Packer France Paris Mission Blog 22

Packers in Paris Blog 22 – August 7^th – August 12^th, of 2018

WHO NEEDS REST FROM VACATION?

I’m afraid we do! We wanted to crash for days when we arrived back from our whirlwind 40^th Anniversary get away, but life goes on and back to work it is! It always feels good to be back in your own bed and surroundings and schedule! How grateful we were though for this wonderful opportunity to see the sites and take a breather to honor one another!

We’ve decided to celebrate our 40^th Anniversary in Paris all year long! Love this idea!

TEACHING DAVID WITH THE SISTERS!

Tuesday evening, we had the privilege of teaching David with the sister missionaries. David is a special man who is sincerely wishing to learn which church he desires to join. He is genuinely searching out the truths and praying and studying. One thing he recognized was when he recently visited the Paris Temple grounds and visitor center in Versailles, he was in awe of how he felt. He LOVED the temple grounds and visitor center. He felt something there he had not felt before. He is looking forward to returning again! 

Packers, David and Sisters Jensen and Inman (two of the most amazing sister missionaries)

DISTRICT MEETING

I forgot to take pictures this week of our new district, but it was a great meeting and I love seeing the growth of these new leaders. They rise to their call and are doing awesome!

We played the game, Taboo, with French words. I don’t play this game well in America with words I do know, let alone with words I do or don’t know in French, but to help someone else guess or to guess their hints, was hilarious! I did well on some, but not as good as I should have on others! We’re going to keep playing to work on the vocabulary of new words several of us need!

COSTCO & INSTITUTE – COOKING & YSA STRENGTHENING

     Costco run!

We tried to be smart this time and not load up quite as much, being that we have a 1-hour commute, RER (train), bus and walking to get there and then coming back with our load. It went quite well and I was most thankful to load up on lots of protein and berries that I could freeze! This will last us for a very long time. Their berries are so delicious and the blackberries this time were mouthwatering enormous!

Preparing to freeze these monsters! 

     5 weeks of cooking complete!

This was our last week to be in charge of preparing and presenting the meal for Institute at least for a little while! I so appreciate all that the Bonny’s do for these Young Adults each week! It’s exhausting, but fun at the same time! They seemed to appreciate yet another meal by the Packers!

Gathering around the food brings conversation! This was a simple salad night!

     These Young Adults are incredible!

Sometimes I wonder if we’re much help to the YSA’s here, but then I know they appreciate more than ever our taking the time to listen and see what their needs are and to give them support and love! They mainly need to know that we care and are interested in their lives. They are genuinely so strong and such caring individuals. Some of them are so gifted with the ability of looking out for others and seeing when others need their friendship! That is more helpful than we can ever be. We’ve been so impressed! They each exhibit such faith and strength individually and collectively. They often are living all on their own with their faith and making life work here in such a big city! We have grown to love them immensely!

TEMPLE FRIDAY BLESSINGS & CONNECTIONS

We loved getting back to the temple this week and will cherish our time there each time we attend, as it won’t be as frequent once our center opens.

On our way to the temple on the RER we met two women who are here visiting from the Phoenix, AZ area. They were delightful to talk with and though we didn’t really have any major connections per say, we connected with the fact that Samantha’s grandparents are serving in the Halifax, Nova Scotia mission, in which my parents served in the temple three years ago. We loved our visit with Samantha and Mason. Mason is heading off to live in Madrid Spain for a while to go to school. They were both such dynamic women!

Samantha and Mason 

After we performed an endowment session, I noticed one of the couples in the session were American. As I spoke with her afterwards I asked her where they were from and she said they were from Gilbert, AZ. I think the whole world must be from Gilbert, AZ, it appears! 😉

Sister Welch's parents (the Herrings) serve in the Gilbert AZ Temple and they know Steve’s brother and his wife very well, as Steve’s brother, Brent is in the Temple Presidency, along with his wife, Sandy as an assistant Matron! We later went outside to take photos. I sent some of these photos to Brent, Steve’s brother, where he noticed from the photo that the younger man was one of their Stake Presidents in their temple district. They are all such exceptional people!

The Herrings and Welch's

PROJECT UPDATES! TILE LAID AND GROUT IN

We are thrilled to see all the tile laid and the grout done! They should be done in about 6 weeks or sooner and then we do our part to get ready for operation and our Open House. Meanwhile, we continue to work through our major task list.

We’ve never done ANYTHING like this before, where we have to create something from the beginning and carry it through to completion and running smoothly, other than building a house, raising a family, working jobs, fulfilling callings and so on, but this is totally different! We are working with various people for funding, but our main source of direction and guidance on such a project of this type is from God above! We have felt His help in every part of this work! Periodically we check in with our main sources to report our efforts and request any further help that can be given.

The start of putting the grout on!

SUNDAY AT ST. MERRI - LESSONS AND CONNECTION

     Testimonies shared act as reminders of what you may already know!

-        Teach your children at an early age!

-        Place your affections on the Lord

-        We are of infinite worth

-        God wants to bring us joy and bless us

     The Welch's Family of our friends 

We love seeing people we meet one day and then see them show up at church two days later! The people we met at the temple on Friday (the Welch’s & the Herrings) came to church and we found out one more sweet connection with them. The younger couple, the Welch’s are related through marriage to our dear friends in our Syracuse Ward, the Austads. We took more pictures and sent them to Stacie and Bryan!

The Welch's at church! They were with a touring group and left quickly to come to church in their street clothes! We love them however they come! :)

     Extra thoughts from Sunday’s meeting

For those who know what a Testimony meeting is, you know that sometimes your heart will start racing if you feel an inclination to stand up and walk the long path to the pulpit at the front (it’s just a fear thing of standing in front of people) and share your thoughts and testimony of your beliefs of the gospel. There was this one woman who stood up in our meeting, said that she noticed that her Fitbit alarm sounded and she couldn’t figure out why. Suddenly she realized her Fitbit was telling her that her heart was racing, and then she realized that she should get up and share her testimony. Most certainly her heart rate when down once she sat down.

One family visiting Europe shared that they tried to keep their routines consistent with the things that mattered most while still on vacation in Europe, like their daily evening devotionals. One evening, while walking home late in Paris, and feeling very tired, they decided to start doing what parts of their devotionals they could accomplish while walking home. One of those things was singing a Primary song while walking the streets of Paris. This ended up being a sweet experience for them though it brought looks and stares from others, but most importantly it brought a great feeling and spirit in their family, as they sang a sweet song.

I think Steve and I should start singing on the streets of Paris! 😉

Couldn't help myself! ;)

Chanter avec Steve à Paris (Singing with Steve in Paris), 

Elder et Soeur Packer                                                                                                  

Grandpère et Mémé Packer (Please use our last name on any mail, or it will get returned)

Our Address:

4 quai du Marché Neuf

75004 PARIS 

FRANCE

Email address:                                                                                                                                          Renée:srpacker10@gmail.com                                                                                                                                   Steve: wf-packer@hotmail.com

You may still text or FaceTime Renée at 801-564-1332

We are 8 hours ahead of Mountain Standard Time