George & Bonnie Knapp Visit

Bonnie and George Knapp were in Palmyra and came to the temple with us. They were busy doing sealings and came back for a session. We had a nice lunch together.

July 24 Continued

Wayne County Fair horse pull, 6000 #'s

Penguin molting at Niagara Falls Acquarium

Wayne Co. Fair Pig Race

American Niagara Falls, Bridal Veil Falls

Maid of Mist ride

Cave of wind walk, we got to within 10 ft. of Bridal Veil Falls

Bishop & Lori Maddux

Pageant Week July 13-21

Kimberly, Kelly, and Katie came for a visit for five days. What a great time we had. If you would like a wonderful account of their visit please click here to go to Kory and Katie's blog . Katie has some wonderful pictures she took and does a good job telling what they did.

Pageant week was wonderful at the temple. Every session full and the baptistry working to capacity. The first Monday we started with a group at 6 am and had 20+ patrons every two hours all day long. It is what we had been waiting for and we were richly rewarded. A lot of the groups were pageant participants who were here for the two weeks. The first week they practice all day and once the pageant starts then they have some free time to see the sights and attending the temple.

We saw some of our wonderful friends from Camarillo this week also. Bishop & Sister Maddux and Austin and Tanner were here and the Boyce family with their two children. How nice to visit with everyone. We appreciate their stopping by.

July 9th Week--Visitors Galore, How Wonderful

The Michael and Suzanne Riach Family from Camarillo 3rd Ward

The Taylor Family from Massachusetts

Aunt Barbara, David & Family

The Anderson Family from Harriman, UT

The Bus Tour

Trying to think back through the week is really hard. I've been writing things on the calendar so I can remember. This is really a fun week because we have been getting visitors from home. How fun it is to see you and get a hug and send you on your way. This week we have seen the Taylors formerly from Camarillo and Oxnard and now living in Massachusetts. The Anderson family from the LA Temple. They came in and did baptisms and we were the baptistry directors. What a fun surprise. They now live in Harriman, UT. We tracked down the bus that carried Corrine Barlow, Renee and Stephanie Fleener, Rachael Barlow, Julie Bell, Holly and Jill Northrup. We followed them to the Hill and let them watch the pageant in the rain without us. We had been three times already so decided we could miss the rain that night. Friday night Aunt Barbara, David and his three kids were in town and we watched the pageant with them.

Sunday in the Palmyra Ward we performed "From Cumorah's Hill". We had 1400 in church and the production was beautiful and brought such a special spirit with it. What a joy to be able to sing in it.

Last week we visited a local dairy to see the workings. Bishop Hill's wife, Kathy, and Katie Amsden took us on a tour. The dairy is owned by Kathy's father. They have 450 dairy cows. Quite an operation. The next day they had four new calves born. We were one day early.

New baby calf The Crookstons, Kathy, Katie & Paul at the Dairy

We have been working double shifts and filling in where needed because several of our missionary couples have family in town and many of the permanent temple workers have assignment with security etc. at the pageant. We have had so many baptism groups and they are so spiritual.

For FHE tonight we had a special treat. Chad Hawkins was here visiting his in-laws, Pres. and Sister Cederlof. If you don't recognize the name, he is the artist who draws and temples and wrote the "First 100 Temples" and several other books. He shared many of his special experiences in visiting and painting the beautiful temples throughout the world. Tonita Crookston, Chad Hawkins, Wendy Cederlof, Neil Decker, Paul, Mar Jean, Pres. Cederlof
Chad Hawkins and father-in-law, President Cederlof, Palmyra Temple.

Pageant is wonderful. Over 700 people in the cast. It shows Tuesday thru Saturday this week. Kimberly, Katie, and Kelly are flying in Wednesday. We are excited to see them. They are busy getting all their children ready to spend some time with Daddy, and Grandma.

Sunday, this afternoon we decided to go over to the Hill Cumorah and check out how things were going. Everyone is here from the cast. All the parts have been given out and everyone is practicing, practicing, practicing. They do all the casting in 4 hours. Everyone lines up in groups by age and they walk by the casting directors and are given their assignments. They work really hard and you have whole families here, it is so great. Tomorrow is their first rehersal on the hill. We went into the visitors center to watch the Joseph Smith movie and part way through in came a group and sat beside us. It was Judy and Tom Everton, Gloria Thorn and Scott Grolock. What a wonderful surprise.

We have had fun watching the stage being built for pageant. They had it up in 2 1/2 days. Zion's Camp has also filled up. We are still getting in to do our laundry.

July 4th Week

Monday we served in the temple in the morning. Monday's and Wednesday's we serve in the office taking reservations and recording ordinances. It was also a very special day for our temple family. The Stoddards, from Montana and Idaho Falls temple, had their son and his family with them. Seth and Pam Stoddard brought their 18 year old daughter and 14 year old son, who has cerebral palsy with them. They did baptisms, what a special time for all of us who got to watch. I can't begin to tell you how special it is to see fathers and mothers bringing their children into the temple and doing these special ordinances.


