LETTRE NEUF POUR LE 29 AVRIL 2012

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 170^th 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.