Pre-Mission French Tutor

For 8 weeks prior to our mission departure, Jim "Skyped" twice a week for an hour with a tutor to renew his French speaking skills and LuAnn met electronically with her tutor three times a week to commence to learn French. Here at the mission training center in Provo, we have 5 two-hour language sessions. LuAnn's French has taken off, and Jim's French has improved markedly, but still remains rusty.

Above is a picture of a chance meeting with Honivah (Rafaranirindraibe) Leavitt in the cafeteria at the MTC. Honivah is from Madagascar, a country in the Indian Ocean with very long family names. Her mother tongue is Malagasy, but schooling in Madagascar is carried out in French. Besides having perfect French grammar, Honivah is very strong in English because she served an 18-month mission in Washington D.C., has been a student at Brigham Young University, and has married a U.S. citizen. Whenever Jim didn't do all his homework and preparations, Honivah would be "devastated," so he learned quickly to complete his assignments for the next session.