Weeks 17 & 18 in Italy and France

We returned home to Le Chesnay, France on Sunday, February 10th.  We will always treasure the memories of serving for one month at the Rome Italy Temple open house.  One of our sweetest memories was getting together with my sister Claudia's daughter and granddaughter, Betsy and Nora.  Betsy came to visit the Rome Temple open house with several of her friends and their daughters from Saudi Arabia, where they are currently stationed for their husband's employment.




We got to meet many wonderful people while serving there.  Wayne had the pleasure of serving with a former member of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Mike Hendriksen, who is an excellent organist and pianist.  He, like Wayne, can play most of the hymns by ear in different keys.  He always envies people he meets who have perfect pitch as Mike does!






This next picture is rather deceptive.  It shows Wayne serving as a parking usher with a big smile on a nice, sunny day.  What it doesn't show is Wayne serving in the pouring rain under an umbrella with the wind blowing trying to untangle traffic jams!  Nor does it show Janet standing out in the pouring rain and wind under an umbrella waving a green paddle to get the cars zooming past her to slow down.








We usually served for 3 two hour shifts each day, changing tasks from shift to shift. We usually had a 2 hour break to rest or eat in the middle of the afternoon.  One day we walked over to the Porta di Roma mall to eat, but the only eating places open at that time of day were mostly pizza places, which we had grown tired of.  So we broke down and decided to eat at McDonalds.  While it's not our favorite eating place, like it is for our great grandson, Jeramiah, we thought the food was pretty good.  The bacon cheese French fries were delicious.  We had never seen that in the U.S.

The group of us from the Paris Temple rented a large van to travel together from the Rome Temple to the Fiumicino Airport, which is on the Mediterranean coast west of Rome. It was quite the adventure weaving in and out of traffic at high rates of speed, but we made it safely, and the flight back to Paris Orly was uneventful.  When we arrived at the Paris Temple, our temple president's wife, Annie Giraud-Carrier had prepared meals for each of the couples to take back to their apartments.  Here is Wayne enjoying the delicious soup, quiche, and cookies.  It felt good to be back in our own apartment, and sleep in our own bed.








There was, however, a major disappointment upon returning.  The elevator had been taken out of service, but NOT because of any mechanical problem.  According to the sign posted on the elevator door, the elevator was shut down because there was no telephone in the elevator.  We have been using the elevator without a phone for the three months we've been here!  You'd think that they would order the things needed to fix it BEFORE shutting the elevator down, but no.  The notice does not indicate how long the elevator will be out of service, but only that the parts have been ordered. This made it necessary to carry our two pieces of luggage, one of which weighted 53 pounds, up the narrow, spiral stairwell.  While Wayne went up to open our apartment on the second floor, our temple president, who is older than Wayne, carried both pieces of luggage up the stairs for us!  The picture of Wayne carrying our shopping cart up the stairs doesn't show how much lighter it was than our luggage!

The highlight of this past week, at least according to Wayne, was the purchase of two new bicycles. Janet's is a very nice ELECTRIC bike, while Wayne's is a very nice regular bike.  He hopes he can keep up with Janet.  Riding bikes is still a challenge for Janet, but it is good therapy for improving her balance and surroundings awareness.  As of today, Sunday, February 17th, we've gone riding three afternoons, and she is doing very well.  Saturday, however, when we rode on the Palace of Versailles grounds, it was amazingly crowded, so we ended up walking our bikes back most of the way home.  The weather has been very spring-like in the afternoons since we got back from Rome, and the local French people were out enjoying the weather en masse.

We've had beautiful sunsets in the evenings.  The temple gardeners are busy planting spring flowers, even though it's still mid-February. Thanks for the French hat, Kim.

In closing, it was an amazing opportunity and experience to help so many of God's children feel the Lord's spirit at the Rome Temple open house.  We are, however, so very grateful to be back to serving in the Paris Temple, serving God's children on both sides of the veil: those living and those who have lived on this Earth. To feel daily the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ is a great blessing indeed.  Here are a few final pictures of the Rome Temple:

May God bless each of you as you daily serve Him by serving, in so many ways, His children.

