Frogley Missionary Adventures: Paris

Too busy to post... much has happened including a brief visit to the Versailles Chateau where the history of France is unfolded in magnificent paintings and ceiling art.


Many a visitor to the Temple visitor's center come directly from the chateau to the temple center.  The contrast between the two chateau's is noteworthy.  Versailles is full of the history of men conquering men.  Furnishings, paintings and statuary portray everything from continual conquest to lust and debauchery.








One can't help but be overwhelmed with room after room of human history, conquest, and prideful indulgence.

The beauty is stunning, even elegant in showing what man can create.  We were, however, finally relieved to reach the end and re-enter our own time and reality.  We then stopped at a small Thai restaurant called The Thailandese.  The food was excellent and the service superb.  The walk was about 20 minutes from our apartment through city streets and traffic circles.


As we returned to our little apartment and prepared to re-enter the visitor's center, we had some empathy for those tourists who are overwhelmed with the elegance of the Versailles chateau and then enter the simplicity of the Lord's chateau.

The peaceful spirit of the temple visitor's center, the Christ centered symbols of the temple and gardens, the ancestral service and binding of the temple purpose, etc. combine to draw those sensitive to the Spirit.  A woman from the neighborhood stopped in yesterday.  She was of Chinese descent but re-located to France.  She informed me that her heritage and upbringing were products of China and hence atheist.  After giving her an overview of the center she asked to watch the video history of the temple.  She said that she walks by everyday and feels something she can't identify and so came to see all she could.  I alerted the sister missionaries who were watching conference in the Family History center, so that I could speak with another family.  An hour later I met the Chinese-French woman at the door.  She was smiling and searching through the literature rack to add things to her Book of Mormon given to her by the missionaries.  She was hungry for understanding. The family I had turned to is another story for another post to come; The treasure hunt for the Garden symbols!