Meeting of an apostle and submission to the Friend magazine

March 2016

In March 2016, we were very fortunate to have the visit of a member of the twelve apostles in our stake: elder D. Todd Christofferson. Our ward rented a bus to go to the congress center in Lyon together so it was extra special and extra fun.

The boys standing in front of the congress center. This is where I had my graduation ceremony back in 2007.

Seating in the room with their cousin, Auréa early on.

Our stake president and elder Christofferson are on the far left

Elder Christofferson offered to shake hands with all the children. so they all went and stood in a long line. When William finally walked in front of him he passed him without stopping, I’m not sure he knew who he was supposed to shake hands with, but Elder Christofferson called him back to shake his hand.

With William

With Josh

A few weeks later was general conference. Earlier in the year the boys had submitted something to the Friend magazine (a foot print where they’d written what they wanted to do to follow Jesus) but as far as we know their submissions were not published. But apparently the Friend kept their names and my email and they contacted me 2 weeks before conference asking me if the boys would participate in the show and tell about conference. They asked me to send pictures ahead of time and to make sure to return the boys’ submissions immediately after conference so it could be published in the following issue of the Friend magazine.

So I grabbed my camera and tried to take the most Friend-worthy portrait I could of each boy. I’m glad I had this excuse to take their picture because they usually don’t let me shoot at them so willingly.

William

Josh

And here they are in the May 2016 issue of the Friend magazine.

Meanwhile I took my own portrait after going to the hairdresser. I asked for the same haircut as the model on the far left. I didn’t get exactly what I asked but I liked the result nonetheless.