LETTRE VINGT-NEUF POUR LE 17 MARS 2013

We finally received nice enough weather to walk the cobblestone streets of Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) during our preparation day on Saturday.  According to the travel books of  Rick Steves, Vieux Lyon offers the best concentration of well-preserved Renaissance buildings in France.  These are buildings in pastel colors that are connected to the three main streets by unique doors opening to traboules (passageways) leading through courtyards.  There are plaques at some of the outside entrances that describe the history of the building or who lived there during the 15^th century such as a lawyers, doctors and printers.  The pastries displayed in the windows of one of those buildings constructed in 1498 lured us inside to sit down for a minute and enjoy the most delicious éclairs that we have eaten since we arrived in France.  These traboules were hiding places from the Nazi soldiers for Lyon’s French resistance fighters during World War II.

We helped two couples through a changing of the guard. The Johnstons stored some of their luggage in our apartment while traveling to Italy before returning home to Lacey, Washington last Friday.  Earlier that week, the Millers (from Rawlins, Wyoming) arrived to stay with us and then travel by car to Mont de Marsan, a small city near Bordeaux.  They will only stay there for two weeks and then move to Chalon which is north of Lyon to support the branch there.  Two young sister missionaries will likely take their place in Mont de Marsan.  There will be a similar experience later this month when the Brias come from Virginia to replace the Perrys who will return home to Utah after serving in the Nice Stake Young Single Adults Program.  Elder Bria served in Nice as a young missionary.

I am impressed with our leaders in the Lyon stake.  President Bennasar, our stake president, is a strong dynamic leader who always inspires us when he speaks.  We were blessed with his inspired words during our last sacrament meeting and then earlier in the week during the Lyon Zone Conference.  He talked about the Lord not necessarily always calming the storms of life but calming and supporting us during the storms that we encounter.  He also taught us that the Lord’s ways to bless our lives may not always be the logical ways that we map out for ourselves.  President Bennasar is in his forties and he describes “Why he is a Mormon” on Mormon.org.

President Roney, Sister Roney and the assistants also provided edifying messages during zone conference about the power of prayer, setting standards, and the importance of planning.  Four missionaries who will depart for home in two weeks bore their testimonies for the last time in a Zone Conference.  A couple from the Ecully Ward in Lyon prepared and served lunch.  We and they were touched when all of the missionaries sang “As I Have Loved You’ to thank them for their service.

Nos Petits-Enfants

You will notice in the pictures that are part of this letter that there are unique doors that require a special touch to open.  When opened they reveal dark passageways that lead to the light.  Our prayers of faith are the special touch that can open doors that lead us from the darkness of difficult and troubled times to the light of the Savior’s love, example and guidance.  Prayers of faith can be enlightening and powerful and produce miracles in our lives.  Please strive to receive the blessings of prayer in your lives.    

LETTRE VINGT-HUIT POUR LE 03 MARS 2013

Our mission’s future planning is now focused on the expected impact of President Monson’s announcement during the October 2012 general conference that lowered the missionary age for young men and young women.  After the arrival of twelve new missionaries last week, we now have 153 young adult missionaries:  110 elders and 43 sisters.  After the June 2013 transfer, we will have 190 young adult missionaries:  122 elders and 68 sisters.

To plan for and accommodate our expanded missionary force, President Roney divided the mission into eleven zones instead of seven and called four new sets of zone leaders,  and he also called  two additional office elders (Elder Dean from Fairfield, Ca. and Elder LeDuc from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) to devote a major part of their time to finding and setting up new apartments.

We welcomed six elders and six sisters last week:  two elders and two sisters from French Polynesia, one  elder from England, one sister from Germany, one elder from California, one Elder from Oregon and one elder and three sisters from Utah. 

Sister Jeppson and I are getting accustomed to a major role in planning, providing the food and cleaning up duty for lunch on Tuesday and breakfast and lunch on Wednesday when a new group of missionaries arrive.   Providing lunch continues on Friday when missionaries that arrived six weeks ago come back to Lyon with their trainers for additional instruction and the following Tuesday when the zone leaders come to town for zone leader council.  The work is totally worth it when we have the opportunity to  associate with these new missionaries and their trainers and the leadership of the mission.

Eight of the 22 zone leaders arrived in the mission field after we did.  It is inspiring to see these relatively young elders step up and take on these leadership responsibilities.

In the middle of all of this activity, Sister Jeppson prepared and delivered a talk on prayer in sacrament meeting a week ago Sunday with the help of the wife of the second counselor in the bishopric who translated for her.  Sister Jeppson has a wonderful and inimical way of communicating with and inspiring people when she speaks.

