Beauty in Bretagne
We loved meeting Annie Aasbo there,
and Jonathan remembers her baptism back then.
Presentation at the stake center in Rennes
Annie Aasbo
At age 18, Annie went to work in Wales where she met Tommy Aasbo, a returned missionary, and she married the Englishman as planned. Tommy was a skilled glassblower, and he moved his business to France where they raised their family. Over the years Annie and Tommy were stalwart leaders in the Brest Branch, which varied between a large thriving congregation and a struggling group when many members moved. Tommy was one of the few priesthood holders, and the branch president for many years. After he died, senior missionaries served as branch presidents, but the group eventually dwindled until it was combined with Quimper Branch several miles away.
When we talked to Annie in April, she was driving an hour to church in Quimper each week, filling her car with other members from surrounding towns. Her son Kevin continues his father’s glassblowing business in the tourist town of Le Conquet.
Kevin at his shop "Fileur de verre"
Annie has always shared her musical talents
with the branch and is now on the Church Hymn Translation team, as well as teaching the gospel doctrine class in Quimper.
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Jimmy Rasolosoa
We met Jimmy in the town of Cholet, where he and his wife Noro graciously invited us to stay overnight with them.
Jimmy had grown up in Madagascar where he was searching for a church. When he was 18 he and his cousin Josephson joined a Pentecostal church where they were baptized by immersion. Josephson met Latter-day Saint missionaries two years later who gave him a Book of Mormon, which Jimmy read every time he visited his cousin. He was fascinated, and loved reading it, but it troubled him because he had been warned in the other church that there is no other word of God but the Bible. He told Josephson the devil must have led him astray.
But Jimmy couldn’t resist reading it, which gave him such a good feeling that he called the number listed on the book and asked the missionaries for his own copy. Elders Prescott and Willer were happy to visit and bring him a copy [remember that name, more about Elder Prescott later], and they started teaching him. However Jimmy stopped the lessons when they asked him to commit to baptism, because he felt his baptism by immersion in the other church was enough.
Jimmy loved the stories in the Book of Mormon and started sharing them with his friends. But because he was still worried that he was being misled by the devil, he prayed earnestly "please help me to know so I won't be led astray". He had a profound answer with a strong feeling through his whole body, and a voice saying "it is true, don't be afraid, it is true, and because I love the world, I have given it to you". After that he kept reading and studying the Book of Mormon, and thanked the Lord often for the gift of the book.
Antananarivo, Madagascar
It was
almost a year later when he and his cousin started studying again with another set of missionaries. This time when they invited him to be baptized he fasted and
prayed, and realized the baptism needed to be with priesthood authority. He and his cousin were both baptized as Latter-day Saints when he
was 22. Then he approached his Bishop and asked if he could serve a mission,
but at first he was told he was too old. He kept asking and finally he was called at the age of 24 to the Capetown South Africa Mission.
After his mission he married Noro and he studied to be a doctor. They had two children when they decided to move to France, but France did not accept his credentials so he worked as a nurse aide. As an answer to his prayers he finally saw an opening for a medical intern in neurology. He was accepted because the post had been vacant for two years, so they waived some of the credential requirements. He kept working and studying for nine years until he qualified as a neurologist, and he started working at the hospital.
After a few
years he decided to start his own independent practice. About that time a service missionary in his ward told everyone about BYU Pathway. He had
always wished he could study at BYU, but concluded it would never be possible. He knew what it was like to both work and study, as he had for nine years. Now that his earlier studies were over, he would have
time to study something new. He joined BYU Pathway and signed up for business management, to help him
run and grow his medical practice. His life was busier now with five children,
but he took one class at a time and is now about halfway to his bachelors
degree.
At one time after his baptism, Jimmy looked for the original missionaries who had given him the Book of Mormon. Jimmy discovered that Elder Prescott had tragically died in a car accident during his mission.
He contacted Elder Prescott’s parents in Utah who had established a foundation named after their son, the Jared Prescott Charitable Trust. Their goals include supporting education in Madagascar, and one of their projects is supplying students with computers for BYU Pathway. Jimmy is assisting and supporting their project, and he and his wife Noro took the first shipment of 33 laptops to Madagascar in January, 2026.
Elder Prescott had been one of the first missionaries in
Madagascar, and was remembered as a superstar in everything he did. He had taken Jimmy a Book of Mormon and started teaching him, but Jimmy had stopped the lessons. Elder Prescott probably never knew that
Jimmy and his cousin were eventually baptized. And he didn’t know then that Jimmy
would go on to serve a mission, and to raise 4 sons who all went on missions.
He also didn’t know then that so many students in Madagascar would join BYU
Pathway, and that the trust his parents established would continue to support
them in their goals to raise Madagascar out of poverty.
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