Philadelphia Temple

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we build temples as special places of worship. They are different than the meetinghouses where we meet and worship together every week and we consider them to be sacred, holy places where special ordinances (such as weddings) are performed. 

When I was growing up in Minnesota, our family drove 24-hours to the nearest temple in Salt Lake or Washington DC. That distance meant that we could only go once a year, at most. When I was a teen, they built a temple in Chicago, which then made it only an 8-hour drive to get to. This was a HUGE blessing for my family and all the people who lived in the midwest. 

When I was in college there were about 50 temples throughout the world, which meant that people in many places still had significant distances to travel to get to a temple. In the mid-90's an announcement was made that they were going to start building smaller temples in more places, to get them closer to the people. Twentyish years later there are now 150 temples throughout the world and these temples continue to bless the people and the communities where they are located. 

We are in Philadelphia right now, where a brand new temple was just built. It's right in the heart of the city and quite a beautiful sight to behold! The architecture resembles that of other historic buildings in the area and THEY ARE GIVING FREE TOURS RIGHT NOW for anyone (church member or not) who is interested in seeing the inside of a temple! Tours are available now through early September. 

We took our tour yesterday and really enjoyed seeing the unique interior of this lovely building. {Pictures were not allowed to be taken in the interior, so the following pictures are from this website} 

This is the baptismal font where vicarious baptismal ordinances are performed for those who died without a knowledge of the gospel. Of course, this isn't a forced baptism, since we also believe that the deceased person has the opportunity to accept or reject the baptism in the afterlife. 

This is the celestial room, where no ordinances are performed, but people go to contemplate and enjoy the quiet and peace found there. 

This is an instruction room where we learn more about God's plan for us. 

This is a "sealing room" where marriages are performed for time AND eternity. Glen and I were married in a very similar looking room in the Denver temple in 1993. 

We also loved all the nods throughout the temple to the history of the area. There are pieces of art depicting the founding of our country and some of the great historical events that took place here in Philadelphia. 

It really was a joy to bring the kids there and answer questions they had about the temple. We've also been enjoying our Jack/Lincoln/Ben time, which is slightly easing my missing-Cami-ache! 

My nephew, visiting from England (on top of the dog pile here) is getting baptized here in Pennsylvania tomorrow, which is why we were lucky enough to get them to come hang out with us for a while! 

"There exists a righteous unity between the temple and the home. Understanding the eternal nature of the temple will draw you to your family; understanding the eternal nature of the family will draw you to the temple." —Gary E. Stevenson

I love my family and am so grateful for the blessings of the temple in our lives! 

General Conference Summary: Saturday Sessions

Twice a year, us Mormons, take a week off of going to church and watch 8-hours of church at home instead.   Yes, you read that correctly...8 whole hours...and we do it by choice.  It's split four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.   What do they talk about for that long?    I'm glad you asked.   Here's a summary from the notes I took:    

Saturday Morning:

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

SIMPLICITY IN CHRIST

Exaltation is our goal, discipleship is our journey!  

Don't make your discipleship too complicated.  

Start where you are and move forward.  

M. Russell Ballard

STAY ON OLD SHIP ZION

Old Ship Zion's destination is exaltation!

Jesus Christ is at the helm of the Old Ship Zion.

We need to stay on the ship to stay safe in the waves of the world.

Richard J. Maynes

CENTER OUR LIVES ON CHRIST

Like a potter needs to keep the clay exactly centered on the potter's wheel, 

we need to keep our lives centered on Christ.  

Neill Marriott

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT

  When we keep an eternal perspective and trust in God, 

it will all work out.  

It doesn't mean that it will be easy or the way we want it, 

but God is in the details and it will work out.  

Larry Lawrence

LISTEN TO THE HOLY GHOST

He will give us personal guidance, meant just for us.  

Be persistent in seeking guidance and always seek for spiritual improvement. 

Our direction is more important than our speed.  

Francisco Vinas

PEACE BE UNTO THY SOUL

The word of God fills us with hope.  

Do not delay the day of our repentance.  

Repentance is a process that requires consistency, but will ultimately bring us peace. 

Quentin L. Cook

"SHIP SHAPE AND BRISTOL FASHION"

BE RIGHTEOUS, FOLOW RULES, AND BE PREPARED

Self control is like a muscle--the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. 

Happiness in this life and the life to come is connected by the thread of righteousness. 

Life will hit hard times (like in the Bristol Channel) and we may feel washed up and knocked on our sides, but when we are spiritually prepared we will be buoyed up.  

Saturday afternoon:   

Three new apostles called: 

Ronald Rasband

Gary Stevenson

Dale Renlund

Robert D. Hales

YOU ARE THE  PILOT OF YOUR LIFE:  NEVER INTENTIONALLY FLY INTO A STORM

If you want the Lord's counsel, be prepared to take it.  

