon which is way down past Marseilles, so that is going to take a little gold. As our conference is first I think we will follow the others around. So you see this all costs. However if I don't have a move or a special conference right soon I can get along all right. I hope that my next branch is cheaper than this one. If I don't start saving some money I don't suppose I will ever be able to take a trip after my mission.
I received a package of newspapers and the Literary Digest the other day. They were very interesting and thanks very much. I think I got all your letters. The only thing is they all come on the same day and then it doesn't seem like so many. The other day I got 3 at once from Dot - the first for 9 days.
Give all the little kids my congratulation of their success in the Primary. I will certainly be glad to get home and see them all again. I think Ben did very well to get as far as he did in the tennis tournament. I suppose he will be able to make things interesting for me when I get home. I hope you are all well again now. Over here the boys are neglected terribly. They have compulsory military raining for 18 months and that's about the training a boy gets.
We have 2,000 more bills to put out and only a day and a half to do it so you see we will have to do a lot of work. I will be glad when the conference is over, not because I don't like them, but because then we can see some marks of our work. I am enclosing a bill like we passed out.
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