We have finally landed!!!

It has been some time since we last wrote but we are now settling in and have Internet access again. We have had a great month. We left Palmyra on October 31st after finishing our final shift and cleaning assignment. That Friday morning eight couple missionaries and Pres. & Sister Jones looked out the clear window and watched the sun rise over the sacred grove. What a glorious experience. We had also had a wonderful temple session with all the Presidency and missionaries that week on one of the sessions. We served with a great group of people.

Our lasts goodbyes to our beloved Temple President and wife, Ralph and Timmy Siebach. They were so very good to us and we love them dearly.

Our last view of the Palmyra Temple. Even as I write it brings tears to my eyes. We spent much of the last week in Palmyra seeing all the sites one more time and feeling that special prompting of the Holy Ghost that this great work is true and that there are prophets on the earth again and Christ's church has been restored in its fullness. What a blessing in our lives.

A few of us pulling out from the temple Friday morning. The Pestanas, Lewis' and Gehrigs.

Our greeting home from a few of the grandchildren. Kory and Katie and Tyler, Josh and Gage came up to Kelly's for dinner and to welcome us back.

After three days we took off for Camarillo, California. We took Kelly, Robbie and Riley with us.

We arrived at the Los Angeles Temple Apartments and Rose, our dear friend, had a beautiful orchid waiting for us to welcome us back. Paul spent Saturday in the temple helping with the Camarillo Stake Baptism day. He was there from 5:30 am to 8:00 pm. What a great opportunity to see so many of the people from our Stake. While in Camarillo we had the privilege of speaking in the Camarillo 1st and 2nd Wards on the 9th, then in Stake Conference on the next Sunday and on the 23rd in the Oxnard 1st and Camarillo 6th Wards. I think we're done for awhile. We did enjoy bearing testimony of this great work.

Riley ran right up to Minnie with his arms outstretched. He turned 2 on the 6th of December, his party is tomorrow night.

Robbie really did have a good time. Can't remember what the frown was for.

I got to spend a day with my dear friend, Edwina, in Hemet. We were lucky enough to catch her daughter, Lesliann and her son Spencer, who were visiting from Alabama. Alaina is standing next to me, Edwina's daughter who is 12.

We took a quick one day trip to Jerome, Idaho to see Kimberly, Gary and family. Then on our way home from California we went back that way and spent a week and Thanksgiving with them.

Black Friday we were up at 3:30 to go to the Penny's sale where Kimberly, Paul and Sheri had to have leather jackets. We have Kimberly, Debbie, Staci, Alex, and Sheri. We had a fun time and kept the economy going.

On the way back to Utah we had to drive past my growing up home. It brings back such memories.

Only one picture would come in and isn't it wonderful. A view from the "clear window" of the temple looking down at the Sacred Grove.

Last week we shut down our Internet and so I was not able to do a blog. This week we are using the Palmyra Inn's Internet so I hope to give you a quick update on our final weeks in Palmyra.

Last weekend we traveled to Messena, NY which is on the northern border of NY on the St. Lawrence River. It's about 4 hours from here. We truly felt we were in the Mission Field. They had 14 people to church and four of us were missionaries. Nevertheless it was a wonderful experience and what great and faithful members they have there. They also had an investigator. We had a great time with them. We spoke in Sacrament meeting and then gave our "Come to the Palmyra Temple" presentation for Pres. Siebach, the temple president.

There were still a few beautiful colors but most were already gone. On our way home we stopped in 1000 Islands and had another look at that beautiful area.

For FHE last week we had a movie night. We saw "The Ultimate Gift". What a sweet story, we all loved it. We got to watch it on the big screen in the Visitors Center. We had a fairly busy week at the temple and were able to work in all the areas of the temple including the baptistry. What sweet experiences we have had.

Thursday we got to go over to the Waltons for a photo shoot. Brother Walton was doing a photo seminar and needed a few models. That was fun. Saturday evening we had a surprise party for us given by a dear friend, Amy Dalycus, from the Palmyra Ward. We had a great spaghetti dinner and lots of fun visiting with many people we have met here in Palmyra.

Today was our last Sunday in Palmyra. We had the Crookstons, Amsdens, and Harris' over for dinner. A great salmon dinner, which the Crookstons provided. Then we drove out to the Whitmer Farm for a last tour. We were fortunate enough to get Sis. James. She is wonderful and as many times as we have been there we heard new things. These site missionaries are just wonderful. We then made it to the Sacred Grove as it was getting dark and then to the Hill where we went into the Visitor Center. It was raining and lightening so I refused to walk up the Hill. Another time.

