Late last night, Catherine was scanning Facebook, something she rarely does, and found that President Jason Soulier, Mission President for the France Lyon mission, had passed away in his sleep early that morning. We were shocked.
The Souliers started their mission service in June, and we served under them for several months before our urgent transfer to Greece. In that short time, we became fast friends. Catherine, in particular, formed an instant bond with Jennifer Soulier. The couples in the mission office were new, and although we were WSR (Welfare and Self-Reliance) missionaries, we were the most experienced senior couple in Lyon and developed a warm relationship with the Souliers as they began their mission.
In an earlier post, I compared the three mission presidents under which we have served. I love and admire all three of these couples, capable and humble servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for Sister Soulier, far from home, with so many missionaries under her care. Abruptly losing a spouse is scary, heart wrenching and extremely painful. It leaves one numb and in a fog for a time. Tim and I pray for Sis. Soulier as we know how that feels. We wish there was something we could do to help or relieve some of the pain. Tim and I both know there are no words that help but we want Sis. Soulier to know we care for and love her and are praying for her and her family. We pray for their family, children and grandchildren who have lost such a powerful and worthy father and grandfather. We are also praying for our sweet senior missionary friends and our young missionaries serving in the Lyon Mission. They are in our hearts. We love them and are asking angels to attend to all of them. This news has ripped the rug out from beneath all of us and they need our prayers.
Thank you President Soulier for your example. Thank you for you dedication, love, compassion and passion for the work. Thank you for your devotion to, and focus on each and every missionary in your care. Thank you for genuine friendship and Christ-like Example. Till we meet again, till we meet at Jesus’ feet. We love you President and Sister Soulier!
We are learning not only the Welfare Self-Reliance programs that the church offers to the world, but also how the French people understand and accept these programs. The pace of the French in society and in the church is different. Not better or worse, just different. We love how our ward ends Sacrament meeting. After the closing prayer, everyone remains in their seats for several minutes. No one talks, we just sit in reverent silence. Once the bishop gets up, everyone gets up and begins to socialize. It may take 10 to 20 minutes before people move from the chapel to their respective meetings. After church, the saints linger and talk. One Sabbath, an hour after church, people were still chatting.
Dinner with our boss (second from left) and the WSR leaders in Clermont-Ferrand
In a recent Area devotional, the Area manager spoke about the expanding work in Central Europe. One of their desires is to cultivate native workers in the Area office and native missionaries; both senior couples and young missionaries in the field. It reminded me of a discourse given by President Kimball on how missionary work would spread throughout the world. Countries that depend on American missionaries would become self-sufficient and in turn, export missionaries to others. That is the goal of the European people. Local missionaries to fulfill their needs and an excess to export to other countries. Right now, many French missionaries are sent to the US. Some stay or return to the US because of the opportunities here. The saints and the leadership of the church here in Europe want to open opportunities for their missionaries as incentive to stay.
Catherine and I discussed this after the devotional and concluded that saints from the US look at the French culture through the lens of our own culture and experience. We remembered a conversation with a Senior couple in the Area office while we were there for training. They were rather upset at an affiliate organization that had received humanitarian funds from the church. Rather than using them as agreed, they gave them to another organization in country and then publicly took credit for the donation. The funds were not necessarily misused, but credit was not given as we would expect in our US culture.
Outside the Cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand
A big question we ask ourselves is if the work we are doing here is sustainable. Are we just blowing hard on the coals? As soon as we leave, will the fire die back down? We have seen couples so excited about pushing the work forward that they push local WSR specialists out of the way in order to do it ‘the right way’. The work glows brightly for a while, but when they leave, the local saints called to this work are not prepared to take over. Our goal is to build a strong, sustainable source of heat and light by training, and more important, sustaining the local leadership in the responsibilities to which they were called. President Kimball delivered a landmark discourse in 1974 on how the world will be converted. In that discourse, he quoted a discourse by Brigham Young in the April, 1852 General Conference:
The Cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand
“This kingdom will continue to increase and to grow, to spread and to prosper more and more. Every time its enemies undertake to overthrow it, it will become more extensive and powerful; instead of decreasing it will continue to increase; it will spread the more, become more wonderful and conspicuous to the nations, until it fills the whole earth.” We are moved to be a part of that work.
