From France to Portugal, from making memories to reliving old ones.

I am typing this blog on a portuguese computer which means it will probably take me twice is long and be half as clear. It has been an exciting and eventful couple of weeks and with all the thoughts and emotions that are swimming through my head I find it hard to find where to start.

The last little bit of my program in Paris was wonderful. It is interesting how you come to things like that as strangers and leave as friends. I don´t know how it works with other people but I feel like I always connect with people the most when our time together is drawing to an end. Whether it was wards in college, high school, my mission or programs like this the friendships that you have really blossom towards the end and you often have the thought, why wasn´t I getting to know this amazing person earlier when had time. Why is it now that we are discovering that we could be best friends? Thats life I guess ( at least it seems to be for me) and I came to really love all the kids and teachers that I associated with toward the end of the group.

One of my favorite and perhaps most thoughtful things that I enjoyed doing the last week was visiting the graves of Chopin and Jim Morrison. They are buried in a huuuuuuge cemetery. I thought that I could walk in and see it and walk out but it took me an hour to find the graves. They are not really in centered and honored spots as one would think. Chopins grave is small and tucked away. I felt a certain spirit standing in front of his grave. Part of it was gratitude for all the beautiful music that he wrote and part of it was the thought of the possibility of redemption and ressurection for a man that I have come to know well through various biographies as well as his music. Jim Morrisons grave had a very different feel. It was covered in beer bottles and that famous picture of him with his is shirt off and crazy curly hair covering it- There was a couple that I swear was high next to the grave sight with their eyes closed listening to some of his crazy poetry. I thought it interesting that Chopin died because modern medicine hadn´t advanced enough to save him. Jim Morrison died because modern medicine had perhaps advanced too far. It made me think of all of the responsibility that comes with wonderful advancements such as the internet, travel, the press, and lots of other things. My favorite moment in the graveyard was standing next to a man and his family. The wife looked at Chopin's grave and said 'This guy Chopin might have even more fans than Jim Morrison.' And the husband replied, 'No way that that is true. Some piano guy? Over Jim Morrison? Yea right.' And experiences like that make me understand why people might hate americans.


The last week we had lots of concerts and I got to play in a few of the pieces scheduled. My favorite was a Mendlesohn piano trio in D minor with a killer killer killer piano part. Whenever anybody commented after they always included that I played 'a lot of notes,' which certainly described it. The choir that our group performed sounded beautiful. We sand songs by Byrd, Josquin, Palestrina, Rachmaninoff and others that I can't remember the name of because their not as famous. The composers in the program also really stepped up and it was great hearing a lot of original material. The missionary experiences that we had with all these great people were fantastic as well. I love talking to intelligent good people about the truthfulness of the gospel. It feels sooooo good.

So Saturday afternoon it was bye bye France and hello Portugal. I hopped on a plane to porto and then hopped on a train up to Guimaraes the first place that I served as a missionary. I am staying with Alcino a friend from when I served here who is now the branch president and has a new little baby boy. It is great to see people that you love doing well. He and his family have treated me like a king while I have been here. I got to go to church on Sunday and see all of my old friends. One special moment was when I got to stand in the priesthood circle and bless one of my old friends new little baby boy. Got to fill that primary up! Of course with all of the progression that many of my friends here have made some have digressed and it is heart breaking. I do love being here though. I was in this city for six months and when I walk around I can almost see a big awkward greeny from America walking around with his fellow red head trainer elder christiansen. I can see in retrospect the growth that I had and the love that developed for these people as I did my best to serve them. Being in a place that you know, loved, and grew in after so much time makes one think about the responsibility to continue to grow.

On a lighter note I was so excited to eat a francesinha that the second I got off the plane I found a restaurant and had one. A francesinha is a portuguese sandwhich drenched in sauce and surrounded by french fries with an egg on top that one can only find here. After eating that one the first night, I have been fed Francesinhas the next two nights as well. I have been here for three days and eaten three francesinhas and i am not even tired of them. They are that good haha.

Tomorrow I am off to Braga another city that I served in and love to visit other friends. Joseph Fielding Mckonkie, Elder Bruce R's son, is serving a mission there and taught a fireside sunday night. I drove out with some friends to see him and it was crazy how much he looked and sounded like his dad when he taught.

It is really hard to describe in words what I am feeling here. When you learn to love a place and leave, it is sometimes shocking when you come back both how much as changed, and how much hasn 't really changed at all. Many of the people that I left here are doing the same thing they were doing when I left, for some this is good and for some not so good. And yet others have experienced new joys like having a baby or horrible ones like going through a divorce. When you are living out these major changes and they happen gradually it doesnt come as quite a shock as when you see them all at once in their beauty or in their harsh reality. It makes one think...... Where do I want to be in three years? What do I need to keep consistent and what do I need to change?

I realize that this is a more serious blog than my previous one on how french people smell. But hey I can be serious. But if you got bored with my deep thoughts, don't worry I will think of something ridiculous to blog about soon.

Ryan