This will be our last blog until we get home. We leave on Friday afternoon and are heading to Utah and California. This mission has been a great blessing in our lives. We have loved it and come to love our Savior, Jesus Christ, even more. How blessed we are to have the gospel restored and in our lives. I hope we all appreciate this great blessing we have and share it with others. Love to you all.

This has been a beautiful week, the weather is great and the colors are beautiful. We have to enjoy while we can because we hear it is dropping to the 50's the middle of this week. We have had several tour groups coming through on a fall colors and church history tour. It's been fun to have them. This is the sacred grove as seen from the temple.

This is Jerry and Pamela Tidds from Meadville, PA. We met these wonderful people in June when we visited and spoke in their Ward. Pamela came to the temple in July to receive her endowment and Jerry came Friday to receive his endowment and to be sealed. Paul and I were privileged to be with them in both sessions. They had also been to the temple to do baptisms and we were privileged to help them there.

These are their friends who came with them. Bishop and Sister Welter and the young sister in the green shirt (Sister Johnson) was the missionary who taught Bro. Tidd the gospel. She flew back to be here from Utah for this special day. We met them for dinner Thursday evening and had a wonderful visit.

Monday evening for FHE we met at the Whitmer Farm and had a special visit from "Joseph". Elder Neil Pitts, portraying Joseph, came in while we were singing "Praise To The Man" and retold us the organization of the church on April 6, 1830. What a special evening this turned out to be.

This is President Ralph and Timmy Siebach, our Temple President & Matron. We had our release interview with them this week. These two people have touched our lives in wonderful ways and we love them deeply.

We had our first morning of frost this week. The sun came out and it has been beautiful ever since. Kimberly said they were expecting a frost also so she went out and picked all her tomatoes 7 gallon buckets full.

Saturday, Oct. 11 Tyler Zachery Lewis was baptized by his father, Kory. He had wonderful support from all of his family. Katie's family, parents, brother and sister and families and her grandparents were all there and Kimberly and Kelly and their families were also there. We are so proud of you, Tyler, you have set a great example for your brothers and cousins. Today, Sunday, is Kory's 33rd birthday, Happy Birthday Kory, we love you.

We started today with a walk through the Sacred Grove. What a wonderful thing to do on the day of General Conference. I remember last April we we did it also and we saw our first purple flowers blooming. Today many of the trees are bare of leaves and fall is definitely in the air. We walked out from the back of the log home where Joseph would have come from.

Paul enjoying a moment of contemplation and an opportunity for the spirit to spread over us.

Just a beautiful spot in the grove.

We watched conference at the Stake Center Saturday and Sunday. Paul went over and helped Bro. Fuqua set up for the broadcast and set up the Spanish videos and was basically in charge for all the session. Saturday evening the Brothers had a chili dinner before the Priesthood session. Sister Crookston, Sister Gehrig, and Sister Rotkowski came over and we watched the new Emma movie. We enjoyed it very much but would love to see it on a better screen.

Thursday was a wonderful day. Laura and Kim Bergeson along with their daughter Amy, her husband Matt and their three children, Kylee, Ben and Summer came to Palmyra to see the sites. We met them at the Whitmer Farm and tagged along with them all day. What fun.

Sister Bennet took us on the tour at the farm and got all our pictures. Laura and Kim are from Camarillo and our children grew up together in Camarillo 1st Ward. Amy was one of my YW girls and she is a wonderful mother and wife. She married a nephew of Neil and Sharon Decker who were missionaries with us last summer. What a small world. Amy and Matt live in Eagle Mountain and left two little ones at home.

Here we are at the Apostle tree in the Sacred Grove

We took a walk around the temple and had to tell them all about the stain glass windows, 27 in groups of three. Two special trees, one in the celestial room (the tree of life) and the other in the front door (the tree of knowledge). There are 64,000 cut leaves in the windows.

On Monday afternoon the missionaries took a tour of Brother and Sister Cahoon's apple and cherry processing plant. It it out in Wolcott and took us about 50 minutes to get there. It is on the shores of Lake Ontario, one of the best apple producing areas in the world. It is a family business and Jolene Green, their daughter is standing there with him and Paul. We serve in the office with Jolene.

We are waiting for the Perkins and Duggers to arrive before beginning the tour.

