LettresdeLyon: August 31, 2025

Already the end of August. Where has the summer gone? If I open my journal, I can tell you. Some weeks are very busy, and some give quiet gems of experience. All have been worthwhile. We are so grateful for the opportunity to live in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy, France.

It is time for the grape harvest. We have driven through miles of vineyards. We have seen several acres being picked by hand and learned that the grapes need hot dry weather now for peak sugar levels. Alban, a friend of the church, says he will not see us until the end of the month because he is so busy working, but has set a baptismal date for September 27. He has received his own tearful confirmation that the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Jesus Christ.

Monday we visited a couple in the branch whose 62-year-old daughter passed away recently. She had pancreatic cancer and was being treated, but it had spread. She was found unexpectedly in the morning sitting in her chair facing the television as if she had sat down the night before to watch a program, but had fallen asleep and died. Her father was distraught and inconsolable. That night he had a dream where the daughter came to him and said, “Don’t be sad, because I am very happy here. I’m with (my husband who died not long ago) and my grandmother; it’s beautiful. You should be happy for me!” And when he woke from that dream his sorrow had passed.

Interestingly, she had asked her father the day before she died, “If I go away on a trip for a few days would you watch my dog?” The couple had a faithful German Shepherd who had recently had been put down and the daughter had a German Shepherd also. After she died, they adopted her dog and when he arrived in their house, made himself right at home. He actually sleeps on their bed sometimes. So they were consoled by his dream and had regained another faithful companion to fill the void of their loss.

The next day we went with the sister missionaries to visit Beaune and the Hôtel Dieu, also known as the Beaune Hospice. It was built as a hospital for the indigent in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, funded by a wealthy benefactor, Phillip the Good, and was used as such until 1971. It is now a stelar architectural museum and a major relic of the middle ages. Andre would love it.

Later we drove to Besançon to check a water leak in the Elder’s apartment there. We were not able to fix it but we did find the water cutoff so that it would only leak when the elders turned on the water briefly to collect fresh water for their needs. Interestingly, the senior companion asked us if we had visited Cameroon in our previous mission, which we had. We found a photo of one of the zone conferences we attended which included his older brother who was serving there at the time. We love that the world is such a small place.