You don't marry for perfection; you marry potential. 

You are rich when you can happily live within your means.   

Jeffrey R. Holland

MATERNAL LOVE IS DIVINE

"No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has  for her child."

Bear, borne, carry, deliver...these similar words are used to describe what the Savior  does for us as well as a mother.   

Bradley D. Foster

HELP CHILDREN UNDERSTAND

We must engage in intentional parenting.  

Children are the largest group of investigators in the church and they should be taught well. 

There's a difference between just hearing the gospel and truly understanding the gospel.  

Hugo Montoya

LET'S HELP EACH OTHER

Go the second mile, Smile.

Express feelings of compassion to others. 

Meditate on the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Vern Stanfill

GO TOWARD THE LIGHT (OF THE GOSPEL)

Don't be embarrassed to ask for help or look to other's light when you are in darkness.

Trust in the Lord.   

Do not look to those who have no light to give. 

James Martino

ANSWERS WILL COME

keep seeking for answers; they will come. 

Dallin H. Oaks

CHRIST WILL SUCCOR US

He knows our struggles, heartaches, and temptations and will succor us. 

"I can do all things in Christ that strengtheneth me"

Savior can help us overcome any kind of mortal pain--those which come through no fault of our own and those caused by our own choices.  

God is mindful of ALL people.  

Interested in learning more?    You can watch the sessions live HERE.  (at 12:00 and 4:00pm EST)  

Stay tuned for more summaries to come!

(10/3/2015)

Mormon Prom

What is Mormon Prom you ask?    

It's a prom without alcohol, drugs, sex, and immodest clothes.    In other words, it's awesome and I, for one, am very grateful for the efforts that go in to making it a special night for these teens who are trying to live up to a certain standard. 

This year Cami went with her friend, Rex, who as you can see has been her friend since preschool.   

They had a great night and it's hard for me to believe that yet another milestone has passed for Cami!  

I'm going to miss her in a few months!   

Day-by-Day in California

While we are experiencing very anti-California weather right now, I thought I'd take this opportunity to reminisce about warmer days, and finish up blogging about California.  I took over 1000 pictures while we were in California, but rather than boring you all with a gazillion more blogposts about our trip, I'm combining most of the rest of the pictures into this one long post.   There will definitely be some more pics that pop up in future posts, but this will be the last big one that recaps our trip.  This post will also be the guide post to our trip and below you will find summaries of what we did day-by-day with  links to the applicable posts. 

In the meantime, we are now hunkering down for some real deal winter weather (for the DC area) over the next few days.  Today the high was 15º,  it was very windy, and church was canceled.  Tomorrow we are expecting 4-8-inches of snow and it's beginning to feel a little like late-autumn weather where I grew up in Minnesota.    

Day 1:  Arrive to LV, drive to CA, sleep!

We were so exhausted from rushing to get out the door on our trip a day earlier than we'd planned, that all we wanted to do when we arrived to my sister's house was to sleep.   

Day 2:   Chill morning, Crescent Bay at Laguna Beach in the afternoon

My kids were so absolutely enraptured by the novelty of being at the beach in the middle of winter, that they did not stop smiling the entire time we were there.   My California native niece and nephew, on the other hand, were totally bored by it.  Beach trips all through the year are not new or novel for them, and  they would have much rather been there with their friends than their long-lost East coast cousins.   I felt bad that we stayed as long as we did, but my kids were soaking it all up to the hilt!   

Day 3:  DisneyLand

It was my kids' very first time visiting a Disney park and they LOVED it!   We had locals telling us to expect 1-2 hour waits on some of the popular rides, even in the off-season, but somehow we never had to wait more than about 10 minutes for any ride.  We attributed it to going in the middle of the week and the whole measles' bad publicity.   There were several rides closed (It's a Small World and the Matterhorn being the two most disappointing), but it was so fantastic being able to actually enjoy our time, instead of waiting in lines, that I think we should never go back, so as not to ever ruin that sense of perfection that we have in our minds!  

Day 4:  Disney California Adventure Park

I had no idea what to expect with this "twin sister" park to DisneyLand, but it exceeded our expectations in every way.   The lines were slightly longer than they'd been at DisneyLand, but that meant we never waited longer than about 25 minutes for the most popular rides and still walked right up for most rides.   The rides are larger and more age appropriate for  my kids and it's a lot more themey than DL.  They had "lands" and rides based on Disney movies that were breathtakingly realistic.   Cars Land was AMAZING and probably our favorite!    The recreated Radiator Springs, complete with the bluffs in the background,  was so cool and contained some of our favorite rides of the day.  Some other favorites included the Frozen sing-a-long and the Aladdin musical.   Aladdin's actors were Broadway quality and the special effects were out-of-this-world!   That show alone almost made it worth the price of admission! 

