Week of 20 September 2009

The week began with some happy news: Christina Meschwitz, a rather recent convert herself, told us that her daughter and son-in-law in Bolivia had just been taught the gospel, and had been baptized the day before.

A stake Young Single Adult get-together preceded the satellite CES (Church Education System) broadcast by Sister Elaine Dalton, YW (Young Women) General President. As we continued visiting with the YSA (Young Single Adults) after the fireside, President Allenbach (Counselor in the Stake Presidency) invited us to come up to his office, where he extended a call to Dede to teach a Spanish Institute class this fall. He encouraged flexibility to meet various needs of time and space that might arise in conjunction with her calling, which she graciously accepted; although, when I was perhaps too eager to give my approval for her participation, she threatened to have me prepare lessons in English which she would then translate into Spanish.

The Luxembourg trip: A favorite view was the Adolphe Bridge over Luxembourg’s Pétrusse Valley (above)

Wednesday, our five senior missionary couples headed north. Unfortunately, we should have followed my map to the freeway, instead of Elder Doyle’s GPS over the Jura Mtns. At any rate, instead of the 4-hour drive to Nancy, where we had reservations for the night, it took us 6 hours – even without stopping for dinner – which we survived since several had brought snacks to share. The hotel was the same one that our family had used back in 2006, the Bonsai.

Thursday’s first stop was the World War I military cemetery at Verdun. Row upon row of French soldiers’ graves were marked with light brown crosses; artillery pieces and 700 and 900 pound warheads stood menacingly in front of the museum there. It was a sobering place, and we felt grateful for those who had given their lives in the cause of freedom.

Luxembourg’s Alzette River winds thru the valley, from the casemate fortifications

After walking thru Luxembourg’s “vieille ville” (old town), we toured the Bock casemates, dug out of the sandstone ridge in the 1600’s. For centuries, these fortified caves had protected Luxembourg and given it the name “the Gibraltar of the North.” Dede examined some extra passageways, went down a thousand steps (it seemed) of a cylindrical stairway and

Part of the old city wall

Caves dug for the army and its artillery (drafty in winter, no doubt)

thru a tunnel, only to have to climb back up another zillion steps to get back to our group. After further sightseeing, we enjoyed our evening meal at a restaurant on the central plaza. Most of us chose the special of the day, a steak with an endive on the plate, but Dede

“I can’t believe I’m going to eat all this!”

bravely selected mussels; she was a bit taken aback when the hostess brought out a 2½ quart kettle-full, but she ate most of them - and shared a few :).

“Freedom isn’t Free”

Our first stop Friday was the WW II American military cemetery 6 km east of Luxembourg. We spent a couple of hours there, where 5076 of our soldiers are buried, including General George Patton. Interestingly, his tombstone is just like all the others, a white Latin cross, but set apart at the head of the rows and rows of crosses. There are 22 sets of brothers who both died in the battles of World War II, many in the Battle of the Bulge. We all felt a deep sense of reverence and gratitude for their sacrifices. Interestingly, almost all of the cities where I had served my mission in Germany from 1963-1966 were represented on a large relief map on one of the memorials, representing the push of the American forces to the Rhine River near Mannheim, Germany in 1945.

After that, we drove some distance to the Beaufort Castle and really enjoyed our self-guided tour. Unfortunately, we learned that the swans that once graced the nearby pond/lake had been caught sleeping and devoured by local foxes. We again climbed lots of stairs and took lots of pictures of castle ruins- that back in the 1100’s and 1200’s had been quite a place.

The Beaufort Castle

On the way back to Luxembourg, while speaking of tender mercies and special blessings, Elder Badger related how one night soon after moving into a new home (and having not yet had time to remove his many cardboard packing boxes from the patio), he was awakened after just a couple hours’ sleep (usually, he slept thru until 6 am or so) because he thought he saw a bright light. He pulled on his pants and grabbed his boots and ran down the hall to waken a family to whom he had rented a small apartment. They got out just moments before the whole house exploded in fire. Firemen came within a few minutes, but the building was already gone. We felt that his life had been preserved, in part for him to meet Sister Badger and for them to serve two missions, the previous one in Cameroon.

Saturday after breakfast, we headed home by way of Nancy and Dijon. At Nancy, we stopped to see Stanislas Place, as recommended by our former Elder Gardner and his wife. Elder Doyle likes the center fountain at one of four corner gates at Stanislas’ Place

One of 20 floral displays on the plaza

A real miracle was finding a parking place just a block away. The plaza had been decorated with flower beds to resemble the works of a well-known local artist, Louis Majorelle; one was very elaborate with fresh root vegetables, such as carrots, beets, parsnips, etc. in the form of one of his stained-glass windows (see below).

We also heard music playing; on investigating, we saw a costumed fife-and-drum corps (see below). We were able to videotape their music using our little camera. To our amazement, one of the tunes they played was the theme from the 1957 World War-II movie “Bridge on the River Kwai.”


Vegetable soup, anyone?

One band makes a very short parade

The main reason for our visit was to see the elaborate gilded gates at each corner of the plaza, and their associated fountains. We felt we’d been triply blessed to arrive just when the band was playing (they left after about 20 minutes), and get to see the flower beds celebrating Majorelle's work, and of course the magnificent gates. The whole trip had been filled with tender mercies, many of them involving the timing of things, or the way things “happened” to work out. And everyone had been so cheerful and good-natured; it was a joy to associate for the three days with these noble people.

Dede teaches in Spanish: We got back to Geneva about 5:20 pm, just in time to change clothes and go to church for the baptism of Nelly and Rosa Montoya (Bustamante). Both sisters were radiant. Nelly’s son Sergio, age 7, gave the opening prayer in Spanish, and her daughter Johanny, age 10, gave the closing prayer in French. Her husband baptized her, and Elder Zarate baptized Rosa. During the “intermission,” Dede taught a Plan of Salvation lesson in Spanish, while a young lady translated her lesson into French for the non-Spanish-speakers. Probably 50-60 people attended, including President and Sister Murdock. We decided to dedicate our fast in gratitude for our many blessings, both here in Europe as missionaries, and for our great families back home. On returning to Ferney-Voltaire, I worked preparing a Sunday School lesson until about midnight.


Elder Zarate, Sergio, Nelly & Rosa pose before the baptism