The Geneva Stake Relief Society sponsored an excursion to
the Bern, Switzerland Temple on Saturday, 28 Avril 2012 for all of relief
society sisters in the stake to celebrate the 170th anniversary of
the organization of the Societé de Secours.
Some brethren were invited to come along to help assist with the temple
ordinances. Our mission president called
us earlier in the week and invited us to go at the request of President Bonny,
the stake president. The temple was
dedicated by President David O. McKay on September 11, 1955. I attended the temple while serving as a
missionary in November of 1964 and 1965 during a mission wide conference
arranged by our mission president.
Almost 300 members of the stake (approximately 250 women and
50 brethren) boarded five buses to travel for two hours to the temple on a
sunny Saturday morning at 7:45 a.m. We
boarded a bus at the Gex, France ward building about twenty minutes away from
our apartment. We traveled a direct
route to the temple in the morning and then returned by taking a slightly
different route to visit the famous medieval town of Morat (French) or Murten
(German) before returning around 8:30 p.m. that evening. We enjoyed spectacular views of the Swiss
Alps and countryside as we traveled along three lakes (Léman, Neuchatel and
Morat) and near or through other Swiss cities where missionaries serve from our
mission and where wards or branches are organized including Lausanne, Yverdon,
Fribourg, and Neuchatel.
While the scenery was wonderful to experience, our most
memorable moments were involved with being among the members of our stake and
being uplifted by the spirit during the temple session and a meeting afterwards
that we participated in. Six sisters
from our Annecy branch rode on our bus with us.
Another sister from the branch is confined to a wheel chair and traveled
in a van that was wheel chair accessible.
You can see her in the group picture in front of the temple. Some of the sisters that work at the church
administrative offices and Frere Aubin who is the director of accounting
traveled on our bus also. During the
events of the day, we also talked with members of the Geneva ward where we
attended church when we first arrived.
We were greatly blessed to have the opportunity to experience this wonderful
event with many of the people that we have become acquainted with during our
service in this area. We will be leaving
them in a few weeks when we move to Lyon and will miss the opportunity to
associate with them.
We participated in a full temple session conducted in French
soon after we arrived. After eating
lunch sponsored by the stake at the ward building on the temple grounds, we
attended a meeting in the chapel that was conducted by the stake relief society
presidency. Each member of the
presidency spoke along with the stake president and the newly called temple
president and his wife. The stake relief
society president spoke of the miracle associated with being able to arrange
for the special transportation required for the sister from the Annecy Branch
that is confined to a wheel chair. The
temple president and his wife (Brother and Sister Sperling) are from
Germany. She spoke in German with a
French translator and he spoke in English with a French translator. Sister Jeppson had an English headset to help
her understand.
After the meeting, everyone was asked to gather in front of
the temple for a picture and then to quickly board the buses to return
home. As mentioned earlier, some of the
buses took a special excursion to the medieval town of Morat that is near the
city of Neuchatel. That was a historically
memorable experience that included many photo opportunities that I will write
about in the next letter, so tune in next week.
A Nos Petits-Enfants
When I thought about the beautiful mountains called the
Swiss Alps that can be seen from the Swiss Temple, I remembered that the Book
of Mormon talks about the prophet Nephi being “carried away into an exceedingly high
mountain” (1 Nephi 11:1) to receive revelation from the Lord. Our prophets have taught us that mountains can
be symbols of the temple which are sometimes spoken of as Mountains of the
Lord. One of the blessings of the temple
is to be able to go there to receive personal revelation. We were very uplifted and inspired with our
opportunity to visit the Swiss Temple with the members of our stake. I hope that you will each live worthy to
receive the ordinances of the temple in the future including the endowment and
eternal marriage. Megan has had the
opportunity to perform baptisms at the temple for those who were not able to
receive the ordinance of baptism when they lived on this earth. When Zachary becomes a deacon in a few
months, he will eventually have the same opportunity.
Last Monday
evening, I was invited to teach a discussion about tithing and fast offerings
with Elder Escamilla who is from Long Island near New York City. We taught a delightful twelve year old young
woman who lives in Geneva with her father who is Swiss and her mother who is a
less than active member of the church and is from the Philippines. I was asked to bear my testimony about
tithing. I spoke about how we were
blessed because of paying tithing shortly before our twins were born with
unexpected medical insurance coverage of their birth expenses which helped a
young couple still trying to finish college. Elder Escamilla also taught Isabelle about
baptism in preparation for her baptism this Saturday. We enjoyed eating a delicious peach tarte
that the father had baked just before we arrived.
