Swiss Mission: Week of 6 December 2009

Children sign “Jesus Once was a Little Child” for conference

Counsel from Elder Kopischke, and a convert from Mongolia: Sunday morning it was dry and cool for Stake Conference. In addition to encouraging us to follow the counsel of our Stake President (based on notes he took during the opening talk of the conference), Elder Kopischke made three main points: 1) the most important message we bring to the world is the divinity of Jesus Christ as the resurrected only begotten son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind. While almost everyone in the world acknowledges the existence of the person of Jesus Christ, the fact of his divinity is widely rejected. But Joseph’s experience tells us that Christ lives today as a resurrected being. His appearance with God, His Father, confirms the divinity He Himself taught 2000 years ago. While he inherited mortality and the ability to die from his mother, from God, his immortal Father, he inherited the power to overcome death and make the resurrection available to all people. No one else could have done this. The second most important message we have is that through Joseph Smith, Christ re-established His church on the earth, with the authority to perform all ordinances necessary for the salvation and exaltation of individuals and families. 2) While many people may believe in the existence of God, most seem to reject the process that led to Joseph’s receiving divine revelations from God, as defined in James 1:5; that is, they choose ceremony and tradition as sources for guidance while rejecting the idea that God still reveals His will to those who ask in faith. In spite of the fact that God again and again revealed His will to his servants the prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Peter, and Paul, they either think He somehow lost His power to interact with people, or (with incredible, subconscious arrogance) they think we no longer need His guidance in our lives. 3) Elder K told us about an experience he’d had as a stake president: a man phoned him to ask how he might return to membership in the church after having been gone for 17 years. Elder K invited him to come and chat; when he asked the man “Why, and Why NOW?” the man handed him a note that said “You’ve been away long enough; it’s time to come back.” And the note was simply signed “Tom.” During the years that then Apostle Thomas S. Monson was working with government officials and Church leaders in Germany, he had worked rather closely with this person, and they had developed a deep friendship. Now (as Elder K referred to him as “the Great Bishop of the Church”), President Monson was reaching out to invite the man to come back. Elder K’s challenge to us was to go and do likewise, to prayerfully invite our friends to come back. Everyone can change for the better. We are not responsible for HOW someone will respond to the invitation, but only to extend a loving invitation. At 6 pm, we went to church for the baptismal service of Enkhdelger Enkhbat (Deggie, as we know her), from Mongolia. Her sister Zaya had introduced her to the church a couple of months ago, and she has regularly attended Institute classes. A return missionary to Chinese-speakers in Paris translated the talks into French for her.

Curious Christmas décor for our apartment lobby

Family home evening without a family, but with a great dinner: Tuesday, Dede prepared a salad and a chocolate “fondant” brownie-type pie for the Yverdon YSA, to complement our 9x13 inch shepherds’ pie. When no one came for FHE or our dinner, we ate our share while preparing a Thanksgiving lesson using 20 colored pictures from Elder Doyle’s French class. When the missionaries finished their meeting, we invited them to have dinner with us, which they did. In spite of the absence of young adults for home evening, we learned several things that will help us in our efforts in Yverdon: one is that we will need to reach out to those who are currently inactive and use them as the core group, perhaps two young unmarried sisters with babies. When we got home shortly after 10 pm, we talked to Heidi, who told us that she and Dave had determined how to be able to get a car to replace hers that is dire need of costly repairs. We were happy to know they had unitedly considered various options and now felt good about their decision.

