Our French-Bread Friends

We had lived in our new neighborhood north of San Francisco, California, for about eight months when a family of four moved into the house across the street. Nearly everyone in the neighborhood worked during the day, and in those eight months we had met only one other family. I wondered if we would make friends with the new family.

A few days later I was baking French bread and the thought came to me to take a loaf of bread to our new neighbors. I immediately worried that they would think I was strange and reject my bread and me. All afternoon I felt I should take the bread to them, but I was afraid. Finally I decided that perhaps the Lord wanted me to meet the family. I prayed for courage while I wrapped the warm bread.

I knocked on their door and was invited into the kitchen where Linda and her husband, Bob, had been talking. They offered me a cup of coffee, then tea, and finally fruit juice. Soon I was sipping a tall glass of cold apple juice while we chatted about our families and laughed together. Their boys were about the same age as our children, and before I left they knew a lot about us, including the fact that we were members of the Church.

One day a few months later, Linda visited me. After learning that my husband had taken time off from work to paint scenery for an upcoming roadshow, she helped with the painting for two days.

It was natural to invite Linda to the roadshow and the party held afterward for the cast. There she met all the happy and excited teenagers from our ward. Later, as we drove home, she commented, “I have been so impressed with what I have seen tonight. The thought of my boys being involved in something like those roadshows when they are older, instead of looking for excitement on the streets, really intrigues me. Do you think our family could go to church with you sometime?”

They began searching the scriptures, praying, and attending church with us. We moved away shortly thereafter, but we returned to attend their baptism and, a year later, to see them sealed together in the Oakland Temple. We have continued to grow closer as the years have gone by. Whenever we get together, they bring out a family photo album and show us pictures of the current year’s roadshow. Over the years, Linda has helped write many scripts for roadshows, and she and her boys have played leading roles in many of them.

I could never have foreseen the rich experiences that our families have enjoyed as a result of taking a loaf of French bread to a new neighbor.