Packers France Paris Mission Blog 57
Packers in Paris Blog 57 – April 9th – April 15th,
2019
The sadness we feel is one that many are feeling. It’s a shock, it’s a
terrible loss to the world. Notre Dame is one of the most iconic and oldest
standing cathedral in the world. Every time we walk inside there is a reverence
that people show one to another. It’s visited by 13 million a year!
By living our lives
with virtuous thoughts and actions, we invite the spirit to be with us and it
strengthens our ability to love more deeply and be in tune!
At the end, the two missionaries
who will be departing in a few weeks had the opportunity to share their testimony!
Sister Jensen who will have been here for 11 months in our ward, and has become
so dear to us, stood and shared so beautifully her feelings and gratitude for
her mission, the love of the Savior, the gathering of Israel and her love of teaching
in small and simple ways that are most powerful! How we will miss her here in
Paris!
JIACHENG HAN – PARIS USANA TRAVEL GUIDE
CONNECTING THE DOTS WITH CHARLOTTE AND MAX ON FAMILYSEARCH
CONTACTING WITH THE MISSIONARIES THIS WEEK AT
THE CENTER
DATE NIGHT REPRIEVE!
MISSIONARIES DO COME BACK TO VISIT!
SUNDAY - PARADISE, CALIFORNIA CONNECTIONS AT
CHURCH
Our Sunday meetings were wonderful! We enjoyed a very full house in the French church meetings, because it wasn’t very clear on the church website what time the English-speaking sacrament meeting started. Sister Bell and her mom and sister joined us and loved seeing some of her dear friends!
With that said, we only had 15 people who showed up in the English speaking meeting at 1 p.m., yet 40 English visitors in the earlier French meeting at 10 a.m. We hope it will be cleared up soon! We love our visitors whenever they come, but we kind of need a better balance as it gets close to the crazy summer season!
Laissez votre lumière briller devant les hommes (Let your light so shine
before men),
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
NOTRE
DAME – A TIME OF SADNESS! THE LAST WILL BE FIRST THIS TIME!
I am writing this very sad news after I had already written
the blog below and then this happened! But the dots were connected after having written the last portion for Sunday! We learned so much on Sunday that prepared us for today!
As you all know by now, Notre Dame has been destroyed by a horrific fire (4-15-19)!
We live right down the street from this iconic and sacred building. As our
mission president noted, it just celebrated it's 850th Anniversary! This cathedral
has become a part of our existence here! We see it every day and have visited
it several times. In fact, I just went a week ago on the 7th with
our daughter Janine and again the very next day with Steve as well to walk
around!
Steve had just walked passed the Cathedral at around 6:30 p.m. and there
was nothing, but by 7:00 p.m. I began to smell smoke in our apartment! Steve
looked out the window on the side which would face Notre Dame, but we have the
government buildings there, but we could see billows of fire. We ran down the 4
flights of stairs to go outside around 7:18 and then started taking pictures.
We could’ve gone across for a better view but didn’t feel we should. While
outside though we could feel the ashes falling on our heads and the smoke was
getting thick. The police finally scooted us all away! We
were asked to stay inside.
I have been feeling this immense sorrow for this loss, yet deep down
inside, I have felt an overwhelming feeling that good will come from tragic! It’s
how we heal! We turn Ashes to Beauty! It always does and so will this! What can
we do? What can all of us do? How can we reach out and restore love into the broken
hearts!
Well, it started today sometime shortly after the fire broke out! People
close to the cathedral began to sing and pray! They were bringing comfort to
one another. We had come back into our apartment before we heard the singing,
but the news reported that right next to the cathedral on one of the familiar
streets we love, people were singing!
I believe that good will start coming from everyone! Our hearts have been
broken and when our hearts are turned outward, we begin the path to not only healing
ourselves, but those around us! We start restoring hope, hope in Jesus Christ
and His love for us! He’s watching to see what we do with this tragedy!
Hopefully you will read at least the last story from this last Sunday!
Something happened, that was not a coincidence from what happened today! Our
hearts were being prepared!
This
letter went out to the families of the Missionaries from our Mission President:
“As you may have
heard, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is tragically on fire. The fire is
isolated to the Cathedral and there appear to be no injuries at this time.
We write to confirm
that all missionaries in the France Paris Mission are confirmed safe.
