Last Monday, September 22 the Temple Missionaries were invited to join the site missionaries at the Visitors Center for an evening of celebrating and remembering the day Joseph and Emma went to the Hill Cumorah to receive the plates from the Angel Moroni. We met in the theater where Elder Pinegar shared with us the events leading to this day. He reminded us that the thing that made Joseph great was "Prayer". Everything he learned and restored came about because of prayer from the 1st vision to the ordinances of the temple. Elder Young (an FM missionary) then shared with us information about the plates themselves. He has worked with gold and other metals in jewelry making and shared with us about how the plates would have been en graven on etc. Elder Weston, (site director) shared the life of the Prophet Joseph and Elder Young ended with the printing of the Book of Mormon. He had spent 30 years in the printing industry. When we finished many of us walked up the Hill to the monument. We took two couples with us, The Thorsteds and Archibals and with 1 flashlight went up through the woods. It was pretty dark but we made it. We walked across the bottom of the hill toward the West and then up and came out where the parking lot begins. We went down the shortcut path through the trees.

And of course we had refreshments. This is Elder Pinegar, Sister Judy and Sister Weston in the basement of the Visitors Center.

We have had a busy week in the temple. Monday we serve in the office. Tuesday we go in at 1 and serve in the office (Paul stays all evening as recorder) and at 5 I become an ordinance worker for the evening. Wednesday we are ordinance workers in the morning and at 1 we take over in the office until 4 when the Crookstons come and relieve us.

Thursday Paul subbed for Bro. Caton in the office in the morning and evening. The Archibalds and Thorsteds hosted a breakfast for all the temple missionaries who were available so I attended. Here are the Crookstons enjoying breakfast. It was great, pancakes, ham, eggs, hash browns, peaches, hot chocolate, orange juice. You can see we didn't miss much. It was beautiful weather for it too.

I went with the Pestans over to the Waterloo Outlet. He was taking his bus in to have the muffler fixed and dropped Marge and I off. We checked out Cold Water Creek and I spent some of b-day money there and got a few Christmas presents.

Saturday was a busy and wonderful day. This week we lost Helmut Yung (72). He lives in the Palmyra Ward, attended the temple with his wife every Tuesday since the temple opened, served as an ordinance worker on Saturday pm and was the cleaning coordinator of temple on Fridays. A wonderful man we came to know and love. His funeral was Saturday morning. They have 9 children and they were all there. Ingrid is a wonderful women and is doing well. They married in Germany and came to Rochester area in 1958 and Palmyra in 1962. They had six children and adopted three more from Korea. Several of them live in the area and will be a great comfort to her.

We helped with the setup and dinner for the funeral and then came back that evening to help with the RS broadcast. Bro. Fuqua asked Paul to set up the projector and run the broadcast (can you believe that Deane?). It was a great broadcast and we hope all you sisters were able to be there.

Today, Sunday, the Primary presented their program in Sacrament meeting. They did a beautiful job. The whole Primary knew all the words to their songs and it was very touching. The theme this year was "I am a Child of God". The single adults invited us to join them for their pot luck dinner and program. Kirsten Devenshire performed on her oboe. We then went to Rochester to Hyland Hospital to visit Karen Nickoll, our new doctor, who is in the hospital for some surgery. All is going well but it will be long recovery. It is raining out today and looks very beautiful, the fall colors are all around us. Have a great week.

This picture is for the Taylors, hope it doesn't make you homesick. It's a beautiful time of year and we have loved it in this beautiful home and neighborhood. The Taylors are serving in WA.