Last Tuesday, our PDay, we decided to go to two temples, the two farthest south, Payson and Provo. The Payson Temple just opened this summer and we've heard it's beautiful. We felt we better go to some of these temples that are farther away while the weather is still good. We may not want to be driving very far in the snow!
I had a friend in the second grade whose family had moved here from Denmark. They lived in Henderson for awhile, then moved to Payson. We stayed in touch, off and on, for awhile, but of course have completely lost touch now. I thought that if I found an older person in the Payson Temple who had lived there a long time, he or she might recognize the name and tell me something about them. Such a good idea, but it didn't work that way--no one was from Payson that I talked to!
Anyway, the temple is beautiful! The colors are so lovely. Outside, it's more of a sand color, not white white. Inside, it's cream and brown and yellow and gold, with beautiful stained glass with lots of leaves and the leaves can be seen in the carpet and the chair upholstery. The celestial room is gorgeous and has several pillars, which seems to almost make separate areas, although there aren't walls, just the feeling of them. The chandeliers are beautiful, and the flowers, and the people are so friendly. I really enjoyed it.
We went to Provo and were just going to do some initiatories. We figured they'd be busy. Wow, I'll say. They badly need the new temple they're supposed to get in January. Between all the kids at the Y, the missionaries at the MTC and the people who live there, they'll easily keep two temples humming. It took me two hours to do five!
As we were leaving, I asked Robert if we could go to the Burlington Coat Factory in Orem--the last one in the area and the one I hadn't hit yet. He agreed and fought the crazy traffic to get me there. So after weeks of looking, I finally have a "Utah winter coat!" It's not red, it's not camel or cream-colored, but it's not black! I figured I'll probably only wear it one winter and I better get it while my long-suffering husband is still speaking to me.
Wednesday evening, the 7th, Carol and Bill Bridger came in. Robert and Carol served together in the Nevada Las Vegas mission, many years ago, and both being from Texas, they had an immediate connection. They've stayed in touch all these years. Because Sherry and I had the missionaries over frequently, we knew and loved Carol and her companion, Sister C. Carol and Bill now live near Athens, Texas, where Robert's brother, Frank and his wife, Martha lived, and Bill is the bishop there. Many of the old-timers in their ward remember Frank and Martha. It's funny the connections we have in the church. Anyway, Carol and Bill have a daughter in Logan, so they flew into Salt Lake on Wed., stayed with us that night and then drove to Logan to spend a week with their daughter and her family.
We had a good week at the library. The people coming in have changed. We were told last summer that once the tourists slow down in the fall, we still have lots of people coming in, but it tends to be the more serious genealogists, and we've seen that. Some hours we still have 20 or 30 or more "first-timers" to the library come in, but maybe none of them stay on our floor--they are experienced and go on to the other floors or down to the International or British Isles floors. So we can spend more time, often, with those who do come onto our floor, and that's fun.
One of our speakers at church Sunday was Sister Hansen, who works with us at the library. I would guess her age to be close to 80 and this is possibly her fifth mission. I know she and her husband served in Nigeria in 2000 and she really tells interesting stories of her experiences--on her missions and serving at home in various callings. One that makes me laugh is when she told us that she was never afraid when they served in Nigeria--not even when they were robbed! They went back to their apartment and her husband had to leave for some reason. She said she put on her long, white nightgown and stood in front of her window with the fan on behind her. She moved her arms up and down and her gown blew around her. She said they never had any trouble again! She's quite the character.
That evening we had the ladies over who are on our committee to plan the Zone Christmas party. We thought we had a date--Dec. 4th, but it's a Friday night and the library is open until 9:00 on Fridays, so that would leave out several in our group and we don't want to do that. We're going to check on another date, but got the food pretty well planned and some of the entertainment. Hopefully it'll all come together.
Robert was working out front in the library and saw President Hayes. We knew they were in town for the new temple presidents' training, so he and Jill came in and we got to see them for a minute. They will be training at the library part of the time. We love seeing them.
On the 12th we had another Aloha dinner--we got over 30 new missionaries this month! But Carol and Bill came back from Logan and took us out to eat at the Red Iguana, so we enjoyed our evening with them.
Yesterday was our P-Day, but we had an interview at 8:45 with Pres. and Sister Larson of the mission presidency. He had missed the devotional Monday because he had a kidney stone, so we weren't sure he would be there, but he was and they're great people. We told them how much we love where we are serving and what we are doing and that we may want to extend through the summer, but we'll see how things are going when it gets a little closer.
Robert had promised me when we came out that he would buy a new suit when we got here, but he was still losing weight at that time, so he didn't want to buy one and then have to have it altered, so we put it off. I told him then, "This fall for sure." Fall is here, so we went to Mr. Mac's and found two suits. They'll be ready next Tuesday and I'll be so glad to see him in something new!
We went to the gift shop at the Church History Museum and I picked out my birthday present. I love it. It's a necklace with a slanted heart that opens up. We got a family tree that fits inside and 5 little birthstone children for each of the grand kids. So when you look on one side you see the tree, and on the other side you see the kids. I think it's great. I saw a picture I'd love to get before we go home. It's the Salt Lake Temple and has red and white flowers on each side of it. I think it would be great in our living room. I also saw a statue of Joseph kneeling in prayer and there's a panel of woods beside him. We'll see...
They're changing out the flowers everywhere. At the library Saturday they had kids digging up the coleus and impatiens, today they were just brown beds, but there were stacks of bulbs going in and many, many flats of pansies. We'll see what it is today.
Staples was running a great sale on flash drives, so we went and got two for two of our elders (it is out of their boundaries) and two for us--never thought I'd see the day that I could get excited about a flash drive! Then we bought groceries and then went to the post office--stood in line for over 20 minutes to buy stamps, but I wanted to go ahead and get some Christmas stamps while I had a chance to do it.
