The Palmyra Temple

Can you believe that in the past seven years of going to Palmyra for the Pageant, and attending the temple we've never walked the temple grounds?? I know...crazy right? Every time we do a session we'd just walk right out back to our kiddos. There is no visitors center for the kids to hang out in, and so for those two hours we're inside the kids just linger around the temple hopefully not tearing up the place because you know when you have a four year old boy anything can happen. Especially when he loves picking flowers from the flowerbed, and all of sudden Noah comes up to me afterwards, and says "here mommy, these are for you", and hands me these...

^^^ beautiful daisies. ^^^

We absolutely love the temple, and I honestly don't know what I'd do had I not joined the church, and finally felt prepared to enter inside. I'd probably feel lost, and would always feel something is missing because now that I know they're here for a purpose...I just simply can not go. I want to go. I crave it every time I feel down, stressed, or overwhelmed. Serving, and doing the work of the Lord really uplifts me, and truly brings joy into my life. And all the things that seem to be such a big worry don't matter anymore. It makes me love my husband even more, my children more, family, and overall helps me to become a better human being. The past ten months with Jon being unemployed off and on was not an easy one, and instead of letting my faith slide we attended the temple numerous times. I'd had been going through a little bit of withdrawal lately because I hadn't been to the temple in a couple of months. I'm so happy to have made some time in our 'short weekend of a schedule trip' to go to the temple. 

Taking the time to actually walk the temple grounds in its entirety didn't even take long. I make it sound like the grounds are huge. It does take long, however, when you are sitting on one of the benches appreciating the countryside, and everything that happened around this area 194 years ago. You look at your kids walking along with you, sometimes ahead of you because when you have a little boy running around always looking up they know how the temple looks like, and that there's an gold angel at the top, but yet don't know the significance of it. And that's just the beginning of knowing that we need to continue to teach him more about the importance of temple worship.

^^^ love that the colors of Chelsea's skirt & sandals match the flowers. ^^^

We met a family from Canada and they were kind enough to take a family picture. We in return took theirs. It's so nice to meet other families who come from different parts of the world to attend the pageant, and get familiar with all the historical sites here. 

We love the temple, and I'm so grateful that they stand out and bring a feeling of peace, and harmony inside every one of us. I can tell that the girls love getting familiar with different types of temples. Lexie was taking pictures of the architecture, and Chelsea and Noah were being kids exploring the temple grounds. This was the first time not having Sierra with us and it felt a little "off" not having her around...especially when we come here. 

Oh, how we all miss her.  

Luckily we know that families can be together no matter what. Watching this video is a reminder to me, and definitely brings a feeling of comfort, and for that I am eternally grateful!