During this busy time, I  had the opportunity twice to meet with our Chinese speaking elders and a student from mainland China.   They need to have a member with them when they teach a woman.  She comes to church almost every week.  They teach her about the gospel, and she tutors them in Chinese.  She tried to think of a Chinese language characters that would come close to the name, Jeppson.  She wrote Elder Jeppson and Sister Jeppson on a sheet of paper in Chinese for me.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

We know that President Monson is a prophet of God and was guided by Jesus Christ to expand missionary work though out the world by changing the missionary ages.  It is exciting to serve in France at a time when we can help our inspired mission president implement the impact of these changes.  As my mission president, President Martin, communicated to me 46 years ago during my last missionary interview with him:   Always follow the prophet.  I encourage you to read in the Friend and the New Era, and listen to General Conference in April for the messages of President Monson and follow what he teaches. 

LETTRE VINGT-SEPT POUR LE 13 FEVRIER

We have accomplished a major milestone so that we can legally stay in France.  Last year in March we obtained an entry on our passport page that allowed us to stay in France until February 2013.  We like all of the missionaries are required to assemble a defined set of legal documents and apply ahead of the expiration date for a Carte de Sejour to legally stay in France for another year.

The line we were in to do legality.  It was cold.

Over two weeks ago, we began our quest for our Carte.  We traveled by metro and tram and on foot so that we could stand in line starting at 8:15 a.m. with hundreds of other foreigners awaiting the 8:30 a.m. opening of the doors of the Lyon prefecture building.  We briefly visited with our fellow line mates including a woman from Morocco.   Fortunately, the weather was relatively nice.  When the government offices opened, we were given the numbers of 92 and 93 at the entrance and then sat in a waiting room to see which government helper would have the honor of helping two well meaning Americans.

We were summoned to window 26 at 11:30 a.m., and the lucky woman began to examine our papers.  It didn’t take long for her to get confused with how to legally handle these senior citizens.  After conferring with her fellow workers, she informed us that one of our documents, our birth certificates, needed a traduction (translation) into French.  My offer to translate the document from English to French didn’t help.  My earnest pleading that hundreds of missionaries in other cities were not required to have a translation fell on deaf ears.  One fellow worker was friendly and spoke pretty good English, but his English knowledge did not overcome their supervisor’s insistence that the legal requirement in Lyon for a professional translation of our birth certificates applied to us.  So hat and documents in hand, we retreated by foot, tram and metro back to the office after stopping at a McDonalds near the metro stop. 

Two traductions to our birth certificates in hand and almost two weeks later, we bravely returned to the battle ground where we had once been defeated to try again.  This time, we forgot our map and a nice lady was placed in our path to give us directions to the prefecture.  We arrived to stand in line at 7:45 a.m. hoping to receive a lower number and visited with a man from Bosnia.  We were rewarded with the numbers 62 and 63.  I jokingly informed Sister Jeppson that our friendly English speaking worker from two weeks ago was seated near to us behind window 14 and that we deserved to be summoned to his window this time.  At 11:00 a.m., window 14 was matched with number 62 and we succeeded in providing each legal document that our friendly opponent requested.  We proudly departed the prefecture with a temporary document in hand that supports our legal status until we obtain the real document that allows us to stay for another year.  We have the opportunity to return to our increasingly familiar location around the end of May but at 1:30 p.m. instead of the morning to pick up our cartes de sejour.

We have moved from the third floor of our apartment on Rue de l’Abondance to the third floor of an apartment four blocks away on Rue de la Bannière.  It was hard work to pack up and move boxes and furniture to the new place.  While waiting for the availability of the mission van which was on a zone conference tour, we were anxious to take advantage of a few moments in between rain drops and snow showers.  So we asked the missionaries to take a load of boxes on our mission’s four wheel cart on the side walk and across intersections from one apartment to the other.  We then decided that we would try to move a few loads ourselves while the weather was good.  During our first try, we were doing very well until we came to a place where dog poop was strewn along the middle of the sidewalk.  While trying to maneuver around it on a slight incline, some of the boxes fell off and their contents ended up in the gutter and on the dog poop that we were trying to avoid.  We bravely salvaged most of our things but had to throw away some Ensign magazines.  The next day the Lord blessed us with a partial day of sunshine that allowed the missionaries to move two loads of heavy furniture in the mission van from the old apartment to the new apartment.  Just as they finished around 5 p.m., it started to rain.  

We now have a longer walk to the office, but this apartment has several advantages for the future:  a parking place for our car in a locked garage in a parking area under our apartment building, storage in the back of the garage and in a cave (storage unit) for missionary materials to free up office space, and an extra bedroom where new couples arriving in Lyon can stay before they travel to their new assignments, a small grocery store near the apartment, and four blocks closer:  the mall, railroad station and our famous pencil shaped building that you see in the background of our mission blog.

