BLOG 15 - JAN 16th - 22nd, 2023

 IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE, PLEASE WATCH THIS

Perhaps many of you have seen this video recently, but maybe not with this music, which one of our most favorite pieces of music and most beautiful stories ever shared. We were overcome with emotions, to say the least. Watch to the end of this 6 min. brief video and you’ll see why.

One of the many touching scenes

CLICK HERE TO WATCH, BEHOLD YOUR LITTLE ONES

After watching this video, it left me with a desire to share my thoughts and feelings of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the power and blessing it personally has had, and still has, on my life. Millions and millions have read this book, and each who seek to find the truth of this book will know it is true, will gain greater access to the Lord’s power in their lives, and will want others to know as well.

The stories that are unraveled in this book of scripture from 2200 BC to AD 421 (this includes stories from the time of the Jaredites), are filled with the teachings of Jesus Christ taught by prophets, prophesying He would be born of a virgin, live a life of ministering and performing miracles and that He would also Atone for and then be crucified for our sins. And then to read of his ministering in the Americas after his death, which is what you saw in this video. This did in fact happen, it is true, it gives us all hope in Him, His Atonement and that we can return to Him once again. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, that it is true.

MISSION CALL SUBMITTED FOR MALIYAH

Our oldest granddaughter, Maliyah Duckworth had her mission papers submitted this last weekend and should be receiving her call in the next week or two. We are so ecstatic for her and yes, we will get up at 4:00 am to watch the unveiling of the location and departing date of her mission call. Most of all, we are just grateful for her decision to serve, as it’s been a decision, she made a long time ago and has not retreated from her desire. We know how life changing it is with these young men and women who choose to serve in this capacity.

This is the Duckworth family with Maliyah on the left, Camille is our oldest daughter, second child.

DISTRICT COUNCIL ZOOM

We enjoyed yet another zoom chat with our District. They are getting livelier and more interactive than before and seem to be more comfortable with their newbies, who are amazing. We are grateful to be able to join them.   

I know they are not looking so lively, but they are fabulous, and we love them.

ÉCULLY WARD COUNCIL PRESENTATION

Each ward was given direction to present Sharing Church Resources by the bishop to the ward council, but this ward didn’t quite understand their direction from the Stake Presidency member and asked that we present instead. It went ok, but it works so much better when presented and inspired by their ward leader in their perfected language. No matter, they were enthused about this direction and will be a great participant in this work.

This is the Écully Ward Council on Sharing Church Resources.

MIRACLE OF YOUTUBE AND AN EXPERIMENT FOR YOU

One of our greatest concerns in some of our sharing videos with those of another language, is how can we get it translated to French, if the Church has not done so, or hasn’t made it available for Closed Caption (CC).

We were recently watching the beautiful presentation by the Tabernacle Choir this last summer, Love Thy Neighbor, on the Church’s website, as it is perfect for what we are encouraging in our efforts with each of the members of the church here. We found the CC made it possible to view the speaking in French, but not the lyrics of all the songs. We were a bit saddened as the lyrics of each of the songs are so powerful.

BUT something we did not know that perhaps many of you do know, is that when watching on YouTube, we found a way to watch the entire presentation in French, including the lyrics to all the songs while they were singing in English. We were blown away and suddenly found other similar videos we wished were translated into French, and there it was on YouTube. No wonder the church is putting so much on YouTube because of its easy access through CC to be able to translate. This Tabernacle Choir presentation is exactly what we are trying to put across to our members and missionaries, but now we can share it with them in their language. Such blessings and a miracle X a million.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

But, if you did not know how to do so, and you wish to translate in another language yourself, there are a couple of interesting directions on how to go about it. We hope you will try the experiment for yourself. Choose Japanese, or Korean, or Italian (these are three languages that some of our some of our children learned, as well as Steve).

1.    - Get into the YouTube program on your computer that you wish to view and put on pause.

2.    - Make sure that Closed Caption is on, not off (the red line under makes it on).

3.    - Then next to CC is the settings tool, click on that and scroll to subtitles/cc 1 …..English/….and click on that.

1.   - Scroll down and click on auto translate

4.    - Next scroll to the desired language you wish to view.

5.    - It will then disappear, and you are ready to watch in the desired language.

6.    - When you return to the that program each time, you’ll have to redo the setting again, but it’s pretty easy.

