We have been present for many spiritual events including being taught by an apostle of the Lord, Elder Andersen, witnessing baptisms, watching general conference with the missionaries and members, and attending zone conferences with the wonderful missionaries of our mission. The Ecully chapel became again a memorable place this past weekend and Tuesday. We attended stake conference meetings on Saturday evening and Sunday morning and participated in a zone conference with a visiting general authority on Tuesday.
Elder and Sister Miller who arrived in France in March
stayed in our apartment with us from Saturday until Tuesday so that they could
attend stake conference and zone conference and also participate in some
training at the mission office. They are
hard working dedicated people from Wyoming.
We are teaching them to become a back up couple for us or for our
replacements in case we sometimes fragile seniors would have a health issue or
some other event that may take us out of the office at a critical time like
when rents need to be paid for 80 apartments.
We and the office elders also taught them the responsibility of referrals
that has sometimes not received the attention that it should from our busy
office elders. Sister Miller cheerfully
agreed to take on that responsibility which can be performed through the
internet from their location in Chalon which is an hour and a half drive north
of here.
I continue to be impressed with our stake presidency and how
well they organized the two stake conference meetings on Saturday evening and
Sunday morning. Because of the volume of
stake members and the distance to Lyon, the stake conference proceedings were
broadcast to chapels in other cities in the stake like Villeurbanne,
Clermont-Ferrand and Grenoble. President
Benessar spoke during both sessions. This
organization included arrangements to translate the proceedings into English
for those who wore listening devices including Sister Jeppson.
He presented a power-point presentation about the goals and
progress of the Lyon Stake and reminded us of recent and future events that
will bless the church and its progress in France including preparations to
build the temple near Paris and the visit of an apostle to the area last
November during which he bestowed an apostolic blessing. We have attached a close up picture. The quote shown when translated reads: “I bless you so that with faith and prayer
and the desire to share that which we know, those that love God who wish to
make covenants with Him will be attracted to us and find us.” We have witnessed examples of this blessing
throughout our mission and expect to see continued evidence in the coming
months of the fruits of this blessing.
One brother from our stake gave a remarkable talk during the
Sunday stake conference session with thoughts such as each of us seeking to
find our own promised land which is really to know Jesus Christ and each of us presenting our own stones with
faith for the Lord to provide light as He did with the Brother of Jared.
President Roney spoke about how we can be an instrument in
the Lord’s hands to bless people’s lives just like the young man who was asked
to distribute the loaves and fishes during the Sermon on the Mount. President Benessar spoke about becoming as
little children and learning step by step and from falls as we strive to become
like the Savior.
 |
| Our apartment building |
There were 86 missionaries that came to Lyon for zone
conference on Tuesday from the Lyon and Ecully Zones in France and the Geneva,
Lausanne and Yverdon zones in Switzerland.
Elder Richards from the Western Europe Area Presidency and his wife spoke
most of the time along with President and Sister Roney during a four hour
meeting from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. After
a lunch at 2:00 p.m., Sister Richards conducted a session with only sister
missionaries including Sister Jeppson that lasted another hour. Elder Richards comes from a line of former
apostles including Willard Richards who was at the Carthage Jail with the
prophet, Joseph Smith and was later a counselor to President Brigham Young.
We were touched deeply by the spirit at the beginning of the
meeting when one of our missionaries, Elder Ioanidis from Canada sang “How
Great Thou Art”. You may remember that
we mentioned many letters ago that he sang the National Anthem of Canada and
performed at other events with a group during the Vancouver Winter
Olympics. I have never heard the hymn
sung so powerfully with the spirit. We
know that this is a favorite hymn of Grandpa Bagley. We thought about him and wondered if he were
present. We also thought that he was
probably looking forward to the time when his beloved wife would be with him at
the Lord’s appointed time.
Elder Richards taught us from the scriptures and from his notes from an April meeting with
the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve about important gospel
principles and missionary work recommendations.
Some short excerpts from our notes:
Don’t trifle with or take lightly the blessings of the gospel. The spirit teaches through the heart. Feel accountable to do what the spirit
teaches. He taught from Alma 13 and
D&C 138: 53-56 especially “other
choice spirits who were reserved to come forth in the fullness of times…they
with many others were prepared to come to labor in his vineyard for the
salvation of the souls of men”. He
emphasized that that included the missionaries in the audience.
Sister Richards presented a video about a young boy being
struck by lightning in Inkom, Idaho and how a young 18 year old that just
received the Melchizedek Priesthood a few weeks earlier gave him a priesthood
blessing that started his heart beating.
She talked about being ready and worthy to act whenever the Lord needs
us.
Nos Petits-Enfants
I hope that your parents will teach you from Alma 13 and
D&C 138:53-56. You are also among
those who were called and chosen in pre-earth life and reserved to come forth
at this time to be prepared to serve others through missionary work or in other
ways. Conduct your lives so that you are
ready and temple worthy to act wherever and whenever the Lord needs you.
