Guest Post by Brittany Manjarrez. Brittany currently lives in France with her family. You will most likely find her chasing sunsets and toddlers. She is passionate about women’s issues in the LDS church and around the world. She loves hearing women’s faith journeys and hopes that all women and girls can see themselves in God and step into their power. 

Audio for Souviens-toi, in English and French, sung by Emma Stanford and accompanied by Aubree Litster on piano:

Sheet music can be found here.

Souviens-toi was a favorite hymn for our ward. The melody was tender, peaceful and I got that tingly feeling whenever the piano started. But one day it hit me. This hymn spoke about heavenly parents. That tingly feeling went from warm and fuzzy to a lightening bolt filling me with energy! The scripture “those who have ears to hear” felt more real than ever. I hadn’t noticed it earlier because I was attending church in Paris, France, and my French was subpar to say the least.

Now, here I was in a sea of voices singing a song that included Heavenly Mother. Apart from O My Father, I didn’t know of any other hymns that mentioned her. Singing Souviens-toi that day was overpowering, tear inducing and validating. My journey seeking Heavenly Mother began a few years before and like many, I was walking a path that only offered breadcrumbs. Most of the nourishment I received came from the great minds and hearts that wrote poetry and books, carried out research and bore testimony. And still, my heart was aching for more. After church that day, I knew I was in this place for this hymn. It belonged in every hymnbook in the world. I spoke with my husband (a French speaker) and asked for his help. I had the passion, but he had the skill. Bless his soul; he was supportive and willing to help me with the translation. After a deeply spiritual and revelatory process, we had our translation. We were honored, humbled and grateful for the words that flowed from heaven through us. I eagerly submitted it to the church music department, but continued feeling the prompting that more was needed.

When I heard of an upcoming fireside about Heavenly Mother, I submitted the hymn in hopes it could be used in some way. The organizer happily accepted it, but there was a problem. There was no author credited for the hymn; only a linguistic committee. She asked me to find out who the author was. Since I had no idea where to start I started with the one who knows everything. I prayed and prayed to know how I could uncover whom or what this committee was and ask for approval of our translation.

As I scoured the internet, I found an Exponent article that was written a few years prior. The article discussed the hymn and gave a great explanation about its meaning. After reading, my eyes were drawn to the comments section. There were people who offered a translation of the hymn and others who commented on how much they loved the hymn on their mission, etc. One contributor shared that they knew the author and that the story behind the hymn was miraculous and then I saw it, the author’s name: Marie-Françoise Euvrard. Do you ever get that feeling when you can sense every part of your body and you feel a little bit more alive than usual? That’s how I felt in that moment. This happens to me when I encounter truth, and I feel it’s one of the ways the spirit speaks to me. With a name to go with the hymn, it was much easier to verify that this was the author through additional online searches.

Cloud 9 lasted about two minutes when I realized I didn’t how to find this woman. Was she living? Was she still in France? Would she talk to me? In my favor was the fact that the church community in France is small and tightly knit. Someone usually knows someone who knows someone who knows everyone. When asking around I found out she was indeed still living in France, after which, my husband used his contacts and gifted me a phone number. The answered prayers in these few weeks were too numerous to count. I was amazed how much heaven was cheering me on. I was nervous to call because my French wasn’t great and my “phone French” was even worse, but when she didn’t respond to my text it was my only option. I wrote down some phrases that I could read and prayed that I could understand her and be understood.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, she was the nicest, sweetest bilingual grandma I’ve ever talked to! She confirmed my hopes that she did write Souviens-toi, and said she’d be happy to read our translation. My anxiety was sky high that week as I waited to hear back. Fear can really play games on your mind. The longer I waited the more convinced I was that she hated it and hated us for translating it. To my relief, we soon reconnected and she happily approved the translation. She had read many English versions over the years and said ours was her favorite. Elation, relief and gratitude washed over me that day. Not only did we have her approval, but we also had her blessing to submit the hymn for publication and share it publicly. As happy as I was, I was also interested to know her story, and in particular, her decision to include Heavenly Mother in the hymn. Marie-Françoise was kind enough to meet with my husband and me and share her story behind the hymn. The following is from an interview with her:

Me: How did the hymn Souviens-toi come to be?