Standing, Bishop of the Gerland Ward, from Gabon

We continue our edifying experience of attending baptism services for converts from different countries.  Two weeks ago from Saturday, Allie, a student from Sydney, Australia was baptized by President Roney.  His family and the Ecully ward were instrumental in fellowshipping her.  Sister Green ,  who directs the Young Single Adults Center with her husband spoke in English with a French translator.  A student from the USA who speaks excellent French spoke in English but translated her talk into French while she spoke.  We hope that Allie’s twin sister will progress towards baptism also.  Yesterday, we attended a baptism service for Gavin from Nigeria who attends the Gerland Ward.  He has been taught over a five month period by sisters  and then elders.  One of the elders returns home on Tuesday.  A sister from the ward gave a heartfelt talk  on baptism in French and then Soeur Hyrkas, a sister missionary from Finland, gave a wonderful talk about the Holy Ghost.  The bishop of the ward who conducted the meeting is from Gabon.  Gavin was baptized by a member of the Gerland ward who is French and his wife is from Utah.  He speaks excellent English.  Gavin then had the courage to speak.

Sister Jeppson and I participated in some ward and stake activities recently.   We went to a relief society activity in the home of one of the sisters in the ward where Sister Jeppson operated a sewing machine to sew clothes for needy families.  I spoke in the place of President Roney at a stake fireside where three coverts, a ward mission leader and a stake high councilman also spoke.    I knew that people from areas as far as two hours away would be coming to the fireside to hear President Roney speak so I really needed help from the Lord.  I felt guided by the spirit as I prepared and delivered the talk about the blessings of the gospel in our lives.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

We just moved to an apartment on 1 rue Bannière which means banner in English.  In English we can also compare a banner to a flag.  Our American flag is a symbol of patriotism.  Our French Triple Combination scriptures dictionary states that the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ are symbolic bannières (banners) for all the nations of the earth.  We feel very blessed to serve as missionaries and in our own way raise a symbolic banner of the church as we wear our missionary badges and represent Jesus Christ in France.  We hope that you will set good examples of our church for other people and prepare to one day raise a symbolic banner as a missionary.

LETTRE VINGT-SIX POUR LE 23 JANVIER 2013

After Centerville received heavy snow fall that closed schools earlier this month, Lyon received a few inches of snow last week which was enough to cancel the flight from Paris to Lyon of our eight new missionaries.  Instead of arriving by plane at 9:00 a.m. they arrived by train at 3:00 p.m.  That may have been a blessing in disguise because their opportunity to rest on the train probably helped them to be more alert the rest of the day.

They still managed to be trained, fed and legalized during their two days in Lyon before heading out with their trainers to assigned cities in France and Switzerland.  Two sisters from the same stake in England joined six elders from the Canary Islands (Spain), Finland, Texas, North Carolina, and Utah.  Fourteen missionaries returned to our Lyon office last Friday with their trainers for their customary follow-up training after serving for six weeks.  Our fourteen zone leaders received training at the office from the Assistants and President Roney on Tuesday of this week to prepare for zone training that they will conduct on Thursday.

Our opportunity to associate with all of these wonderful missionaries greatly outweighs the work of planning meals, buying groceries, Sister Jeppson baking around 220 chocolate chip cookies, setting up and cleaning up.  We also had a chance to take the office elders out for lunch at a “Fish & Chips” place before we lost two of them at the transfer.

In addition to hosting missionaries, we found ourselves in the middle of some extra office activities like overcoming the technical difficulties caused by Orange communications upgrading our internet system and the church missionary department switching from JP Morgan to Bank of America for providing debit cards for the support funds for missionaries.  Our technical support expert at the office, Sister Jeppson, solved the problem of a network printer that didn't work after the internet upgrade by figuring out how to input new codes to the printer system and re-installing the printer to all of our computers when one level of technical support in Salt Lake couldn't solve the problem while the next level followed their usual “respond within 72 hour  schedule”.

There was so much going on at the office, we thought that you ought to finally see a picture of the Lyon Business Centre.  We are on the 2^nd floor.  We were able to get a better picture of the office building recently because old structures which housed a car repair garage and other businesses have been torn down to make way for a new apartment building.

I have had more opportunities to practice my French recently.  I was the intermediary while upgrading our internet system between French speaking technicians at our office and English speaking technicians at the church offices in Salt Lake.  The two groups had different ideas on how to solve technical problems.  Trying to mix language problems with technical computer lingo was an interesting challenge.  I sometimes have opportunities to communicate problems on the phone or by e-mail or letters with various vendors like a phone call yesterday with a representative of EDF, the French government’s electric company that provides electricity to all of our apartments. 

While waiting for Métro (Subway) when we were traveling to church a week ago Sunday, I spoke to a man from the Congo about the gospel and gave him a Book of Mormon.  During sacrament meeting a week ago Sunday, I received a note from a counselor in the bishopric that led to an unexpected opportunity to speak.  Last Sunday, at the request of the High Priest Group Leader, I taught the Priesthood lesson from the new George Albert Smith manual. I will soon have another opportunity to practice speaking French because President Roney recommended that I speak in his place at a fireside the first Sunday in February because he will be out of town.  

