Weeks 23 & 24 in France

It's hard for us to believe that we have served one-fourth of our mission.  Yet we still experience "firsts".  Here are our "firsts" for the past two weeks: We rode our bicycles to serve in the temple.  We were invited to dinner with a French senior couple.  We had another senior couple come to our apartment for dinner.  We went to the Chateau of Versailles.  We saw pink and white tree flowers.  We walked to a nearby park in Le Chesnay where we saw the return of the green parrots.  Wayne accompanied a vocal solo "Be Still My Soul" in church.  Wayne played piano for the Le Chesnay Ward choir in preparation for the Easter program. We taught a temple preparation lesson together at church.  We served a late Friday night shift at the temple.  Janet walked home alone when Wayne was asked to serve later than usual.  We went to an English speaking movie (The Green Book).  Other than those few things, the past two weeks have been pretty routine. ;-)

Here are a few pictures Janet has taken of the flowers and blossoms surrounding us:

The last picture shows the blossoms on the trees at the temple grounds in front of the Christus statue. Spring time reminds us of the Savior's resurrection and the promise of new life.

Here are a few pictures of our dinner hosts and guests:

Dinner with Elder and Sister Kirkham

Dinner at Elder and Sister Deladerriere's apartment

Dinner with Elders Hayes and Elder Vincenzi

We neglected to take pictures of dinner with the sister missionaries and then with the new young Elder missionaries.  Janet has really gotten into preparing wonderful meals. So far, no weight gains!

We finally made it to the Chateau of Versailles, but it was really crowded with Asian tourists who had just arrived on several buses.  We took dozens of pictures, but thought we'd share only three, all of which are well known:  the Hall of Mirrors, Louis the XIV. and Napoleon.

 

Such luxury was undoubtedly one of the causes of the French Revolution.


For our date yesterday we went for a walk in the nearby woods behind the Mignot Hospital and then ate at the Hippopotamus Restaurant nearby.  It was a beautiful sunshiny warm spring afternoon:

can you see the two green parrots?

Notice Janet's rabbit ears on her shadow in the last picture?  Wonder where those came from???

This last picture was taken without Wayne's knowledge or consent. I suppose this was revenge for the rabbit ears in the previous picture?  Without a car, we shop the same way the local French people do, using our little red shopping caddy.

The Paris Temple will be closed this coming Saturday for General Conference.  We are looking forward to hearing inspiring messages from our prophet, the apostles, and other church leaders.  We testify that they are men of God.

Weeks 21 & 22 in France

Until Thursday, March 14th, the past two weeks have been very quiet.  I (Wayne) gave my first training session in French for both teams of temple workers on that day, and then we took a bus and train to Paris to meet my sister Claudia and her husband Ed.  We took time off from our temple assignments Friday and have spent three of the last four days with them. We have had a wonderful time together seeing sites in Paris and catching up on each other's lives and memories.  That explains why we are doing our blog on Monday instead of the usual Sunday evening.  While the weather is still somewhat blustery, spring continues to blossom everywhere here.  It's amazing to see so many flowers in early March.

 The first thing we did with Claudia and Ed on Friday morning was go to the Louvre.  Here are some of the many things we looked at:

 

We had to laugh at the last picture when someone called it a "selfie back in the day".

After the Louvre, we took the subway to the Bateaux Mouches and rode the boat up and down the Seine River to see the highlights of Paris drift by.  Here are some pictures we took during that ride:

 

We made Claudia stand in front of the angel wings someone had painted on the wall by where we got off the boat.  This is my angel sister Claudia, who finally got her wings!  She earned them by being an angel watching over the sisters in her branch as the Relief Society President.

On the way back to the train station, Janet and I had to cross through a "youth save the earth" demonstration.  Fortunately it was peaceful.  Janet thought it looked and sounded like a high school pep rally with singing, drumming, chanting, and many posters being waved.We were nowhere near the violent demonstrations which took place on Saturday on the Champs Elysees.  Claudia and Ed were unable to visit some things they wanted to see on that day because of those riots.

On Sunday, Claudia and Ed joined us for church.  Fortunately our ward has headphones through which they could hear English translations.  Claudia still remembers enough French to be able to communicate with many who spoke with her. After church (which included listening to our ward choir practice for which I was just recruited as accompanist and a musical number rehearsal I'm accompanying next week) we went to our apartment where Janet and Claudia prepared a 5 course meal featuring fruit, salad, bread and cheese, chicken cordon bleu, and strawberries and ice cream on freshly baked croissants.  It was great.  After a lazy afternoon of visiting, we went to visit the Paris Temple gardens and visitor center.

