I thought this excellent comment was worth re-publishing. This is the kind of stuff that belongs on the Wood Zone. I love the last statement about the female statues. When our kid died, there was all kinds of this kind of stuff in spades. The most spiritually in my face event of my life.
Here is that comment - and thanks to anonymous for the great post:
AnonymousSeptember 9, 2016 at 5:51 PMhttp://www.ldsliving.com/The-LDS-Church-in-Russia/s/69928
A year and a half later, on April 26, 1990, Elder Nelson told Mecham it was time to rededicate Russia for missionary work. They needed to do it right, he said, in the Summer Garden, where Elder Francis M. Lyman, then-president of the European Mission and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, first dedicated Russia in 1903. (Political turmoil surrounding the Bolshevik Revolution had prevented the Church’s establishment at that time.)
When the two arrived at the garden, however, they found it closed and guarded. “It looks like it’s closed,” said Mecham. “It’s never closed to the Lord,” Elder Nelson responded.
So Mecham approached a guard, telling him that an apostle of Jesus Christ wanted to use the gardens to offer a blessing on the country. “Nyet!” yelled the guard, pushing Mecham away. But as Mecham walked back to the car, the guard stopped him. “You touched me,” he said. Mecham apologized. “No,” said the guard, “you touched me, and I felt something.” The guard then told Mecham of a secret place on the other side of the garden where they could enter.
Once inside, Elder Nelson located the historic spot of the first dedication and kneeled in prayer. Then he stood up and related that President Kimball and his wife, Camilla, had longed for that day, and that President Benson and his wife, Flora, were with them in spirit. Elder Nelson then said they had a symbolic manifestation of that. He directed Mecham to read the names inscribed on the two female statues at that spot of the garden—“Camilla” and “Flora.” Elder Nelson took one look at Mecham’s astounded face and simply said, “Nothing spiritual in life is ever a coincidence.”