A humble missionary

Today was email day from Chris. Some days I worry more than others with him in Mexico. There was a massacre this weekend in one of the border states down there....and I had a hard time sleeping lastnight as the violence in those border missions is escalting....and some days I wish he was just about anywhere else in the world....and then I get an email that touches my soul and I remember that Chris prayed to be sent to Mexico....it is where he wanted to serve....and the experiences that he is having there are shaping his life and will help make him into the man he will become. I wanted to share his email today. Hello family! ill send missionary moments.. Hey ML 5TH WARD! Mexico has been a great place for me to serve a mission, very humbling. Every other friday we eat with a Family that makes 8 american dollars a day. They dont eat with us, they watch us eat. Anyways when i was walking to the house i saw a boy of the Family, i said HEY! you excited to eat with us!, What he said changed my life... ¨Elder Jackson when we feed the missionaries we dont eat that day´´ I did not know what to say, I love this family so much they sacrifice everything. When they asked me if i wanted more food i said no, but they still put more on my plate. These people are the most loving peole i have ever met in my life. They dont know the difference between Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Christopher Jackson because we both have Elder, they think its equal. Im loving the mission, its the best place for me to be. At times i wish i had running water, cold air, washing machine, but at times i dont even notice im missing them. I love Mexico I Love MY MISSION!

Okay thats my missionary moments, im not going to lie, i cried when the boy told me that but it looked like sweat so i still have a good rep haha.

Chris loves the people of mexico......I know he is where he is suppossed to be.

Saying Goodbye to Paris

Well......our trip has come to an end and we must say goodbye to the city of Paris. It was everything and more than what I expected. I will never forget the week that we spent here in Paris. I never got to take the paris trip with my dad's french class. The years I was in highschool the trip was to Quebec. I was always sad that I didn't get to go. I'm so glad now that I didn't. I'm glad that the first time I experienced this remarkable city I was with the man I love.

Paris really is the city of Love. I fell madly in love in Paris with the most amazing man.....and it's the man I've loved for the past 25 years. Thanks babe for a wonderful trip to mark our 25 years on our journey. I can't wait to see what the next 25 years bring. The next trip better have fewer stairs though.....I'm to dang old for this....ha ha. I love you babe.

Took this funny one of Scott as we took our shuttle back to the airport and we were weaving in and out of the crazy paris traffic. I really have never seen drivers like this before. On our long flight home I thought of all the remarkable things I had seen and learned this past week. I was having a hard time deciding which of all the things I saw was my very favorite. I asked Scott was his favorite thing was and without hesitation he said "My favorite thing was seeing the joy on your face as we saw something new." Am I married to the sweetest guy in the world or what? I am sure there were other places he would have rather gone...but he picked th e place where I wanted to go....and he loved Paris because he saw it through my eyes with me.

Sacre Coeur---Day 6

Okay.....we all knew that at some point Scott was going to have a picture like this.

We went down to our favorite little neighborhood that we discovered on our second day. It is an area called Rue Claire. It is justl three blocks from our hotel and it is off the path of the tourist attractions and it is just the most quaint little area. Outdoor cafes line the street and markets with frest fruit.

One of the stores had these snails in the window. I must say I never did get brave enough to try that.

I love the little butcher shops with the meat hanging in the window. There just isn't anything like that where we live in Moses Lake. We went down to rue clair every morning. It was just a little part of paris that was tucked away from the hustle and I loved it there.

I loved the outdoor flower shops with the most beautiful and fragrant flowers. Lots of people stopped to buy fresh flowers.

A lot of people ride bicycles in Paris. This was a street in Rue Clair where you could put money in and rent a bike. I loved seeing the little old ladies with baskets on their bicycles full of fresh flowers and vegtables. It just seemed so laid back there in that part of the city. I didn't ever want to leave. I thought that if I had a little apartment there in Rue Clair I could be content riding my bicycle to market each morning in the shadow of the Eiffel tower just a few blocks away.