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

Your grandma and grandpa find ourselves doing difficult things outside of our comfort zones like solving technical computer problems, trying to speak and understand the French language and talking to strangers about the gospel.  Your grandmother continues to study the French language every day even though it is hard to understand what people say because they speak so fast, and she only hears the language spoken once a week at church meetings.  Think about how hard it would be to attend church meetings for three hours every Sunday and only understand a few words.  It is okay to try to do hard, worthwhile and righteous things because Heavenly Father will help us through the challenges. Remember the promise found in D & C 84:88:  “…for I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” 

LETTRE VINGT-CINQ POUR LE 6 JANVIER, 2013

The number of this letter happened to fit with the date that I am writing about first.  We awoke on Christmas morning with excitement to open our presents.  Fortunately, we had something to open thanks to Jack, Sherry and Natalie.  They had sent a Christmas package containing wrapped gifts and messages intended to be read and opened during several days leading up to Christmas.  We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas morning by reading each poem, story or saying and opening the present with the corresponding number.  We enjoyed the creativity used by the Pagets to match each gift with the message.  The final message was a beautiful Christmas tree that Natalie had drawn.  The related present was a miniature Christmas tree that we placed in middle of our table.  It became our apartment Christmas tree until New Years Day.  

An artificial Christmas tree was set up and decorated at the office by one of the missionaries with lights and ornaments that were small pictures of each missionary in the France Lyon Mission.  We will remember one of the presents all year because it is a book of daily inspirational church history thoughts entitled, All is Well.

 We enjoyed skyping with most of our family members on Christmas eve or on other days during the holiday season.  Four missionaries came to our apartment on Christmas evening to use our skyping capabilities to communicate for one hour each with their families. We enjoyed hearing the excitement of these encounters with their families from Calgary, Alberta (Stanford); Gresham, Oregon (Hanset); North Salt Lake, Utah (Haiparai-Hansen:  His mother is Tahitian); and Orem, Utah (Kunz).  All of the missionaries in our Lyon Zone gathered at the Ecully chapel for a training meeting on December 27^th led by the zone leaders.   We were sad to miss Abby’s baptism service on December 29^th.

The days leading up to the end of 2012 were packed with a lot of accounting activities and year end journal entries that were completed with Sister Jeppson’s help on New Year’s Eve.  Instead of staying up past 12:00 a.m. our time, we decided to celebrate the arrival of the New Year of 2013 using mountain standard time of 8:00 a.m.  on January 1^st with a breakfast of a croissant stuffed with scrambled eggs and bacon.  Members of the Villeurbanne Ward fixed and served a delicious New Years Day lunch at the ward building for all of the Lyon missionaries.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

We were very happy today to attend church meetings for the first time in 2013 beginning at 9:00 a.m. instead of 2:00 p.m.  We switched meeting times with the other ward that meets in our building.  Today, Grandma and I began listening to Histoires Du Livre de Mormon in French while following along with this French version of Stories of the Book of Mormon for children.  As I have mentioned in other letters we also listen to ten pages of the Book of Mormon in English while following along in French.  There are no recordings in French that are available.  This activity helps us to learn from the scriptures and improve our French.  We encourage you to read from the Book of Mormon or Stories of the Book of Mormon every day during 2013 along with Grandma Jeppson and me. This will help the church history saying of All is Well be applicable to all our lives in 2013.

LETTRE VINGT-QUATRE POUR LE 23 DECEMBRE 2012

 We have been blessed to spend the days leading up to Christmas with wonderful experiences with members, missionaries and new converts.

We attended our ward Christmas party on the same day as the Bagley Christmas party.  The French people really know how to celebrate.  They had decorated the room at the church very creatively and set up tables with the name of each person planning to attend.  They served a four course meal and we enjoyed the games, messages and stories that were part of the program.  The party started at 7:00 p.m. and we arrived home at 11:30 p.m.  We sat at a table with a Sister from Ethiopia who joined the church in Australia and an ami (friend) of the church whose family were refugees from Viet Nam during the war.  His father served in the South Vietnamese army and was killed during the fighting.

On Thursday of this past week, we ate lunch at the home of Frère and Soeur Roux.  He is the High Priests Group Leader.  They have been members of the church for sixty years.  He has served in three different temple presidencies at the Swiss Temple.  They have served for six years in total.  He received telephone calls from President Monson on two occasions when the calls to serve were extended.

