Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Today we got off to an early start. We were up around 6 and out the door by 7:30am. Everything was going great until we got to the train station and saw that our train had been delayed. After that we had a full day of delays and missed trains. We had planned to be in Zollikofen, Switzerland (where the temple is) by 1:40pm so that we could attend a baptism session at 3:00pm. As the day went on, we fell further and further behind and our arrival time crept later and later. I kept emailing the temple, and they kept telling me that we would be OK, until finally they told me that if were there after 3:30pm we wouldn’t be able to go in. The whole temple closes at 4pm.
Our day took us from Kaiserslautern to Mannheim, then from Mannheim to Basel, where we had to grab a tram that took us to another station. From there we got a train to Bern, and then from Bern to Zollikofen.
In Basel, we had a long layover, so we took advantage of the time to do a seminary lesson. We read a little about the history of the Swiss temple -- the oldest in Europe -- and how the Lord had a hand in placing that temple in its specific spot. It reminded us of the conversation we had a few days ago about sacred space being where the divine breaks through and manifests itself in the world.
By the time we got to the temple housing, it was just about 3:30pm. And we still hadn’t changed. But the kind brother at the office called the baptistry, and they told us to just come as we were. So we went to the temple in our street clothes. I thought I would feel totally uncomfortable, but the temple workers were all so kind that I felt at ease.
Like I said, the Swiss temple is the oldest in Europe. It was announced at the same time as the London temple, and they both have a similar look on the inside. The baptismal fonts look like giant metal salad bowls. They definitely show their age in the locker rooms and showers, but they also are unmistakably temples. And they each have their own style. I would say that they both fit perfectly where they are. And I love them both. They feel like temples. There is a reverence and spirit of peace in them that can’t be denied.
After we finished with the baptisms, Kimball and I walked to Aldi and got some supplies for dinner. Kimball did a great job of selecting foods that would work. We got rice and veggies and spicy cheesy sausage. And we got fruit to make a fruit salad. Then we walked back to the temple housing and cooked everything up in the kitchen there. It was so fun meeting people from Italy and Switzerland and Peru and France and Portugal and even Brazil. I never knew which language to speak to people in, but in the end we all communicated just fine.
The temple was kind enough to give us two adjoining rooms with a bunch of bunkbeds. It felt a bit like a hostel. We got to bed pretty early because we have an early morning tomorrow. We will be off to Italy.