Cadeaux de Dieu


First Story

A short young man with curly red hair walked into the Family Search Center. He spoke to me, but I couldn’t understand his French (my problem not his), so I grabbed Phil. He told Phil that he wanted to learn more about the gospel.  Would that be possible?  His girlfriend in Bolivia is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they both wanted to get married, but she would only marry him in the temple.  He wasn’t a member.  Could he learn about the Church?


The answer was yes. We grabbed two sister missionaries standing a few feet away and asked them to teach him.  They taught him for about 20 minutes, and he left with his face actually glowing.  I really mean glowing.  Because of where he lives, they introduced him to the missionaries in Nogent (a Paris suburb). I spoke to the Nogent missionaries on Thursday, and they have been teaching him. He is going back to Bolivia soon where he will continue to learn.


Second Story

Phil and I were walking to the train station and decided to take a different way. Phil said, let’s go this way, and we found a beautiful entrance to the station.  Outside the entrance a woman saw us and said “Hello.” She was standing there with her two daughters, one of whom had a baby strapped to her. They were surrounded by luggage. We talked to them in English and found out they were members of the Church visiting Paris with a daughter who served in the Lyon, France mission a few years ago. She knew French, but her phone wasn’t working, and they didn’t know how to get to their hotel. Our phones had just been activated the day before (it took a month to get eSIM cards but that is another story).  I pulled up a map to their hotel on my phone, and the former missionary photographed my phone as I scrolled through the map, which showed them which way to go.


Third Story

We were walking to the Châtelet Les Halles train station from the Family Search Center at the end of a long day. I asked Phil if we could stop by the Stravinsky Fountain across from the Centre Pompidou and take a picture. We pass this fountain every day we come into Paris. As we were taking pictures, a man approached us and said hello in French and then English. He is a French teacher in Arizona, and he had brought a large group of students to Paris. He also brought his own children, who wanted to meet some missionaries.  There we were with our tags on. We got to meet this man, a former missionary, and his children.







These are great small moments that happen almost daily to us.


We are in the process of opening up our eyes to search for gifts from God.

We are grateful for these gifts that are being poured out on us constantly.




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