LDS Missionary: France Paris Mission

Paris Fun

"I have a leadership meeting with President Staheli here in Paris the rest of the week," Elder McQuay told me as I got off the train in Paris. "He wants you to come also."

"So, we are staying in Paris for a few days?" I asked, maybe it wasn't quite time to go back to the missionary-life reality.

"Well, it wouldn't be worth going back and forth from Alençon," Elder McQuay said.

"Touché. Why does president want me there also?"

"I don't know, I think all of the companions are invited."

"Oh, so it's not something special for me or anything like you made it sound."

"No, he must have thought it's a good chance to train some younger missionaries also how to be leaders."

"Right." I responded ending the conversation. We headed back down into the catacombs of metros. The metros still didn't make sense to me. The maps I had seen looked like giant spiderwebs that were hiding beneath the city.

"Would you want to go to The Louvre?" Elder McQuay asked after a bit of silence. "We went there earlier today with a group of people and it was so much fun. The Egyptian area was amazing."

"Sure. I'd like to see it," I said simply enough.

We got off the metro and didn't have to walk far before we were met with the courtyard that held the pyramid. I immediately recognized the pyramid because of The Da Vinci Code, which was one of my favorite books. There was a line of people coming out of the pyramid, which I shortly realized must be the line to gain access to the museum.

"You have your passport with you, right?" Elder McQuay asked as we approached the front desk area.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

"With your Belge legality, you will be able to get in for free," he replied as we walked to the next open attendant. I just pulled out my passport and showed the lady my new sticker of Belge legality in my passport without saying anything and she handed me a map of the museum.

We headed into the area titled "Napoleon's Quarters." It started off with some artwork, and I was already kind of bored. I wasn't too fond of artwork, some were incredible, but I guess I just don't appreciate it like others.

We walked through a doorway, and it opened up into a beautiful, white, circle room with gold adornment all around. The first thing I noticed was the giant chandelier that took up most of the ceiling. It was shimmering in the dim lights that must have been placed after Napoleon occupied this building. The seats had a dark red cushion and gold colored wood. They looked as if nobody had sat in them for years. The walls were a gold color, whether it was gold plated or not, I couldn't tell. There was a painting on the ceiling above the chandelier of cherubims flying around.

"This looks like a room you would see in a temple, outside of the naked cherubims," I said to Elder McQuay as we walked through the room, but didn't receive a response.

I glanced back one last time as we walked through the next doorway into another visually stunning room. I felt my jaw slightly drop as we were now standing in the dining room. It was a long room that was garnished in gold as well. The table stretched nearly the length of the room with so many chairs sitting lonely next to it. Gold goblets sat overturned inviting silently for people to sit at each seat. Overhead was another painting of clouds and three giant chandeliers, not quite as impressive as the last one, but still perfectly identical as far as I could tell, which was incredible in itself.

"These rooms are incredible," I said in awe to Elder McQuay.

"They are pretty impressive," he responded calmly.

We were now outside of Napoleon's Quarters and it opened up into what must have been the Greek section, because now there were just tons of statues of Greek Gods and Goddesses.

"Do you want to see the Mona Lisa?" Elder McQuay asked as we started leaving the Greek area.

"Yeah, that would be cool," I said simply.

We found ourselves surrounded by tons of people and even more paintings hanging on the walls from the ceiling to the floor. We entered the chamber where the Mona Lisa was held and was greeted by even more people and little space to move around. We turned to see the Mona Lisa on the back of a wall that faced the doorway we walked through, and it was packed with people snapping pictures and trying to even get a glimpse of the famous painting.

"That's it?" I asked. "It's tiny!"

"Yep. That's it," Elder McQuay said with a slight laugh.

"That's ridiculous. Why is it so famous, if it's so small?"

"I don't know. People like it I guess."

The painting was behind what must have been bullet-proof glass and was only maybe 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Upset with how small it was, we headed to the Egyptian area becasue Elder McQuay insisted. I was starting to get tired because of the travel of the day and now the walking around a museum.

The Egyptian area had tombs and sarcophagi of all kinds. There were discs on display, which is where Elder McQuay spent most of the time that resembled the facsimiles found in the Pearl of Great Price in our scriptures, which was interesting, but I don't understand what those things say ever.

When we left The Louvre, it was dark outside. We headed down into the metros one last time and headed to wherever we were staying.

We arrived to the Paris Lilas elder's apartment. It was the biggest apartment I had seen in the mission so far. It had a long, winding staircase to get to the apartment, then opened into a giant front room. The kitchen was off of that and a hallway which had two rooms and a bathroom. Elders Montulet, Carter, Ellsworth, and Pletain were the missionaries in the apartment. Elders Montulet and Pletain were French (but not companions), while the other two were American. We had a good dinner with them and had fun before going to bed.

The next few days, the leadership conference took up most of our time and then we headed back to Alençon to finish off the transfer with what President Staheli had taught us.