The Paris Temple

The last three weeks have been filled with amazing experiences as we have been giving guided tours through the new Paris temple in Le Chesney, two blocks from the garden of Versailles palace. We have run into people we know from home; Griffins, Rinewands, Eriksons (Tammy and Eric), Brian Memmot’s sister-in-law, the Sanders, Betsy Holly and her daughters in law; people we know from the mission; friends and family of friends and family; general authorities (Matthew Bennesar of the 70); students that had us in classes years and years ago; and many missionaries who served in France at one time and “came home” to enjoy the fulfillment of prophecy.  We have taken a few groups in French, but have mostly done English speaking tours.  We have actually really been needed for this open house.  We’re are so glad we were here at the right time.

We have taken French natives who live in the neighborhood of the temple who said that they have been worried what this temple might do to the area.  We asked them what they thought now, and they said that they were quite pleased with the beauty, peacefulness and orderliness of the temple.  They added that it is certainly better than the electricity company that resided in the building there before.  It helps that there is a 150 place parking lot deep underneath the temple, so there is no great bother to the local parking which is already a nightmare. These people had been afraid that the “Mormons” would come into the area, pound on their doors and force their religion on everyone.  After having visited the temple, their fears were soothed, and they very much admired the magnificent temple. The majestic Thorvaldsen Christos in the gardens pronounces to the world that we are indeed Christian.   Another French native told us that she was so impressed with all the non-salaried volunteers who were helping with the open house.  She is a lovely woman who works with handicapped children and has great difficulty getting enough volunteers to help with her work.  Another visitor said, “You can’t pay people to smile like these volunteers in this place.”

One man who served in the association that worked against the temple project and helped with a petition signed by 6,000 people to nullify the building of the temple, came on a VIP tour a few days ago.  Michel, the director of the open house sharing the account with us, said that when this man was in the celestial room, he fell to his knees. Everyone rushed around him to see if he was all right.  He was very overcome because he had just seen his father who had died 50 years previously. Another gentleman who also served in this association to stop the building of the temple confessed at the end of the tour that he deeply regretted having been actively trying to stop it.

One of the other directors of the open house is also a bishop in his ward.  He shared with us that one young lady who had not been active in the church for a very long time and had done every wrong thing possible out of rebellion, came to the open house as a personal favor to this bishop. She recounted to him afterwards that she loved seeing the temple and just wanted to know if “Jesus still loved her.” When she left the interior of the temple and stood on the beautiful grounds in front of the Christos, she felt as if someone was physically wrapping their arms around her. She told her bishop, “I’m ready to come back.  Jesus still loves me.”

Today we had the unexpected privilege of taking a VIP group on the visit.  It included John Welch who is the Founding Director of The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and a renowned LDS scholar and author, and his wife, Jeannie Welch who is a retired professor of French at BYU.  Sister Welch and I had become acquainted at some of the ACTFL conferences for teachers of foreign languages. The Welches were accompanied by people from Stanford, Harvard and Cambridge Universities. Elder Wilson of the 70’s family were also represented.   Most unique to this group was a woman from Cambridge University, Margaret Barker who is a pastor in her faith and a well-known expert on ancient temples.  It was fascinating to hear her commentary on how accurate and authentic the configuration, symbolism and ceremonies as described to her, were to ancient temples.  She was very much in awe of the concept of restoration and divine authority.  When we were allowed to bear our testimony in the Sealing Room about the importance of eternal marriage and the joy of chains of generations of families linked together, she was visibly touched.  She seemed to be moved by the fact that we will soon celebrate our 45^th wedding anniversary while here in France, as well as our emotional declaration that “heaven would not be heaven without each other and our children.”

We savored listening to John Welch’s conversation with the Cambridge scholar about temples, ancient and modern, and our LDS beliefs. They recently presented a lecture on temples at UCLA (one of my alma maters) and are currently preparing a lecture to be presented in Paris tomorrow evening.  We wish we could attend, but it is the last day of the temple open house and over 4,000 people are expected to visit today.  It was also so wonderful that Matt was able to share his knowledge of religious symbolism during the tour. That’s my companion!

How blessed we have been to rub shoulders with these powerful saints working for the open house and the almost 50,000 visitors who came and were able to enjoy the splendor!  

Jack & Jeannie Welch and Margaret Barker.  We took them on a tour of the temple and we able to listen in on their insightful commentary.

We had a very nice visit with Gerry and Marilyn Griffin.