Day 5:  Los Angeles (LaBrea Tar Pits (see below), Griffith Observatory)

 In my opinion, the museum at LaBrea Tar Pits is way over-priced, so we opted to stay outside and explore the grounds instead.   Too bad it started raining right when we got there.    It was blue sky and sunshiny when we left my sister's house, so we were woefully unprepared for the unusual California rainstorm.   We ran around looking at the tar pits, the excavation site, and some informational signage they had around the grounds, but truth be told, the rain shortened our stay dramatically.    Timing-wise, though, it ended up being perfect for heading to the Griffith Observatory.   It stopped raining on the way there and we arrived just in time to enjoy an absolutely spectacular sunset.   The observatory is completely free and, in my opinion, the absolutely best way to enjoy Los Angeles…from up high!  

Day 6:  Balboa Island, Newport Beach, shopping

Cami had visited Balboa Island last summer with Kristina, and couldn't wait to introduce us to it as well.  Its narrow streets, cute little shops, and cottages made for a very picturesque town.  We ate lunch here, got a famous "Balboa Bar" at one of the many shops touting theirs as the original, then headed across on the ferry to Newport Beach.  Once again, my kids were completely in love with the idea of swimming at a beach in January!  The waves weren't as good for boogie boarding, but we definitely enjoyed a lovely afternoon there!

Day 7:   Church

It was great to attend church for a week without a single shred of responsibility.   Ellie felt right at home being the only girl in a crazy primary class of all boys.   At home there's usually one other girl, but the craziness and the being outnumbered was not a new feeling at all.   Adam joined in a very large and boisterous Deacon's class that gave him a newfound appreciation for his own large and slightly less boisterous class at home.   Emma and Cami enjoyed  being introduced to a whole new group of Californian young men.   After church we headed home where Emma cooked up a gorgeous rendition of Chicken cordon blue!  

Day 8:  San Diego, La Jolla, trolley tour (see below), Coronado Beach, Mormon Battalion (see below), San Diego Temple

What can I say?  We loved San Diego so much, that every single one of us left there wondering how we could talk Glen into us moving there for good.   La Jolla Cove beach and Coronado beaches were our favorites yet.   La Jolla was rocky and definitely not as great for swimming, but was picturesque with its gorgeously blue water, was peaceful,  and had sea lions!   Coronado's sands were amazingly soft and somehow flecked with gold specks (which apparently are actually mica flecks).  It was a stunning sight to see and we fell in love with the wide, flat beach and shallow waters.  Our only disappointment was that we were not prepared to swim.   We took a trolley tour to see more of San Diego than we otherwise would have, and ended up grateful that we did.  It was the trolley guide that introduced us to Coronado and the stunning Balboa Gardens.  We ended up not having enough time to explore the Gardens, but even the view we got from the trolley was breathtaking and satisfying.   We ended our day in San Diego with a stop at the lovely San Diego Temple located in the town of La Jolla.   The grounds aren't as large as you'd expect, but it definitely ranked up there as a favorite for all of our family.    Next time we visit California we may plan to spend two days in San Diego instead of just one! 

Day 9:  Pack, Newport Beach temple, drive back to LV,  LV temple, fly home

We didn't try to accomplish anything this day except some last minute laundry and packing.   It took a lot of juggling to arrange everything to fit the strict requirements of the airline on which we were traveling, but eventually we got it all arranged and left my sister's house in early afternoon.   We gave ourselves plenty of time (9+ hours) to travel what should have been about a 4-hour trip back to Las Vegas.   It was good that we did, because traffic was frustratingly slow and we ended up not having a moment to spare after our two very short side trips to visit temples.   On the way out of town we stopped at the Newport Beach temple and once we got there we visited  the Las Vegas temple.  They're both very beautiful in very different ways, and we loved that we got a chance to see them. We had hoped to also have some time to walk down the Las Vegas strip to see some of the cool looking landmarks (Eiffel tower, Statue of Liberty, a huge pyramid, etc), but alas we had to enjoy from the car and rush to the airport for our red-eye back home.  We lucked out with one empty seat next to us, which meant that Ellie got to lie down and actually sleep.  The rest of us, however, got a very fitful couple of hours of sleep (if that).  

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La Brea Tar Pits: 

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San Diego Trolley Tour:  

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Mormon Battalion in Old Town San Diego:

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FHE….Ellie Style

  Ever since the kids were tiny, we've reserved one night a week--usually Sunday or Monday--for  learning the gospel and spending time together during family home evening (FHE).   We usually sing a few songs, talk a little about our week, then have a short lesson and a treat.   The lesson is not usually very long or very profound, but it is meaningful time we spend together week-after-week that brings our family closer together.

