Revisit to Lyon

This is a mural called the Wall of the Canuts.

The buildings and streets look real,
but are paintings on the side of a building

which used to look like this:

Below Jonathan is standing in front of the mural.
Can you tell the real human from the painted ones?

Lyon is famous for dozens of these enormous paintings

on the  sides of buildings several stories high.

Just a few of the many are presented here

Many murals were in a section of town called La Croix-Rousse
where they were having a street carnival.

Above is a painted stairway
and below is Jonathan at the bottom of the stairs

The top of the ferris wheel gave a great view of Lyon.

While in Lyon we visited our favorite Parc de la Tête d'Or  

where we enjoyed the last of the fall colors

and animals were walking peacefully through 

the small zoo.

We can still buy our baguettes almost every day,

which is Jonathan's favorite traditional French breakfast. 

This photo has been famous ever since
French baguettes were recognized by UNESCO

on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Church History Moments

History of Strasbourg, excerpt from the section written by Willis Waite 2 July 1994

[Elder Willis Waite was newly  married when called to serve a mission in France in 1947. The Church had just resumed sending missionaries to Europe after WWII. About 30 years after the events related here, he was called as president of the France-Paris Mission, when Jonathan was a missionary here (1973-1975). Elder Waite wrote this story in 1994 about what had happened during his first mission in Strasbourg, France.]

The missionary work [1947] was most difficult, and sometimes we would go weeks without ever presenting a lesson. One day as we were tracting in a beautiful residential area, when we introduced ourselves to the maid, the owner of the home heard that we were Americans, and he invited us in. He was also very interested know that we were Mormon missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He proceeded to tell us the following most amazing account of the true application of gospel principles in one's life, as follows:

When the Germans occupied France [1940-1944], they sent a German to supervise this French gentleman’s factory to produce materials for the German war machine. The German that was sent to supervise this factory was a Mormon. The Frenchman told us what an outstanding and good man he was even though he was the enemy.

As missionaries we were very thrilled to hear this testimony.  When we shared it with the members of the branch, we learned more of this German brother whose name, I think, was Hans Schneider.

Sister Anna Kayser shared with me how Brother Schneider came to the branch meeting one Sunday. The local members were fearful that a German agent was there to possibly bring trouble to them, but he announced that he was a member of the Church and wanted to worship with them as a brother.  He even said he would be willing to put some of the members in responsible positions in the factory to prevent them from having to go into the German army, and he even hired Sister Anna Kayser to be his personal secretary, one in whom he could have trust.

               Anna related how one day he shared with her a letter from Berlin, the Gestapo Headquarters, telling him that if he did not join the Nazi Party, he would be released from his position. He prized this letter, for after the war it proved to be an instrument that exonerated him from being a war criminal. He replied to the German authorities to look at the record of production of the factory, and inasmuch as his kind treatment brought higher production, he was not released from the position.

When the Allies had invaded France and the German army was retreating, he said his goodbyes. This story shows that the gospel of Jesus Christ is above all of the human problems.

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