Betsy, one of Chris' former students from BYU Idaho.

The Sanders family from our old 12th ward in Rexburg.

Jesse (formerly Elder) Wade with Pierette and Jade (formerly Sœur) from our Lyon mission.

Renee & John Hall, and American couple who have been living in France for the past 17 years.   John is the bishop of the Saint Merri Ward in Paris.

Chris with Sœur Blanchon from the Mont-de-Marsan Branch.

With Frère Bernier.

Playing games with all the senior missionary couples in the Paris mission.

We got to lead a tour for President and Sister Ronney, the former president of the Lyon Mission.

Brian Memmott's sister-in-law from Rexburg.

A former student of our son-in-law from BYU Idaho.

Elder and Sister Egan with members of the Chalon-sur Saône branch.

Two of the sister missionaries taking a break...in the wheelchairs!

A cute little visitor who helped us guide one of the tours.

Lists and Labels

In our attempts to maintain a sense of order, we organize things (events, foods, even people) into lists and then put labels on them.  It is easy to get uncomfortable when we encounter something that doesn't quite fit.  This is a normal thing to do and is even to some extent helpful.  But it can also be a little dangerous, especially if our mental lists and labels are "written" in ink.  Fortunately, we can move things around.

Today is the half-way point of our mission.  In one sense, the past nine months have flown by.  In another, this is the only life we have ever known.  Our lists and labels have really changed in our first nine months here in France, and they will no doubt change even more in the nine months to come.  Our list of things that are "hard to do", or "don't make sense" and the list of "things that we miss from home" are much shorter now.  Missing family is still at the top, but many of the things after that have dropped off or even been moved to the "easy" or "logical" list. 

As we now turn the corner on our mission experience, we are finding that there are other lists that are starting to grow.  We notice that we are often saying to each other, "We are really going to miss ______ when we leave here".  These ever growing lists includes many gastronomic entries, beautiful things from nature, an incredibly rich culture and history, art and architecture, a beautiful language, and high on the list, so many extraordinary people.  Another incredibly significant thing we will no doubt miss is all the great blessings that come when one has the privilege to wear a missionary badge.  Many of these blessings are so immediately evident to us that it almost makes us laugh, while others are so subtle that they are easy to miss.  The reality is that we probably aren't even completely aware of all of them, and the full impact of the blessings of missionary service will only become fully evident when we take our badges off in nine more months from now.  But driving and parking in big cities stays where we first put it, in indelible ink!

Here are just a few examples of things from our "we are really going to miss this" list.

Beautiful French marchés...

...red tile roofs covered in moss and lichens...

...patisseries...

...associating with crazy-wonderful missionaries...

...funny little cars...

...hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years of architecture all in a row...

...the smell of fresh baking bread on almost any street...

...cheese that smells likes angels' feet...

...little "bouchon" restaurants where the table is yours for the entire evening...

...fields of yellow canola flower blossoms...

...narrow cobblestone roads...

...scriptures in glass...

...and the blessings of wearing these.

Beyond Magnificent

Working as tour guides in the Paris temple is a dream come true (can you say "blessing come true?") No words can describe our gratitude for this experience or love for this place and the wonderful, faithful people who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to make it possible.  Everyday we go in to do our little part, we ask each other, "Is this really happening?  How on earth (or more appropriately, how in heaven) did we get to do this?"

The temple itself is beyond magnificent.  No pictures can even come close to doing it justice.  We have posted outside pictures while pictures of the inside are available on-line.  But again, it is just not the same as in person. Every detail, every artistic conception is rich in significance to the gospel of Jesus Christ or to the historic and cultural heritage of this great part of the world.  The stained-glass windows are as beautiful as anything I have seen here in Europe.  They have the colors and feeling of an impressionistic Monet painting.  Blues, violets, and greens all blend to make a more than spectacular visual feast.  And when the sun comes shining through those windows... Oh la la! ---pronounced Ah la la!  I honestly cannot get enough of those windows.  There are amazing paintings tastefully placed throughout the temple; many copies of Carl Bloch's work, many that I have seen before in other temples, and several original pieces primarily depicting the life and teachings of our Savior.

The mural room which is shown on-line has scenes from the Normandy cliffs and the Seine River Valley. The glass in this room has gorgeous blue wild flowers called "Les Bleuets" which are a symbol of the memory of those 20,000 plus fallen victims of WWI.  Nurses who wanted to lift the morale of those maimed and wounded made fabric bleuets to brighten the surroundings in the hospitals and sold many of them to raise enough money to take care of the needs of those suffering from the carnage of the war. The flower is now known as the "Symbole National du Souvenir" the national symbol of remembrance.  Over 138,000 flowers were sold in those days, and today these flowers are sold on November 11 and May 8.

