Last Half of April 2014

We have so many spiritual experiences in the Temple we can’t even start to list them here.

On the 19th as we were coming out of the temple we ran into L. Tom Perry and his wife. We were able to shake their hands and talk a bit. Then we went straight to the Visitor’s Center for the Mormon Choir of Washington DC. There we heard from Elder Perry. He gave a very moving talk.

Almost every Sunday the Sac. Meeting talks are by missionaries going home. They are very spiritual and uplifting meetings. This month the Wallentines spoke. They are the parents of Jeff Hill’s wife. They have really helped us get into the swing of the temple. They are great people.

One evening after church we had a building cook-out.

On April 28th we went on an excursion to the Amish country. Most of the missionaries here loaded onto a tour bus early and we traveled to the Lancaster Pennsylvania area.

We had a private tour guide and were able to actually go into one of the homes of an Amish family. (Actually I think it might have been a Mennonite home.) It was like stepping back in time.

They don’t use public electricity so everything is powered by batteries, small generators or natural gas.

We saw farmers plowing with horses,

We didn't get any photos of them in their buggies but we did get a few of buggies in a garage.

We also saw lots of hand quilted quilts. 

That’s their specialty.

But we soon learned that they are very commercialized. The next place the guide took us was the store of the lady who’s house we went to.

They don’t use motorized vehicles that use gasoline so it was interesting when the lady climbed onto one of these little scooter and took off down the road in front of us.

Then we went to another store where they had these really fancy clocks that play music, chime and rotate around and do all kinds of fancy stuff. Sandra really wants one. We’ll see if we can afford one next year when the group goes again.

We stopped by a local smorgasbord for lunch.

We think it is the largest one we have ever been to.

The people do not like their pictures taken so we weren’t able to photograph many of them. Rich got some pretty good movie footage (on the sly) of some girls playing and riding their scooters.

Sorry about being so slow to update this blog. We are just too busy. But it is a GREAT busy and we are loving it!!

First Half of April 2014

Started off the month with General Conference. We watched the Saturday sessions with our neighbors. Then Rich decided to attend the Priesthood session at the Visitors’ Center. The spirit there was really great. It was like a mini Conference Center. So the next day (Sunday) we both attended at the V.C.

On Monday April 7th we went to Mount Vernon with some of the other couples. It was a rainy day so we spent most of the day in the Orientation Center. We decided to purchase yearly passes so we can go back when the weather is better.

We toured George Washington’s home and that was really interesting.

In the Orientation Center we learned about Washington’s life from start to end. We learned that they have use modern imaging technology to reconstruct what George really looked like. That was really fascinating.

We didn’t take a lot of photos as the weather was so bad.

Not a lot to tell about the week in the Temple. We always have some spiritual experiences but then we forget to write them down.

This was the week the cherry blossoms were out in full bloom. We decided not to go down to the festival as we figured the traffic would be terrible. Turns out that was a good (and bad) decision. The couples that did go down on Saturday got caught in traffic and really could not see much.

We decided to go to an area that is also famous for the cherry blossoms. They call it the Kennedy Drive area.

We also saw some other very colorful trees and shrubs. Not sure what they are.

On Monday we decided to go down to the “Mall” and see if there were any cherry blossoms. They were really at the end of their life. We were surprised that they only last a few days. We walked around the Tidal Basin and the blossoms were falling like snow.

The colors were not as bright as we had expected. I think we may have missed the peak.

We will try again next year to see if we can get better photos.

We visited the Jefferson, the Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Martin Luther King memorials.

We took the Metro in to D.C. again and had a rather interesting experience. On the way in the train stopped and everyone had to get off and wait for the next train. That made it standing room only. So when it came time to get off everyone was fighting their way to the door. We were trying to be polite and wait our turn and one of the missionaries didn’t quite get off before the door closed. So he pried the door open and tried to squeeze through. The door then closed on his foot and we thought he was going to be drug to his death. Thankfully someone came up behind him and pried the door open again and he was able to get his foot out. These Metro trains are kind of scary. 

Then on the way back home we got on the Metro going the wrong way. Once we got going the right way and at our stop, one of the missionaries was being kind and went to wake a passenger thinking she may have missed her stop. In the process the 3 brothers didn’t make it off at all. So there the 3 were looking out the window at the Sisters standing on the platform as the train pulled away. They had to ride clear to the end of the line and wait for the train to come back.

We are getting pretty comfortable with getting around in this large temple. And the Missionaries are GREAT!! We have formed some friendships that will last forever. And we love working in the temple every day. We pretty much stay on a spiritual high all the time.