We spent a quiet morning walking along the shops and buying chocolate to bring home. Lots and lots of french chocolate. We found a creme brulee chocolate bar that was divine. Shared one with my little brother.....dang he's lucky. We also stopped at our favorite little bakery one last time. I had my second almond flavored cream puff. Yes......that is a look of pure delight on my face. French pastries are amazing.

We took a long metro ride to Montemart to see the Sacre Coeur. It was totally worth the stuffy and very crowded subway that day. It is set on a hill and it is marvelous to behold. I had to stop for a moment in the shade and just stare and take it all in. As a young girl I remember my dad telling me about climbing the steps up to the church. Not only did he serve his mission in France but as a highschool french teacher he took several student trips there. I wondered how many times he had climbed these stairs leading to this gorgeous church.

There were so many steps and my legs were tired but I didn't want to take the ride to the top.....I wanted to trace everyone of my father's steps up those stairs. As if the exterior wasn't beautiful enough.....the interior was breathtaking. The dome seemed to reach right to heaven. It is still an operating church and no pictures were allowed inside.

When we walked inside there was a sign that said "Silence. This is a holy place" Then you walk around the corner and there is a vending machine where you can get coins out with the church or Jesus on them. Around another turn was a place to purchase candles to be lit in prayer. I came upon a lady that was kneeling and clutching her bible as she prayed....just then a group of school children ran by and were giggling and talking. It did not seem very holy to me....and as happy as I was to be able to see this magnificent builiding I felt like I was invading.

This street performer was perched outside of the church. He was the best of any I had seen. He played a little flute and when he posed he truly did look just like a statue.

This adorable elderly couple was sitting across the church playing music for money. There were people like this all over Paris. They would even jump on your subway car and play and then pass around a cup for donations.

A final view of the Sacre Coeur

That evening we took a walk up to the Hotel Des Invalides. It was built for the wounded soldiers of the late 17th century. It was just a couple blocks behind our hotel and we had seen that gold dome every day so we decided to go take a closer look. Another beautiful building.

We had dinner at an Italian cafe in rue claire and then we decided to walk up to the Eiffel tower for our last night in Paris. We had only been there during the day and I wanted to be there when the lights came on and when it twinkled at the top of the hour. I had seen it from our hotel room.

So......what do two extremely exhausted people do when they are waiting on the lawn for the lights on the tower to turn on? We take silly pictures!

This is our "I Can't believe we went to the top of the Eiffel tower" shot.

"We are so sick of street vendors" shot. That is the only thing that we got sick of.....they were always shoving light up Eiffel towers in your face....or post card books....they wouldn't leave you alone.

Okay Carolyn....this one is for you. She died laughing when she saw this picture. Scott makes this funny face with his lips all the time and I always try to do it and can't.....Carolyn said it looks like I have stroke face. We really got a laugh out of it. We had lots of fun that evening waiting for the lights to turn on....and when they did I got a kiss from my lover under the glowing Eiffel tower.

25th Wedding Anniversary-Day 5

I wanted to make sure and put a picture on my blog of our tiny little room. This is it. There wasn't a lot more to it.....it was clean though and had a very friendly staff. We were having trouble getting online to get Chris's email from Mexico and they were so helpful. Each morning at breakfast the little lady downstairs in the breakfast room would say "Bonjour. Chocolat" She knew we wanted hot chocolate each morning. We also had fresh croissants and jelly and ham and eggs. If I ever go again I would stay at the same place. They were so sweet as we asked directions and tried to communicate in french.

Blowing a kiss to my sweetheart. I've been married for 25 years to the most amazing man. We slept in this morning and then we headed for St. Chapelle

I loved all the fleur de lis on the outside of the church. That has always represented france to me. Whenever I see one I always think of my dad.

This church had my favorite of all the stained glass windows that I saw. It was completed in 1248. It is considered the most beautiful church in Paris. It has 15 stained glass windows that are 50 feet high. Each panel told a different scripture story. I would have never been able to pay attention to Mass. I would have been engrossed in the windows.

We sat down in a little section where the King used to sit for Mass. We sat there for a long time and just studied the windows. Remembering bible stories of my childhood depicted in the most beautiful way I had ever seen.

I loved the colors in this church. It was much more colorful than the Notre Dame.