Another prevalent flower that serves as a theme in the hand-painted stained glass, carved carpet, and wall decor is the beautiful lily. This is particularly powerful since the "fleur-de-lis" or lily flower is the symbol of France.  

Even more impressive than the artistry is the feeling of calm beauty and reverence that reigns in the temple.  Even though it has not yet been dedicated, there is a sweet spirit of love and devotion.  The people we are working with are so kind and generous.  One little lady who is the wife of Michel, the director of the open house, goes around distributing hot chocolate, nuts, fruit, and pastries to the workers.  But we definitely earn the goodies.  Saturday we left our gîte at 7:30 in the morning and got back at nearly 10:00 p.m.  We took 13 groups of visitors up to the top floor and back.  By all rights, we should not even be able to walk today, but we have been so blessed and are back at it.

Nous sommes bien benis!  (We are so blessed and grateful)


The temple at night

The darling young missionaries, and yes, the guy in the back is really 7'2"



The darling not-so-young missionaries


Monet-like flowers in the stained glass.


Bleuet flowers in the temple.


Bleuets in bloom.


French national symbol of remembrance


Treats distributed to the missionaries and other workers at the open house.

What are the Odds?

Unlike young missionaries, when seniors apply for mission service, they are asked to fill out a long questionnaire about their experiences and abilities.  Seniors are also asked if they have any particular preferences in mission calls with the caveat that they should be prepared to accept any call that might be extended.  Since we indicated that we would prefer a French-speaking assignment, it is probably not a surprise that that is what we received.  However, with the many places in the world that have need for French-speaking missionaries (Canada, Europe, French Polynesia, and especially Africa where the demand is so high), the odds of receiving a call to Lyon, one of only two French-speaking missions in Europe, were on the small side.  Added to that is the fact that of all the missionaries called to the Lyon mission, we are the only ones who have responsibilities, and therefore the ability to travel, in the Paris mission area as well.

As it has turned out, our mission call came at the precise time of the open house and dedication of the first and only temple in France.  In fact, the mid-point of our 18 months here is only a few days from the dedication of the Paris temple.  The odds of those two stars aligning are beginning to mount.  Added to that, our self-reliance mission assignment has allowed us the flexibility to come and spend the middle three weeks of our mission as guides for the temple open house.  

About four years ago when we first heard the announcement about the building of a temple in France, we talked about how great it would be to someday in the future to visit that temple.  And now, for the past week and for the two weeks to come, we are here in France serving as guides for the Paris temple open house.   What a blessing we have been given, in spite of the odds.

Our Guide badge that we wear to take tours through the temple.

Visitors coming out of the temple tours.

The beautiful temple gardens.

Thorvaldsen's "Christus" in Carrara marble in the temple gardens.

Paris temple detail.

Sœur Geddes ran into Natalia, a friend from our home ward in Lyon.  What
are the odds of those two outfits?!

Spring

Spring in France is beautiful: Everything is in blossom and coming back to life.  It is easy to understand why we celebrate Easter in the spring.  And our missionary activities have been finding renewed life as well. 

We had a wonderful self-reliance devotional in the little branch of Chalon-sur-Saône.  We now only have one more left to do in the Grenoble Ward before we have completed our goal of presenting devotionals in each ward and branch in the Lyon Stake.  The Chalon branch is very small, averaging around 20 to 25 each Sunday.  But they had planned and prepared well, and there we about 35 in attendance.  Of course, the promise of lunch afterward was a great enticement!

Everyone here in France is so excited about the Paris Temple.  We are grateful to have the opportunity to spend the next three weeks working at the temple open house.  We drove up from Lyon yesterday and checked into the little "gîte" (rural apartment) that we found and rented for the duration the open house.  Our gîte is in a beautiful pastoral setting, even though it is only a 10 minute drive from the city of Versailles and from the temple.  In fact, the farm compound surrounding our gîte was originally a gift given by King Louis XIV to his surgeon.  As the story goes, the surgeon cured Louis of his hemorrhoids, and Louis was understandably very grateful.  It no doubt made sitting on his throne a lot easier!