We attended two baptismal services last weekend.  A man from the Congo, Hadric, who was taught by the sister missionaries was baptized on Saturday and a young woman in her 20’s from Bejing, China, Liu Jing, who was taught by two elders who learned Chinese at the MTC was baptized on Sunday.  The young woman’s baptismal service was conducted in English and was especially inspiring as she bore a powerful testimony after she was baptized explaining her conversion experience.  She described how she was encouraged while growing up to be competitive in sports and other activities in China by focusing fully on achieving and putting down others.  She said the more she selfishly focused on herself at the expense of others the worse she felt.  She said that during this time she felt that there was a small box of light deep inside of her waiting to be opened. She came to Lyon to study French at one of the universities.   When the missionaries contacted her and taught her, the box opened and she felt the light of the Holy Ghost and warmth and love of the Savior and others as she learned the truth and progressed towards baptism.  She expressed her love for the people attending the baptism and we felt the spirit strongly.  

President and Sister Roney, the office elders and the assistants have been planning and preparing for conferences with the missionaries that happened last week.  We worked hard to support them.  Sister Jeppson had communicated to the families of the missionaries to send their Christmas packages to the office.  I kept a record of the receipt of the packages and used every empty shelf space to store them.  If some missionaries did not receive packages, President Roney purchased various small items to wrap to put in large plastic bags for each of them.  Sister Jeppson spent a lot of time helping to wrap everything and put them in the bags.  The office elders and assistants prepared a CD with appropriate Christmas and spiritual music and a DVD with pictures sent in by the missionaries.  We also received just in time liahonas (Ensigns) for November and December and new Debit Cards for each missionary to be administered by a new banking institution.   

Conferences were planned for our seven zones for last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in three locations:  Geneva, Marseille and Toulouse.  Tuesday was a very busy day as we prepared the debit cards and instructions for distribution and organized all of the packages and other items so that the elders could load them into our large mission van.  Four missionaries traveled to Geneva in the mission van on Wednesday morning.  Sister Jeppson and I took the train at 6:30 a.m., (We started the day at 4:00 a.m.) , Wednesday morning to Geneva with another couple and all of the missionaries from the Lyon area.  After a two hour train ride, we caught a tram that arrived at a stop close to the Geneva church building.

The theme of the conference was centered around the Savior and Christmas.  President Roney spoke of the birth of the Savior and His relationship with his mother Mary.  He then spoke of a tender experience when his mother passed away while he was serving in the Toulouse area as a missionary.  Sister Roney spoke about the gifts that the Savior and our Heavenly Father have provided to us.  The assistants are accomplished singers.  They sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing and used that as a theme for their instruction.  President Bonny (the Geneva Stake President) and his wife also addressed us with uplifting messages. 

During lunch the Christmas packages, CDs and DVDs and a surprise, an apron with a new mission logo, were distributed to each missionary.  They enjoyed signing each other’s aprons during lunch and after  conference.  The Geneva Stake Relief Society had organized and served a delicious lunch.  President Bonny distributed a sack to each missionary with a loaf of delicious bread and a chocolate bar.  They became our dinner at the train station before returning by train to Geneva.  Many of the missionaries were in the same train car with us.  I sat across the aisle from a lady that seemed to wonder about who all of these young people were.  I spoke with her about them and their missionary service and purpose and gave her a pass along card.  She is a resident of Geneva.  We returned to Lyon and arrived back in our apartment around 8:00 p.m.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

Intermingled in the talks and instruction at the missionary conferences were opportunities to sing Christmas Carols including a portion of the Hallelujah Chorus with a recording of the Tabernacle Choir.  We felt the spirit throughout the meeting, but especially while we sang that song which praises the Savior.  Although we miss our family members, we have felt that there is no better way to spend the Christmas season than being in full-time service for Him whose birth we celebrate.  We hope and pray that you will have a wonderful experience during this Christmas season and encourage you to especially focus on the life and example of Jesus Christ.  Joyeux Noel!        

LETTRE VINGT-TROIS POUR LE 06 DECEMBRE 2012

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.   

    

LETTRE VINGT-DEUX POUR LE 17 NOVEMBRE 2012

It is Tuesday afternoon on November 13, 2012.  Eighty-nine missionaries are gathered outside the Ecully chapel in Lyon in front of trees with their late fall foliage.  They are from our Lyon, Geneva , Lausanne and Nice Zones.  Our missionary leaders have done their best to arrange us with a small opening in the middle so that we are ready for a quick photo with important visitors that will arrive soon.  Our visitors arrive in a large van.  President Roney quickly sets up his camera on a tripod while Elder Andersen, an apostle of the Lord and his wife, Sister Roney and Elder Kearon (2^nd counselor from the area presidency from England) step into the middle of the throng of missionaries.  I find myself standing right next to Elder Andersen with Sister Jeppson at my side.  President Roney rushes to his wife’s side and the remote camera snaps several pictures.  The large group disbands and enters the building according to a plan.