I spoke this evening
with a Catholic Priest we know from the nearby Église de la Madeleine and he
reported that Notre Dame Cathedral just celebrated 850 years. While they are so
sad at the damage to this house of worship, he said "if it had to happen,
Holy Week is not a bad time. Easter is all about resurrection and rising from
the ashes."
We will keep you
posted if there are further developments. We rejoice in Easter and the
opportunity to proclaim the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Sincerely,
Président and Soeur
Sorensen
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| Notre Dame - taken while with Steve, Janine and myself were on a walk on Monday, April 8th, 2019 (1 week exactly prior to the fire) |
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| Notre Dame - taken while with Steve, Janine and myself were on a walk on Monday, April 8th, 2019 (1 week exactly prior to the fire) |
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| Notre Dame - Photographed while on our date last Friday April 12, 2019 |
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| Notre Dame on Fire! We took these at about 7:20 p.m. |
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| PHOTO - from the internet! |
FAREWELL
& GATHERED INTO THE GARNERS
Tuesday morning, Steve took our
daughter, Janine to the airport with her tasty baguettes/breads and macarons. She
and they (the food) made it home safe and sound! The amazing memories of her being
here with us will last quite a while! We welcome other family members to come
and visit, please! Camille and her husband, Duck will be here in a month!
Anticipation all over again!
Gathered into the Garners
Later that afternoon Steve and I
presented our “Gathered into the Garners” presentation again to the new
Missionary Conference.
These bright, young missionaries are so
eager to learn and are so faithful! We LOVE meeting with them and sharing our
message taken from a talk by Bishop Gérald Caussé and
quotes from other church leaders.
ALL ON THURSDAY!
PARIS ZONE CONFERENCE
We love attending Zone
Conference with all the missionaries from our Zone and participating in and
listening to the inspired messages from our Mission President and his wife!
The Mission President
always chooses a theme that is woven throughout the conference, even though he
still brings out other training. In this conference he spoke often about purity,
one of the many characteristics of Jesus Christ. He presented this topic beautifully,
helping us to all realize the importance of this critical characteristic.
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| Characteristics of Christ from the Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel! |
He spoke of the
importance of having covenant eyes, of fortifying our lives with needed
safeguards and barriers that can keep us from walking through territory that
could ultimately break down our walls of defense.
I believe purity
brings us a sense of joy, that ultimately gives us more freedom and teaches us
there is a better way, a way that God desires us to think and act and become!
At the end of the first
half, the Zone Leaders had invited our Ward Mission Leader, Fred Tan, to share
some inspiring words on how to help members to be more engaged in this great
work! He was wonderful and inspired us all! Just
a side note, Fred Tan recently spoke on April 13 at the Paris TEDx as a Sciences
Po student, with each speaker speaking on the Power of Fear!
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| Fred Tan - Ward Mission Leader and Speaker for our conference |
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| Sister Jensen's departing testimony |
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| President Sorensen shaking hands - Sisters Jensen and Sister Tabilaran |
UPDATES WITH OUR DISCOVERY LARGE SCREEN
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| Sister Jensen and Sister Tabiliran |
We have been working
with Salt Lake to get updates for our large discovery screen! As they remotely connected
to the big screen, we watched them perform their magic, adding a few more
opportunities and experiences to use with those who enter our center. Steve has
been training the missionaries and then we were finally able to share it with a
visitor to the center. They loved the experience and we can see what a
wonderful addition this will be.
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| Steve - chatting remotely with Salt Lake Techs for updating our discovery screen |
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| Technicians and Brother Lepore on the right |
JIACHENG HAN – PARIS USANA TRAVEL GUIDE
Last Thursday, we had
a travel guide for USANA (Salt Lake City based) who is based in Paris USANA asking
us if there was a church nearby that meets in the afternoon. His boss (USANA
CEO) wanted to know. They have a large event going on this Sunday morning and
the CEO would like to go to church in the afternoon. Steve was able to find a ward
that met at 2 pm in Versailles. He told us that 2,000 USANA employees are in town
for a convention. Since my brother worked for USANA we have come to love some
of their products!
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| JIACHENG HAN – PARIS USANA TRAVEL GUIDE |
L’OPERA COMES TO THE CENTER
Most days are quite unpredictable
at the center, but last Thursday may have topped the list! Each week as we have
missionaries outside inviting people to learn more about our center and
inviting them to sign up for free courses we offer, we never know what kind of
people we will have walk through the front door! It has been a wonderful
experience meeting people from all different backgrounds.