We all gathered in the patron guest housing lobby for a wonderful evening sharing our experiences during the Rome Temple open house and dedication.  What wonderful and spiritual experiences we had there.

On Monday, our last day together, we rode the subway to the Arc de Triomphe, but because of the crowds (really? in March?) we decided not to wait in line to go to the top.  This is a picture of them beside the tomb of the unknown soldier.

 

From there we took the subway to Sacre Coeur.  After walking through the very impressive French National Cathedral, we wandered around the Montmartre open air artist square. We then had a wonderful lunch at "Le Deli's" restaurant.  We said our goodbye's on the metro when Janet and I got off at Gare St. Lazare to catch the RER L train back to Le Chesnay.  Claudia and Ed head out tomorrow for Saudi Arabia to visit their daughter whose husband works there.  What a joy to share precious time with a dear sister and brother-in-law.

 

We return to our temple duties tomorrow, and look forward to serving the Lord by serving His children who come there.  Going to the temple is a great sacrifice for many who come, and it is our calling and great joy to help them feel closer to God while they are there.

Weeks 19 & 20 in France

It's nice to return to our regular schedules serving in the Paris Temple.  We get up, eat, go serve in the temple, go home, eat, and go to bed.  It reminds us of the movie "Groundhog Day".  We hope we are getting better each day at what we do, as he did in that movie.  One thing that is changing each day, for sure, is the weather.  February was unusually mild according to our French friends.  Like these two daffodils, flowers are blossoming everywhere.  March, however, has come in like a lion, with cold wind and rain showers.  We went walking one day to explore the nearby woods to see if the paths were suitable for bike riding.  There are some steep places, but Janet's electric bike will make short work of them. We can't wait to try them out.  This picture shows Wayne looking at a map of the paths in the woods, know as the "Foret Dominiale de Fausses-Reposes".

This past week has been a "missionary" week for us.  On Wednesday we invited the local young Elders for a steak dinner.  They brought a friend of the church with them, and we had a nice discussion after dinner.  The Elders challenged us to invite three families to come to the special Le Chesnay Ward sacrament meeting on March 24th, which has, as its theme, "How the Gospel of Jesus Christ Strengthens Families". We can't believe we forgot to take pictures of them, but here's a picture of Janet holding Sue Alldredge's famous cinnamon roll cake she baked for the missionaries. Sue Alldredge was the mission nurse we served with in Kiribati.

On Thursday, February 28th, we were asked to fill in for the new visitor center directors while they attended a meeting.  In the 2.5 hours we were there, we got to talk about the temple and our beliefs to several people.  One lady claimed she had no ancestors because they were all Catholic nuns.  Wayne assured her that she did indeed have ancestors, and that someday she would meet them.  It brought her to tears.

On Friday, we had the sister missionaries over for a lasagne dinner.  Despite having to improvise on some of the ingredients, Janet's lasagne was wonderful as usual.  After dinner we watched a video about Matthew chapters 6 and 7 called "Treasures in Heaven", and had a wonderful discussion about not judging and about making sure our treasures were not worldly things.  The senior sister enjoyed seeing our apartment because she lived here a year ago.  She told us it is much nicer now than it was when she lived here.

On our preparation day last Monday, February 25th, we finally made it to the Louvre.  We bought a "Friends of the Louvre" pass, so we can go as often as we want in the coming year.  We only need to go 4 times to break even, and we plan to go much more than that.  It's nice not to have to rush around trying to see everything in one visit, and we don't have to pay or wait in line to see the special exhibits.  We also get in for free or reduced rates at many other museums in Paris.  Here are a few of the many pictures Janet took on our 1st visit.  The picture on the top right desperately needs a caption.  We were thinking of something along the line, "I can't believe a forgot to get dressed".

  

We can honestly say we don't miss all the snow you are having back home.  Keep those shovels and snow blowers handy!  We love you and miss you all, but we love serving the Lord and his children at the Paris Temple.  For the first time last Saturday, Janet was asked to serve as second assistant at an endowment session.  It was extra special because I was the session leader, so we got to serve together for a change.