Elder Andersen, Elder Kearon, and seven members of stake presidencies from Lyon, Nice and Lausanne have lined up to greet and shake hands with each missionary as they enter the chapel.   After everyone is seated a choir of missionaries with Sister Kofoed from Bountiful as a soloist set the spiritual tone for the rest of the meeting when they sing Merveilleux l’amour (I Stand All Amazed).  The meeting is conducted in English with translation into French though headsets.  Sister Roney shares some insights that she learned while reading the Book of Mormon again recently as a missionary.  President Roney speaks about faith and trust in Christ.  Elder Kearon discusses the importance of the power of the spirit.  Sister Andersen relates experiences relating to her husband’s calling as a mission president and later in 2009 as an apostle.  Elder Andersen concludes the meeting by describing his calling as an apostle, teaching  about the fruits of the spirit from Galatians 5:2, sharing insights about sharing the gospel, and teaching and testifying about Jesus Christ.

I cannot adequately describe the depth of feeling when an apostle of the Lord testifies of the Savior, and you know that he really is a special witness of the Savior because he testifies and witnesses in such a profound and inspiring way that you know that he knows that the Savior lives and has been blessed with sacred experiences in acquiring that knowledge.  At the end of his testimony he says to the congregation, “I love you”.  When I respond back like the others and say “We love you”, the spirit is very strong as I receive a personal witness that Neil A. Anderson is indeed an apostle of the Lord, a prophet, seer and revelator.

That evening we travel from the church by bus, metro and tram with other missionaries to a large assembly hall where hundreds of members from the Lyon area gather to hear Elder Andersen speak.  We are very pleased when our amie (friend), Hermine from Gabon, comes to the meeting and we have the blessing of sharing the experience with her of hearing an apostle of the Lord speak.  This time the meeting is conducted in French with translation into English.  The Lyon stake president conducts the meeting and also shares experiences with Elder and Sister Andersen as a young single adult in Bordeaux twenty years ago while Elder Andersen served as a mission president.  Elder Kearon requires a translator as he speaks about the symbol of roses.  Sister Andersen speaks in French and shares experiences and teaches about tithing.  Elder Andersen speaks in French about marriage and the family and the theme taken from the New Testament, “I was blind, now I can see”.  He teaches and testifies about the Savior and bestows an apostolic blessing on the audience.  After the meeting he graciously stays to shake hands with the members and amis of the church including our amie, Hermine.  We hear later that Elder Andersen traveled to give blessings to two sick children in hospitals after leaving the meeting.  We return home knowing that we have been blessed with a memorable, life changing experience.

NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

During the April 2010 conference, Elder Andersen gave a talk with the title, “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus”.  He quoted words from the Primary song:  Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear, Things I would ask him to tell me if he were here.  Then he talked about experiences of Jesus Christ just like he did with us during our Tuesday meetings.  I encourage you to read this talk again and encourage your parents to use it as a theme for a home evening lesson.  Grandma and Grandpa are reading a special book about Jesus:  Jesus the Christ by a former apostle, James E. Talmage.  We encourage everyone at the right age level to understand it to read or reread this marvelous book.

When reading and being taught about the stories of Jesus, you probably remember stories that include his apostles like Peter, James and John.  I believe that even though our current apostles including Elder Andersen were not with Jesus in Galilee and Jerusalem, they are so close to him through the sacred and spiritual experiences of their ministry that their desire to serve, their spiritual strength, their priesthood power and their testimonies of the Savior are just as strong as the ancient apostles.       

   

LETTRE VINGT-ET-UN POUR LE 06 NOVEMBRE 2012

Last Saturday, we hopped on the metro at our closest station, Garabaldi, and got off two stops later at Montplaisir-Lumière (Light) to visit a museum that tells the story of two brothers with the same last name of the metro stop, Louis and Auguste Lumière who Rick Steves calls the Eastman-Kodaks of France.  The home of their father, Antoine, has been transformed into the museum.  The brothers ran a huge factory on that site that produced four million glass photographic plates a day during the 1880s.  In 1895, they made the first cinématographe, or movie.  In 1903 they pioneered the “autochrome” process of painting frames to make “color photos”.  In the early 1900s they sent photographers all over the world to film and take photos of people and their surroundings in many countries.

Since the last transfer, our Villeurbanne District has become more international.  We noticed this during our district meeting last Thursday.  Elder Tromeur who comes from Como near Milan, Italy is now the companion of Elder Sopi who comes from a city near Paris.  Many of you may remember that my sister Jeri served a mission in Italy with headquarters in Milan.  Elder Bennallack who is from Australia stayed in Lyon and has a new companion, Elder Wulfenstein.  No, he is not from Germany or Austria, but from St. George, Utah.  We have a new area that was opened this transfer added to our district which is Corsica, the island in the Mediterranean.  The two missionaries now residing there are Elder Prunin from Nimes, France and Elder Gouttin from Bailluel France.  They participated in our meeting through a conference call.  You may have guessed by now that our meeting was conducted in French.  This was harder for Sister Jeppson to understand, but she still added wisdom and inspiration to the meeting with her comments.

