Last week, our planning for the arrival of fifteen new
missionaries on Tuesday, December 4 became complicated because the
mission’s nine passenger van was in the shop for body work to repair three dents in different places that are named
after the missionaries that caused them.
We decided to rent a van for three days this week (Monday-Wednesday) so
that we could transport luggage and missionaries when needed along with using
three other smaller vehicles. This
requirement led to Sister Jeppson and I taking a more prominent role in the
activities than usual because rental companies only allow someone who is 25 or
older drive a 9 passenger van. The
choices for chauffeur were between President Roney and me. You can guess who was selected.
Elder Gubbay, one of the assistants, located a rental van
(Renault Trafic) in St. Etienne, a city about fifty miles southwest of
Lyon. Our adventure began when Sister
Jeppson and I caught the 8:00 am train to St. Etienne on Monday morning. Upon arrival, we walked on icy sidewalks about
a half a mile to the car rental office .
It had snowed the night before and was still snowing a little. We got accustomed to the van and its standard
transmission as we drove back to Lyon. Driving
in Lyon in heavy traffic on sometimes narrow streets and parallel parking in
small parking spaces on the streets with an automatic transmission compact car
can be an interesting experience. When
you consider the added requirement of driving a large 9 passenger standard
transmission van, the “interesting experience” level raises dramatically. Our challenge for Monday afternoon was
finding a place to park on the street.
After driving around several blocks several times, we recruited a
missionary experienced in parking our mission van to help us. After I rode with him around several blocks
several times, we finally found a parking space.
The next morning we drove to the Saint-Exupéry aeroport in
Lyon about thirty minutes away from the office along with two smaller vehicles
to meet the new missionaries and load their luggage. We greeted fifteen missionaries(fourteen
elders and one sister) arriving on three different flights from Salt Lake City
and Madrid, Spain (MTC for European and Pacific Island missionaries). These missionaries represent many different
countries and cultural backgrounds. Two
elders come from small Islands, Réunion Island near Madagascar and Vanuatua
near New Caledonia. They come from small
branches of the church and had only left their islands once to visit the
temple. Two other elders came from
Tahiti and New Calendonia, islands in the Pacific Ocean. A third elder lives in North Salt Lake, but
his mother is Tahitian. Another Elder
from Las Vegas was born in China. Four
elders have European ties: two elders
from the Paris, France Mission area, one from Belgium, and one who is American
but his family has lived in Germany for several years. Our lone sister missionary is from Northern
British Columbia in Canada.
After loading the luggage, the vehicles traveled to the
hotel while the missionaries along with President Roney and the assistants took
a train, the Rhone Express, to the railroad station near the hotel. We arrived at the hotel after being misled by
our GPS for a little while. The
missionaries unloaded their luggage and placed it in their rooms. Then six of the missionaries piled into our
van and we drove along with four other vehicles carrying the new missionaries
to a Lyon landmark, Fourviere Hill to see the famous cathedral and the view of
the city. Driving up to the top of
Fourviere Hill became a new adventure of driving a large van, that just doesn’t
belong in a large French city, to the top of the hill on narrow winding roads
with sharp turns, stopping on a steep hill and starting up again with the
delicate synchronization of clutch, brake pedal and gas pedal and parking in
tourist attraction area bustling with people and cars. We found a place to park up on the sidewalk
along with a few other vehicles.
After the missionaries enjoyed the view and talked briefly
with President Roney, we loaded them into our vehicles and traveled with a
better behaved GPS to the Roney home, through a maze of streets, several miles
away. The missionaries valiantly tried
to stay awake and alert through playing ping pong, shooting baskets, singing
around the piano, chatting, eating Hawaiian Haystacks, financial and legal
instructions and interviews with
President Roney, It was quite late in
the evening when our GPS took us and our exhausted passengers back straight to
the hotel this time after traveling along the Rhone river for part of the
way. We worried about finding a parking
place near the office and our apartment for our large van at 11:00 p.m. We were amazed and greatly blessed to find
one just around the corner from the office.
Our night was not quite over.
Sister Jeppson sent an e-mail message and pictures taken at the airport
to the parents before we went to bed at 1:30 a.m.
The missionary trainers who had arrived in Lyon the night
before came to the office for breakfast on Wednesday morning while waiting for
some of the new missionaries to arrive after meeting with French officials at
the Office of Immigration to obtain their legal papers. We enjoyed again the experience of observing
the announcement through a letter read by the new missionary of where they are
being assigned and their new colleague.
During lunch, Sister Jeppson took individual pictures of the new
missionaries and pictures of the missionary and their colleague. We then drove our van back to St. Etienne,
turned it in and rode the train back to Lyon.
The trainers and their new colleagues traveled to their new locations
later in the afternoon. Sister Jeppson
e-mailed the pictures to parents and missionaries this morning. We were greatly blessed with the guidance,
protection, and stamina to fulfill this challenging but rewarding assignment.
NOS PETITS-ENFANTS
During one of our earlier letters, we provided pictures of an old church in Lyon, the St. Jean Cathedral.
We saved some pictures of an old baptismal font located outside of the
cathedral, which dates back to 400 A.D., until now because they have special
significance for two of our grandchildren:
Abby and Natalie will celebrate their 8 year old birthdays next
week. We feel very sad that we will miss
their baptisms and confirmations in January and encourage them to prepare well
and have a wonderful experience. The
fonts were very interesting to us because they remind us that the Savior set
the example of baptism by immersion, not sprinkling, as the way to
baptize. We are so happy that we belong
to the Lord’s true church on the earth today.
We are so blessed to have this knowledge. Yeah!
Natalie and Abby.
