Oh my goodness the temple in Bern is so far the most beautiful! It’s so picturesque and in a perfect location for our needs. It’s only about a 5-10 minute walk from the train station and the Angel Moroni can be seen poking his trump up over the peaks of the buildings that lay between us and the warm comfort of the House of the Lord; beckoning unto all, in the words of the Rooney family’s ever beloved Scripture Scouts, “Be good! And no more sadness!”
So, I know, I know, I was supposed to call and reserve our spot in the patron housing long before arriving here. Honestly, I probably, or really, totally had time to do so. Did I? Nope. Standard. It’s all good. I…uhhh…yeah, no good excuse. Lazy? I plead the 5th. I just knew that it would all work out, and quite honestly, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t call ahead for all these things because our trip, as to be expected, had turned out completely different from my original plan from geography to schedule…unless of course you merely consider “Europe” as the geographic location of choice and sometime during late winter early spring, in which case I’m totally right on :)
Honestly just following my view of the Angel Moroni which stands tall atop the temple, I guided us through the streets until we came to the holy grounds. We stood at a crossroad: Left appeared to be some apartment buildings, though on the actual grounds there appear a small house-type building but it looked too small to be said “patron housing”, and to the right, a small two story building with lots of windows and, despite the language, through my squint, I could make out the traditional logo of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” on a window. We headed right.
One of the little pleasures in life are the creatively named stores of “mormon” stuff that can be found here and there sprinkled around the world. Always in the most random places, generally unexpected, typically a sight to see, and often comical in some way, these little shops of cliché mormon treasures, books, sometimes clothes, and miscellaneous artistic wonders often mirror souvenir shops and even come with a cutie little gma or gpa in tow to answer all your hearts questions. As we approached the building to the right of the temple, the Switzerland version was revealed. We couldn’t help but laugh. “The Mormon Shop” with a wondrous window display of brilliant white wedding dresses.
We walked up to the building I thought was the housing. Nope. Locked. Vacant. And peering through the window we decided it was probably a chapel or stake center. What now? Well, we couldn’t think of a better direction than the little old lady staring at us through the glass doors of the mormon store. I think we really have been experiencing what monkies and loins and elephants must feel like when we visit them at the zoo, “um, yes? Do I really look that weird? Oh you think that’s cool huh? Ooh ooh! Let me do it again. Ready, set, are you watching??... ok here I go. Bam! Did you see that? Here let me do it again! Another step and another step and here I’ll even throw in one of these. Mmm that banana taste so good. You should probably take a picture. Here let me pose.”
She was sooo cute, very short, with mid-length short white hair, bright welcoming eyes, and a loving smile which seem to hold strong even through her words as she directed us to the later side of the Temple. We thanked her and she cheerfully waved as we exited off to cross the temple grounds.
Try #2: Our new little friend had said something to the effect of, “it’s the little place just on the otherside of the temple. Over there behind those trees.” Ok, simple enough. But as we walked up on the left side we found ourselves at that little house-like place which now really seemed to be too small to house the claimed 40 patrons the website showed. Further to it’s left there was a building that looked much like the church housing in other cities I’ve been, but there was totally no signage. We went with the little house. We walked around looking for an entrance and found that we had to enter at a little gate which brought us actually back onto temple grounds. Hmm…interesting. We proceeded to the door and for lack of any other option, pushed a little black button that was at the bottom of an engraved sign AND it was totally translated!!!
French…German…and…Italian. Oh well.
The push of the button brought a rather unexpected chorus of bells, buzzes, and bird sounds which rang loud and clear through ALL the rooms in our view. Yikes.
My thoughts…“hope this is the right place…and if not, hope no one was trying to sleep or pray or concentrate on ANYTHING in that minute or 2 of time because if they were, they’re most certainly not now.”
Our bad. As the choir of random sounds ceased, we could see the blurred image of someone dressed in dark pants and a white shirt approaching the door. Ok, that feels like the right direction. Maybe it’s a senior missionary or something. Ha! Senior missionary. Yeah, you could say that.
The door opened and I found myself suddenly filled with one of the strongest confirmations of being in the presence of a great servant of the Lord that I have EVER felt in my life. His eyes. They were something to behold. I’ve felt those kind of eyes before. Yes, I can recall a couple of people in my life with that much love in their eyes. His smile. Wow. There are scriptures that talk about our return to our Lord and His Father in the life after this and I think I have experienced the closest thing I will ever in this life to the smiles I believe will greet us at that time. I had kinda backed off for Janise to take the lead on this one but shortly after the door opened she quickly turned her widening eyes at me, deer in the headlights scribbled all over her face. I explained our purpose after his warm greeting and he responded by grabbing Janise’s hand, grasping it tightly, walking out to join us in the bitter cold, reaching with his other hand to caress and just hold the left side of my chilled, red face (the power of his touch nearly took my breath away), and asked, “My dear sisters, where are you from?” Once we started breathing again…kinda literally…We had a short discourse and then he kindly guided us to our desired destination.
Words cannot fully describe. It was one of those moments that lasted for far longer in my mind than the actual temporal experience. One of those that thrust me into the depths of self evaluation and introspection as my feeble mind attempted to grasp how I too might someday achieve the strength of spiritual presence that seemed to come so naturally for this beautiful man. I would almost venture to say, I’ve never had a stronger desire than I did in those moments. Serenity. Joy. Love. Peace. Real lasting peace. Sooo close to his God that I could feel it run through me through his touch.
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