Packers France Paris Mission Blog 28
Packers in Paris Blog 28 – September
17th – September 23rd, of 2018
PUBLICITY - INTERVIEW WITH
PRESIDENT SORENSEN – NEW KEYBOARD
Publicity
arrival and distribution
This
morning we received all of our publicity for our Open House. They turned out
great and we quickly counted our 7,500 flyers for 3 Paris Stakes. This then
began our distribution of them through Zone Leaders for our 3 Paris Stakes. Grateful our Mission President loves great publicity as much as I do and has great access to fabulous prices and our own graphic designer.
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| Our publicity for Open House |
Interview
with President Sorensen
We’ve
been anticipating our interview with President Sorensen in preparation for our
Open House, to get his financial approval for various matters. He asked the
financial secretary to find the funds we requested in the budget! We’ve been
extremely blessed to have much of our financial needs met through other church funding,
but the last bit of needed items to prepare for the opening was left to the
Mission. He has been anxious to see the good that will come from this center,
as we are, and grateful for all the help and support from the Family Search and
the FM people. Knowing we are spending the Lord’s money is so important that we use it
wisely.
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| President Sorensen - an amazing Mission President |
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| Awesome Assistants to the President - Elder Laurie & Elder Reed |
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| Fabulous Elder & Sister Fitt - Office couple over transportation & apartments |
New
keyboard
After our
interview, I again asked Sister Fitt if she had spotted the Keyboards that I
was told were in the office. She had indeed finally found them and let us have
one. It might has well have been Christmas (knowing this was not an expensive
small keyboard, it was better than nothing). Not being very heavy, we were able
to bring it back to our apartment via our 45-minute RER and walking trek. This
was a choice gift!
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| My HAPPY DAY keyboard! |
FURNITURE ORDERED
It may not
seem like a big deal to anyone else, but it was a huge load off our shoulders knowing
that our furniture had finally been ordered through our FM person this past
Tuesday. Our FM people have been so congenial and wonderful to work with that
we are blessed to have them on our side!
OPEN HOUSE STATIONS PLANNING AND HURDLES TO
CLIMB
Open
House stations planned
As we
prayerfully sought for the Lord’s help in finalizing our Open House Stations
and various help positions on specific tasks, we could feel the Lord’s
direction on every part. There was no doubt we were being guided and directed
as to what this Open House was to look like with our limited help, funds, and
resources, and the content was the most important. We believe it will be a very
inviting and beautiful experience for those who visit.
Hurdles
to climb
I wish I
could say we weren’t feeling any pressure and that all is going smoothly, but
there’s always going to be opposition or struggles in getting things of great
worth done. From many experiences in the past, anything that is lovely, of good
report and praiseworthy, is worth striving for, but may also be accompanied by hurdles
to climb over to see the beautiful vistas. Lucifer, our enemy to anything good,
will do all He can to destroy progress or enable discouragement, and we have
the choice to recognize and move forward in spite of the setbacks or
opposition. If it wasn’t for those who are, and have been helping us we could
never have done this on our own. But no matter, we have always had the Lord’s
help.
ARE FRAMES AND DÉCOR IMPORTANT TO GOD?
I didn’t
think that things such as picture frames or maybe even décor would be important
to God. It was just a choice that we needed to make, whether we would do
frameless lifestyle prints or ones with frames (approved and given to us by the
church to choose from). Why then was I having such a hard time feeling peace
about this decision? We have an inhouse interior decorator in our ward and he
gave very specific opinions on what frame to choose, though he does not have
the whole picture of the center. On the other hand, the option of the frameless
on hard backing and quite modern looked good too. Personally, I could not
decide and felt uneasy the whole time on the options we had. Finally, we decided
to go to the Picto Online to make the print order and do the frameless option. The
woman helping us with the order was not able to crop it properly and finally
showed us how to make the order ourselves on line. Nothing was working for her
and she was getting anxious and needed to move on.
As we
began to head back to our apartment, I still was not feeling at peace. I asked
Steve if we could go back to the place with the frames and look one more time at
other frame samples. We went straight to where the samples usually were, and
they were all gone. On a keyboard where the frame samples used to be, was a
single sample sitting on top of the keyboard. It was perfect! I took it over to
Steve and he loved it as well. We priced it to make sure it worked in our
budget. Suddenly an amazing calmness came over me. We went home to crop, prepare
and order our print. What the woman at Picto Online was struggling with was no
longer an issue for us. The calmness continued well after we made the order.
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| The frame the Lord chose! |
From this
experience, we learned that these there is a special spirit and purpose with
these centers and that even something as simple as a frame, print and décor can
have a great influence on how it looks and feels, very similar to our temples
and perhaps our homes (granted, doing the best we can is good enough). Temples
are prayerfully designed and built, as they are truly the house of the Lord. We
are to please no one else but Him!
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| Empty but not for long! Because it's designated as meeting space, we were asked to leave the wooden moldings, not our first choice, but we are good! |
COSTCO BLESSINGS
If I
remember right, I thought I publicly told everyone we would not do a heavy load
at Costco again. Well, we not only did it again, but it was more. What were we
thinking!