We were very pleased last Sunday with the opportunity to associate with amies (friends) who continue to attend church meetings.  Our amie from Gabon returned from Spain and attended church meetings at the Ecully Ward building.  She called me on Saturday evening to let me know she had returned.  We will be supporting the missionaries when they teach her this Thursday.  Also, Yan our amie from China attended church meetings with us at the Villeurbanne Ward location.  She gave a closing prayer at the end of our Sunday School class. The missionaries are helping her to gain a greater understanding of Jesus Christ.  Sister Jeppson has a genuine way of letting people like her feel special and loved.

Today, the office missionaries and assistants met with President Roney to discuss plans for the visit of Elder Neil L. Andersen, one of the twelve apostles of the church.  He and his wife will speak in a stake conference meeting in Bordeaux, France where he served as mission president several years ago.  He also served as a young missionary in France.  He will then meet with missionaries from three mission zones during a two hour meeting in the afternoon.  He will come to Lyon on Tuesday and meet with the  rest of the missionaries in our mission area in the afternoon and then he and his wife will speak during a meeting with members and friends of the church in the area that evening.  We are preparing our hearts and minds for this special occasion by reading his conference talks since being called to serve as an apostle in 2009.

 NOS PETITS-ENFANTS

We mentioned earlier that we visited the Lumière Museum.  You may remember that Lumière was the name of the candle stick character in Beauty and the Beast.  Lumière is the beautiful and meaningful French word for “light”.  The Lumière family placed special symbols of light in their home including a rooster at the head of a staircase that welcomes the light of a new day as well as using decorations of stars and sunflowers.  While we were at the museum, I thought of a scripture about light from the Doctrine & Covenants.  After finishing reading the Book of Mormon, Grandma and I are reading ten pages in the Doctrine & Covenants in French while listening to it in English.  We read Section 50 verse 34 that evening, the scripture that I had thought about at the museum:  “That which is of God is Light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day”.  I encourage us to continue in God and receive more light by praying, living the commandments, serving others and reading the scriptures and the messages of our current prophet and apostles.  I encourage you to join us in reading the talks of Elder Andersen and using one as the theme of your family home evening lesson next Monday evening, the day before he meets with us here in Lyon.  

LETTRE VINGT POUR LE 27 OCTOBRE 2012

In 1856, the Lyon city planners purchased a large farm called the Tete d’Or (Head of Gold) by the Rhone River and created a large park where  residents of the city could relax and enjoy walking and other activities in a spacious area that is one of the largest urban parks in Europe.  The park displays a variety of attractions including a roseraie (rose garden) with 70,000 plants and 350 varieties of roses and a jardin zoologique (zoo).  A large modern community center, the Cité Internationale  comprised of buildings that contain offices, hotels, restaurants, theaters,  lodgings and a large amphitheater that seats 3,000 people called the Palais des Congrès (constructed in 2006) lies between the park  the Rhone River.  I wish that we had pictures to accompany this narrative.  Unfortunately, this is one of the places in Lyon that we should have visited when flowers were at their peak of blooming.  

Last Sunday, Sister Jeppson and I attended the Lyon Stake Conference meeting at the Palais de Congrès near the park.  We traveled by metro and a bus and arrived early enough to find a seat in the front.  I enjoyed watching members and amis of the church enter and come close to filling about  80% of the amphitheater.  The stake covers a large area surrounding Lyon that includes the wards of Villeurbanne, Ecully and Gerland in the metropolitan Lyon area and wards located in the cities of Grenoble, Valence,  Clermont-Ferrand, and St. Etienne (a city where I served as a young missionary). 

The Lyon stake president, President Bennasar, and his two counselors spoke along with President and Sister Roney , and some other members of the stake including some recent converts.  Sister Jeppson remarked that she now knew a new definition of hope.  It is for her to bring paper and a pen for taking notes when talks are given in French.  I was inspired and uplifted by the music and talks.  We noticed today that President Bennasar is featured on the French version of Mormon. Org.   He is an impressive and relatively young leader, probably in his 40’s.

We enjoyed the opportunity of welcoming nine new missionaries this past week, including four sister missionaries and five elders.  Our plans for Tuesday where suddenly changed  when we received word at the office by someone in the church travel office that the missionaries had missed their plane and would arrive at around 6:00 p.m. instead of 11:15 a.m.  We were at the office discussing how we would adjust our plans when President Roney received a call from one of the sister missionaries at about 11:30 a.m.   who was at the Lyon airport wondering if anyone was going to meet them and provide transportation.  The plane had waited for them even though they were late.

We all sprang into action.  President Roney, the office elders and the elders who are the assistants to the president quickly prepared to head to the airport while Sister Jeppson and I assembled some sack lunches that we thought wouldn’t  be needed.  Our activities almost continued as planned  through the rest of the day.  Sister Jeppson and I met the new missionaries and those that picked them up at the airport at the large hill by the Fourviere Cathedral that overlooks Lyon.  Sister Jeppson took each of the new missionaries’ pictures with the city of Lyon in the background which is becoming a mission tradition.

