Doing a good thing for the right reason!

     The good thing is that the young adults living in the Paris area were invited to come to the Young Adult Center to watch the first session of April 2013 General Conference.  When I announced it in the Institute opening exercises on Thursday evening, no one seemed interested, but by the end of the evening three people had committed to come so there would be a small group watching the session together.  Saturday morning one of the young adults called me to let me know that there would now be 15 young adults attending.  I couldn't figure out why the increase until I looked on the YA Facebook page and happened to notice that someone had posted an announcement that a meal was going to be provided after the session.  What had started as simple refreshments turned into a meal for about 20 people including the two missionary couples and an investigator who happened by the church.  I have always said that missionaries need to be minute men, and Dixie took it all in stride as we quickly shopped for the necessary food items for the meal.  So we watched conference -- in one room French speaking and in the other those speaking English.

     I was really impressed by one young lady who arrived early as we began to prepare the meal without even being asked.  When I asked her how she knew that we needed her help, she said that she just felt like she needed to come early.

    We invited another young adult sister to prepare cake for the dessert (she is attending a pastry school) which she did and it was delicious.  It was especially wonderful because she had to travel one hour carrying those cakes to get to the Young Adult Center on the train.  It is not like they can jump in their car and get here in 5 minutes or even walk for 10 minutes. The young adults usually have to travel between 30 minutes to an hour by subway or train to get to any institute class or event.  We did send a missionary couple by train to help her bring the cakes, which was a sacrifice of their time on their Preparation Day.  But it was worth it.

     I have decided to catch the young adults rendering service in my photos to illustrate that simple acts of kindness are perhaps just as effective as large service projects.  I post them on our Facebook page and it is amazing how many people have been going to our page to see what our young adults are doing.  You can visit our page by going to Facebook and looking for "Centre-d'institut-de-Paris".

    Well, the event was a success because even though there were only 16 Young Adults, they left together afterwards to spend more time together.  Many other people traveled to their stake centers to watch conference.  Thank heaven for the internet broadcasts and now especially for the Priesthood Session.

     This mission is adding 14 new apartments for new missionaries arriving in the next couple of months.  We had 24 of those new missionaries arrive this week and we will receive another 40 in six weeks.  Our mission president, President Poznanski and his wife, along with 2 couples in the mission office, are really busy preparing for them.  The missionaries were brought to St. Merri ward house, which is the lower floor of the building where the Institute is, because there were so many and our building is in the center of Paris and close to a transportation hub.  Because of the close proximity to the train station, most of the mission conferences are held here.  It is an amazing experience to be a part of the hastening of the missionary work in these last days here in France.

     Dixie and I are so blessed to serve here in Paris, where I spent a year of my mission as a young missionary 48 years ago.  We especially love to work with the Young Adults and consider them much like our own grandchildren.