Peaks and Valleys
Last month we visited the Pau and Tarbes Wards which are near the Pyrenees
This is the Nimes Ward near Marseille,
which has seen peaks and valleys of membership.
Missionaries there told us that its beautiful chapel was built in about 2002
when the ward was growing quickly, and had a large active Young Adult group.
when the ward was growing quickly, and had a large active Young Adult group.
However now the young cohort has mostly grown up and moved away,
and the ward has waned to a small group every Sunday.
[Fun fact about the city of Nimes:
In the 1600s, Nimes weavers
made a strong diagonal-weave cloth called serge,
and dyed it blue to not show the dirt.
This was called "serge de Nimes"
and the name was later shortened to deNimes
which we now call denim]
In the 1600s, Nimes weavers
made a strong diagonal-weave cloth called serge,
and dyed it blue to not show the dirt.
This was called "serge de Nimes"
and the name was later shortened to deNimes
which we now call denim]
We have seen similar peaks and valleys in several church units.
In our Central Europe Area we learned of the Selbongen Branch.
more than half of the townspeople were church members.
The church built this chapel, the first in Germany.
Over time there have been many changes.
Because of WWII most of the members had to leave the town.
Because of WWII most of the members had to leave the town.
After the war, country borders changed and the area is now Poland.
Branch membership went up and down over the years,
Branch membership went up and down over the years,
and in 1971 the Branch was closed and the building sold to another church.
We also noticed the peaks and valleys when we lived in Mauritius in 2018.
There was a large and thriving branch in 1972,
divided to form a second one in 2004.
Each of the two branches had a beautiful chapel.
A third branch was formed in 2017.
But despite many faithful members and converts over the years,
church membership in all 3 branches is now small
because of frequent emigration.
But despite many faithful members and converts over the years,
church membership in all 3 branches is now small
because of frequent emigration.
Church History Moments
Louis Bertrand
Louis Bertrand had an amazing life which was full of peaks and valleys. He was very involved with the beginnings of the church in France, which also followed the same peaks-and-valleys pattern.
He was born near Marseilles, France in 1808. At the age of 40 in Paris, due to his revolutionary ideas, he was sent to prison for 3 months. Soon afterward, he was an editor for a political magazine Le Populaire when he met John Taylor and Curtis Bolton. Louis, who was idealistic and progressive, was impressed with the ambitious goals of these two men. Taylor and Bolton were among the first group of missionaries who had come to France from England. Louis was baptized after a few months, along with five others, and these six became the core of the first branch in Paris.
Louis was fired from the magazine because of his devotion to his new religion, and he became a fierce advocate for the church in France. Bolton was an American who had learned French as a businessman there, and was working on translating the Book of Mormon into French. Louis, as a native French speaker and an educated writer, was a valuable addition to the translation work. Curtis and Louis also produced the first church publication in France, L’Étoile du Déséret (Star of Deseret).
Although there was promising progress and many baptisms at first, John Taylor was forced to flee the country after publishing a pamphlet entitled “The Kingdom of God,” which was seen as politically inflammatory. As a result, the proselytizing activities of the missionaries were closely monitored and severely limited.
In 1853 Louis served as a missionary in Jersey, an island in the English Channel. One of those he taught was the author Victor Hugo, but Louis reported that Hugo was "too full of revolution to think much about the gospel of Jesus Christ."
After 1855, missionary work in France declined because of political turmoil. Emperor Napoleon III made laws limiting publications and gatherings, and police were especially harsh against the Latter-day Saints. Louis wrote an appeal for tolerance to the emperor, but Louis said "His majesty read my address, laughed at it and tore it to pieces."
At one time Louis was exiled from France because of his proselyting activities, so he traveled to Salt Lake City where he became a close friend of Brigham Young and worked as a correspondent for the Deseret News. He returned to France a few times during the next 13 years when called as Mission President there, but finally concluded that the French were "every one spiritually dead." Brigham Young counseled him to close the mission, which remained closed for the next 40 years.
Louis never returned to France but maintained his devotion to his home country. He died in Utah in 1875, without seeing the progress made in France in subsequent decades. It was 100 years later when the first stake was organized in Paris, and 42 years after that when the first temple was dedicated in France.
In 2025 there are now ten stakes covering the country of France, plus three others in nearby French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland. You can see all the stakes, wards and branches at this link of our website.
To read other posts in our Mission Blog,
click on the arrow or 3 lines to the left of NEVILLES IN FRANCE
then click on ARCHIVE to see a list of all posts.
