Saturday, May 16, 2015

Massive Mission Conference

This week was incredibly hectic and a ton of fun for us! the beginning of the week was fairly normal, except for Monday, President had the Assistants, us, and the senior couple equip in the office all over at 10 in the morning for a large planning session, for the massive mission conference we had this weekend, and for the next transfer coming up. It was really good, we were able to get a bunch of stuff planned, and able to coordinate everybody. Then afterwords, we had what is called President's Pday.

The last Pday of every transfer, President lets all the missionaries serving in Lyon come over to the mission home, which has a big ol' back yard, and play all kinds of sports and stuff after eating a lunch together, it was a lot of fun! After Monday however, life got hectic really fast. We had to plan for it, and then finally, the massive mission conference was there. Friday we helped transport tons of food out the chapel, and then buy and transport 200 pizzas for the missionaries that night for dinner. After a crazy night with quite a few phone calls for random situations with the hotels, we finally got everybody off the big buses, done with the pizzas and socializing, and in their hotel rooms, and got home and to bed at about 12:30. The next morning, we woke up at 5, and went and picked up a massive order of breakfast pastries, and transported it all out the chapel.

Then, the conference happened. It was absolutely amazing. We had Elder Nielson, who spoke at the last General Conference, and his wife, plus Elder Kearon of the 70 with his wife there. It really surprised me, I thought that the conference would be all about the little rules and details about the iPads, however, far from that; it was a very spiritually uplifting experience, something I guess I should have expected with General Authorities coming. They talked about and emphasized throughout the conference the power of agency. They testified that these tools can be used for tremendous good if we use them wisely, and can really help us in our missionary work if we let them. It truly was a great conference, they testified about the power we have and the light we can bring to the world with these tools, and really helped us all get excited and ready for them. I hope everyone had a great week, and I want to invite everyone to think about how maybe, without being offensive, we can share the church through the u



se of social media, and subject that was brought up again and again in the conference. I hope everyone stays safe, and keep the faith!

This weekend we'll be really busy driving in and around Switzerland, delivering some supplies and replacing a bed and a refrigerator, so we won't have time at all tomorrow for Pday activities, so we're doing our emails today! This week wasn't the most thrilling or exciting week, we spent some very long days completely at the office keeping up with all the workloads, and making sure everything stays ok in the mission. This week, for whatever reason, we had a couple of sticky situations rise up, the reason we spent almost two full days not leaving the office, but we got them all figured out eventually. We had first year legality appointments for all the new missionaries who just came in this week, which was fine, but the best part of the week was Leadership Council on Tuesday, where we spent the whole time discussing the best ways to help our mission adapt to the usage of iPads, which will be arriving in about 2 weeks for all the missionaries.

The thing that I most remarked on, and studied later, was the comparison President Roney made to our iPads and the vision of the tree of life. He reminded us about how in the vision of the tree of the life, the iron rod that leads to the tree is right next to the dark ravine, the river of filthiness. He told us about how with this new iPad, we are walking right alongside a cliff and dropoff very much like what is described in the vision, how much potential the iPad has for evil, while at the same time for good. He asked why we thought the Lord would put us right alongside this river of filthiness, why in our lives we are always so close to evil, why would the Prophet, First Presidency, and the Twelve Apostles give us the iPads when there is so much potential for bad? The answer is because the Lord, and his representatives on this earth, trust us. He has given us the way to stay pure and to keep pressing forward, He has given us the iron rod, in all aspects of our lives. He knows that although we have such a terrible ravine next to us, we can have a firm grip on the iron rod, and always stay true to Him, despite the temptations that may arrive in our lives. It was a comforting thought to think about, that despite this danger, we truly are safe if we follow His teachings and help ourselves be safer on the road to salvation.

200 Pizzas
Our normal Saturday Pday got postponed so we could help set up a senior couple apartment two and a half hours north of here in Besançon. It was a fun road trip, though it was the second time we were up there in four days. We had gone up on Thursday after our District Meeting to set up the first load of stuff, then came back late late that night, did some normal office work the next day and then bought the last stuff and took it up the next morning, and put it all together for the majority of Saturday.  Earlier on in the week, we had another road trip, this one to take down an apartment in Carcassone, about four and half hours south of Lyon. We left on Sunday and drove until Montpellier, then finished the drive the next morning and spent that whole day taking the apartment with the help of the Elders down there, and then driving back up.

In charge of ordering a truckload of pizza
It was a ton of fun, though really exhausting week, we got see a bunch of missionaries that are lots of fun, and help out a bunch of people. Our District Meeting was also lots of fun, the whole meeting was much more of a discussion, talking and reviewing the second chapter of Preach My Gospel, which was really interesting and helpful for us all. Possibly the coolest part of the week was today at church though, during the mini Ward Council we had after church was finished. The ward had taken a big trip to the temple during the week, something difficult for many members, seeing as the temple is in Switzerland, and not close. The bishop bore a powerful testimony in sacrament on the temple, and how he had seen it change and help the lives of the members who had gone. During the Ward Council, he announced he had strongly been impressed during the visit, that the ward should go from just one ward temple trip each year, to two. This was a big announcement, and they started making preparations immediately. It was a large testimony to me about how important the temple is to us, and seeing the sacrifices that these members were making to go there made me appreciate it all the more. I miss getting to go to the temple often at home, and want to invite all those who are able to go as often as they can. Je vous souhaite une super bonne semaine toute le monde, au revoir!

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