LETTRE SEIZE POUR LE 28 AOUT 2012

 We are finally getting better acquainted with our city of Lyon.  Lyon was founded as Lugdunum in A.D. 43.  It was a critical transportation hub for the administration of Roman Gaul.  The city became the central metropolis of the Three Gauls---the integrated Roman provinces of Aquitiania (Aquitaine), Belgica  (Belgium) and Lugdunensis (Lyon Region).  Two Roman emperors were born in Lugdunum.  Last Saturday we visited some major Roman ruins (two outdoor Roman theaters) and a well organized and highly interesting Gallo-Roman museum that displays artifacts of ancient Lyon and surrounding locations.  I will write more about the museum in the next letter.

The ruins and the museum are located on Fourvière Hill which displays a dominating view of the Baslique Notre-Dame de Fourvière.  The construction of the cathedral began in 1872 and was completed at the beginning of World War I.  We caught the métro at our closest stop called Garbaldi and traveled past three metro stops to arrive at the Vieux Lyon stop.  From there we caught a funicular train that transported us up the hill.  When we got off the funicular and climbed up the stairs, we found ourselves right in front of and gazing up at the imposing view of the cathedral.  It took about thirty minutes to get there.  When we entered the cathedral we discovered elaborate mosaics on the walls that depict various religious events that took place in France with an emphasis on their view of the role of the Virgin Mary in these events.

In back of the cathedral we gazed out at the panoramic view of the city of Lyon and its two rivers, the Saone and the Rhone.  Of course the crayon building as it is called by the French dominates the view of the city.  We could also see the most famous “Place” (large square or park) in Lyon called Place Bellecour where there is a large bronze statue of King Louis XIV on horseback.  We celebrated our 44^th wedding anniversary by eating at a restaurant called PizzaPino located at one corner of the “Place” a few weeks ago.

We are fortunate to have good accessible public transportation since we are not driving our car right now because my wallet was stolen and I lost my driver’s license, some euros, and some credit cards that we are in the process of replacing.  Replacing my driver’s license is becoming a little complicated because I need my signature on forms sent by the state of Utah notarized.  The Notary process is more complicated in France especially when almost everyone takes off for three weeks of vacation in August.

A new couple, the Greens from the Salt Lake City area, arrived a week ago.  They replaced another couple and will direct the young adult activities for the Lyon Stake.  There is a building near our office where the young adults gather for activities and institute classes.  All of the couples from our mission traveled to Lyon for an afternoon conference last Friday at the office.  Six couples direct young adult activities in the cities of Geneva and Yverdon in Switzerland and the cities of Lyon, Toulouse, Nice and Marseille in France.  Two other couples serve in Member and Leadership Support roles.  I had not yet met two of the couples.  We enjoyed getting better acquainted and felt the Spirit of the Lord during our meetings as the couples shared ideas and discussed some of their experiences.

 Nos Petits-Enfants

On Sunday, I spoke for a while with Yan, a university student from China.  She will start school next week.  She is an amie (friend) who is being taught by the missionaries.  She told me that she is very impressed with our church’s teachings about the family and our family values.  She is the only child in her family.  Her parents live in central China.  I told her about brothers-in-law and sisters who have some connections to China through their experiences there.  She was very interested to learn about our family.  We are very blessed to have a close knit family that enjoys doing things together as demonstrated by all of the activities that took place while Liz was in town.  Many of our grandchildren have begun or will begin soon a new year of school.  Some of our children or their spouses will experience a new year of teaching.  Please study hard and take advantage of this wonderful learning opportunity.  During this time, it is also important to remember the words from the primary song, I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus.

Love, Grandma and Grandpa Jeppson      

LETTRE QUINZE POUR LE 2 AOÛT 2012

What is the significance of Place BirHakeim?  It is a park three blocks from our office where there is a monument containing glowing words from the main general of the French army during the 2^nd World War, Charles De Gaulle, paying tribute to Frenchmen who lost their lives there on June 17, 1942.  He was the President of France when I served in France as a young missionary.   

It was also the location where 26 missionaries gathered last Wednesday.  Thirteen were missionaries that just arrived the day before who represented families and wards in seven states and Canada.  The other thirteen were assigned to be their trainers.  They had come by train from all over our mission area.  Sister Jeppson took a picture of each equipe (missionary team) standing by some trees in the park with the marquee of a French café in the background (Le Grande Café Neuf).  One of the trainers was born in Cambodia.  His family now lives in northern France.  Another impressive trainer is a Navajo from the “Four Corners” area. 

