Rome Italy Temple

In late November 2019 while training a new humanitarian couple in Cape Verde we received an email from our department manager informing us that we would need to attend a department operational review in Rome, Italy.  We had always thought that we might visit Rome when we finished our mission and we were delighted to have this opportunity to go to Rome for work and see a few famous historical sights as well.

We were directed to be in Rome by Sunday, January 26, 2020.  We decided to go on Friday, January 24th to take advantage of the weekend and visit a few of the places we had heard about all our lives.  We left early Friday morning arriving in Rome in the early afternoon.  We went directly to the hotel to drop off our bags and check in.  After checking in to the hotel, we hired an Uber to take us to the Rome Temple.  We arrived early enough to walk around the visitors center before attending a temple session.  There were so many beautiful things to see in the Visitors Centre and on the Temple grounds.  

The first things you see when you walk into the Rome Italy Temple Vistors' Centre is a floor to ceiling stained glass mural.  It is actually 5 separate panels of stained glass.  Tom and Gayle Holdman and a team of 25 artists created this work of art.  At first it looks like the Saviour and his 12 apostles.  When you look closer you can see that there are more than 100 visual references to Christ's time on earth and symbols from the parables in the Bible.  

As you walk around the corner from the mural you see the marble statues of Christ, the 12 apostles and a breath-taking view of the Rome Temple.

We walked around the Visitors Center and and also took time to watch two beautifully crafted videos of individuals who have faced trails in their lives and how they've dealt with their challenges.  

In the Visitors Center there was a large replica of the temple where you could see the  various rooms inside of the temple. The replica is situated so that you can look out the window at the temple and back again to the replica to visualise the temple interior.  

After our time in the Visitors Center we walked up to the temple and had the opportunity to attend a temple session.  It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and evening.

"I love to see the temple.  I'm going there someday, to feel the Holy Spirit, to listen and to pray. For the temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty.  I'll prepare myself while I am young; This is my sacred duty. I love to see the temple. I'll go inside someday.  I'll covenant with my Father'; I'll promise to obey. For the temple is a holy place where we are sealed together. As a child of God I've learned this truth: A family is forever." Janice Kapp Perry, I Love to See the Temple

Brussels

After our "chocolate outlet adventure" we went into Brussels and visited another Chocolate Museum. Next, we went in search of Manneken Pis, which we were told that everyone had to see.  This is a small statue of a little boy urinating - It is like the Mona Lisa.  Everybody goes there to get a picture, but it is not a very big statue.  There are several stories about the statue - most of them either give the little boy credit for putting out a fire or being lost, and all the town's people went looking for him.  When he was found, he was urinating in the fountain.  

Next we visited St. Michael's church, which had nativities from several different countries.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manager." Luke 2:11-12

Neuhaus Chocolate Outlet

Belgium is known for their excellent chocolate.  Monday morning was our holiday and we drove to a famous chocolate outlet.  This place was something else!  We walked in and saw display counters with open boxes of chocolates on every counter.  This outlet has every kind of chocolate they make and you can taste as many and as much as you like.  They will even let you try products that were not already set out for sampling.  No purchase was required, but of course we all bought something.

Jean Neuhaus was a pharmacist who started covering his medicine with chocolate - then his grandson decided that they should forget about the medicine and just make chocolate.  Everyone including us were happy about that decision, we loved their chocolate.

"There is no lasting happiness in what we possess.  Happiness and joy come from what a person is, not from what he or she possesses or appears to be. " Dallin H. Oaks, Joy and Mercy, October General Conference 1991

Flanders Fields Museum and Tyne Cot Cemetery

On Sunday, December 29, 2019 we went to church in Ghent, Belgium.  We all expected this branch to be a small congregation, but we were delightfully surprised to have so many people in attendance.  We were greeted at the door, given headsets to hear the talks in English and were also able to attend an English Sunday School class.  There were over 50 people at church besides our group of eight senior missionaries.  It was an enjoyable and spiritual sabbath-day service!

After church we went to the town of Ypres-leper, Belgium.  In Ypres-leper we visited the  Flanders Fields Museum. We spent over an hour wandering around looking at the different WWI museum displays.  

We left the Flanders Field Museum and drove to Tyne Cot Cemetery.  Here we met a Latter-day Saint family who recognized us by our missionary name tags.  The mother of the group taught school and gave us a very informative tour.  Tyne Cot is a British cemetery with thousands of graves and many unknown soldiers' graves - unknown to men, but "known unto God".    

Some of the bloodiest battles of World War I took place in the areas of northern France and southwest Belgium known as Flanders.  As we visited this peaceful place, we thought of our Canadian grandchildren who celebrate a week in November focusing on Remembrance Day.

  
Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities formally ending World War I "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month".

The poem In Flanders Fields was written by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor as he worked in the field dressing wounds and looking out at the fields of graves. Poppies grow well in soil that has been disturbed, therefore they grow in large numbers on battle fields. The red color of their petals brings to remembrance lives lost in conflict.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

As we left Tyne Cot Cemetery we were determined to see some of the locations of "trench" warfare in Belgium.  As night fell, we didn't find the trenches, but we were able to find another peaceful and beautiful cemetery as the sun was setting.

   "They shall not grow old, as we are that left shall grow old:  age shall not weary them, nor years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."  Laurence Binyon "Ode to Remembrance"