Being Taught from on High in Paris

A week of learning from 2 members of the Quorum of the Seventy and in the Paris Temple.  We thoroughly enjoyed our Self-Reliance Seminar with our SR managers this week and were honored by their kindness to us.  We had some very difficult good-byes, but with wonderful memories.

Our Self-Reliance Team of managers and Area Missionaries with Elder Arnold and Heath Bradley from HQ

Last Sunday we met with Jan Holman, now a new member of the Church.  We have been meeting with him for the past few months and trying to help him with his self-reliance needs.  He has been participating in one of our My Job Search courses.   While we were on our last trip, he was finally baptized.  Jan is a very good person with a good heart and a great testimony.  He is highly qualified in the job market but has not been able to find the right fit. Before we left on our last trip, he was quite ill.  Fortunately, he has been able to recover his health and now he is a member of the Church.  Although we were not a major factor in his conversion story, it is always heartwarming to participate with sincere investigators and to see them move forward in their lives.  Today Jan was ordained a to the office priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.

Jan Holman, new convert to the Church

We got up early on Monday morning to take Elder and Sister Proctor to the airport as they returned home.  Besides allowing us to say goodbye to good friends, this also let us use the van we had reserved for our trip to Paris and to receive the keys to the apartment that Elder and Sister Carroll will stay in for the next few weeks.

Elder and Sister Proctor at the airport on their way home

After picking up Elder and Sister Carroll at the hotel, we attended our normal Monday morning devotional.  This time the speaker was Elder Massimo De Feo, 2nd counselor in the Area Presidency.  His message was amazing.  In his talk to the workforce and senior missionaries, he shared three choices that he made in his life that have made all of the difference.  These three choices have helped him to balance his career with spiritual priorities.  They are:

1. Choose to put the Lord first - He asked Heavenly Father to help him get a job that would allow him to serve God, allow his wife to stay home and for him to travel.  He shared miraculous events that helped him achieve this.
2. Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong - Give more than what you take. Of course it is hard. Rely on the lord and he will give you strength.
3. Choose to believe in the power of God in your life - The Lord will give us always what we need, not necessarily what we want.  When we align our desires with the Lord there is nothing that will prevent us from receiving what we want (aligned with our true needs) because he has all power.

Elder De Fed speaking to the workforce

After the devotional, we were finally ready to begin our trip to Paris.  We drove in a van.  This included E/S Carroll, E/S Rueckert, our manager Tom King and Hartmut Adler, an employee from Human Resources.  We finally got on the road a little before 11:00 am.  After spending several hours in traffic around Paris, we arrived at our hotel around 7:00 pm.  After checking into the hotel, we parked the van in the Temple parking under the Paris Temple.  Our hotel was only a few hundred meters from the temple.

Monday night view of the Paris Temple

Our Self-Reliance Team seminar began the next morning with a devotional message from Elder Mervyn B. Arnold of the Quorum of Seventy.  Elder Arnold is now serving on the Self-Reliance Committee in Salt Lake City and is our first contact with SR in Europe.  He also served for some time as the Executive Director of the Temple Department.  We were blessed to have him spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday with us.

Elder Mervyn B. Arnold, preparing to instruct us in the Visitors Center of the Paris Temple

Elder Arnold taught us that the temple is literally the House of the Lord.  He taught us to prepare better to go to the temple, not be pressured with time, and to pray very specifically for those for whom we are proxy in the temple.  His counsel became even more special because many of our team, including Elder Arnold, were participating in this endowment session on behalf of our ancestors.  Personally, I was going through on behalf of my 12th great grandfather who was born in the 1500s.

With these thoughts in our minds and hearts, the temple session became even more meaningful.  After the temple session, we met in the beautiful garden area for a few photos.

In front of the Christus Statue in the Gardens of the Paris Temple

In front of the back (garden) entrance to the Paris Temple

With E/S Carroll and our manager Tom King

After the temple session we went to the local meetinghouse to continue our seminar.  Elder Arnold had asked each manager to take a few moments to introduce himself and then to discuss his major challenges and successes and a few numbers of Self-Reliance activity in 2017 compared with 2016.  This worked amazingly well as we discussed their challenges, many of which were common to all.  This continued for the remainder of the Tuesday seminar and through our Wednesday session.

At one point, the discussion turned a little bit negative about some leaders who do not embrace self-reliance.  Elder Arnold stopped the discussion and said "When we start getting down on priesthood leaders, the Holy Ghost is gone!  Let's be more positive, what can we do?"  He told us that the Holy Ghost had told him to share this with us.  He instructed us that we need to come up with solutions.  When we say that the problem is with others, we give away our agency.  As he finished this moment of instruction, he said "Thanks for listening, the Holy Ghost is back."  