The evening before we gathered with the missionaries and President and Sister Roney and their three boys for dinner at the Mission Home in Ecully about one half hour away from the office.  It was interesting talking with these twelve elders and one sister about their background.  They have a lot of enthusiasm and will become a great strength to the mission.  We really need them since we said goodbye to 26 missionaries the day before.  Two of them were an elder and a sister missionary from northern France.

After this latest transfer, we will be working with a missionary from Kaysville, Utah, Elder Frazier, who will train with his new companion to become the legal secretary.  Another missionary from Vancouver, Canada, Elder Ioannidis (his family is Greek), replaced one of the assistants to the President.  We will see a lot of him because they spend quite a bit of time in the office.  As we became better acquainted, I learned that he sang the Canadian national anthem before one of the major Winter Olympics events in 2010 and also performed with a group during the opening ceremonies.  His sister is currently serving a mission in Hungary.  One of the new zone leaders who will attend our ward is from Australia.

Nos Petits-Enfants
Two young men from our ward, David from Kenya and Johnny (English name) from China joined the church in February and April.  They then received the Aaronic Priesthood and were ordained to the office of priest.  Now they have the opportunity to bless, prepare and pass the sacrament.  Like these two young men, Zachary will receive the Aaronic Priesthood this year also on Sunday and will be ordained to the office of a deacon.  We will miss not being there for his ordination.  He will have the wonderful and sacred opportunity of passing the sacrament every Sunday and helping with the ordinance that allows his ward members to renew their promises with the Savior and Heavenly Father.  He will be a great example for his cousins who will one day receive the priesthood:  Brad, Caleb, Hunter, Noah and Cade.  His dad and Uncle Andy were good examples of servants and priesthood holders when they gave their brother Matt a priesthood blessing this week because of a serious health problem and then stayed to play a game with him and bolster his spirits.   

LETTRE QUATORZE POUR LE 18 JUILLET, 2012

Our blessing of associating with a wonderful group of membres de l’église (members of the church) and amis (friends learning about the church) with backgrounds from different parts of the world continues.  The two missionaries who work in the office with us have been teaching Luisa who is from Columbia.  Some of her family are members of the church.  The missionaries have taught her in French and in her native language Spanish.  One of the missionaries, Elder Escamilla speaks Spanish.  He is from New York City and his family traces back to El Salvador.  She married a French man and moved to Lyon.  They were divorced earlier this year.  Their child, Emilie who is about 14 months old spends time with both parents. 

We attended Luisa’s baptism service on July 7^th at the stake center in Ecully, a suburb of Lyon.  The talks on the subject of baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost were well prepared and given by members of the Villerbanne Ward.  Luisa was baptized by Rock who is from the Congo.  She bore her testimony after the baptism in Spanish.  Elder Escamilla translated into French for her.  It was a very humble and heart- felt testimony.  The next day her ordinance of being confirmed a member of the church and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost was performed by Elder Hughes, the other office missionary that helped teach her.   The Elders continue to meet with her and teach her the after baptism lessons.  This past Sunday, Luisa had the courage to bear her testimony in French during sacrament meeting.  The week before, Noella, another new member from Madagascar, gave her first talk in sacrament meeting using the scriptures and did a wonderful job. 

Guy (another member from the Congo) is returning to activity in the church.  We met him during a dinner with a member a few weeks ago.  He is very happy to be attending church again and help to bless and pass the sacrament.  He is very friendly and gives me a big hug every Sunday.  Another “ami” of the church, Simon who also ate dinner with us at a member’s home continues to study with the missionaries and comes to church every Sunday.  A couple originally from Peru came to church for the first time a week ago Sunday.

Ecully Chapel

We are now busily helping President and Sister Roney and the Assistants prepare for the next transfer on the 31^st of July when 26 missionaries leave and 11 arrive.  They returned from their tour of the mission and came to work in the mission office on Tuesday with their three sons.  This was nice because they furnished sandwiches for lunch and brought a basket of what must be the Costco small candy bar mix. 

