For The Beauty of The Temple.

Going to the temple even if it's to walk the temple grounds is peaceful especially in the summer time with all the colorful flowers. I don't know what heaven would be like but I can only imagine it will be surrounded by beauty and cleanliness. 

While on our trip to Palmyra we stopped by the temple and we walked all around it.The flowers that surround this small building were bright in color. We could have just sat here all day and just gazed at the sun. Pondering our heaviest thoughts and imagining what it would be like to be together forever. No matter what annoyances and disagreements we bring in a family we know that at the end of the day we can choose to overcome, find a resolve and be happy. Find joy if you will and learn from the lessons that might have been trying that day. To not stress over the little things that we have no control of. God will not judge us because He knows us. And He also wants us to see those small miracles that are waiting to happen to us. 

After a year of the temples being close due to the pandemic I am so happy that they are now open for us to attend to gain and feel that peace again. I only hope that they won't shut down again because of the surge of the delta variant virus again. And if they do, we can always just go anyway and walk the temple grounds just like we did on this day.

Peter Whitmer Farm & Palmyra Temple: Summer 2020

Such a peaceful trip this was being isolated from people. Not that we don't mind crowds but this trip was completely different. Empty parking lots. Empty temple grounds. No cars. I didn't see the need to wear our masks throughout our time in Palmyra while looking at the sites. Although we are used to wearing them the entire time I have to be honest. It was nice not wearing them being that the temps were in the 90's. Sure it cools down in the late afternoon but during the day it was pretty hot. I captured a few moments with the kids at the temple and Noah roaming free around this reconstructed log house at the Peter Whitmer farm. He had the time of his life being that there were no tours going on. He just ran amuck like a little pioneer kid from the 1800's picking up sticks and rocks. It was simplicity at its best and I loved every minute of this trip. If we could only live simply like the pioneers did back in the day. How nice it would be!

Hill Cumorah Pageant 2019.

For the past ten years since moving to the east our family has watched the Hill Cumorah pageant. As much as we love the story, and the message behind the Book of Mormon the pageant food is good too! My kids love the pageant potatoes, and walking around before the pageant starts to go on a prophet hunt. The pageant is a must-see performance that will incredibly touch the core of your heart, and I recommend coming to watch it in their final year which will be in 2020. 

Church History Sites In Palmyra, New York.

For those of you who have known us for the past ten years know how much we love going to Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and all the historic sites in the area. It is what makes our summer, and helps us to overcome the world. We love the peaceful feeling we receive while walking inside the sacred grove, and for once to pretend that life is absolutely perfect! It is the place where one can go to feel peace, and joy. There is no place I'd rather be than with my family while exploring this wonderful place, and to know that it all started here. 

Hill Cumorah Pageant '16

The past couple of weeks of July have gone by so fast that it seems as if we came back from upstate New York yesterday! After blogging about Lexie attending EFY in Kirtland yesterday I realized that i didn't document our spontaneous, quick trip to Palmyra to catch the Hill Cumorah Pageant. 

When we picked up Lexie on saturday morning we figured we weren't too far from Palmyra, and we all decided to take advantage and watch the pageant. It's become tradition, and we didn't want to break tradition! Counting our blessings for five hour energy drinks in which Jon takes only when we drive more than five hours, and in this case we did. 

We normally stay overnight at a friends home in Palmrya, but ended up going home right after the pageant. We figured since it was so last minute not to impose on them. Come to find out they weren't home all weekend due to a reception, and when I mentioned to them how we were there the weekend they were gone said how we could have had their whole house to ourselves! Such awesomeness coming from great friends, but it was meant for us to go straight home, and even though we arrived at 5am we still managed to attend church at 9am! Jon and I were running on fumes, but were coherent during sunday school, and I was asked to teach on the temple next week which is tomorrow! I think all the commenting I've done in class in this ward has prompted the Relief Society President to ask me to teach! I'm excited to finally teach a lesson. I hadn't taught one in so long, and the time couldn't be more perfect. Especially since we have the Philadelphia temple ready to open the doors to the public. I have been preparing my lesson in hopes that it'll inspire at least one person! 

The pageant, as always is spiritually amazing! We just love coming here. We had the time to walk through the sacred grove, and go by the temple. 

Another small, beautiful temple! 

Wish we had time to go through, but it was nice to walk the grounds, and capture these cute kids in front of the sign with such beautiful flowers. I look at this picture compared to last years post, and the kids somewhat look the same, but are still getting older. Wish they wouldn't! 

As always Jon took the kids on a "prophet hunt." Noah was so excited, and always looks forward to this. It's almost like an "i spy a prophet" game. He is getting better at becoming familiar with the prophets from the book of mormon. I know that by teaching him at home, and especially when we come here that it helps him to remember who they are, and what they did, as well as beginning to appreciate their role in how they lived their life. 

Here are a few photos of a few prophets he spotted. Of course the first one that caught his eye was Joseph Smith. 

 Here's my sweet Noah with the not so nice Noah!

 Like me Noah has a few favorite prophets. There are just so many that were such great examples to the world. Here he is with Abinadi.

Lehi. 

and here are all the kids with two of Lehi's sons Nephi, and the not so nice Laman. 