Marie-Fraçoise:

I was working with a church committee of the translation of the green hymn book in French, and they asked us to have one or two special hymns in the French hymnbook. We chose a traditional Christmas song and we decided as a committee, to maybe have a song about the pre-existence. One of the members was a musician and he suggested the music of New World Symphony [because he had an arrangement of it]. They asked the translators to write words for [the music] about the pre-existence. A few years before, there was a contest in the church and they wanted people to write music and write new hymns. I’m not good at writing music. I am a musician, but I’m an interpreter, not a composer. I had wanted to do something on the pre-existence but it didn’t work, so I abandoned the project. So the opportunity came again, and it had been my desire to write on that theme for a long time. [My husband and I] were married in 1978 and didn’t have children yet and it was very painful for me, and all the family. The church pressure at that time was very hard when you didn’t have kids. At that time my husband was without employment. He worked for the church before and he was looking for another job. At that time, we had no work and no kids and we were visiting friends in Italy. Since he was visiting with his friends [to find] work, I was waiting in the room, and I decided to work on that hymn.

I must say that I always wanted to have the experience of having a newborn baby and seeing that he was living and had just arrived from the pre-mortal life. Maybe he had some recalling of that life before. So I wanted to put that in the first verse, which I did. For the second verse I was really inspired by a French poet, Charles Baudelaire. His poem is called, La Vie Antérieure. I always thought it was very interesting that a non-believer had such ideas of a pre-mortal life. I really loved that poem, and I decided to do my poem about La Vie Antérieure for the second verse. During the 3rd verse came the spiritual experience. I didn’t write that verse, the Holy Spirit did. The words just came like that. I was just crying and crying at the end of that verse. I think it was one of the few really spiritual experiences that I have had. Really, that third verse was written by the spirit; not by me. I don’t deserve the credit for writing it. Years later I realized, after we adopted our first child, that he was born the same time that I wrote that third verse, in 1990. It was probably the same month. I won’t say the same day. But when I realized that, I thought, ‘yes’, it was probably a message from the pre-mortal life when I wrote that verse.

Me: Why did you include Heavenly Mother in the song when it was uncommon for that era?

Marie-Françoise:

People were already talking about the celestial mother, not that much but they were talking about [her], and I liked that idea. In knowing O My Father they talk about the Celestial Mother in the afterlife so why not write about her in the pre-mortal life? There has been much more talk about her recently. We served recently in the Rome Visitor’s Center as directors, from just before 2019 to 2021. When we went back to Paris due to COVID, we continued talking with the missionaries and the mission president in Italy by zoom and we, along with others, made presentations to them every week. I gave a presentation on the Celestial Mother, so I have done some research on that. First, I found a lot of very nice paintings to go with my presentation and there were documents written a long time ago in the church.

Me: Were you asked to speak about Heavenly Mother?

Marie-Françoise:

No, I proposed it. My husband was presenting something on the priesthood, so it goes together.

In reflecting on this experience, I know that each person in this world is known and loved by our Heavenly Parents. We are all needed in their work and they, along with Jesus Christ, are the master creators of all good things. We may never understand our true potential in this life, but they do because we are made in their image. I have often felt like a forgotten tool in the shed, but I know that no matter how small I am in their great plan, I matter. Even if I’m only a nail when others are hammers, I can make a difference with the gifts I’ve been given. On days when I feel I have nothing to offer, I remember that the only quality that truly matters to our Heavenly Parents is a willing heart. Our love, effort and willingness to answer their call are the greatest gifts we can offer them.

As Marie-Françoise shared her story, I was reminded of how much the Savior can give us beauty for ashes. These words came to her at a painful time in her life, but the Lord knew her struggles and did not leave her comfortless. Through the priceless gift of revelation, she was given truth straight from heaven that she lovingly shared with the world. The love and respect I feel for Marie-Françoise came as soon as I met her. She will never truly know the impact that she has made in my life. Her gift has created a new dimension to my testimony, and it is my hope that it can offer the same to others who read the words that were revealed to her.