Sister Jeppson has been preparing a large volume of correspondence relating to this big event.  She also has prepared two laminated pictures of all of the missionaries.  One set of pictures have Velcro backing and are placed on a portable board under headings of locations where they are currently serving.  The other pictures have magnets on the back and will be placed on a large metal board yet to be mounted in President Roney’s office.  These tools help President Roney and the Assistants as they prayerfully seek guidance from the Spirit of the Lord to determine where each missionary should serve across the different areas of the mission.

Nos Petits-Enfants
We encourage you to learn about the different countries of the world and their people and cultures.  This information is fascinating to learn about.  All of these people are Heavenly Father’s children, and He loves them.  Also, take advantage of opportunities to study a foreign language like your oldest cousin, Megan, who is studying French and your Uncle Alex who studied Spanish at BYU.  This kind of knowledge will prepare you for educational and missionary opportunities in the future. 

LETTRE TREIZE POUR LE 4 JUILLET 2012

Happy 4^th of July.  Our holiday ended well because we were able to Skype with some of our children and grandchildren. 

We have been busily engaged during the past two weeks with taking care of necessary office business before President and Sister Murdock departed for home.  We then focused our attention on welcoming President Roney and his wife and helping them understand their administrative responsibilities.  We also had the opportunity to participate in meetings with them as they met first with the mission leadership and then with missionaries from the Lyon Zone.

President and Sister Roney are from Provo.  They have eight children and four grandchildren.  They have two married children and two children currently serving as missionaries.  One son who just returned from a mission a year ago is spending three weeks here while their three youngest sons who are 11, 12 and 17 will live with them in France and attend school here.  President Roney served a mission in the Toulouse, France mission during the late 70’s.  He founded NuSkin and left his position as chairman of the board to serve as mission president for three years.

President and Sister Roney invited us to the mission home that is located in Ecully, a suburb of Lyon, for dinner on Sunday evening.  We enjoyed seeing the mission home and meeting them for the first time.  They are very friendly and expressed appreciation to us for our service.  We helped them get acclimated to their administrative responsibilities on Monday.  They and two missionary assistants conducted a leadership session with the zone leaders from throughout the mission on Tuesday.  We were invited to participate.  They taught the gospel of Jesus Christ while they presented their vision and plans for the future direction of missionary work in the mission locations where we serve.  They plan to conduct meetings throughout the mission area to present their vision and plans the rest of this week and next week.  President Roney will also interview every missionary during this time. 

Their first zone meeting occurred today for the Lyon Zone.  The Lyon Zone includes missionaries from Lyon, St. Etienne, Grenoble, Valence, Besancon, Dijon,  and Chalon.  They will conduct meetings on Thursday and Friday in the Geneva and Lausanne Zones.  Next week they will conduct meetings in the Nice, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpellier Zones.  One of their main themes is that our job on earth is to learn what the Savior taught and obey it.  They gave each missionary a small journal to use in writing down this theme and other main points that they presented.  They also encouraged us to search in the scriptures and Preach My Gospel for sixty major teachings and commandments that the Savior communicated himself or through prophets.  Another major theme centered around the second great commandment of showing love for others.  They asked us to write the things that we learn and related scriptures and stories in our journals.  He said that these journals if used productively will become a precious resource for giving talks and teaching others.

These past two days were very inspirational for us as we participated with President and Sister Roney and the missionaries in being taught the gospel and feeling the spirit.  We know that President and Sister Roney were called by Heavenly Father through a prophet to lead the Mission Francaise de Lyon at this time and that we will be greatly blessed with the opportunity to support them as we go forward in this great work.  We were also excited to hear that an apostle of the Lord, Elder Neil Anderson will visit the mission for a week in November when he comes to speak at the Bordeaux Stake which is in our mission and in the Paris Stake the following week.  He served as a missionary and as a mission president in France and of course speaks French.

I will tell about the kiss/quiche story that we related over Skype today.  When we first arrived at a neighbor’s home for dinner last Friday evening, the sister arose and said what I thought was “quiche” because she told me that is what she was serving.  I translated to Sister Jeppson that same word and that we were going to eat it for dinner.  However, we soon learned that I had misunderstood.  What they really were saying was the English word “kiss” trying to remind Sister Jeppson that French friends will kiss each other on each cheek as a greeting.  Everyone at the dinner got a big laugh out of our misinterpretation of what they were saying.  Then the next Sunday at church, they teased us with the words quiche/kiss as some of them stepped forward to greet Sister Jeppson and kiss her on both cheeks.