I happened to be in
the office when a gentleman and his friend walked through the door and the one began
to ask the missionaries what was included in all of the courses. When they got
to Cultural Arts, the missionaries shared what was being offered in this area. The
man asked if we had a voice teacher for the singing class. Steve quickly then
called for me to come and talk with him.
Silvano Sapia then asked
me the same question! I told him that we did not as of yet, and then he told me
that he would be willing to teach the class for us. He shared with us that he was
an opera singer! I was shocked at his offering and somehow actually believed
him! I reminded him that the classes are offered for free, and he was very much
aware! I took his contact info and we exchanged which days and times would work
best for him! We have since been in contact and working through the details.
He then asked, before
leaving, if we wanted to hear him sing! Of course, I said! He sat down at the
piano and began to play and sing for us! His remarkable booming Tenor voice
blew us all away! There is no doubt he is legit! Don’t ask us how this
happened, but there must be a reason! We all now want to join the class! Sister
Jensen who only has a few weeks left, can’t wait to come to his class! She has such
a lovely voice! Enjoy a recording of many from YouTube below!
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| Silvano Sapia - our new voice teacher for our Vocal Class |
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| Silvano Sapia |
Charlotte stopped by this
last Friday with two things on her mind! One, she had a stack of about 40 thank
you cards, all handmade to get mailed! Most of them were going to the states
for all of you who helped her out so generously! We’ll pray they make it
safely, as she put her heart and soul into them!
Charlotte was also very
desirous to get more names in her family tree. She knew that her great
grandmother had done a lot of work and was anxious to start putting enough
information to see her family tree grow! She also put Max’s name in her family
tree! Suddenly she was connecting 4 generations together and really beginning
to feel the love of her deceased ancestors.
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| Charlotte's 40 thank you cards she hand made |
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| Steve helping Charlotte connect the generations |
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| Charlotte adding Max's name to her line |
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| Charlotte and Max visiting the Center |
Contacting this last
week with it being so cold, made it a bit harder for people to want to stop and
come inside, but nevertheless, they had some sweet experiences.
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| This friend of the missionaries was trying out our new screen and loved his ability to learn more about his name |
With all that’s on
our plate right now, we are always so grateful to have a little date night,
dinner and playing games (our favorite relaxing past time). On our walk home, we passed Notre Dame with a
beautiful pale blue, pink and purple sky! These little scenic moments, like
this, keep us going.
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| Repeat Notre Dame - Photographed while on our date last Friday April 12, 2019 |
We love it when
missionaries come back with their families! Sister Bell, another one of our
favorites who served with Sister Jensen surprised us in the center last Saturday.
They also came to church on Sunday. She couldn’t wait to hold baby Max finally!
We had such a lovely
visit with them and Caitlyn Bell’s mom and I connected quickly and could’ve
continued to talk all day! She brought with her, her younger sister and then
her father hopefully will join them soon after his recovery from pneumonia.
Our Sunday meetings were wonderful! We enjoyed a very full house in the French church meetings, because it wasn’t very clear on the church website what time the English-speaking sacrament meeting started. Sister Bell and her mom and sister joined us and loved seeing some of her dear friends!
With that said, we only had 15 people who showed up in the English speaking meeting at 1 p.m., yet 40 English visitors in the earlier French meeting at 10 a.m. We hope it will be cleared up soon! We love our visitors whenever they come, but we kind of need a better balance as it gets close to the crazy summer season!
With this smaller
amount at church though instead of the normal larger congregation, we experienced
a tender and intimate experience. Almost everyone stood up and shared their
thoughts and testimony. We felt a genuine bond one with another! The spirit was
so strong! As Steve closed the meeting he then shared a poignant and powerful
tender testimony that touched all of us in attendance! His words sunk deep into
my heart!
Putting the mix up
aside, we were most grateful for the tender mercies of this mix up, or our
experiences may have never happened with many people! With so few in the English-speaking
meeting, we were more intimate in getting to know these dear people! Before
the meeting even started, an amazing connection happened among visitors and
then my own connection with part of the family. This story is quite remarkable
and left us in tears of appreciation and tender feelings which had to do with the
Paradise, CA fires!