We traveled to the mission home where the missionaries managed to stay somewhat alert by playing “Around the World” ping pong while waiting for a delicious meal prepared by Sister Roney.  While at the mission home, one of the office elders became aware that the airlines was in the process of sending the missionaries’ luggage back to the states because it hadn’t followed them on their almost missed flight.  They worked things out and picked up their luggage at the airport and delivered it to each missionary’s hotel room around 10:30 p.m. that evening.  While they were working on that problem, Sister Jeppson worked at the office to email the pictures from Fourviere Hill and pictures taken with President and Sister Roney at the mission home to parents in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Florida, Quebec and Denmark who were anxious to hear about their missionaries.

The next morning, the missionaries came to the office, met their trainers, learned where their first homes in France would be, received training and headed to their new locations in Bordeaux, Valence, Dijon, Chalon, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Gap, Toulouse and Annemasse.  While they were traveling to their new cities, two of our experienced native French elders, Elder Gouttin and Elder Prunin began an historic event for the mission traveling to open up the island of Corsica to missionary work again and lend support to the small branch of Bastia.

Nos Petits-Enfants

We were inspired by the music at a recent fireside at the Villeurbanne Ward.  The hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, was performed by three young adult musicians playing the piano and violins.  Later in the meeting President Roney played the same hymn as sung by the Tabernacle Choir during his talk.  During the music, we felt the spirit strongly because we know that our family is truly one of the great blessings of our life.  We have attached excerpts from a talk by a German general authority of several years ago, Elder Enzio Busche, given to us in district meeting.  Parents: this talk would make a great family night lesson.

** ELDER BUSCHE'S TALK ("Unleashing the Dormant Spirit"):

•  When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we will not sin. We will be filled with wisdom, and we will be able to have the fruits to heal the wounds of the afflicted and to build a community of Saints. It is also obvious that without constant efforts, it will be very difficult to always be focused on our most righteous desires. Therefore, I want to share with you a vehicle, an instrument, that I developed some time ago for myself and for my family. It can assist us to reach our focus as we read the suggested vision of true discipleship as a Latter-day Saint. It helps when, from time to time, we ponder and seek identification with the following thoughts:
• * Embrace this day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks. The covenant with God to which you are true enables you to become enlightened by him, and nothing is impossible for you.
• * When you are physically sick, tired, or in despair, steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in gratitude and love, toward God.
• * In your life there have to be challenges. They will either bring you closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But you make the decision of which road you take.
• * First and foremost, you are a spirit child of God. If you neglect to feed your spirit, you will reap unhappiness. Don't permit anything to detract you from this awareness.
• * You cannot communicate with God unless you have first sacrificed your self-oriented natural man and have brought yourself into the lower levels of meekness, to become acceptable for the Light of Christ.
• * Put all frustrations, hurt feelings, and grumblings into the perspective of your eternal hope. Light will flow into your soul.
• * Pause to ponder the suffering Christ felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the awareness of the depth of gratitude for him, you appreciate every opportunity to show your love for him by diligently serving in his Church.
• * God knows that you are not perfect. As you suffer about your imperfections, he will give you comfort and suggestions of where to improve.
• * God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that he makes to us—everything will fall into its place.
• * Avoid any fear like your worst enemy, but magnify your fear about the consequences of sin.
• * When you cannot love someone, look into that person's eyes long enough to find the hidden rudiments of the child of God in him.
• * Never judge anyone. When you accept this, you will be freed. In the case of your own children or subordinates, where you have the responsibility to judge, help them to become their own judges.
• * If someone hurts you so much that your feelings seem to choke you, forgive and you will be free again.
• * Avoid at all cost any pessimistic, negative, or criticizing thoughts. If you cannot cut them out, they will do you harm. On the road toward salvation, let questions arise but never doubts. If something is wrong, God will give you clarity but never doubts.
• * Avoid rush and haste and uncontrolled words. Divine light develops in places of peace and quiet. Be aware of that as you enter places of worship.
• * Be not so much concerned about what you do, but do what you do with all your heart, might, and strength. In thoroughness is satisfaction.
• * You want to be good and to do good. That is commendable. But the greatest achievement that can be reached in our lives is to be under the complete influence of the Holy Ghost. Then he will teach us what is really good and necessary to do.
• * The pain of sacrifice lasts only one moment. It is the fear of the pain of sacrifice that makes you hesitate to do it.
• * Be grateful for every opportunity to serve. It helps you more than those you serve.
• * And finally, when you are compelled to give up something or when things that are dear to you are withdrawn from you, know that this is your lesson to be learned right now. But know also that, as you are learning this lesson, God wants to give you something better.