Our service here continues to be an international event as we meet people from different countries.  A week ago we met an “amie de l’eglise” (someone learning about the church) from a city near Bejing, China at a showing of the movie Seventeen Miracles on Friday and at church meetings on Sunday.  She had been invited to these meetings by a member of the ward who is a Chinese student that was baptized in April.  During these events, we learned that this Chinese “amie” travels to the church building to and from the same metro (subway) stop that Sister Jeppson and I use.  At the end of each meeting, we had the opportunity to walk with her and ride the metro together.  This gave us the opportunity to get better acquainted and discuss the gospel.  She has been studying French for sixteen months in Lyon and has applied for graduate school.  She seems very interested in BYU.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

Earlier in this letter I mentioned an important thing that our new mission president taught us:  “Our job on earth is to learn what the Savior taught and obey it.”  He mentioned that there are 60 commandments and teachings that the Savior communicated himself in the scriptures or through prophets and asked us to write them in a journal that he gave us.  With the help of your parents, we encourage you to discuss this in family home evening and communicate to us by e-mail some of those commandments and teachings that you would recommend to us to study and write in our journals.  Our mission president suggested one resource for this search of 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon which relates what Jesus taught when He appeared to the people on the American continent after his resurrection.  He also recommended the resource of “Preach My Gospel”.  We love you.

LETTRE DOUZE POUR LE 20 JUIN

We just completed our first time of saying Au Revoir to ten departing missionaries and Bonjour to sixteen new missionaries in Lyon instead of Geneva.  Our office was the focal point for the related activities.  The ten departing missionaries traveled to Lyon on Monday afternoon.  They came to the office for departing interviews with President Murdock and a final testimony meeting.  In between, they traveled by metro to a pizza restaurant and ice cream shop for dinner.  They stayed at a nearby hotel about ½ mile away.  The next morning five of them took the Rhone express from the nearby train station to the Lyon airport to fly home.  The other five greeted their parents at their hotel that morning.  We served closely with one of the missionaries, Elder Smith from Kaysville who served as an assistant to the president.  His father, Dean Smith, has been a close friend of our brother-in-law, Dean Carver.  I had the opportunity to meet the Smiths and their daughter at the hotel.

Sixteen new missionaries arrived late Tuesday morning after flying into the Lyon airport.  They deposited their luggage at the same hotel near the railroad station, took the metro to a French government office and took care of their procedures to be legal to live in France.  They arrived at the mission office around 4:00 p.m. and tried to stay alert during training and orientation meetings until they left to eat dinner at the same restaurant where people ate the night before.  I am sure that they were glad to go to their hotel that night and get some sleep.  The next morning they came back to the office to eat breakfast, meet their trainers who had traveled by train to Lyon on Tuesday afternoon and receive more training.  The exciting time is when they meet their companion/trainer and find out where they are going.  One of the trainers is a friend of our niece, Kate.  The trainers/new missionaries departed by train to their cities early Wednesday afternoon.  The fourteen elders and two sisters came from Utah, Idaho, California, Texas, Oregon, Nevada, Canada, Scotland and Tahiti.

These events were the last major ones for our current mission president and his wife.  They will finish their mission next week when a new mission president, President Roney, arrives with his wife and three sons.  You can see that there will soon be new changes to communicate about.  

Last Saturday evening we attended the baptism of Noëla from Madagascar.  She is in her early 20’s and has a cute little 9 month old son named Noé (Noah-pronounced no-a in French).  We met her several weeks ago when she attended church for the first time after the missionaries started to teach her about the gospel.  We had the opportunity to talk with her and get better acquainted while we walked with her from church and rode the metro together.  We enjoyed talking with her every Sunday.  She was baptized at the stake center in Ecully which is a different direction by metro than traveling to our ward building.  We also take a bus from the metro station to get to the Ecully chapel.  We were spiritually uplifted by the baptismal service which included talks by a humble sister who rose out of her wheel chair to speak and a young man recently baptized from Africa.  A recent convert from China gave the closing prayer.  Noëlla bore her sweet testimony and commented how special it was that it began to rain outside just when she was baptized.  She said that rain was always a special sign for her family while growing up in Madagascar.

