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Oops.....it looks like I put this in on Dad's Profile.....this is actually Mom's post....Love you!!!


My dearest ones!!
My how the weeks are flying by!!  I can't believe we have been here a month and a half of our 6 1/2 months away from home!!  We are busy and happy!!

This was the week of the flowers!  One of our sweet temple missionary couples had the additional calling of putting in the flower beds and they asked all of the senior missionaries to help them get them in before the predicted rainstorm on Thursday.  The 6-month missionaries work at the temple on Monday so we helped on Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was hard work....especially for the Rays....but the flowers were finished about 3:00 on Wednesday...and the rain came on Thursday.  The beds are beautiful!  Here are two of the ones that Dad and I helped to plant.











I have thought a lot this week about family history.  What amazes me so much here in our little Palmyra Temple is that it is almost completely self-sustaining with family file names.  They have a whole credenza with files for each ward and branch in the temple district - three full drawers - and a lot of the names have been released to the temple for anyone to do.  They actually use these names instead of temple names in all areas of the temple.  Occasionally they run out but not often.  They, of course, do fewer names here than our large Utah temples but they also only have 5 stakes and 1 district supporting their temple.  Dad and I are trying to find more names and the Lord is leading us to some.  We have been able to send some to a couple of grandkids to do the baptisms and will send more to the others as we find them.  I did work for one of Dad's how-ever-many-greats grandmother on Friday and Saturday.  She had been lost....the baptism and confirmation had been done but the rest of the work had not.  I felt her close to me and it was a very sweet experience.  It is such a joy to work in the temple.  It humbles me greatly to realize that my service is a blessing to two people, the patron and the person they are doing the work for....and along the way, Heavenly Father blesses me as well.

In addition to flowers we had a fun FHE on Monday around the campfire....and yes....we had s'mores! It was on family history also.  












We spent a lot of the week working on the talks and the lessons for Sunday in addition to working in the temple.  I gave a talk using President Nelson's talk about bringing the power of Jesus Christ into our lives.  Because we have such a small branch there is a LOT of time for the talks.  I gave a 15-minute talk and Dad had 25 minutes to fill.  He did a great job!  We had our first Sunday School lesson with one of two youth in the branch...she is the only active one.  She is 13 and was attending Primary with her sister but now she has her own class.  She was thrilled!!  It was fun to get to know her and help her feel comfortable enough to ask questions.  We were talking about James 1:5 and prophets and finally, at the end of the lesson, she asked the question:  "How can we know that Heavenly Father is answering our prayers?"  As background, her family have been members of the church for just 3 months!!  I talked to her just a bit and told her that we would definitely talk about that next week.  What a sweetie!!  Her mom told us she was worried about her but if she is asking questions like that, she is on the right road. Our other girl is an inactive 17-year-old who is only there, if she comes at all, every other week. Work to do!!  Today we also had a baptism before church and then a "Linger Longer" after church.  Practically the whole branch came to the baptism and then stayed afterwards. We were all there for about 5 hours and it seemed like no one wanted to leave.  What a sweet branch we have!!

Zion's Camp was invaded on Friday by an army of Young adults, ages 18-30!!  There were here for the annual "Gathering at the Grove" event.  They camped all around and seemed like a great bunch of kids, even though they stayed up till the wee hours of the morning.  What a great opportunity for all those kids to meet together with other kids their age who share the same standards. The troops left on Sunday afternoon.










Well, my dearest children and grandchildren, we are going to call it a day...and a week....and start a new one tomorrow.  I love you so much and miss you!!!  Remember that Heavenly Father knows you and loves you dearly.  You are His precious son or daughter.
Grandma/Mom/Sandy



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