I just stood there and took it all in. It was magnificent. Not only is the architecture so beautiful in Paris but the city is rich with history and I loved learning about different things.

Getting into St. Chapelle was different than the other churchs. We had to go through security and walk thhrough metal dectectors. It is located right next to the Palace of Justice so security was rather tight. Here is Scott in front.

Blow up this picture and look at the joker beside me. I was smiling at Scott for a picture and Scott was dying laughing and I had no idea that this guy was doing this beside me. I didn't know until after Scott showed me the picture.

We took a stroll along the River as we headed off to find some ham and cheese crepes for lunch.

We spent the afternoon shopping for souveniers. We had fun going into the different little shops looking for little trinkets that we could take home that would remind us of our trip. I got the cutest little silver bracelet with the different places we had visited.

I have been observing the fashion over her in Paris. It is completely different than how we dress in the US. I had to get a picture of this lady in her hat outside the cafe. She just embodied Paris fashion and it was great that she had a long slender cigarrette because I have never seen so many women smoke before. The men wear a lot of scarves and very skinny jeans.....in every color. I've seen them in pink, yellow, and lavendar. Several of the men wear suits.....but no ties. The woman wear mini skirts.....and I mean mini or short shorts with tights and stilleto heels. I still don't know how they walk on those cobblestone streets in those heels.....but they manage it. I was very happy to be in my sensible and comfortable walking shoes.

It was raining pretty hard by the time we got back to our hotel.....we stopped in at a little shop and got an extra umbrella of Scott because the one wasn't keeping both of us dry. Of course....we also had to stop by the bakery too.

Scott had asked me a few weeks before our trip what I was wearing for our dinner cruise. That kind of surprised me because he doesn't usually ask that. So I told him I'd bought a black and white dress. Well....as we were getting ready to go he whips out these two boxes. What? We had already decided we weren't exchanging anniversary gifts because this trip was our gift. Welll......he smiled and said "It's your birthday gift." I did get married on my 19th birthday and I remember Scott's mom saying she would ask me in 10 years if I still liked my present. Well mom....after 25 the answer is still YES......marrying Scott was the best present I have ever received. I opened the boxes and the first box had a beautiful round necklace with black and white diamonds....and the next box had matching earrings. They were just beautiful. I started to cry. Scott wanted to call a taxi but I thought it would be romantic to walk in the rain during springtime in Paris.....so we headed off down to the River to catch our boat for our dinner cruise.

We walked hand in hand and it was the perfect start to our evening. When we got to the boat someone else was at our table and so we were moved to a different table right beside the windows. It was a glass covered boat so everywhere had a good view of the city. The waiter came to open our wine that was sitting at our table and I said "No merci." I then told him that we didn't want anything with alcohol. We got that funny look again. A young couple was seated at the next table and he said "You sure know how to ruin the French experience." I apologized and said that we didn't drink and he laughed and said neither did they. We got to talking....they were from New York and were there for their 10th anniversary. He had brought his wife back to the place he had served his mission. Small world. I got a lump in my throat as I told him that my dad served his mission here many years ago.

25th Anniversary

Dinner was incredible. The best restaurant meal I have ever eaten in my life. Everything was about presentation. This was my prawn appetizer and it was pretty enough that I took a picture. I had a white fish for my main course and it was drizzled with the most delicate tomato cream sauce. It was delicious. Scott had veal and I took a bit of his. It melted in your mouth. The flavor was tantalizing on your taste buds. Live music played as cruised along the river. I ordered crepes suzette for my dessert......When they lit it on fire it startled me.....I didn't know it was covered in alcohol. The guy beside us said....don't blow it out.....or you'll be drinking....ha ha.

As nwe docked we came right by the eiffel tower all lit up against the darkened sky. As I looked into my sweethearts eyes and held his hand I hoped that this moment would last forever. I have spent 25 years with the love of my life and I will never forget this night. Scott's entry in our journal this morning said "Lucky me.....25 years with my very best friend." Love is grand!

