Week of 4 October 2009

In Geneva, it’s 8 hours later than in Salt Lake City: Broadcasts for the Sunday sessions of General Conference were at 11, 2, 6, and 10-12 pm. The talks were inspiring, and the Spirit bore strong witness that this is indeed the work of our Father in Heaven. We were particularly impressed with the talks by Elder Tad Callister, about Joseph’s prophetic calling and by Elder Holland, about Hyrum and Joseph’s last moments, just before they sealed their testimony of the Book of Mormon with their own martyrdom; there was also a great feeling of love both from and toward those who spoke.

Geneva’s phare and jet’d’eau alight on Monday evening

What’s a phare? The weather was so pleasant after Monday’s Spanish family home evening that we stopped along Lake Geneva and took a stroll out to the lighthouse (“phare”) which had red/pink lights shining onto it; at the same time, for some reason the Jet d’eau was illuminated in blue-green light – so we had to take some pictures. While there, we encountered some men from Beijing, here for an international technology convention – they said it was the largest such annual convention worldwide. When we got home around 10:30 pm, we had some buttered toast topped with raspberry jam and cheese. Aahh, life is good.


A pink lighthouse?

A mild impression helps us help a family: Tuesday morning at 8:15 the doorbell rang to announce the arrival of a man to replace our water meter. The work was completed by 9 or so, but we decided to scrub the floor before putting back the storage unit where the man had been working; one thing led to another, and soon we were cleaning grease spatters from the windows near the stove, and then we cleaned the windows in the living room. After our 6 pm meeting with the Rive Gauche Ward missionaries, Dede felt impressed to take some homemade cookies to the Valdivia family. We arrived shortly after 8 pm and spent an hour with the family. We learned that their 18-yr old son Harry was hospitalized to have some medication adjusted. Since he is somewhat bored there, we decided to take him a copy of the Liahona to read while he’s there. We were happy to realize that the Lord will guide us to help a family where there is a need, even though they're not active.

Wednesday, Dede finished preparing her Spanish Book of Mormon lesson while I did some laundries. The lesson went very well. Elder & Sister Jones kindly shared a dessert afterwards – cake with sherbet and frozen raspberries. Life is still very good.

Two “minor miracles” in one day: Friday, we wanted to visit Harry Valdivia in the hospital before driving up north to Yverdon. We stopped at the mission home to pick up a copy of the Liahona for him. That stop, plus the traffic, delayed our getting to the hospital complex, and I was feeling some frustration and uneasiness, since we wanted to leave no later than 4:30 for Yverdon, to miss the usual traffic snarls. Even though I’d printed out a map for the last part of the trip, we had trouble finding the street. When we finally got to the right building around 4:30 pm, signs indicated that visiting hours were from 6-7:30 pm, and I worried that our efforts would be in vain. But we walked in anyway, and as we stood looking around, a young man came up and asked in English if he could help. As we began to tell him we were looking for Harry Valdivia, he said 'Here he is now!' as he came through the door from playing soccer. We learned that he was going to leave in a half hour to take a bus home to spend the weekend with his family, so we gave him the Liahona, and just visited for 10 minutes or so. As we left the hospital, we were flabbergasted that this “timing” miracle had occurred: had we been two minutes (or more) earlier, we’d have missed him! Had we come much later, he might already have left for the weekend.

Sabrina’s sister Barbara isn’t so sure about the tuna-rice

We still needed to go back to our apartment to pick up some things for Yverdon; rush hour traffic was heavy; and as a result, we didn’t get onto the freeway north until after 5:30 pm, at least an hour later than we’d hoped. Another “minor” miracle was that the construction which had plagued us for 6 months had been completed during the week, and we made it to the Yverdon McDonald’s by about 6:45, just enough time to use the automated ordering system to order

Our friend Lam, from Ivory Coast

fries and chicken nuggets and eat them on the way to the chapel, where we arrived and finished our “meal” at 2 minutes before 7 pm. These “little miracles” show that the Lord is not only mindful of our concerns, even the small ones, but that he also cares enough to help solve them. That means that when big problems arise, we can be assured he will still help things “work together for our good” as he promised in D&C 90:24. Joël dives for the computer after Institute class, but Bastien is already there

An after-dinner “Tree of Life:” Saturday we and the Jones and the Badgers met at the mission home at 8:30 am for a trip back to Yverdon for training in church education. A highlight of the morning session was a 40 minute talk that had been given by Sister Beck, General Relief Society President, this past August. Church leaders are very much concerned about the rising attacks on the integrity of the family, with even our own young people postponing marriage to finish their education, to start a career, or to “get established.” Instead of courtship, they “hang out” with each other; when married, they postpone or limit having children. We observe the same trends among the good young single adults in Yverdon, where there are several single return missionaries, both male and female. Sister Beck related how she and her husband had only $3 in their pockets when they got married, and that doing so was and is an act of faith, not of financial security. Fortunately, the brethren also provided us with a printed copy of her talk that we can use. After a lunch featuring 6 interesting kinds of thin-crust pizza, we finished the training at 4pm and returned to Geneva. That evening, all the senior missionary couples enjoyed a dinner at the Hanson’s with a lady named Lydia, whom we’d met in the park a couple of weeks ago, and who speaks excellent English. Lydia is Greek; she has a PhD in archeology and anthropology, and she is a self-employed consultant to companies and nations concerning religious and cultural affairs and related matters that may be presented at major conventions.

Lydia, with Sister Lydia Hanson

Her father is an evangelical minister. We had some good conversation over a dinner of “Hawaiian haystacks” to which everyone contributed. Lydia seems quite open-minded about religion. She told us that God answers her prayers and often tells her how to conduct her life and what to expect. She told us that her 6-year old daughter had recently drawn a picture of a “Tree of Life.” Sister Hanson told her it might be helpful to read chapters 8 and 11 in the book of 1st Nephi. We parted around 9 pm, with a promise to meet again after Lydia returns from Greece at the end of the month.