Annecy

We stumbled upon Annecy. It just happened to be the closest town on the map when we were ready for bed. What an unexpected gem of a town! It sits at the end of Lake Annecy with a backdrop of alpine peaks. Old canals run through the old city of medieval houses, castles and arched alleyways. We loved this place and our overnight visit felt much too short. We bought some delicious bread, cheese and salami to munch on at the large outdoor market that wound along the cobbled sidewalks next to the canals. We attended a little branch for church (27 members in the congregation). The GPS took us to an industrial part of town with no sign of life or the church. We drove around lost on the verge of being late. We pulled to the side of a street, and as we started to pray for help a man pulled up in a van (where did he come from!?) and asked if we needed help. We told him we were looking for the Mormon Church and he said he didn’t know where it was for sure but to follow him and he would show us where he had seen people dressed in suits and ties on Sundays. He took us to a parking lot behind a fence where we saw a handful of cars that made up the entire group meeting there. We were just in time. To our surprise it was the small branch of a very nice, young family we met at the temple in November. They invited us to their very humble home for dinner. They live on the ninth floor in a very small one bedroom apartment with their two small children. The parents pull a double mattress into the family room (where it just fits) to sleep each night. Their elevator was going out of service that week for the next six months! I imagined this woman carrying groceries up the nine flights with a child in one arm and coaxing the other one along. The apartment was beautifully organized and efficient. They explained that Brother Seng wasn’t able to find a job as a graphic designer (3 years out of college) and was currently working as a produce grocer. The young mother talked of learning how little was really necessary to get by, and was really grateful for what they had. What strength and faith these good people have! They fed us both temporally and spiritually.

The Seng family