2017
Paris France Temple Dedication: Promise of a Lifetime
May 2017


“Paris France Temple Dedication: Promise of a Lifetime,” New Era, May 2017

Paris France Temple Dedication: Promise of a Lifetime

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Paris France Temple

Photographs by Christina Smith

Today’s LDS youth in Paris, France, have grown up with a promise. All their lives they have heard that a temple would be built in Paris. In 1998, before most of them were born, President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) said it was time for a temple in their great city, and asked members to pray for it.

With their families, teens continued to pray for the temple to come. With youth groups or families, they would travel six hours or more to attend the temple in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, or England. Such trips often included devotionals and testimony meetings, and youth gained strength and families developed eternal perspective by journeying to the temple together.

Now, a new era opens in France. When the temple is dedicated, the promise youth have heard for all their lives will be fulfilled. And they are ready to make a promise of their own—that they will come often to the house of the Lord.

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young woman

“I am very grateful for the blessing of having a temple in France, for the blessing of being able to be united with my immediate family as well as my ancestors.”

—Trida T., 16

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young man

“It will be a good experience to have the temple nearby. But we may be tempted to say that now it’s easy to get there, so we’ll put off going. Instead, we need to go more and more.”

—Yves P., 17

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young woman

“My parents took me to the temple for the first time on my 12th birthday. I loved it so much I wanted to stay forever. That’s how I feel each time I go. I want to go as much as possible, all that I can.”

—Melissa A., 17

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young man

“It’s important to remember that a prophet said there would be a temple here. Someday, I think, there will be a temple in every country.”

—Serge P., 13