The Louvre---Day 4

This is a pretty cool shot of the little arch with the Arc de Triumph in the background. This is just outside of the museum

This morning we decided to take on the Louvre. I can honestly say that it kicked our butts. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the size of that museum. We spent 6 1/2 hours there and we still didn't see everything....and we were rushing through everything that we did see.

Outside the Louvre. I must say that French security is pretty laughable. I was not surprised that our purses needed to go though an xray machine but there were three people sitting there talking and they didn't even look at the screen as the purses were being scanned....and just a few days before there had been an art theft in Paris at a different location.

We got a map when we got our tickets and did we ever need it. So we just picked a place and ended up in the Eygptian exhibit first.....but we got turned around in there and ended up in one of the sculpture rooms.

Of course I had to get my picture taken in front of the Venus de Milo.....seeing as our bodies are so very much alike. Yes......I have a rock hard abdomen.......ha ha.....don't I wish.....and I am often referred to as the goddess of love.....ha ha......ya right.

The paintings by the Italian artists were my very favorite. I was surprised at how many of the pictures depicted Christ's birth or cruxifiction. This painting is the Madonna of the Angels. During the 1200's almost every church in Europe had a painting like this. Mary was a cult like figure....adored and prayed to by the faithful for bringing Jesus into the world.

The louvre was packed with tourists and school groups. Walking into the grand gallery there were so many people.

We were trying to find the Mona Lisa and we came upon a room that was so crowded just off from the grand gallery. I knew it had to be in there. Yep.....this is us.....with the Mona Lisa in the distance.

I'm not going to lie. I was a bit disappointed in the painting. It wasn't as big as we were expecting. It was beautiful......but I think there is a lot of hype. I saw many beautiful works of art that day including other Davinci's which I thought were equal in beauty. This was the only piece in the museum that was flanked by guards and had a roped off area so you could not get to close and she was behind glass so it was hard to get a good picture. We were packed in there like sardines. One guy yelled out "Mona Lisa....can I have your autograph?" Another yelled "Mona Lisa.....look at me?" Scott and I both looked at each other and decided that we were missing something.

From the Mona Lisa we headed into the French section. This also had beautiful paintings but I preferred the Italian artists. I liked the vibrant colors that the Italians used. Several of the french paintings depicted Napolean. I tried to get Scott to put his hand inside his shirt to take a picture.

We stood and watched this artist making a copy of one of the paintings in the french section. He was very talented. It looked just like the original to me.

One of my favorite exhibits was the African one. One reason was that it was a newer exhibit and it was downstairs and there was hardly a soul in sight. After being crammed into the gallery upstairs it was nice to have some peace and quiet to explore this section. I was intrigued by the magnificent works of art created from a piece of wood.

We found a sculpture of Scott. Pretty good likeness.

The lighting in the Louvre is very dark but we came around the corner into the french sculptures and there was daylight coming in and we were surrounded by gigantic sculptures. The entire room was beautiful. While we were in that section we ran into 4 sister missionaries. I walked up to them and said "Hello sisters. It must be P-day." They knew immediately that we must be members of the church since we knew what P-day was. They smiled and we talked to them for a few minutes. No surprise that three of them were from Utah and the other girl was from Virginia. I told them how lucky they were to be in the Louvre on their preparation day. I told them our son was serving in Mexico and on his P-days he is trying to get cockroaches out of his apartment.

This was a touching sculpture of a french soldier clinging to a wounded child.

Thses next 2 sculptures bring all new meaning to the term "Bite Me!"

We saw Napoleans apartments as our last stop in the Louvre. He sure enjoyed the finer things of life. There was about an hour left before closing time....but we were through. Our feet and backs were aching. We headed ended our day just as it began.....under the glass pyramid.

After a short rest at the hotel we went out for a late dinner. I ordered chicken and potatoes and was surprised when it came in a souffle bowl with a heavy rich cream sauce. It was quite tasty. Dessert was delicious. I had upside down apple pie and Scott had a waffle drenched in chocolate sauce and whip cream. He was in heaven. We headed up the the Champs Elysees for a late night walk to see the Arc at night. It was a tiring but amazing day. I have never seen so many magnificent pieces of artwork assembled in one place. What a treat!