Catherine in the Cathedral, surrounded by stars made by the local children
We recently met with a couple in Clermont Ferrand, called as Welfare Self-Reliance specialists for their stake. I watched with awe as Catherine embraced these fine people, both figuratively and literally. She adores and is adored by all she meets. Catherine speaks little French, and the sister spoke little English, but they instantly became lifelong friends and communicated in ways far beyond mere spoken language. Catherine worries about how little of the French language she commands, but she communicates far beyond anything I can do. This couple is excited about the work and have a testimony of the Church’s Self-Reliance programs. Catherine and I pray continually for the inspiration and revelation necessary to sustain them.
It is a joy for us to work as WSR (Welfare, Self-Reliance) missionaries. the MLS (Member Leader Support) missionaries in our mission have somewhat well-defined responsibilities, particularly those that work in the office. Our job is nebulous. We are left to figure out what we should do and how to do it. We would enjoy the more defined MLS responsibilities if that were our call, but we are embracing the lack of definition in our current callings. We find opportunities to learn and to serve wherever we can.
With the Sister Missionaries and acouple being taught in our apartment
We are learning how the church works with the French government. It is not better or worse, just different. An integral part of the French Revolutions was throwing off the suppressive yoke of the Catholic church. I don’t know enough about French history to make any kind of judgement here, but that is certainly the perception of the French people. Because of this, as a culture, they are very suspicious of religious organizations. The church understands not to fight it, but to work with it. For example, EnglishConnect classes can be taught in some church buildings but not in others. It seems arbitrary, but it depends on ownership of the buildings. The church cannot directly own buildings in France, not even the temple. They are owned by subsidiary or affiliate organizations. The way the church owns each building dictates if EnglishConnect classes are seen as competition with local public universities. Some buildings in our Stake can host EnglishConnect classes, some cannot. We work with that. Where we cannot hold physical classes, we do so online.
On the Streets of Clermont-Ferrand
While serving here in France, we are re-learning how to pray. I was reminded recently of a discourse on Prayers of Gratitude. Sometimes our prayers turn into a list of “monotonous pleadings”. Rather than a long list of requests for our work and our families, even though these requests may have the best of intentions, we have been offering prayers of gratitude for all the blessings poured out on us. We thank the Lord for his help as he blesses us the way he blessed the People of Alma. He did not remove their burdens, but he made them light. In the coming weeks and months, I will try to describe the answers to our prayers, most particularly our prayers of gratitude for the support He gives our families while we are in His service.
We have all had times in our lives when stress has driven us to exhaustion, and at night, anything standing in the way of collapsing into bed seems daunting. Many times at family prayer, my children and wife would get up and tip toe quietly away, leaving me sleeping at the bedside on my knees. At times I was the one offering the prayer! I would wake up hours later and wearily climb into bed, sore knees and all.
Kneeling at the bedside in prayer is a traditional and accepted way of submitting ourselves to God and His will for us. I have difficulty kneeling at the bedside for prayer without remembering those hard times, and my inability to offer or even conduct a simple nightly prayer with my family. Rather than dredge up those memories on a nightly basis, I have taken to prayer at different times during the day: when on a walk, cooking a simple meal, working in the garden or performing some other household task. At times, it seems that the Lord is the silent partner in the conversation, but it is a conversation.
From time to time I look not just what I am praying, but how I am praying, and how effective those prayers seem to be. Not in the sense that I see immediate results, but effective in how my prayers are changing my heart and bringing me closer to Him.
Latter-Day Saints 