When the kids were younger, I went to great lengths to engage the kids in the lessons.  I used flannel board stories, puppets, and creative games to help make the learning more meaningful to them. As they've gotten older though, the lessons now  are more often iterations of lessons I've either heard or given to the Young Women or discussions about some topic that's been on our minds.  I guess we may have have gotten a little boring around here, because Ellie practically begged to take over the lesson yesterday.  We readily agreed. 

And believe me when I tell you, that things were a lot livelier last night than during our average family home evening.  We still had the sullen teen who kept muttering under her breath about all the homework she had to do, but the rest of the lesson was all dramatics and giggles, and I do not mean that in a bad way.

Ellie was the narrator, costume designer, and stage director for an amazing lesson about Esther.  

She had learned about Esther during Primary on Sunday and was so excited to share what she learned with the rest of us.  It was one of the most memorable FHE lessons we've had in a long time and made me grateful for inspired teachers who so lovingly prepare lessons for my kids each week and also for inspired leaders who encourage us to take time out of our busy schedules to devote to our families.  

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Mormon Prom

So some of you non-Mormons out there are probably wondering what Mormon prom is and why is it such a big deal. It's a HUGE production that took dozens and dozens of people thousands of hours of work to put on.  My friend Cindy was the director of it and she has been working on it well over a year....all voluntarily and without pay.   The end results were absolutely phenomenal and after all the hours and hours of work, it really was the "Dance of the Decades."   

The entire church was transformed into a breathtaking walk through time and nearly 700 juniors and seniors from the surrounding 6 (or maybe 8) stakes showed up to participate in a magical night of good clean fun.   There was no drinking, no dirty dancing, no skanky clothing, and no offensive song lyrics.  It was simply a night when a big group of youth seeking to live with high moral standards could enjoy an evening together.   

The 1950's room bedecked as an old-school diner was one of  my favorite rooms.  My friends Ellen and Kylee designed this room and the details they put into it were mind boggling to me.  I can barely even decorate my own house...in fact I still haven't decorated months after our renovations ended...and together, they transformed our very vanilla YW room into an amazing step back in time to the 50's.  

Even the waiters and waitresses (which included three of my beautiful young women and a good friend of Adam's) looked like they stepped right out of an episode of "Leave it to Beaver".

The 1970's room, designed by my friend Linda, was another one of my favorite rooms. It had a  lava lamp lounge and an almost life-size VW bus for people to pose in!

Of course the room I related to the most was the 1980's room!  I felt right at home with the familiar movie posters, the Super Mario cut-outs, and 80's vernacular hanging around the room!  I daresay I also would have done much better on the 80's quiz that Cami said she failed miserably at.

It was a whole lot of effort put on by a whole lot of people, but it was worth every second of it for these wonderful youth! 

Last, but not least,  the reason why you're here in the first place....Cami's prom pictures.  She and her date, Matt, are good friends who have been in the same seminary class for the last three years.

 Cami originally forgot the boutonniere at home, so I had to make a mad dash home so we could get the proper picture of her pinning it on him.  It turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of the night.

Sadly Cami proved no less forgetful with the corsage he gave her. Shortly before taking off for dinner she took it off to wash her hands and forgot it on a friend's counter, so she went flowerless for all of about 30 minutes of the night. 

It's too bad too, since the ribbon matched Cami's necklace perfectly! 

Here are all the young gentlemen in their group...

Graham, Matt, Cole, Frank, Sam, Jesse

and the beautiful young ladies!    I seriously don't think they could have been any more gorgeous!

Faerlan, Maddie, Katy, Cami, Hannah, Jordann

Here are a few more pictures that I liked from the night!

Mental note for next year...before taking a group photo like this I will make sure that all the girls have their corsages on the same wrist!

I love how this one of Katy and Frank turned out.  They are seriously adorable! 

I take partial credit for the cute chalkboard in this group photo!  I saw a prom picture online that I liked with the chalkboard, so Cami grabbed hers off her wall and made it look cute!  I personally liked the fun touch it added.  

And here is one last glimpse at a few more of my beautiful young women... 

(NOTE:  a few of these pictures were taken by Bro. Nielson)!

Kate and Mary Kate

Meagan and Sarah

Cami, Ashley, Katy

Maddie, Faerlan -- Maddie, Hannah

I only donated a paltry couple hours of hanging up balloons and that token glimpse I got at the efforts that went into this night, made me all the more grateful for all those who sacrificed and worked for so long to make this happen.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  

And thank goodness that it's another 6 years before it's our stake's turn to host again!   

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NOTE:  The pictures of the decorations at the beginning of this post were taken by either Bruce or Ellen. 

Also a few of the pictures of the young women and their dates were taken by Bruce, since they did not end up in the same group as Cami.