We absolutey love coming here every year. It's like spiritual food, and going to Kirtland before coming here was perfect! So grateful for these opportunities, and the blessings that come from it. Here's hoping that everyone will make it to the pageant someday. It'll truly change your life, and you'll leave feeling so inspired! 

HISTORICAL MOMENTS DURING THE HILL CUMORAH PAGEANT '15.

It's amazing how quickly one year rushes into another, especially when it comes to the Hill cumorah pageant. This has seriously become a major tradition even when we don't have our oldest daughter with us. This year we invited the daughters of a dear friend of mine to experience this wonderful spiritual, theatrical experience with our kids and they loved it. 

I was a bit worried that we were going to get rained on because the forecast called for rain all week!! I was praying the whole weekend that we wouldn't! Apparently Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was asked to give the opening prayer on the first night of the pageant, and in his prayer he asked that the weather would not affect the pageant, and it didn't rain at all! It always storms every year around pageant time and so having that prayer was a blessing, and truly a gift from God! 

We saw all the historical sites which include the sacred grove, the top of the hill cumorah,  book of mormon publication site, the Peter Whitmer farm, Joseph Smith Farm, and of course I had to take a picture of the kids at the temple. 

In the past I've written separate posts about most of those sites here, here, and here, but this time I decided to put all the pictures with a snippet into one post and I hope you enjoy. 

Here are a few pictures of some our moments in Palmyra...

 ^^^ The clan at the top of the Hill Cumorah. I still can't believe I hiked this when I was seven months pregnant. That was five years ago! This time I was seriously out of breath when I got to the top! Made me realize I need to get back into shape! ^^^

 ^^^ Cute Lexie, and sweet Myesha. This was her first time here, and both she and her sister were so excited. You're probably going to see more pics of these two more than their sisters because they were too busy chit chatting, walking, and having fun. It was hard to capture a photo of them together! ^^^

Noah and Chelsea's favorite part of the pageant is going on a "prophet hunt" to talk, and meet some of the people portraying them. Here a few of their favorites...

  ^^^ Lehi. ^^^

King Noah may have been a liar, and overall a bad person, but Noah only likes him for his costume. The fact that he's tall, and stands out makes them want to take a picture with him even more. It isn't easy getting a photo with Joseph Smith. There's always too many people waiting to take pictures with him. We got lucky. 

  ^^^ Nephi. ^^^ 

  ^^^ Now, these two are among my favorites...Mormon, and Moroni. ^^^

  ^^^ The valiant Abinadi. ^^^

  ^^^ and another one of Noah's favorite...Samuel. ^^^

^^^ see, I told you you'd see more pics of these two. ^^^

As much as we wanted to do a session at the temple we didn't make the time, and besides...it's always filled to capacity! A little FYI...always make an appointment. We were lucky to have done a session the last time we were here! Still...it's nice to walk on the temple grounds, and take in the spirit. It truly is beautiful. 

 Taking these pictures really made me miss my Sierra. So looking forward to seeing her at Christmas!

This year we finally had a proper tour of the Book of Mormon publication site. In the past we normally would just walk in, read all about the history on how the Books of Mormon were printed, and look at all the tools, and machinery they used to make it possible. It is so amazing how all this came about in printing, and publishing so many books of mormon. 

 Can anyone guess who this is? For those of you who went to BYU, or read LDS books, or listen to audio Cd's will be familiar with this face... 

^^^ It's John Bytheway. The last time I saw him was almost nine years ago when I was at the Salt Lake temple. It was nice running into him here. Small world! ^^^

FOOD!! 

Driving around, and doing all that touring made us hungry!! We normally eat at a place called Chill and Grill, but instead we had this pizza which was delish, and then a couple of hours later had ice cream and "chilled." 

^^^ That pistachio tho. ^^^

The Peter Whitmer Farm is one of my favorite historical sites. I get really sentimental when I come here. The fact that this is where the church started is amazing! Who knew it would form with just six members, and grow in numbers. There are now at least 15 million members worldwide. Truly amazing! 

 ^^^ this boy on this particular trip was a little hard for him to look at the camera! still a cutie with his sisters.  ^^^

I didn't take too many photos inside the sacred grove as I was deep in thought depicting Joseph Smith kneeling and praying to God. Truly amazing what happened here, and how it has changed so many lives...including mine. 

 ^^^ Noah was pretty much carried the whole time sitting on Lexie's shoulders. He says he can see the trees better when he's high on top! ^^^

^^^ I couldn't end this post without thanking this lovely lady...my dear friend Emily. Her family is amazing, and she is such a wonderful host when we come visit and stay with her. She's so fortunate to live in the heart of it all. Sometimes I wish we could just pack up, and move up here! ^^^

Going to Palmyra every year is always a treat for our family, and in all honesty I never want to leave this place. This whole area has such a strong spirit, and I'm so grateful for the spirit that it brings. One that'll make anyone who's visiting whether LDS or not wondering why they're at peace mixed with feelings of appreciation of where it all started. 

At least that's how it is for me. 

"The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching." 

~Joseph Smith

Happy Monday, and hope your weekend was great! 

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!