The week before, we enjoyed attending stake conference on Saturday evening and Sunday morning at that same Ecully stake center.  It was exciting for me to see the chapel filled with members of the church who came to hear their leaders and general authorities speak.  The members of the stake presidency are probably in their 40’s.  The Sunday morning session was broadcast from a central location in Salt Lake City to members of the church in France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium.  President Eyring, a member of the first presidency and a member of the quorum of twelve apostles and Elder Nelson were among the speakers.  I listened to the meeting in French while it was one of the few opportunities for Sister Jeppson to understand what was being said in church meetings by listening to the broadcast in English.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

Noëla from Madagascar who was baptized on Saturday and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday, gets her baby ready every Sunday to travel with him in a stroller which includes walking, taking the metro (an underground train) and sometimes the bus to get to church.  She has found that she can learn about the gospel at church, take the sacrament, feel the spirit and enjoy associating with the members.  Most of you travel a short distance to church.  I hope that you take advantage of the special opportunity that you have to attend meetings of the true Church of Jesus Christ every Sunday just like this recently baptized convert from Madagascar.   We have learned to appreciate our beautiful meeting houses that we have all over our neighborhoods in Utah.  Here in France we travel far to attend church in a building that is not really a chapel and there is very little parking for people’s cars.         

LETTRE ONZE POUR LE 5 JUIN

It has been four weeks since we last wrote a formal letter.  Elder and Sister Jeppson are beginning to achieve a slight level of recovery from our memorable adventure of moving to Lyon.  Almost every day we have encountered new experiences and sometimes unexpected challenges that have tested us and helped us to establish a new office and maintain our heavy work load; while staying in hotels  for two weeks until our apartment was ready for occupancy.

When I wrote our last letter, a week before we moved, we were still uncertain of finding an apartment in time.  The next day, our last two apartment possibilities floundered and we were starting over.  That Thursday, President and Sister Murdock recommended that we join them and the office elders in fasting and praying to find an apartment.  The next day, an apartment showed up in the advertised computer listings.  Elder Headrick, one of the office elders scheduled to finish his mission on the 21^st of June visited the apartment and made an offer.  The offer was accepted the following Tuesday, the day before we moved.  Amazingly, the apartment building was just across the street from our office building, about three minutes away.  Even though our faith and confidence in that blessing was still to be tested, we have felt the Lord’s hand in answering our prayers and providing this apartment.

We stayed in hotels near Lyon’s large and bustling railroad station for almost two weeks until our apartment was ready for occupancy.  We stayed for two nights in a building called the tower.  The Radisson hotel occupies the top floors.  This is the large building that you can see in the background of the blog.  It is the highest hotel in Europe.  The hotels were a little over one half of a mile from the office.  We either walked or took the metro (subway) to get to the office each day.  During this time we began to encounter one challenge after another with getting our apartment ready. 

The apartment was completely unfurnished.  It needed a kitchen full of appliances including a fridge, stove, microwave, washer and dryer that were eventually delivered.  It is customary with new apartments to furnish them with Ikea products and assemble them.  Over time, our apartment became an Ikea showroom as Elder Headrick, President and Sister Murdock, Sister Jeppson and I  and the other two office elders worked together to assemble a couch, living room cabinet, kitchen cart with shelves, a bed, chest of drawers, two night stands, and two desks.  Elder Headrick literally spent most of the day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday picking out and assembling the furniture.  He then returned home to Ohio the following Monday.  We will never forget his service in helping us survive.

Although the apartment looked quite presentable on the surface, we soon learned that there were some unexpected problems.  The toilet leaked and needed to be replaced.  The hot water heater didn’t work, and major repairs eventually brought hot water needed for daily activities and for radiator heating in the winter.  An electrician will hopefully come soon to upgrade the number of working electrical outlets.  There are three that work outside of those in the kitchen.  A few days ago, we discovered water leaking into a bucket that we had fortunately put under the drain pipe under the sink.