Which color paint came first, the car or the post? (the chicken or the egg)

Video conference at the United Nations

A near accident at the United Nations leads to a new friendship with a great lady: Thursday evening we went to the United Nations (having been invited by Elder & Sister Hanson) for a celebration of Human Rights Day and a reception followed by a video conference with Secretary of State (and former First Lady) Hillary Clinton. Women from some 54 nations had come for a three day conference titled “Courage to Lead.” A highlight of the evening, and a tender mercy, was our meeting Dr. Ariel King. The circumstance was unusual in that as Dede and I were sampling the food at the reception, this lady slipped on a couple of shrimp tails that someone had dropped on the floor behind us. We heard her gasp as she slipped, and when she went to get a napkin, Dede picked up the remnants of the shrimp and I stood guard over the spot so no one else would slip. That started a 15+ minute conversation in which she repeatedly told us how much she appreciated members of our church who didn’t just quote scripture and show their Bible erudition (as many members of other churches tend to do), but who got out and did things to help others. She herself has worked for years with orphans in many countries (she’s been in about 40 different ones), has started her own foundation to promote children’s welfare and children’s rights, and now works with the UN and other agencies worldwide. She has been to Br Marriott’s ranch near Washington, DC. Where world ambassadors are invited each year; most recently she came from South Africa, and after this meeting she’ll drive 7 hours back to her place in Germany. But she kept referring to LDS members who actively helped people in third-world countries. We exchanged email addresses and invited her to come see us at church in Geneva; we also gave her a note with the address and the meeting schedules. At the meeting following the reception, Professor Alida Black presented Hillary Clinton the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime achievement award. We were impressed with the ways in which women from around the world were devoting their lives and energies to establish and protect the rights of women and children – for simple things like the right to food and shelter and to freedom from abuse, even when they themselves face persecution, beatings, and/or imprisonment.

The search for Yverdon young adults begins: Friday we headed to Yverdon to work with the elders. We met at the chapel at 1:30 and after a prayer, drove around town to try to locate various young single adults. Several places either had no building at the address provided (by the church, at the time of their baptism), or no name on the mailbox that corresponded to the name of the individual we sought. We did locate one correct name/address,but at 3 pm, no one was home – probably at work. By now, legs were getting tired from going up and down stairs. Since we still had some time before the 7 pm Council Meeting, we went back into town, found a wonderfully close parking spot, and strolled thru the Christmas “Marche.” It was quite cold, but was not snowing. Dede bought three scarves – not so much against the cold as to complement her outfits, and we took pictures of the 12th century little castle, the booths, and an ice skating rink that had been set up.

Visitors to the Yverdon Christmas Marché

Crêpes anyone?

When can we ride the Marché merry-go-round?

A special temple trip and the Escalade: Saturday morning, we enjoyed a 7 am continental breakfast at “The White House” – in Yverdon, it’s the “Maison Blanche” – where we’d stayed the night to save two hours sleep by not driving back to Ferney-Voltaire. When we got to the temple chapel, Bp Volpicelli was sitting on the front row with our September 2008 convert Amavel daSilva, who was there to receive his endowment. The temple president asked if Dede and I would serve as the witness couple. The joy of the occasion was great, and both Dede and I felt we could understand 80-90% of the service in French.

Many are cold, but few are frozen at the Swiss temple

Then we were able to meet the young single adults from Yverdon for their baptismal session. The 12 who participated constitute more than a third of our total group. We got home around 4 pm, changed into very warm clothes, and went into Geneva to see some of the festivities associated with the “Escalade,” the celebration of the Swiss victory in 1602 over the French, who while trying to scale ladders at midnight (as in the Book of Mormon) in a surprise attack on Geneva, were heard by some women who dumped a cauldron of boiling vegetable soup on them and alerted the Swiss army. We climbed the hill to the top of the old town (“Vieille Ville”), had a cup of hot chocolate and shared a ham sandwich while watching men dressed in period costumes re-enact some events (pointing their pikes at the cathedral, while others fired their muskets – and nearly deafened us).

We also made our way through the crowds to the armory, where we bought an $8 cup of hot vegetable soup in an engraved ceramic bowl – which we ate while standing on either side of one of the 17th century cannons there on the plaza. We hadn’t yet frozen solid, although the wind off the lake was quite strong, when we got back to our car – in the parking lot that is underneath the end of Lake Geneva.

Some people wear costumes to Geneva's version of Carnival