7.    - You can do this on your phone as well but may look slightly different.

APARTMENT FOUND – HURRAY!

We were finally able to view an apartment in a wonderful location. This was the only apartment we were able to visit since the New Year, out of 4 that the realtor, Laure, had sought approval to accept the church’s insurance. Thankfully this owner accepted the Church’s insurance. Since apartments are so difficult to find right now, we are grateful that Laure was able to find one that worked.

We were grateful for the location, not as perfectly close to Old Town as we had hoped, but we knew that was probably not possible. It is in a very clean part of Lyon, just as close to our ward building as we are now, but from another direction, close to shopping, and very close to an immense and notable park (Parc De La Tête d’Or), and many other blessings that will work well for us, but especially because of the size and circumstances inside.

We are grateful for the Lord’s help and a great sense of peace in the process.

This is the bare kitchen before adding the necessities. 

Laure has been such a delight to work with.

CONFLUENCE WARD COUNCIL PRESENTATION

It there was ever a perfect presentation on the efforts of Sharing Church Resources, it was presented by the bishop of the Confluence Ward, Bishop Elukoji. From the very beginning of his presentation, he brought the spirit of this work with such clarity, testimony and purpose. He got it! I was left in tears throughout and especially at the end. He asked that Steve and I share any other thoughts on this effort and other instructions. It left us feeling blessed to be able to work with such incredible people.

Confluence Ward with Bishop Elukoji, left center.

MORE FAMILY CONNECTIONS

This week I received a text from my nephew, Michael Gibbons, telling me that he had the privilege last year to work with Brian Cordray (the employee in the Area office overseeing the webpage for us).

Last December in the blog, I mentioned (and put a link) about the Europe Area Christmas production, Witnesses of Christmas/Symbols of Christ, that was over the top incredible. I learned that Michael recorded some of it and mixed the whole thing. As I mentioned to Brian of the fun connection with Michael, he then shared these words below of praise about Michael.

Brian stated, “What a wonderful way to start my day—thank you for letting me know about Michael’s connection to your family. He was a real lifesaver, and we could NOT have done what we needed to do without him. He is a musical magician and made the difference for us in so many ways.” Bravo to Michael and to Brian!

Michael and Jenny Gibbons - my sister's son and his dear wife.

By the way, it was magnificent Jenny Oaks Baker who was one of the performers who tipped off to Brian about Michael and his genius. Barry Gibbons (my brother-in-law, and Michael) do all the recordings for Jenny Oaks Baker.

Jenny Oaks Baker - world renowned violinist.

WEBSPAGE UPDATE

We’ve continued to work with Judith on the webpage and it’s basically done, till we get final approval from President Léporé, after which we can have the translation into French done. We are given very few options that these webpages can have, such as font size, which is limited in most of the document, and yet, none of that matters as long as we have the appropriate information done in a way that makes it easy for viewers to learn and be able to register for the courses. We have more plans to put in place, such as video testimonials of how the courses have helped people in the community.

ENGLISH CONNECT AND HELPING SISTERS

We’ve been asked to begin an online English Connect course through zoom. We know our lives are full, but we felt that we should say yes, giving us personal experience on how this all works. We went to the mission office to pick up materials and get a little direction from sister McNevin, who is also teaching an English Connect course. She’s created a PowerPoint that makes it a bit easier on zoom, versus those who are in person. She offered to share her PowerPoint presentations, for which we’re very grateful. Steve has been doing a lot of preparation on this for us to begin once we find a suitable time.

We'll be teaching the English Connect 1, such a great program.

While at the office we saw Sœur Winters and Sœur Halterman with an enormous load needing to be transported to their apartment. We told them we’d help them, so we loaded it up in our car, and met them at their apartment to unload. There was no way we could fit them and the large load, but luckily, they live close and could walk.

Sœur Winters and Sœur Halterman, strong and faithful

We thought our elevator was small! 

PRESIDENT OBRECHT ZOOM

We were able to meet up with President Obrecht today to give him an update of our meetings with the two wards of the 9 in the stake, and then discuss other needed items concerning Young Single Adult’s involvement with this work. He is an amazing person to oversee this work in the stake, which is giving a great example for other stakes in the mission to follow.

President Paul Obrecht zoom meeting.

