Journal May 22-25, 1962

May 22—All the Gessen kids’ neighbors and many of their kin are discouraging their baptism, and they’ll succeed, unless [139] the kids show more faith than they’re doing right now. Brother Molina, on the other hand, is going against the wishes of his whole family and receiving baptism this afternoon. His brother-in-law and sister-in-law are implacably against him in this, but he said last evening that he’ll leave them at his place while he keeps his interview appointment at 2 p.m! His spirit is truly humble and sweet now; he’s repented properly, as far as I can tell, and it’s really neat to see him in this condition. He’ll be the 100th member of the Church in the Rennes branch, which means that we can now start getting ready to build a chapel! Babylon is falling, and the children of Israel are abandoning the Vatican! Brother Molina never lets an opportunity go by to launch invective against the Catholic Church. Indeed, he nearly taught us the first discussion, a few weeks ago, before he got sick, saying that baptism [140] of babies is an abomination, against all righteousness, and that the priesthood shouldn’t be professional; that he loves to hear the Gospel preached by somebody “…dressed like me, who works, as I do…; that it’s foolish to worship Mary, and that one should pray to one living and all-powerful God, and only in the name of Christ. In those days, though, he spoke the truth without any evidence of humility and without letting it change his life. Then God blessed him with a stay in the hospital, during which he read the Book of Mormon. The Spirit touched him, and he’s finally truly ready to join the Church.

May 23—Unfortunately, tithing is giving Brother Molina some trouble, and we’ve postponed his baptism to next week. While we’re in Bordeaux, Brother Desquines will help Brother Molina get ready. He has already done good work, in this connection.

May 25—Leaving Rennes at 9 a.m., we arrived in Bordeaux about 5 yesterday evening. We’re staying at a hotel in the city, and we [141] ate at the Lotus, a Chinese restaurant with great cuisine. This morning we heard from several missionaries as well as from President Hinckley, Sister Hinckley, President Tanner, and Sister Tanner. President Tanner interviewed all the missionaries; I was the eighth in line. As I write these lines, he’s still interviewing. Sister Hiscock, a recent convert from England, studying in France, bore her testimony. She says everybody has noticed that she has changed since her conversion. Sometimes she wonders if she has grown an third eye, they look at her so strangely. I borrow her bizarre image in my testimony, since they asked me to speak. I said (and I believe) that every convert does get a new eye, the day of his conversion: a spiritual eye that lets him see spiritual things. [142] The conference was a success, and I was much edified. We returned to Rennes to find Brother Molina still waiting for his family’s consent to his baptism. If the spirit persists in his home that we observed last evening, he‘s not going to get that consent any time soon. We’ll encourage him today to act like a man and to act in accordance with what he knows to be true. Then his family will follow his example.

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