Elder Chase Player: The Temple Brings Blessings

This is a picture of what the temple in Paris, France will look like!

Bonjour tout le monde! This week has flown by and it has been another great week! Let me start with some of the highlights!

Highlights:

*Had a great exchange with Elder Garcia from Epinal and we went to Toul to do a baptismal interview for the Sisters ami.

*Went to Emmanual's baptism and his dad who has been inactive is working at coming back and was able to baptize him...The mom and two other children are now interested too!

*Visited our recent converts and they are continuing to grow, especially Marie-Line. We had a great lesson with her and Frere Clavey by watching President Monson's, "I Will Not Fail Thee nor Forsake Thee! What a great talk (If you haven't read it and need some encouragement be sure to look it up...October General Conference 2013)

*Spent a lot of time with members this week with teaching, service, ward council, Saturday Sports and a ward picnic yesterday. They are all so great and I love them more every time I get to be with them!

Now let me share two cool experiences we had this week. The first one was at night when we had a few rendez-vous set up but no one was home and no one answered their phone. So we went porting and after a long night of "no" we were on our way home and met Nicholas! Nicholas is about 30, French, and we asked him if he had any experience with prayer. He told us yes and how it had changed his life and how the scriptures had helped him. Now he was praying that he'd be able to quit smoking and we testified that we knew he could overcome smoking and he asked if we could see him again. We are excited to see him this week when he gets back from Paris!

The second awesome experience was with Kantinzo and Fat. They are the family we found last week when we helped carry up bunk beds to their apartment. We were able to teach them and the lesson went great. They had so many questions and we even talked about temples with them, which is rare on a first lesson. It all seemed to click and they want to come to church and know more. At the end they asked, "So if we become a mormon the goal would be for all of us to go to the temple and be sealed for all eternity, right?" "YES!" we responded and it was so awesome! we can't wait to teach them this week! Then this morning while studying I found this to go along with the blessings of temples. I found the scripture in D&C 109 that is the Dedicatory prayer at the Kirkland Temple that Joseph Smith gave. It says, (22) And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them: (23) And from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfill that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning the last days"

I love this promise and it is something that I know is true. The Spirit bore testimony of it during our lesson with this great family. The temple can bring a power, glory, and angels into our lives that no other place can. The members here are so excited to have their first temple here in Paris in 2016. They know it will bring blessings to them all. I hope that we all take the opportunity to fully partake of the blessings that the Lord has in store for us by going to the temple regularly. It will strengthen us and give us the power we all need in these last days. How blessed we are in Utah to have 14 temples. many of which are just a short drive, or walk, from us. Take the time and partake of the blessings and protection the Lord has promised.

Thanks for all you do for me and for all your prayers. I hope your week is a good one...till next week!

Love you all...

Elder Player