Packer's France Paris Mission Blog 14

June 20, 2018

Packer's France Paris Mission Blog 14

Packers in Paris Blog 14 – June 11^th –June 17^th of 2018

2 PDAYS – MONT SAINT MICHEL & NORMANDY D-DAY BEACHES & MEMORIAL

Mont Saint Michel

With the temple closed for the past two weeks and having a hard time taking pday’s we decided to visit two sites in two days. These two sites are a little further away and yet within a couple hours of each other. Since we are not able to see both well enough in 1 day we took the plunge and rented a car. Yes, Steve drove a car in Paris and did very well!

Being able to visit Mont Saint Michel (MSM) with Steve has been a dream of mine for 40 years. I have never forgotten my memorable experience while living here while engaged to Steve. It had a charm and mysterious beauty that is quite captivating! When I first went 40 years ago, we went with a group of students with John B. Galbraith (one of our directors), who secretly had planned on keeping us on the Island over night while the water captured us on the Island. It was incredible!

The pictures are going to have to speak louder than words as there would be so much to write about. Steve could see why I fell in love with MSM and looked forward to our time together on this island castle in the water. We stayed at a little hotel just a mile away and enjoyed every part of this incredible and historical place.

We finally got blue skies the morning we were leaving

Is it ever NOT windy?

Looking down from MSM to the dry grounds the tide is out

Abby at the top of MSM

Courtyard garden in the Abby

One of many hundreds of streets on MSM

Sunset experience!

After spending the day on MSM, we went back to our hotel area to eat dinner and then back again for the evening on MSM. As we left the little island at 10:00 p.m., it was still very light, as if it was late afternoon. Then, suddenly we saw a pink ribbon along the coast line that gradually turned into a bright red ball descending into the water, as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful scene, and everyone was captured by it as we were.

I took this cell phone shot from my good camera that I took! Lame!

Mont Saint Michel video links if you wish: click on links below

Brief time lapse of MSM Island

Interior of MSM

Another time lapse of MSM Island

Hour long version of interior of MSM - amazing

Beaches of Normandy & American Memorial Cemetery

With such rich history in front of us, we didn’t want to miss the introduction of these historical sites, without going to the Utah Beach Memorial Museum. What we learned through this tender and impactful museum prepared us for the inspiring scenes at some of the memorials we viewed and then the American Memorial Cemetery. There was a subdued and sacred feeling as we walked through these hallowed grounds. We were so moved by the rows and rows of crosses and the honoring of each and every life given! We have so much to be thankful for, and the tremendous sacrifices which culminated on June 6^th, 1944, known as D-Day!

What does the D Stand for in D-Day?

Interesting fact about where Utah code name came from

THEY TOOK NO THOUGHT FOR THEMSELVES!

The phrase, “They took no thought for themselves,” consistently came to me during this day of remembrance. As we looked into the faces of individuals seen on each of the photos, videos and story boards, we witnessed such intense bravery and determination to fight for justice and honor for God, country and actually the freedom of the world.

I then made the parallel from the Book of Mormon when Helaman’s young Stripling Warriors took the same type of brave and heroic march to their supposed death for the cause of freedom! They also took no thought for themselves. They only sought to glorify God, and to fight for their religious freedom. You can read a brief account of this story found in the Book of Mormon, Alma 32:17-21

Helaman's Stripling Warriors

A thought then came, “Am I taking no thought of myself?” So much self-reflection here to work on! This whole experience left us both intensely humbled, moved and filled with such gratitude.

D-Day video links below:

If you are interested for more information on D-Day, click on links below.

Brief documentary on D-Day

Brief Museum Tour - Just a brief portion shown here of this amazing museum

Operation Overlord - Incredible!

FAMILY HISTORY WITH MARVIN

We were so grateful for the opportunity to meet with the Sister Nickerson and Sister Jensen to help Marvin with his family search. He’s getting baptized very soon and needed our help to get his family’s information into Family Search.

Marvin and Packers

Sister's Jensen and Nickerson, Marvin and Elder Packer

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION FOR ZONE CONFEENCE

We have been so grateful for the chance to prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation from Bishop Gérald Caussé’s talk, “Gathered into the Garners,” and other similar topics for Zone Conferences. We may be presenting this to possibly 3-5 Zones, of the total 7 zones. We have passed our presentation onto some of the other senior couples for them to share for those who live further away. We were grateful to finally share our message that we had been preparing for some time now.

Title slide of our PowerPoint Presentation

Helping the young missionaries understand the blessings of Family History, temple and missionary work as one great work, has become a passionate topic for us.

OFII

We could only attend the first half of our Zone Conference, since we are asked to take all new missionaries to their OFII appointment. This time it was with the newest Senior couples. Getting 4 of us older couples on and off the metro system all together was a bit comical, but we loved our time with them and getting to know each other better. They were delightful and are a blessing to our mission. Paris is in good hands with the ‘older’ group! We forgot to take our official OFII photo but took one of everyone but one couple while at the church.

Bigelows, Packers and Smiths

Elders eating lunch with Smith's and Packers is always a treat!

SWEDEN CONNECTIONS OF TWO PEOPLE , ONE FROM LAYTON AND THE OTHER IN PARIS

We have met some wonderful people in our ward. Anne is from Sweden and her father and Angela Tanner’s father knew each other well. These saints in Sweden are amazing people and so it was fun to text with Angela to get her names, all while Anne was calling her dad to make the fun connection.

Angela Tanner from Layton, UT - Born and raised in Sweden

Anne Berberovic from Paris - Born and raised in Sweden

FATHER’S DAY CHURCH CONNECTIONS, DEPARTURES, BAPTISM AND FAMILY TIME

Porters Connection with Packers

Today we met up with the Porters from Gilbert, AZ, who know and love Steve’s brother, Brent and his wife, Sandy Packer, who are in the temple presidency in the Gilbert, AZ temple.

Porters from Gilbert, AZ

Departing friends
The Bryan and Donna Ermatinger family are leaving after 3 years of having lived in Paris in our ward while working for the American Embassy. They have been such a strength to our ward and we’ve been so blessed to have them here.

Donna & Bryan Ermatinger

Baptism for Jeannot Massamba

Sunday, we attended Jeannot Massamba’s baptism in Lilas. What a dear and humble man. He had great support from his friends in the ward. We were grateful to be there and participate.

Jeannot Massamba center

Calls to each family member and Elden Wood (my father)

This Father’s Day was a beautiful tribute to my dear father of 93 and my dear, dear husband of 40 years and to each of our sons and son in laws. I always wish I could do more and drench them all with more love. I am most grateful for my Father in Heaven, of which I feel a profound love for and from!

We are most grateful for the time we had with each of our children and grandchildren through video chat. It lifted both of our spirits to know and feel of their love for us and to share our deep love for each of them! How we adore and miss each of them!