Weeks 15 & 16 in Italy

The past 2 weeks have been filled with joy and frustration, work and pleasure, and spiritual and secular experiences.  We'll start with the frustration. This first picture shows the bus schedule display where we wait to go to the temple each morning after walking about 7 minutes from our Airbnb apartment.  You can see at the bottom of the display the schedule of the 350 bus, which stops right in front of the temple.  Notice that while multiple buses from other lines come much earlier, the 350 is 45 bus stops and 55 minutes away.  That's why we nearly always have to take bus 80, which drops us off at the Porta di Roma mall, leaving us a 20 minute walk to the temple.  We usually enjoy our morning walks, but it has been very cold, windy, and rainy.  Not only is the 350 infrequent, it usually is NOT on schedule.  It has come 10 minutes early, causing us to miss it, and it has come a half hour late, causing us to wait in the blowing freezing rain with no covered bus stops.  You probably thought we were having a fun vacation in sunny Italy. NOT!

Mausoleum of SantaCostanza

Enough complaining for this blog!  Here are pictures of two excursions we were able to take to visit some wonderful historical sites in Rome.  These sites are not among the most popular tourist attractions, so we were able to visit them in near solitude at times.  The first set of pictures is of our visit to two sites right next to each other and not far from where we are staying.  The Mausoleum of Santa Costanza is one of Christianity's earliest sites in Rome.  It dates from the 5th century, and is the the site where Constantine's daughter had a summer home and was buried.  The frescos are among the oldest Christian representations of Mary, Christ, and the early apostles.  Next to the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza is the Basilica of Saint Agnese Outside the Walls, where Saint Agnese was buried after her martyrdom in the 4th century. 

very old fresco

The manger scene was still on display at the Basilica of St. Agnese

We decided to walk home from this excursion since it was a a nice day, although cold.  This overpass near the heart of Rome has constant traffic zooming under us.

Our second excursion was to the Basilica of Saint Paul.  It was impressive for its size as well as for its beauty.  While inside, we met a tour group who had just arrive from the U.S. and were on their way to visit the temple.

View from the front. That's Janet in the blue coat and white hat.

Back view

Saint Paul. He has about as much hair as our son Paul.

Everywhere we go in Rome, cars are parked everywhere: under bridges, on both sides of narrow streets, and even on sidewalks.

As we expected, our time at the Rome temple open house is filled with work as well as spiritual experiences.  Janet's service is mostly divided between putting shoe covers on visitors and ushering inside the temple.  Wayne's time is divided between playing the organ in the temple, playing the piano in the visitor center, and ushering in the parking lot.  Sorry, we can't take pictures in the temple, but here are some pictures outside the temple and inside the visitor center. Danielle and Cindy are also serving with us in the Paris Temple.

Tori Tatiana is the French member who took us to Sacre Coeur in Paris on New Year's Eve.

The piano was tuned when we arrived, but has already suffered from the alternating heat and cold in the lobby of the visitor center.  The beautiful stained glass is right beside where the piano is located.  It shows the life of Jesus, including images from many, if not all, of his parables.

Here are a few more pictures from inside the visitor center.  We now have three pictures of ourselves in front of three different statues of the Christus: Salt Lake City, Paris, and now Rome!

This last picture is of the model of the interior of the temple displayed in the visitor center.  The bottom floor is the entrance and baptistry, the middle floor includes the chapel on the left (you can see the organ I get to play), the instruction rooms in the center, and the celestial room on the right.  The top floor has the sealing rooms.

Here are two pictures of the courtyard which is surrounded by the patron housing building on the left, the visitor center in front, and the stake center (not shown) on the right.  The temple is right behind from where this picture was taken, and is directly across from the visitor center.

The Olive Trees in the temple courtyard are 500 years old.  They are a constant reminder of the suffering of our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We are constantly reminded of Him as we serve here, which makes the discomforts and frustrations bearable.  His atonement makes all of life's frustrations bearable.  We have seen people of all faiths express great emotion and peace as they tour the beautiful temple.  They, as we, can feel the spirit of the Lord in His Holy House.