We all felt exactly what he was describing.  It was a powerful lesson for all of us.

That evening Elder Arnold joined the team on a dinner cruise on the Seine River through Paris.  It was a beautiful evening with amazing views of the beauties of Paris and good food also.  We especially noted the effort of Elder Arnold to spend one on one time with each of the managers throughout the seminar, especially during this activity.

Dinner on the riverboat in Paris, Eiffel Tower in the background

The Eiffel Tower, on the shores of the Seine River

E/S Rueckert in front of the Eiffel Tower, from the boat

Statue of Liberty monument also on the Seine River, near the Eiffel Tower

The Louvre Museum as seen from the Seine River

The Notre Dame Cathedral as seen from the Seine River

We returned from this trip just a little after 11:00 pm.  We had missed the last train to Versaille.  We had to take two different metros to get to a third train station to arrive back at our vehicles.  By the time we returned to our hotel, it was 1:00 am.  It was an incredible day and certainly even more memorable due to the extended train rides we had to get home.

Waiting for the third train at almost midnight with 28 minutes before it would arrive to pick us up.  The ever-present Eiffel Tower in the background.

Finally on the last train home.  Not too crowded at this time of night.

On Wednesday the seminar started with a message from Elder De Feo who gave us new understanding as he opened our hearts and minds about self-reliance.  He told us that there is no way we can rule worlds in the eternity if we can't be self-reliant in this life.

He shared the emphasis of the First Presidency to follow President's Monson's admonition to Reduce & Simplify.  He shared the following three filters which were shared by President Eyring for us to use in our work with priesthood leaders:

1. Does what I am doing connect people to the Atonement of the Savior?
2. Is what I am asking people to do serve the people or is it for me?
3. Am I creating burdens or am I lifting burdens?

He said that if Priesthood Leaders don't see the connection to the Atonement of the Savior, it creates a burden.  He also shared President's Uchtdorf's thoughts that we must always have the goal to hit the bulls eye of the Lord.  Our job is to align with His goal which is the ordinances of salvation.

Elder De Feo then shared how he had gained his conversion to the principles of Self-Reliance, through the loving teachings and examples of a few of our managers who had worked with him in the past.  His personal examples were powerful to each of us.

He said that we need to help Priesthood Leaders see that we are trying to help people connect to Christ. 

After giving us wonderful counsel, Elder De Feo taught us by using the story of the Savior feeding the 5,000 (see Matthew 14 and Mark 6). He said the disciples said that thy did not have enough food to feed the multitude.  They focused on what was missing.  The Savior asked them what food they had, focusing on what they had.  He then asked them to bring it to him and he worked a powerful miracle. When the miracle was completed, there were 12 baskets of bread left.

He said too often we focus on what is missing.  He summarized this teaching with three simple steps;

1. Focus on what you have
2. Bring it to the Lord
3. Increase your faith and expect miracles

He shared another example from 2 Kings 4 of a widow who was to lose 2 children to pay for her debts.  She went to Elisha and asked him what she should do.  He asked "What hast thou in the house?"  She had one pot of oil.  He told her to borrow other vessels and pour from the pot to the vessels and eventually to sell the oil in the vessels to pay the debt.  Once again he asked her to focus on what she had, bring it to the Lord and increase her faith and expect miracles.

Elder De Feo says it is not about hard times, it is about focusing on increasing our faith.

The Holy Ghost testified so strongly of the truth of this doctrine.  It goes well beyond our temporal needs.  This is how we do what we can and let the Grace of the Savior do the rest.

This morning we got a phone call from home about a certain difficult situation.  As we listened, I was prompted to share the messages from Elder Arnold and Elder De Feo from this past week.  Once again the Spirit bore testimony of the truth of these words.  We were all in tears with gratitude to our Heavenly Father.

Elder De Feo teaching us in the SRS Seminar 

We were then taught by our Director of Temporal Affairs, Steve Maynes.  He taught us of the value of simplicity.  The Savior is the master of simplicity.  Satan is the mater of complexity.  He said that the more we are able to align with the Lord's bull's eye, we get to be an instrument in His hands.

He also shared the role of the Temporal Affairs office to act as agents to the Presiding Bishop (D&C 84:112-113).  Our role is to prepare the way for great miracles to take place!

Steve Maynes sharing in the SRS Seminar

After completing the presentations of all of the managers, Elder Arnold taught us again.  He went to the same chapters that Elder De Feo had mentioned (Matthew 14 and Mark 6) and continued the story.  After feeding the 5,000, the Savior had sent his disciples onto the ship on the Sea of Galilee while he stayed back and prayed.  He had just heard about the death of John the Baptist.  The scriptures say that he prayed until evening.