While here in Versailles, we will be working six mornings per week giving tours at the temple open house.  We are also arranging other self-reliance activities for the afternoons.  We are very excited that the Paris mission is having a two-day conference with President Babin and all the senior couples during our time here. They have invited us to meet with them during our afternoons, and make a presentation to them on the self-reliance initiative.  We feel so blessed to be here on a mission, especially at this historic time.

Blossoming trees at Berzé-le-Châtel

Us with Elder and Sister Egan at Berzé

Easter palm-fronds with light coming through the stained glass in the Cathedral Saint Jean, Lyon.

The welcoming committee from our gîte near Versailles.

Another member of the same committee.  (Hedgehog I think)


Our home for the next three weeks.


The back yard.  We love our apartment in Lyon, but after 8 months of
city living, it is so nice to be in a place like this.


Another view overlooking our gîte compound.  The edge of the city of Versailles is in the distance.

Joy

The ward boundaries here in France are not anything like those in Rexburg.  At home, your next-door neighbor might be in a different ward, while those living across the street can be in a different stake.  But here, it is not uncommon for people in the same ward to live hours away from each other and from the church.  Many of our stake and even some ward leadership meetings have to be done by video conference.  Consequently, when the young missionaries have a rendezvous with someone they are teaching, it can be difficult if not impossible for them to meet, especially if the missionaries don't have a car.

For the past several months, different sets of elders have been teaching Joy, a young single mother from Nigeria who has two little daughters.  Joy lives way out in an "African mission" that is somewhat of a refugee hospice.  The elders would often call us to come help them teach.  We knew that their main motivation was that we have a car; But we loved going out with them anyway.  Since our main calling is with self-reliance, we did not think we would have many opportunities teaching "amis" (investigators or friends" as they are called here).  But as it turns out, we do get opportunities to teach with the young elders or sisters from time to time.

Last Friday Joy was baptized.  It was especially touching that she asked that Elder Geddes baptize her.  We did not think that we would have that sweet opportunity.  Her name, "Joy" says it all!

Joy's baptism.

Spring has arrived.

Since we don't have a garden in Lyon, we planted some window boxes.

We took the three assistants to the mission president out for dinner; elder Menzel (left) from Germany, Elder Underwood (middle), and Elder Wade (right) who goes home today and will be on a basketball scholarship to Gonzaga in the fall.  

After several months, I got my French driver's license.

Another Mission Miracle

We are finding that there are so many mission "coincidences" which really aren't coincidences at all, but tender little mission mercies/miracles that keep us feeling grateful and blessed. We have the opportunity to serve with amazing people who are also here as full-time senior missionaries desiring to give back to the Lord.  One of these couples is the Klemasz' from Australia.  They just traded places with another couple who took their place in a town called Chalon, and they came to work here in the Lyon mission office.  It's so fun to go on little excursions and small trips with these and the other senior missionaries with Elder Geddes as the wonderful tour planner and guide.  On this last trip to Baume-les-Messieurs, we discovered that the Klemasz' were great friends with our dear, dear friends, Lydia and Steve Chrisohoou.  Elder and Sister Kemasz knew the Chrisohoous when the Chrisohoous lived in Australia before they moved to New Zealand.  We knew the Chrisohoous when we lived right below them in Temple View apartments, the married student housing complex at the then, Church College of Hawaii.  Chris served in the R.S. Presidency with Lydia, and the two couples shared many a meal, ongoing pranks, and all-night rook games.  Steve and Lydia were able to spend some time at Chris' parents' cabin at Sundance, Utah, and Steve lived with Chris' parents for a time in Orem while he was going to school at BYU. We learned so much from these extraordinary friends about friendship, deep gospel worship, strong, devoted faith amidst pain and heart-ache, having fun, and, of course, Greek cuisine; oregano and lemon juice, Mate!  Every year for Father's day Sister Geddes prepares a Greek meal for Elder Geddes complete with stuffed grape-vine leaves and moussaka. And let's not forget "Puha and Pakeha"; dandelion leaves and white people for dinner--one of our standard jokes. Chrisohoous will always hold a special place in our hearts.

So will these other great couples and senior missionaries who serve with us.  Even though we are far away, we feel like we are serving in the heart of the church as we live alongside, serve alongside and play alongside these consecrated individuals.  


Steve and Lydia when we first knew them.


A little later...


On Steve's 70th birthday after 45 years of eternal marriage.


Us with Elder and Sister Klemasz at Baume-les-Messieurs, France.


Our entire Lyon senior group.