How can I share this briefly? I will try! Sorry, I failed!
After asking two brethren
to do the music (John Pew and Laine Powers) for our English speaking sacrament meeting,
they began to discuss where they were from and found out they both used to live
in Paradise, CA. John and Renée Pew are now from
American Fork, UT, but had lived in Paradise many years ago. Laine Powers, and
his wife, Elizabeth and her parents, Joe and Arlene Ingoglia were all from
Paradise, CA, till they were forced to leave after the devastating fires last
November.
These two men quickly
made the connection of who they knew in Paradise, as Laine and his wife,
Elizabeth, are the daughter and son in-law to the Pew’s good friends from
Paradise! With that connection, John and Renée Pew turned around and saw these
very friends they were talking about, walk down the aisle of the chapel. They
recognized each other immediately and came together in the sweetest embrace! The
look of joy of not having seen each other in such a long time was incredible!
After church, we conversed
with one another, and began to hear little snippets of their own personal
story, their emotional heartbreaks and yet heartwarming stories that they
experienced as a whole community came together, with hundreds of those from
elsewhere, to come to their aid.
The Paradise fire broke
out on November 8th, 2018 and was the worst wildfire in California’s
history with 150,000 acres burned as well as 18,000 structures and 88 people
dead and at least 200 missing!
This reminded us of
President Nelson’s conference talk when he shared about the passing of his
daughter and his experience with Paradise, California. He stated in his talk… “We miss our daughter greatly. However,
because of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we do not worry about her. As
we continue to honor our covenants with God, we live in anticipation of our
being with her again. Meanwhile, we’re serving the Lord here and she is serving
Him there—in paradise.
Actually, my wife and
I visited Paradise earlier this year—Paradise, California, that is. As it
happened, our scheduled visit there came less than 40 hours after our daughter
departed from this world. We, along with Elder Kevin W. Pearson and his wife,
June, were bolstered by the Saints of the Chico California Stake. We learned of
their great faith, their ministering, and the miracles that occurred even
amidst their devastating losses from the most destructive wildfire in the
history of California.”
I remember my own
experience after learning of this tragic story, having just had my brand-new laptop
stolen from our center. Shortly after this incident, the fires in Paradise broke
out. It all made sense to me, why the Lord gave me so much peace over my own menial
loss. How could I ever complain after what those who lived in Paradise had lost!
Yet these people held their heads up high and moved forward with so much faith,
as each of us must do, no matter what befalls us!
As we continued to talk
with one another, I also made the connection with Laine Powers because he mentioned
he had been from Declo, Idaho. His uncle, Jim Darrington, was a friend of mine from
High School that I graduated with!
Somehow the 9 of us became
connected among a small group of 15 people. We felt a special bond had just
taken place! We were the ones who were blessed and lifted by these people who
had gone through so much loss!
We felt so blessed to
have the Pews, Powers and Ingoglia families with us
this day and have plans on reconnecting at least with the Pews in Utah when we
return, and perhaps someday with the other families as well, if we’re lucky! They
are all remarkable people and we are so impressed by their faithfulness in
coming to church while on vacation! They and we were richly blessed because of being
there! In this video below, the Ingoglia’s home is the first stark structure
they show and then on 1:18-1:33 is this family standing in front of that
structure! They are featured elsewhere as well. It’s a powerful brief video on the fire!
I loved this quote
that was shared at the end of the video! These would be the very thoughts and
feelings we would like to share with our family as well!
“What meaning do you
find for yourself and your family in this three minutes?
Whatever blessing you
are seeking, consider looking for ways to give, to serve. The
spirit of the Lord will open the windows of heaven.
We know this is true!
Love, Mom and Dad
Did we say we miss
you? We love you!”
(Author unknown but
taken from above video)
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| Renée and John Pew, Arleen and Jo & Joseph Ingoglia and Elizabeth and Laine Powers |
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| Pews and Ingoglias |
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| We told them where they could eat at one of our favorite restaurants - Paris Beaubourg |
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| This is the Ingoglia family, as they stand at their charred home in Paradise, CA |
Elder et
Soeur Packer
Grandpère
et Mémé Packer (Please be sure and use the last name on any mail, or
it will get returned)
Our Address:
4 quai du Marché Neuf75004 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
Speechless about Notre Dame.
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