In Mark 6:47-48 it says "And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary to them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea".  He was aware of their challenges in the evening but awaited until the fourth watch (near dawn) before he went to their aid.  When he arrived he told them to "be of good cheer".  

He often watches us and waits for us to struggle with our challenges.  Elder Arnold told of 6 months of struggling for he and his wife after a child had died.  He said that the Savior let him go through until the 4th watch.  Then he received specific direction and eventually felt the Saviors arms around him and was healed.

We were taught that we will have to go through our own Gethsemane.  However, he will never let us sink as he didn't let Peter sink that night on the water.  He helps us get back into the boat as he did for Peter. Sometimes miracles take a lot of work and a lot of rowing.  We must include the Savior in everything.  We don't need to worry about making excuses for anything.  This is a spiritual work because it is His!

Elder Mervyn B. Arnold instructing us in the SRS seminar

By the end of Wednesday, we were completely filled and overflowing with the Spirit that had been conveyed by these servants of the Lord.  We then went to a Team Building activity at the Versailles Palace.  This included a tour of the palace and some time on the grounds and finally a dinner together afterwards.  This time we arrived at our hotel before 10:00 pm, our hearts still pondering all that had occurred that day.

Sister Rueckert was our team leader for the activity

In the famous Hall of Mirrors in the Versailles Palace

Panorama photo of one of the rooms in the palace

Behind the Versailles Palace and the reflecting pond

The gardens of the Versailles Palace behind us

Group photo of our team with some girls from Chile. We shared our Me in 30 Seconds with them as part of our activity.

Team dinner after the Versailles Activity

By Thursday morning, all of the General Authorities had departed and we had the last day of the seminar with Heath Bradley, Tom King and his team.  Many agenda items had been moved to the last day and shortened in duration.  However, we thought the presentations and discussions were excellent and the inspiration continued.

Tom King sharing the new agenda for the last day

We participated in a few of the presentations.  This photo is of our presentation on Senior Missionaries.  It went very well and led into excellent presentations by some of our mangers on the same topic.

Sister Rueckert sharing the passing of the baton of our role to Elder and Sister Carroll.

As we were in the middle of the topics of this seminar, we stopped for a short lunch.  During the lunch break, Tom King took a moment to thank us for our service and then presented bags of gifts from each of the managers.  We were caught totally off guard and felt an overwhelming feeling of love from each of them.  They had compiled a book of our mission with photos and comments from each of their areas.  The following is a few photos of these amazing acts of kindness that were shared with us.  We returned the book without a thorough review so that they could reprint it to resolve a few small printing errors.   We will have it back before we leave our mission.

"Our Mission" book, priceless!

Tom King with the European map Hippo that he had made for Sister Rueckert

Portugal Team with the Harry Potter cape which is still used in Porto, Portugal.  This is where the inspiration came when JK Rowling was a teacher in Porto, Portugal.

Sister Rueckert in our Harry Potter cape from Portugal along side many of the other  gifts that we received

New gifts on our empty shelves in Frankfurt.

Momo Djemai, our manager of the French and Dutch speaking countries hosted this seminar and did an amazing job.  He arranged the activities, the hotel, the meals and all the details of the seminar.  He gave small Eiffel towers, Paris guide books, etc.  While he was planning this early on, Sister Rueckert had told him that we should have chocolate Eiffel Towers.  He didn't do one for everyone, but he did provide this chocolate Eiffel Tower for Sister Rueckert:

Friday morning, before we left for home, E/S Carroll and we made one more visit to the Paris Temple to do some initiatory work for our ancestors.  Not to be overshadowed by the amazing experiences of the week, we love the work that was done for our ancestors this week.  13 of our ancestors had their endowments performed and several more had their initiatory work completed.  This brings so much joy to my heart.  We know it is part of this great work of the gospel.

We left the temple a little after 11:00 am and arrived home around 6:30 in the evening.  We spent a lot of time in the van during this trip.  Elder Rueckert did a lot of the driving in Paris and was able to rest on the way home as Tom King and Hartmut did the driving.

Photo from the front seat.  Obviously Elder Rueckert was not paying attention.

Saturday was a nice day to relax and to participate in the ward's Trunk or 

Treat activity.  They really get into it.

Youth Dancing with some costumes while we were eating dinner, including a chili cook off

The most extensive Trunk decoration.  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Sister Rueckert handing out candy from our simple trunk

We also participated in our family Halloween party by Zoom a week ago.  Just a few of the photos that we took to add to the Halloween festivities:

Our granddaughter Nikki and her cousin Kaleb

Gina and her family in an Aladdin theme