Here we are learning about the operation and we have dawned our hats to keep unwanted things out of the apples.

Paul and Bro. Archibald

They are processing apple for Comstock. It's an amazing business. Bro. & Sister Cahoon are our local temple worker coordinators on Friday night. We love them. They are the best.

We went back to the Visitors Center at the Hill Cumorah for FHE with the site missionaries. Bro. Cal Stevens was out visiting from SL and spoke to us. He wove the stories of several early pioneers showing us that God's hand is in this great work and blessed we are to be a part of it. He also said "I have seen a great deal of this world and so has Elder Weston, (site director) and there isn't anything we have seen out there that we want more than eternal life. I'm with them, lets keep the commandments so we can return to live with Heavenly Father again.

I hope you saw all of conference. We are so blessed to have living prophets among us. Our prayer is that we will listen and follow their direction.

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.

Fall is upon us. Saturday evening we drove to Warren, PA for a speaking assignment on Sunday. We had a lovely drive down. We took the Thruway (90) but coming back we came the long way and saw some beautiful colors. Our speaking assignment went well and there were many there we see at the temple on a regular basis. Not a very large ward but growing.

Driving through Mendon we saw two deer having a nice dinner on the side of the road. They weren't too worried about us.

We drove by the John Young home and had to give Beth and Bill Harmon a call. They lived their last year while in Palmyra.

We had the most wonderful surprise on Wednesday. Paul was at the recommend desk and in came our longtime friends, Colleen and Read Saunders from St. Davids AZ. What a surprise for us and a treat to see them after such a long time. They lived in Camarillo for many years. They were on their way to a cruise up the coast of Maine etc. to see the fall colors.

Wednesday evening we do not work in the temple so we went to Geneva to the Smith Opera House where we heard the Glenn Miller Band perform. It was very good and we enjoyed it. We were a little late, trying to get too much into too little time.

I didn't get some of these great pictures on last week from Kory and Tyler's visit. We are so pleased with our wonderful children. What a great blessing they are to us and how fortunate we are to have them in our lives.

Tyler, Kory & Paul, three generations of Lewis'

This is Tyler's frog he found in Palmyra. He actually got him on the plane and took him home. Is he still alive Tyler?

What a fun week we have had. Friday we picked up Kory and Tyler from the Buffalo airport and drove to Niagara Falls where we spent the night. We walked by the falls and had a good look at them and then went to visit the butterfly emporium. Beautiful butterflies and lots of fun. We visited the Whitmer Farm and Grandin Bldg on Saturday. Sunday we attended Church in Canandaigua where Paul and I spoke along with Elder Ryan Lockwood who had just returned from serving in the California Ventura Mission. We knew him before we left Camarillo and Paul often took the Elders over to the Food Share to serve. After Church we visited the Smith Farm and Sacred Grove. Sister Ward and Sister Stoddard took us on the tour. They also took us yesterday thru the Grandin Bldg. so they knew us pretty well.

The Palmyra Temple is in the background. We are on the path headed toward the frame house.

The Sisters told Tyler the story of Joseph hiding the plates under the hearth and let him pull up a brick to check it out.

His best activity and what he loved best was looking for frogs everywhere we went. He gathered quite a few. We are at Zions Camp gathering a few from there.

Wednesday we drove over to Cleveland, OH to visit cousins in the area. Don and Kathy drove us over to Ravenna where we drove around the town remembering old places. This is the home Paul grew up in.

We visited his elementary school house, his Grandparents home and the cemetery. This is his mom and dad's headstone. Don is so good to keep everything looking great. We appreciate him so very much.

Don Chappelear and Paul

Don and Kathy organized a nice lunch with the cousins and later we went back to their home for strawberry shortcake. This is Don, Leeann and Carolyn, all cousins.

This is Virginia and Frank Mills, family friends for years. Virginia is 94 and Frank 95 and they are doing very well. It was so great to see them again.

We spent Thursday evening with Mary, another cousin who lives in Barea, OH.

Wednesday on our way to Cleveland we stopped at Kirtland.

Monday we went over to the Winebrenners here in Fairport to help them load their truck. They were taking a load to Sun Dance where they recently purchased a home. They were kind enough to take 11 boxes home for us. Don't ask me what we have in them or how we acquired them. We brought everything out with us in the car so obviously we have been shopping.

Kory and Tyler go home tomorrow and the temple reopens. It has been a great week and we are anxious to get back to serve. Thanks for all your support and love. Have a great week.