Palmyra

Last Saturday was our Stake temple trip to Palmyra. It was a really long but really nice day- the most peace I've had in awhile. I even survived 7 hours (roundtrip) in a car with my mother...with no radio! We had a nice day together. It's hard to get up there but definitely worth it. Here's some photos of the day:

I hear they have nice gardens here:

Me in front of the temple- the flowers were starting to bloom!

And the sign:

Lovely tulips!

After our session we went to "downtown" Palmyra (it's a little town!) and went to the church bookstore and got some good Chinese food at a hole-in-the-wall place across the street from the bookstore...not expecting that in Palmyra! A man eating at the restaurant struck up a nice conversation with us, saying that he had taken lessons from the missionaries in the past and even attended sacrament meeting. I hope he goes back.

Two doors down from the bookstore is the Grandin Press, where the Book of Mormon was first published. I've only seen the outside, it hasn't been open when we've been there:

Palmyra has a cute downtown:

Okay, so now for my funny story:

When you enter the temple, you have to check in since they have a list of names of people that are expected since it is such a small temple. After we told the lady our names, another temple worker came up to me and asked if I was the bride!!!

It was a little mortifying to have to say "Umm..no" to that question. I realize that I brought that upon myself since I was carrying a white garment bag (my dress gets wrinkled easily), but still! I was not the only one to come in with a white garment bag, but the other ladies were older so they assumed it was me. Apparently the one day I show up with a white garment bag is the one day that a wedding was taking place. I don't imagine that many couples get married at Palmyra because it is so very, very small. I'm generally not a claustrophobic person but I was a bit unnerved that day with all those people crammed into itty bitty spaces.

Hopefully one day I can answer "Yes" to that question, but not now. I am trying to be positive about that experience, instead of being depressed that I had to say no, I am going to be happy that someone thought I could be a bride.

I'll file this away in my "Funny Stories" file...

Oh and on a random note, we got this book from the church bookstore and it's very good:



It's about the Beans, who were called on a mission in the early 1900's to settle in Palmyra, buy up the church landmarks (farmers owned the Hill Cumorah) and build up the kingdom. They experienced extreme persecution for many years but eventually were welcomed and cherished in the area. Their five year mission became 25 years in the area and they were instrumental in bringing the church back in this area- no Mormons had lived in Palmyra for 80 years. The book is written by their grandson. Anyhow, I really recommend it- they're really a wonderful example of sacrifice and faith. I didn't know much about the church getting re-established in Palmyra and it was really interesting to learn about.