Lots of Churches in France, but this one is TRUE

One of my favorite things about living over here and being able to travel, is that my kids are seeing the world. And at the same time, they are seeing much of the worlds history and religion. We have been in more churches of various religions than you can imagine. And I love it. I love it because it strengthens our testimonies about the one true church.

This one.

Here in a tiny little suburb of Paris. In the upstairs of an office building. Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You'd hardly know it was there. The GPS lead us right to it, but it took Samuel seeing the logo on the second floor window to see where it really was. The parking was terrible, as is most of Paris.

But the entire upstairs of the building belongs to us. Even these rabble rousers.

What a wondeful time. Of course, people wanted to know if we had moved there. As in any small ward, the more the merrier. The service was entirely in French. But we all sat quietly and did our best to feel what the speakers were trying to convey.

There was no pianist for the opening hymn and I felt a little sad. It was a beautiful chapel and felt bad that I couldn't help out. I didn't see the missionaries at the beginning of the meeting either. But, after the opening song, the missionaries snuck in. Right up front. Next to the piano. And sure enough, for the sacrament hymn, one of the missionaries played the piano. He is their ward pianist.

After the meeting we went to talk to the Elders. They were so cute. One from Bountiful, UT and the other from Ogden, UT. The Elder that played told us that his mother never let him quit piano and had told him someday you'll be on your mission and they won't have a pianist, and you'll have to play. "And she was right!" He said to my boys. "Mom's are always right, " he said. They were very nice to our kids and told us about the work there. It is SO fun to have these kinds of experiences. And wonderful for our family.

But I think the thing I loved most about this sabbath day was this:

Look that his amazing painting hanging in their entry. You can see how big it really is by looking at the child next to the painting. After living in the middle east where everything about the Savior has to be hidden, I cried when we just walked into a regular building and saw this. Nothing to hide. Nothing to be afraid of. Just a matter of fact. This is who we are. Of all the churches we were in during this week, and the beautiful places we saw - this was my favorite.

Merry Christmas.