April on Temple Square

Hi everyone,
Just came home from "Music and the Spoken Word."  All of it was wonderful but I especially liked "The Sound of Music."  It was such a pretty rendition that induced peace and calmness.  The message from Lloyd Newell included "While music affects us very personally, it is also communal; it unites people in a way few things can.  As we sing or play together and listen together, we somehow connect on a deeper level."  I think that is very true.

What I see to the left when I come out the door
at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building
I think I love this picture most of all.
The Lord loves all His children and He wants them all to come unto Him

On Thursday I attended a lecture at the Assembly Hall presented by Joseph Fielding McConkie.  Brother McConkie spoke on the following topic: "Bruce R. McConkie; a Special Witness."  It was very interesting.  Brother McConkie displayed a great sense of humor as he talked about how it was for him being raise by this great man.  At the conclusion he fielded questions from the audience.  This part proved to be as interesting as the prepared talk.  Brother Joseph McConkie told of his being an LDS Chaplain serving in Vietnam during the war.  He was in charge of a Regional Conference for LDS service people from all over Vietnam.  It was held in a huge quonset hut, like a airplane hanger.  He was expecting Ezra Taft Benson to be the visiting General Authority.  He was at the podium conducting and speaking killing time waiting for Elder Benson.  On-be-known to Chaplain McConkie, at the last minute, Elder Benson decided not to go to Vietnam and gave his ticket and assignment to Elder McConkie.  When the big door opened at the far end of the Hanger there stood his father.  The Chaplain stood there watching his father walk through a sea of service men and women toward the stand.  He came up to where his son stood.  He gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek then he said for him to get on with the business of the conference.  Elder McConkie was first a father and then a general authority.  What a special story.

View I have when I look to the right when I exit my building
when I leave work at 4 O'clock

One day last week I took my camera to work so I could take some pictures on Temple Square.  It was in full bloom for Spring.  It was a sensory experience!  Looked and smelled wonderful.  I spent an hour taking pictures to show what I saw as I walked home every day.  I hope you enjoy my photography.  Temple square, comprised of 35 acres of ground, is seen by many as sacred ground.  Joseph F. McConkie said that he has traveled a lot in the world and had been to the Holy Land but he feels that Temple Square is the Holiest place to walk on Earth.

On Monday we had our Aloha Dinner where new missionaries are welcomed and departing missionaries are sung to.  It is a bitter sweet occasion.  It is a pot luck dinner and the tables were groaning under the weight of the tasty and appealing dishes brought by all the missionaries.  We are loosing a lot of Elders and their wives and senior sisters.  We even had entertainment of a group of Latter-day Saints that wrote and sang original songs of praise.  We all enjoyed it.

On Friday I had a wonderful surprise.  Wayne and Ilse Kuehne from Orem came to Salt Lake City to visit me.  They came to my work and got a tour of my space and met several of the other missionaries.  I took them to the chapel on the Mezzanine and showed them the presidents room.  It is a room with portraits of all 17 of the presidents of the church.  It was a special time being with these special people in my life.  For those of you reading this blog who don't know who the Kuehnes are I will explain.  In the 70s my husband, Don, and I with the four boys were stationed in Germany.  We lived in a very small housing area called Weierhof.  The Kuehnes moved there about a year after we did and they lived at the other end of our building.  Wayne was the non-denominational chaplain assigned to our little housing area chapel.  He spoke German as he had served a mission in Germany.  His wife, Ilse, is German.  We became good friends.  Wayne and Ilse are LDS.  Wayne donated some books to our little library and I checked out a book called "The Restored Church."  That is the book that led Don and I to request the missionaries on the first Sunday in January 1976. So now you understand why these people mean a lot to me.  I have been asked to train for a new job in my zone and I was feeling pretty stressed about it.  I called Wayne and asked him about giving me a blessing.  They came the next day!  He gave me the blessing in the Presidents' Room.  How cool is that?  They then took me to dinner in the Garden Restaurant on the 10th (top) floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  It is a beautiful space looking out over Temple Square and the Temple.  Good food and very stimulating conversation.  I am so very blessed for so many things.

Soon after I come from my building this Statue of a
mother and son always catches my eye and
makes me think of my wonderful sons.

The Assembly Hall with the beautiful flowering trees.

The Assembly Hall
I love the architecture of this building.

  

This is the entrance to the Family History Library.
People come from all over the world to research their family origins.
Lots of wonderful stories come from visits here.

 I will end my blog with is quote "Every family has ...valuable keepsakes.  These include genealogies, family stories, historical accounts, and traditions.  These eternal keepsakes also form a bridge between past and future and bind generations together in ways that no other keepsake can."  Dennis B.  Neuenschwander.

Please write out you stories!  They are your children and grandchildren's legacies.  Make a goal to start writing the stories one at a time.  I used to tell my clients that "...you can't do such and such all at once but you can do it one piece at a time."  Like you can't eat an elephant at one meal but you can over time - eat it one bite at a time.  WRITE YOUR STORIES AND DO IT NOW!