Our opportunity to greet and help support the meals and
training for our latest group of six elders and eleven sisters was a little nostalgic
because it is the last group that we will welcome. This has been a highlight of our missionary
experience. Just like the other groups,
these missionaries brought a spirit of enthusiasm, excitement and again instilled in us gratitude for the
opportunity to associate with our amazing rising generation. Two sisters come from Germany and other
missionaries represent Connecticut, New Mexico, Georgia, Kentucky, California,
Texas and Utah. Sister Swenson’s parents
presided over a mission in California.
Elder Smart will now have French in common with his sister Elizabeth who
served in the Paris, France Mission.
Our other pleasant and uplifting opportunities to associate
with the missionaries comes right after the transfer when they return to Lyon
for additional training after six weeks and when the leadership council of zone
leaders and sister trainer leaders gather to participate in training and
planning sessions lead by President and
Sister Roney and the Assistants to the President. This latest bring back meeting involved the
28 missionaries and their trainers that arrived six weeks before. This large group participated in training at
the Ecully chapel because the mission
office can’t handle 56 missionaries.
It becomes increasingly inspiring to see missionaries that
we welcomed as new missionaries eventually move into leadership roles as part
of the group of 22 zone leaders and 6 sister trainer leaders and observe their
spiritual growth and leadership development.
At this stage of our mission that includes most of them. Our assistants are now Elder Gouttin from
northern France and Elder Emal from Utah.
Elder Johnson from Oregon is our latest new office elder who will train to replace Elder Leduc from Edmonton,
Canada. We could feel the spirit as this
amazing group of missionaries sang Called to Serve.
Elder Stewart and Sister Rivers (She chose to retain her
name when they were married) spent a few days staying with us as they received
orientation before traveling to serve as the Stake Young Single Adult couple in Marseille. They come from Ottawa, Ontario in
Canada. Elder Stewart served in our
mission area during the years
1960-1962. That was sure a long time
ago. We enjoyed getting acquainted with
them.
Today we spent the day working through the transition pains
of replacing our relatively old computers.
Max Grassman came from the church’s regional office in Frankfurt to
install the new computers. In spite of
his expertise, patience and helpfulness from 8:00 a.m. in the morning until
7:00 p.m. this evening, we will still
experience setbacks in some areas because we will need to put back in place
customized and organized ways of operating our computers and software and adjust
to new ways of operating with updated software.
We watched the world-wide broadcast of a portion of the
mission presidents training and were impressed with the counsel that we
received and the new ways of conducting missionary work in the future. I was especially impressed that our 90 year
old apostle, Elder Perry, was able to explain so well the new approaches and
computer technology that missionaries will use in the future. We continue to fill a home teaching
assignment by teaching as home teachers and with the missionaries. One of our sisters, Luisa from Columbia, South America and her two year old
daughter will attend a family home afternoon lunch experience with us and the
missionaries this Friday.
Time is going quickly with much to prepare for and
accomplish before our replacements arrive.
Please remember us in your prayers.
We need all of the help we can get from Heavenly Father these next few
weeks.
Nos Petits-Enfants
I gave what was probably my last formal talk in sacrament
meeting at the Villeurbanne Ward last Sunday.
I spoke about being a true disciple of Jesus and discussed three main
ways we demonstrate that we are true disciples:
True disciples “continue in the word” (John 8:31) meaning that we
persevere and are steadfast (work hard to do what is right). True disciples are
filled with His love which is the pure love of Christ and serve others(Moroni
7:47-48)(John 13:34-35). True disciples
“stand in holy places” meaning not only places like our home, the church and
the temple but the way that we live and conduct ourselves (D&C 45:32). Talks given in general conference by
President Uchtdorf in the Priesthood Session and Sister Ann Dibb during the
recent Young Womens Conference provide additional insight. We encourage you and your parents to study
these talks and scriptures together and strive to be true disciples of Christ.