There were
things we needed for our apartment (groceries) and then for the Center and the
Open House. We had definitely overestimated and were stuck at the checkout. We
bought three Costco large bags to help us when we saw our two roller bags
weren’t big enough.
As we were
leaving, I prayed that the Lord would ease our load on our way to our apartment
through a long RER and bus ride and walking through the metro stations. It’s
about a one-hour trip all together. We were incredibly blessed and found elevators
when needed to go up and down.
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| Costco always gives us such big and crazy eyes that we are doing this with no car! |
TIMELINES ARE CRUCIAL
As we
approach all the last-minute agenda items, we created a timeline of
what, when and who, and a description of what was needed. It gave us a great
perspective of what the most important items are to be done first and by whom!
BOOK OF MORMON COMPLETED AGAIN!
The Book
of Mormon has become the most important spiritual reading staple in our lives.
We will not go a day without feasting upon its words. Each day we learn
something new, something of great eternal value, differently each time we read
the same passages. The same thing happens when we read our LDS conference talks
over and over again. It takes on new purposes depending on what is going on in
our lives.
This last
Saturday we finished the Book of Mormon again! There is never a feeling of, are
we or do we really need to read it again? It’s with anticipation we start again
and discuss and reap what we will learn as we personally and collectively read
and study this book.
Whether
you’ve ever read this book or not, I
can’t hold back testifying that I know, with no doubt in my mind, that this
book is holy writ. It is God’s words for us today. We also believe the
Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. The Bible is
a companion to the Book of Mormon. This book has changed our lives for the
better, it has brought an understanding of God’s eternal plan for us and our
family. It teaches gospel and essential truths that gives hope to a world where
sin is rampant. It blesses us with a desire to be a better and more faithful
child of God. It has blessed and strengthened our relationships with one
another, our family and especially with our personal relationship with God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that it is the word of God!
If there are any who are interested in reading this amazing book, let us know! We'll be happy to send you one!
Here are a
few words and the link from an Apostle of the Lord, who spoke about this book
at a General Conference a year ago.
“My dear brothers and sisters, I testify
that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. It contains the answers to
life’s most compelling questions. It teaches the doctrine of Christ.5 It expands
and clarifies many of the “plain and precious”6 truths
that were lost through centuries of time and numerous translations of the
Bible.” By President Russell M. Nelson October 2017
In the
first book of SAINTS, it gives such a
beautiful description of how this amazing book of scripture came about. It can
be read on line for free. It is one of many more yet to be published for all of
us to read for free or even be
purchased for a very small cost.
VENEZ et VOYEZ - SUNDAY CONNECTIONS AND
BLESSINGS
Venez et
Voyez, (Come and See) was held this Sunday throughout the Francophone (all of Europe's French’s speaking countries). This is an opportunity for those not of
our faith to come and see what we believe in and what goes on during a Sunday worship service.
The
meetings on Sunday were beautiful! We had a huge crowd that day, more than we
had expected. It was fun to have the Loforte family here to visit at church and Ronna's parents. They
sat right behind the mission president and his wife in church, who doesn’t normally go to
our ward, but had brought a friend to visit from this vicinity. Ronna LoForte
spoke with President Sorensen and found out they were at the MTC at the very
same time and remembered one another and remembered some of the same people. It
was especially sweet to have the LoForte boys pass the sacrament! Something
special they can write about in their journal!
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| Packers with the LoForte family & Ronna's parents who lived in France as a young girl. |
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| Pres Sorensen and the LoForte boys - what a precious image! |
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| President & Sister Sorensen and their two visiting friends (mother/daughter) - The mother on left lives in Paris near us and her daughter lives in CA in the Sorensen's ward. Her mother who lives in Paris is not a member of our faith, and is excited for our Family History Center. |
We also
had a larger crowd than usual at this time of year in the English-speaking
sacrament meeting. Because of our visit with the LoForte’s and to share with
them our empty Family History Center and realized during that time, that the English-speaking
meeting had begun. With the Bonny’s gone this week it meant Steve had found
someone to do the music and prepared everything else without any other helpers.
Basically, I had deserted him! Feeling a bit sheepish, I arrived a few minutes
into the meeting to find all was well! Steve had done awesome, in spite of me!
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| These two couples attended our English speaking meeting! We can't remember their names, but one of them is first cousins to Kathy Ivie, friends of Steve's family in Farmington, NM. |
SUNDAY GATHERING AT JOHN AND RENEE HALLS
Bishop
John Hall and his wife, Renee, hosted a gathering at their home Sunday night to
get to know more people. They hadn’t expected the large turn out of about 60
people who came. It was a bit insane, but fun to meet new people. Bishop Hall
is our bishop of the Paris Ward and he and his wife and have 6 children. They
are from America, but have lived here for about 18 years and at some point
became French citizens.
HIS WORK NOT OURS!
We are
overwhelmed by the sheer amount of effort behind putting together such a
project, along with an Open House, but we are feeling extremely blessed for all
the help from above and here in our midst. As has been mentioned before, this
is His work and He is guiding every little effort in spite of His weak helpers.
Such mercy!
Nous pensons à chacun de
vous (We are thinking of each of you),
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
You
may still text or FaceTime Renée
at 801-564-1332
We
are 8 hours ahead of Mountain Standard Time
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