Journal August 8, 1962

July 27—Our tracting with Michel Delétang went well, this morning. Two first contacts, and two appointments. Not too bad, eh? And the kids love to do this work. This MJM program is really something.

August 8—[173] I’m finally getting to write today what’s been happening for a good bit of time, during which I haven’t had much time to write it down. Yesterday was again full of extraordinary events, and so I need to take a few minutes to get this record caught up. The printing of Claude’s farewell programs turned out very satisfactory. We held this historic meeting last Sunday evening, and it was a big success. The farewell for the first full-time missionary ever to leave Brittany in the Church’s modern history. I had the honor to serve as the second speaker, discussing the stories of three men who sacrificed much for the Lord’s work: Hyrum Smith, John Neff, and Joshua, son of Nun. I invited all those present to choose whom they would serve and indicated that Claude and his house had chosen to serve the Lord. Our two investigators came to the meeting: Mmes Caron of 7bis, rue Poullain Duparc. They show, unfortunately, too much love [173] toward the things of the world. They are mother and daughter—grandmother and mother of a son who gives them a lot of trouble. They lost their faith long ago and reproach the Lord foolishly, as did Job’s wife. This is a great sin, and I’m afraid they don’t really want to get themselves out of it, even though they could, with repentance. Our M Lemoine of 6, rue de Redon didn’t make it to the meeting, and I’m afraid he’s weakening in his desire to be a Latter-day Saint. His daughter has been nagging him about it, I believe, and he may not have the strength to go against her. New instructions from a big conference at Amsterdam indicate that our mission is primarily to young people. We can teach old folks, but that isn’t our first duty. It’s the young who are going to build the Kingdom here, and who will raise their children in accordance with the teachings of the Gospel. They’re also the ones who haven’t been poisoned with the “leaven” of the Great and Abominable. An old-timer may well have a better crack at accepting the Gospel after this life. [175] Returned to chez Besnard Monday afternoon to find Brother Winkel’s Mercedes 220S parked in front, with the Winkels inside, waiting for us. He announced that President Tanner had turned down our rue de Fougères property as too expensive but that he (Brother Winkel) was there to find something, and that he was going to stay until he succeeded. So, we started hunting at 9 Tuesday (yesterday) morning. First, we went to see a banker, M Martin of the Banque de Bretagne, who referred us to two notaries. Set up an appointment for Wednesday morning at 11 with M Rabasse of the office of Maître Lefeuvre (10, rue Nationale), who brought to our attention two building properties on the outskirts of Rennes. Then M Guyon, the Mayor’s bureau chief, informed us that we’d have to make a written application in order to [176] get into those developments. Met Claude, who was on his way to Brussels as of 1:11, and arranged to take the whole family to the train station in the Winkels’ Mercedes. Then we went to see the urbanization zone of Villejean-Malifeu, where Brother Winkel decided at last to make the application M Guyon had suggested.

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