MORE HELP WITH VISION DOCUMENT

We sent out our vision document to two sets of Senior couples this week for more review, giving even more eyes to look at it. They gave some wonderful feedback, and we implemented and then made even other changes we felt were needed and now feel much better. Thanks to all who helped in anyway with this and we hope to show it to President Léporé very soon before translation begins. Your prayers are always needed.

FACEBOOK PAGE EFFORTS

We’ve also been working on the Facebook Page ideas to get that approved and have the social media team put that together for us. The greatest needs will come when we seek for help to manage it from members in the Stake, here in Lyon, and possibly in the mission when it gets out further.

When the Webpage and Facebook Page are complete and approved and given to the leaders, no doubt we’ll hope to share them with you.

This is our logo that goes on everything we do. It's so wonderful seeing it on the Gospel Library documents and other Stake's publicity and websites. 

SATURDAY OUTING

We decided to get out of our apartment, even though we knew it was very cold outside, but we just needed a break and go for a walk. Since it was sunny, we thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. We drove to the large parking facility for Parc De La Tête d’Or, a well-known spacious park in Lyon. We dressed appropriately for the cold, but with the terrible wind and frigid, humid temperature, we could only stay outside for a brief time. We will someday return when the weather warms up and we will be able to walk there from our new apartment. It will be so lovely to have a beautiful park near us again.

This is the map for the park.

We only saw a small section of this park but it's beautiful. 

This is near the rose garden. 

These were fake, and very cold smiles.

A rubber tree plant, if you don't know what a Rubber Tree Plant is, look up the song, High Hopes, or listen below. It'll put a smile on your face! I taught this for many years to my children's choirs.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO HIGH HOPES

Taken from our car since we never got to the front. Front facing of the Parc De La Tête d’Or.

SUNDAY WORSHIP

Another beautiful Sabbath that is always renewing to us. The RS class was wonderful taken from a General Conference talk, A Framework for Personal Revelation, by Elder Renlund. The teacher, Régine Chaptal, gave a most insightful message with great discussion from the sisters. 

This particular Relief Society teacher is a professional artist, and she seems to have a new painting each time she teaches, that correlates with her lesson. I love her artwork immensely.

Sister Régine Chaptal, teacher and artist extraordinaire (French spelling;)

Steve’s Priesthood class was on The Gift of Repentance by our friend, Denis-Pierre Couche. He loved this class for many reasons, but especially because of the great discussion that took place.

I can't get enough of this awesome companion of mine. We love all the time we get to spend together in this the Lord's work. 

COME FOLLOW ME REVIEW – JOHN 1

This week in our Come Follow Me Study we learned about John the Revelator, who wrote the Gospel of John, and several other notable writings. Jesus Christ dearly loved John, who was a disciple of John the Baptist and later one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles. Here are but a few of the many things that we gained this week.

In our reading of John, we learn beautiful truths about the premortal Christ in John 1:1-18, and about John the Baptist who prepared the way for Christ. Christ was the Light that John the Baptist testified of.

As we receive Christ as our Savior, He gives us power as we believe on His name. Through the Joseph Smith Translation, it helps to give us more clarity we would not otherwise have.

John’s writing also was focused more from the baptism of Jesus Christ forward. We also learn symbolically that the Jordan River happens to be in the lowest place on earth where you could still find fresh water, so just as Christ had to descend below us all, from His birth to death, his place of baptism makes this similar parallel.

We also learn how the scriptures themselves are similar to John the Baptist, a forerunner to Christ, to prepare the way for us to receive Him, especially as we learn of Him.

There was so much more that we both learned, but I continue to be amazed at the gift of learning through the Church’s Come Follow Me manual, and Scripture Central with Come Follow Me (we recently found out that Scriptural Central is sanctioned by Elders Holland and Anderson). It’s a beautiful partner with Come Follow Me.

 

Our thoughts and prayers are continually with you and anytime we can visit with you or hear from you (for which we are always most grateful), it gives us strength to carry on. We especially love to hear from our children’s families and our siblings.

 

With all our love,

Elder et Sœur Packer                                                                                          Grandpère et Mémé

801-336-6153 (Steve’s)                                                                              

801-564-1332 (Renée’s)

Address: Please include the name and address as stated

Les Missionaires – PACKERS

17 rue Philibert Roussy

69004 Lyon FRANCE