Two Week Closure for Maintenance & Cleaning

The temple has been closed for two weeks for annual cleaning. We spent some of the first week helping with inventory. We had seminary all week so that kept up close to home.

We spend a lot of time preparing for seminary. We are getting well acquainted with the Old Testament. What a great testiment of the Savior.

This is his seminary class. Bro. Gammon came out to observe one day to see if Paul was on track.

We spent some time at Grant Ingold's basketball game and then went to the Site Missionary Valentine's party. We had a nice potatoe bar and dessert and made cards for our sweethearts.

Friday the 15th we drove to Bath, NY to watch Brandon Salimbene participate in a sectional swim meet. He swam the 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke and ended up 15th and 5th.

We left Bath and went to Gettysburg for two days. We took the self guided car tour with a CD. We had never been there before. What a quiet place for such events to have taken place. We then went on to Washington, DC where we saw the Lincoln Monument.

Our favorite place in DC was the Temple. We spent time there each day. They have 44 couple missionaries serving there for 18 months. We were able to stay with a couple who live right around the corner from the temple for $35 a night. They have both served in the temple for many years and he is a sealer at the age 95. We watched the Joseph Smith & the Restoration and Testiments of One Shepherd & One Fold. They have a huge theater, larger than the one at the Joseph Smith Memorial.

This is the WW I memorial. We took a tourmobil around the city. We especially enjoyed Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the changing of the guard at the Unknown Soldier.

Friday we were back in the Palmyra Temple putting the last touches on the temple before it opens on Tuesday, February 26th. Saturday night the Stake Activities Committee put on a wonderful dinner and dance with an 18 piece band. It was a wonderful evening. Today after Church and choir we took a walk around the temple grounds and into the Sacred Grove. We haven't been able to do it for some time, been too cold. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We were just thinking about seven more weeks and the summer missionaries will be here again. We don't know where the time has gone. Have a wonderful week and our thought this week comes from Paul's High Priest lesson, which he taught today, "Quench not the Spirit" and Brigham Young said we often live far beneath our privileges." Let's all raise the bar.

One more thought we found from President Monson. "You develop an appreciation that Heavenly Father knows who you are. And He says, 'Here, go do this for me.' I always thank Him. My only regret is that I don't have more time to do the many things we are called upon to do. I work hard, I work long. I hope I work effectively, but I never feel I have exhausted what I shouldbe doing."