May 18, 2025

I have been exploring many ideas in the last few days. I have been thinking about  Elder Soares’ conference talk about reverence - respect and praise for what and who is sacred (my definition).  It made me wonder if reverence is the opposite of the pride of the world.  

An article from a recent conference on Abraham asked this question from Rashi, a French Rabbi in AD 1040.  Who was the most important  figure in the Old Testament?  His answer: the unnamed man who told Joseph where his brothers had gone.  Why could it be possible to agree with him?  If he had not been there, Joseph would not have found them or been sold into Egypt.  No slavery in Egypt, no Moses, no Passover, and so on.  We all have a role to play in God's plan.

From Elder Holland (1980 For Troubled Times) referring to the mists of darkness in Lehi’s dream as the distractions on all of us.  We avoid them by holding onto the rod of iron - the words of Christ. He is the safe harbor.

We have spent some time this week making plans and reservations for the four zone conferences we will be attending in southern and western France next week.  We will be in Lyon, Nice, Marseilles, and Bordeaux. Those are stories for next week's blog. 

We went to Geneva for the first time on Thursday. The drive from our home was spectacular even though we were on the autoroute the entire time.  We were extremely impressed with the engineering of the bridges and viaducts and the mountains. Not so impressed with the city.  When we got to the chapel, all the doors were locked and we thought we were at the wrong building.  There were 2 vehicles in the parking lot and neither was the President's but I could hear someone playing the piano.  We tried one of the doors again and someone walking in the hall happened to see us and let us in.  No one had informed us of a door code.

Tom gave a seminar on health and wellness. Most young missionaries do not understand the correlation between water consumption, diet,  constipation, and diarrhea. Nor do they know that diarrhea is the #1 problem in missions worldwide. Tom taught the digestive system and also after showing  a great ingrown toenail picture of one of their contemporaries, showed them how to cut their toenails so they would not suffer as this elder had. 

Pres. and Sr. Schow have changed the format and the times tor these meetings. At least half of the training involves full participation like role playing or interaction with each other.  We work partly in French and partly English.  Sr. Schow told of her mom and dad considering divorce but then found out they were pregnant with her.  Both were struggling with issues in the church.  She was born with a white film over her eyes, congenital glaucoma, and her parents were told she would always be blind.  It was suggested that her father give her a blessing but although he did not feel worthy, he did give her one and the white film disappeared over a few days.  The doctors described this as an act of God.  Because of this miracle, her parents stayed together, had four more children and all served missions.  She told the story to introduce the idea that the Lord gives all of us a part of being in a miracle. Then we talked about some mission miracles and that one of our mission themes is "expect miracles". We talked about Christ being the greatest provider or instigator of miracles. 

Pres. Schow recounted his experience in the Coordinating Council, the weekend before in Paris.  Our Coordinating Council is the stake presidents in France and French -Switzerland, the mission presidents, the temple president, and the Area Seventy.  After discussing the idea that repentance is not a punishment but an opportunity to change, the topic became the importance of welcoming back everyone who had strayed, no matter the reason. One of the stake presidents brought up the question of possible behavior which would require church discipline. The Area Seventy replied with the parable of the prodigal son whose father saw him away off, ran to meet him, brought him a ring, a robe, and prepared a feast.  His lost son had returned.  Discipline is not where you start.  I was endeared to this interpretation: not judgment but love and acceptance and help moving forward.

 We are learning so much serving here. We love our Presidents, both Catogni and Schow and all the missionaries and the people we meet.

Two whimsical umbrellas over a street on the walk home from church