As mentioned earlier in the letter, in spite of the various problems we strongly feel the Lord’s hand in placing us here.  The location has already proven and will continue to prove to be an important blessing.  Parking and driving during rush hour in Lyon is a challenge.  We can walk to work in three minutes no matter what the weather conditions are.  We are 5 minutes away from a nice grocery store with almost everything we need and 20 minutes from one of the largest shopping malls in France near the railroad station.  The mission office has two parking spots.  We were able to park our car in a narrow spot in a garage under the office building.  We are only a quarter of a mile from the Garibaldi metro stop which will connect us to the metro trains, above ground train lines, buses and other public transportation.  We have purchased a monthly pass for seniors that will give us reasonably priced access to the public transportation system.  We have been on the metro several times.  It is well run and maintained.  We have traveled to our Villerbaune ward building three times which is about a 40 to 50 minute metro ride and walk.  I will discuss the ward members and friends of the church that are being taught by the missionaries in another letter.           

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

Heavenly Father has answered our prayers while he has guided us through small and large challenges including finding a place to live.  Always remember to say your prayers every morning and evening. Pray for your parents and for your Grandma and Grandpa.  We need those blessings. I know that he will bless and guide you in your challenges also.

LETTRE DIX POUR 9 MAI, 2012

I will return to our trip to the temple in Bern, Switzerland on the 27^th of April to mention a side tour to Murten (Morat)on our way back.  The town is in the middle of the dividing line between the German and the French areas of Switzerland.  The town has a French and a German name and most of the signs are in French and German.  The cobblestone streets of the town are lined with many houses built with stone after a fire in 1416.  We walked through  
the courtyard of a 13^th century castle and then climbed to the top of the city walls or ramparts that were used in the middle ages to defend the city.  Sister Jeppson bravely climbed up some steep stairs to take some photos of the city and Lake Morat nearby.

Recently, I have enjoyed the opportunity to teach the gospel to les amis de l’église with the missionaries.  The missionaries who are assistants to the President asked me to help teach a man in his fifties.  They asked me to talk about my experience with reading the Book of Mormon.  The Lord blessed me to have the spirit with me in testifying of the power of the Book of Mormon in my life while speaking better French than usual.





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.

Last Sunday during Fast and Testimony Meeting at the Annecy Branch, Sister Jeppson and I bore our testimonies and thanked the members of the Annecy Branch for their friendship and the spirit that we have felt while participating with them in the church meetings each Sunday.  This will be our last Fast and Testimony Meeting while attending that branch.  We will attend church there one more time this Sunday before we move to Lyon.

 Nos petits-enfants

I love teaching the gospel and feeling the spirit during those teaching experiences.  It is a challenge to teach someone or speak in church while trying to use the correct words and grammar while speaking in French.  Heavenly Father and Jesus will bless you in being able to do hard things especially when you are serving him.

 

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.  

  

LETTRE SEPT POUR LE VINGT-DEUX AVRIL

When we lived in Portland, Oregon in the 1970’s, we tried to be thankful for the rain because it helped produce surroundings that were green and beautiful.  We are using the same thought process here in France when we go out in weather that has been cloudy and rainy for every day in April but maybe one.  On Samedi during our preparation day, we decided to stop waiting for a sunny day and drove over to our office location in Thoiry to take a few pictures in between rain drops.  First, we took a stunning picture of our office building with our car in front.  Then we traveled to a Holiday Inn a block down the street where Sister Jeppson bravely climbed four flights of stairs on the outside of the building to take some amazing photos of the city of Thoiry nestled in the foot hills of the Jura Mountains.  We will try to take some pictures again near the same location if the sun shines long enough and at the right time before we leave for Lyon.        

The rain helped us decide to go to a large indoor shopping mall that is five minutes away from our office location.  It is anchored by a department store named MIGROS which is a chain of stores that are mostly located in Switzerland.  We managed to walk through part of the mall long enough to find a jacket that I can wear on preparation days when it is cool and rainy.  We also looked at umbrellas before we bought a few groceries.

We attended an inspirational district meeting on Jeudi with the missionaries in our district.  We were treated with a bonus of a nice lunch and surprise birthday party for Elder Pittson, one of the office elders, hosted by Sister Murdock after the meeting.  As part of the celebration, the other elders made a piñata filled with candy that Elder Pittson had a fun time trying to find and break open while blindfolded. 

