Morris Murdock Escorted Tours

Dear Kim and Reid,

Just wanted to let you know how much the Lunts LOVED our recent temple trip. Thank you for all you did to make our trip so memorable! We especially appreciated your getting a guide for us in London when we landed in a different terminal than the rest of the group. The guide patiently led us all around from one terminal to the next until we found our group. It may have only been a ten-minute walk, but it would have been very confusing for us! Thank you so much.

The hotels we stayed in couldn't have been nicer, and the breakfasts were all amazing. Sometimes we didn't need lunch. We loved being fairly close to the Vatican in Rome, because after the bus had left most of the group off at the hotel on our last night in Rome, Jim and I had him drop us off near the Basilica, and we were able to go inside without waiting in line. They even invited us (as old people) to walk up the ramp instead of the many stairs to get into the Basilica. The first thing we saw once we got inside was the Pieta, which is the most important thing for us. We couldn't believe how HUGE that cathedral was and how beautiful. Since we were there in the late afternoon, we did not have huge lines to contend with in taking pictures, etc. When we walked out, about 7 p.m., the Basilica was all lighted up and was so beautiful. We saw where the Pope has his audiences with his people seated in the courtyard because he was going to be there that Saturday at 9 p.m. Then, using our GPS, Jim decided we could walk back to our hotel! It was dark but safe, with business owners just closing up businesses, lights on the restaurants in the streets, and people on the streets. I thought it was a LONG ways to the hotel, but we made it just fine--just tired and foot-sore.

We loved all of the sights we saw; going to Church in Paris was a highlight for us and of course the temples. I thought the Paris Temple was the most beautiful with all of the stained-glass windows of Monet's flowers in his garden: the water lilies, cornflowers, and hollyhocks which I discovered when I looked at the temple on the Church website. It was such a different temple, not being on a rise, no tower or Angel Moroni. We wished we had had time to go to the Visitors' Center. It was wonderful that we had time at most of our stops for pictures. By the way, I found a picture of the sealing room in the Rome Temple, showing the stained-glass windows after Page 290 in the "Come Follow Me" manual.

The Rome Temple was special to us because my sister and her husband had gone through it right after it was dedicated, and my granddaughter and our daughter visited it in July. So we were the 5 and 6th members of our family to have done ordinances in that temple. Also, my husband works in the Mesa Temple Saturday mornings,. Two couples from our temple were called as temple missionaries in the Rome Temple. Of course, JIm hoped to be able to see them. When the doors of the elevator opened onto the second floor, there stood one of the sisters from Mesa whom he had hoped to see. What a tender mercy! She immediately hugged us both. The other couple, we found out, worked in the mornings, but Jim was able to leave them a note. We took pictures in front of the temple after the session, though, and missed seeing the stained-glass window of the Savior and His parables and miracles.

One of the nicest things about our trip was Lisa. She was so kind, so patient, fun, knowledgeable, etc. She must have done so much work to get all of us tickets for all of the churches and museums as well as local guides and earphones. We all loved her commentaries about what we would see and how she would point out the very best place to get gelato, ice cream, hot chocolate, etc. Interestingly, after we had toured Notre Dame and were left to find something to eat and walk around Paris, we went with the Walters to try to find the best ice cream shop. We thought we were following Lisa's instructions very closely, but somehow ended up at a cookie place instead, where we chose the cookie dough we would like, got toppings on it, and then had it served with a spoon to eat, raw. We thought they would bake it for us and put ice cream on top, but they didn't. Then we had to find a crepe store for the rest of our lunch. We laughed so much on this wonderful experience all of the way back to Notre Dame.

We were so glad we took a walking stick for Ancient Rome. The walking was brutal, walking on the cobblestone streets and rocks in the road. Of course, we were the oldest on the tour, and everyone was very kind and patient with us.

Thanks again for giving us such a memorable trip. We are so glad we went! The other people on the tour, Reid, Lisa all made it so fun and memorable.

Sincerely,

Irene and Jim Lunt

Mesa, Arizona