Tuesday after our shift we went with the Jacobsons to the chiropractor, Dr. Lowry, in Geneva so Paul and Sister Jacobson could have an adjustment. Since we were close we stopped at the Amish store in Waterloo. We still want to get out to PenYan where they use their horse and buggies.


Here they have fireworks and activities every day starting on Saturday. We went for a walk around the temple and down to the Joseph Smith home. When we got back to the Inn we called the Jackmans, who are also staying here, and drove out to Sodus Point to see the fireworks. Paul did really good. He drove us right up to the lighthouse, let us out and found a parking place right there, he squeezed into the parking spot between a car and motorcycle, oh how he wished he had his red Nissan. We walked out on the grass and found chairs waiting for us and we sat down and waited about 30 minutes and the fireworks began out over the water from the pier. Perfect seats, perfect parking and we got out easily and missed most of the traffic.

Paul and Bro. Crookston preparing for our 4th BBQ

The 4th of July the temple was open for two sessions. We had a few people come and we were so grateful. That afternoon we had our 4th of July BBQ out back at the Amsden's pavilion. It was the first day we have had rain in sometime but we didn't let it dampen our spirits. What a great country we live in. That evening we went to visit with the Thrifts, temple missionaries from Texas. They have been sick for the last week with bronchitis and sinus problems. We were happy to get them back with us this week.

Thursday, P Day, it was raining but we took a drive to Rochester to check out the 1905 merry-go-round. We took a wonderful ride on it and it is a very beautiful area off Lake Ontario. We drove home by way of Lake Drive. It followed the lake all the way around to Rt. 21 where we turn south to hit Palmyra.

Friday we had a young woman come in to receive her endowments and I got to help in initiators. At the end of our shift Pres. Jones scheduled a group of Young Men from the work crew to come in an do baptisms. We were asked to stay and help. While we were waiting for them we helped the Friday cleaning crew and then we were able to assist in the baptistry. This was Bro. Krebs young men. The Krebs's are whose trailer we are renting. He is charge of the work crew. They have 26 young men 17, 18 year olds who come in for two weeks and put up all the staging for the pageant and many other things. What a great group of young men. They all came in in their suits and ties, they looked so great. It was such a pleasure to assist. You could tell they had been working hard because some of them promptly fell asleep as they were waiting their turn. Friday nights we always do a session, can't seem to get out of the habit from the LA Temple, but as it turned out they needed us to work so we were followers on the session.


Saturday Paul subbed for Bro. Crookston so he could attend choir practice and then we did our usual shift at 12:30. I also attended choir practice. We are singing "From Cumorah's Hill" done on Sunday, July 15 and 22. This is their Sacrament meeting. The music and words were written by Steven Kapp Perry. Beautiful music and message. We feel so privileged to participate in it. Three missionary couples are in the choir. Saturday night at the Stake Center the Utah Youth Symphony from Utah Valley performed for us. They are on tour and have been to Boston, here, then going on to Kirtland and Nauvoo. Excellent young musicians.

Today Paul and I spoke in Sacrament meeting in the Palmyra Ward. I spoke about "This Great and Amazing Church" we belong to and Paul spoke of his conversion and temple experiences. The Lord blessed us, without His help we could do nothing.
Paul thought I should include part of my talk. Here it is:
We belong to a truly amazing church:

When Elder LeGrand Richards—an apostle of an earlier generation—went to Europe on his first mission, a fellow missionary said to him: “I met a man the other day who knows more about religion than I ever dreamed of. I told him that if he had something better than I had, I would join his church.”

This missionary expressed concern to Elder Richards that maybe he had said the wrong thing and made the wrong offer. Elder Richards responded, “Elder you told him jus that right thing. If he has something better than you have, you ought to join his church.”

Does he have something better than a personal visitation of God the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ, in a pillar of light, after centuries of spiritual darkness, to open the dispensation of the fullness of times?
Does he have something better than the coming of Moroni with the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated?
Does he have something better than the coming of John the Baptist with the Aaronic Priesthood, the power and authority to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins?
Does he have something better than the coming of Peter, James and John—apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ—with the holy Melchizedek Priesthood?
Does he have something better than the coming of Moses with the key of the latter-day gathering of Israel?
Does he have something better than the coming of Elijah to turn the heart of the children to their fathers in fulfillment of a prophecy in the Book of Malachi?
Does he have something better than holy temples and temple ordinances for the living the dead?
Does he have something better than the opportunity you have to take your sweetheart to a temple and be sealed to her for time and all eternity?
Does he have something better than patriarchal blessings,
Something better than living Apostles and prophets,
Something better than the great Society of Zion?
If he has something better than that, you should join his church!”

This is truly a great and amazing church. This church is a gift from a loving Heavenly Father—and there is nothing in all the world that compares to membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Well it has been quite a week and we have loved it all. Have a great week and CTR. Mar Jean & Paul