We attended church meetings in Annecy with a lot more people in attendance because it was ward conference.  This occasion brought stake leaders and their spouses to the meetings to participate including the stake president and his counselor, and presidents and counselors from the relief society, primary and young women’s organizations.  Two amies (women friends) of the church that the sister missionaries are teaching and their little babies attended the meetings.  In addition, a family with three children attended the meetings for the first time.  They just moved to Annecy where the husband has secured a job.  He speaks French well and is originally from Salt Lake city, and his wife is from Marseille, France.  He said that his parents served a mission in France two years ago.  They will be a nice addition to the branch.  The Stake President’s wife told me how well Sister jeppson had read a paragraph of a conference talk in French during Relief Society.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS
I love to sing the hymns in French for two reasons.  First, the French language is beautiful especially when the words are put with music.  Second, because I am trying to remember and learn the language, I pay special attention to the meaning of the words.  This helps me to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the inspirational messages of our beautiful hymns.  When you sing the hymns in sacrament meeting or the songs in primary, I hope that you will pay special attention to the words and their inspirational meaning as you sing.

LETTER SEPT POUR LE 15 AVRIL 2012

Lundi was a holiday for the French and the Swiss but not for the Americans.  We worked alone all day in a cold office.  We found out later that we could have turned up the heat, but we didn’t know how at the time.  We have needed to turn up the heat all week because it has been rainy with temperatures in the 40’s.    Sister Jeppson has been trying to get warm at the office and at home all week.  Because their children were out of school this week, most of the office workers took the week off while Sister Jeppson worked on her many responsibilities including preparing a lot of correspondence, working on travel arrangements for outgoing and incoming missionaries, and helping me organize and label files while I continued to try to catch up with the many financial projects. 

I had been asked by the human resources manager before he took the week off to lead the office devotional on Tuesday and give a five minute spiritual thought.  I diligently prepared to deliver the thought in French the night before.  However, when only four other people were there at 8:30 a.m. in the morning with one of them anxious to leave on a business trip, I decided to defer my thought until another time.  One person did come into the office for one day.  As I introduced myself and got acquainted, I learned that he was Frère Rimli from Genève.  He had been working with human resources as a service missionary and was cleaning out his office at the conclusion of his service term.  I found out  that he had been ordained an elder by my mission president so you can guess that he was probably close to my age but he looks a lot older (Ha, Ha).  He said that his next assignment is to be a counselor in the Swiss Temple Presidency.  He will be serving with a temple president from Germany. 

Our most exciting adventure this week was a visit to the post office on Samedi which is near the outside market that we visit every week.  The Ferney-Voltaire post office is very modern with a machine that allows patrons to weigh their letters, obtain necessary postage and pay with a credit card.  However, a postal worker still helped us through the process.  We braved the rain to purchase our customary assortment of fruits and vegetables.  This week we purchased a new kind of cheese called Emmental from the Savoie region in France.  The vendor cut off a large slice from a large round chunk of cheese.  We ate some of this kind of cheese with holes later for lunch.  It was magnifique.

Because we had worked so hard this week, while everyone else was enjoying their vacation time, we decided to reward ourselves with two activities.  We ate dinner on vendredi soir at the Buffalo Grill which is just a few blocks away.  We had noticed for some weeks that a lot of people were eating at this restaurant.  The restaurant has a cowboy and rodeo theme with waitresses dressed up as cowgirls, a menu that includes different platters with cowboy names and several kinds of hamburgers, chicken dishes and steaks.  Rodeo films are shown at various locations around the restaurant.  The food was not quite as good as the Texas Roadhouse, but it was a change of pace for us and interesting to see how the French have tried to emulate western themed restaurants in the United States.  Finally, we splurged and purchased our first éclair from our favorite patisserie.  We split it in half for lunch dessert,  It was délicieux.  We thought of you, Emily and Liz, as we ate it and the last time that we enjoyed an éclair in France during our visit to Paris.

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There is a large rock wall that is probably hundreds of years old that divides our apartment complex from a playground.  We often see children at the playground.  There is a ladder that someone has placed against the large wall.  However, the top of the ladder only reaches half way up the wall.   Steven R. Covey, a well known author, has taught that to be successful when we set goals we need to have the ladder in the right place.  If we work for something that has no chance for success or is headed a direction with no lasting value, it is like this ladder that is against a wall that no one can ever climb over and only arrives at a bunch of worthless rocks instead of reaching the playground on the other side.