Logan Temple Trip With Our Zone

Last Friday, we had a "just for fun" temple trip to the Logan Temple.  (Every other month, we organize a zone temple trip.  Because the Logan Temple is 1 1/2 hours away, we put together this trip in the "off" month just in case others wanted to join us.)  I had never done a session there despite living in Utah for 24 years so it was on our personal list.  We had 14 other missionaries who joined us including the Elders and Sister Thatcher are from Logan area.  They loved having us in "their" temple.

Elder and Sister Decker who are full-time missionaries but live in their home in Arizona are here in Salt Lake this month and were able to join us.  As they were waiting, they saw an old friend from their first mission to Dominion Republic.  That was a sweet time for them.  You never know who you might meet at the temple.

The three of us brought family names to do--Gary was able to do the endowment for Robert White--his  (8) greats grandfather from Scotland born in the 1600s.  Because we know the importance of family relationships and how all of God's children need to the chance to make covenants with Him, it is always great to be in the temple and participate in the temple work.  However, it is extra sweet when it is a direct line relative--and a bonus when they have an easy name to pronounce (although I am sure that Robert White's accent was completely different from Gary's). 

All of us except Sister Judkins and her husband who
headed out for a lunch for two
We had some cute Young Men take the photos for us.

Looking up the front...

The front plaza

Elder Elder taking pictures of Sister and Elder Decker and Sister Cisneros...(Sister Elder is under the umbrella.)

Now they switched......Elder Decker is taking the photo.....

Elder Elder sent me these photos which show more of the temple:

And here is a standard photo of the temple.  It is one of the "Pioneer" style temples built back in the late 1800s.  It was dedicated in 1884.

We drove down in two separate cars--I drove the mission van with Jena and four other sister missionaries.  Gary ended up driving our car up.  Two people dropped out at the last minute which required a bit of swapping things around.  Originally, Gary was going to drive the van and I was taking three sisters in our car.  Thursday night we had to rearrange things so I had to head to the mission office at 8:00 am to take a copy of my drivers license and sign some paperwork to give me permission to drive.  We had a nice beautiful drive up and back and Gary reported that he enjoyed his solo drive as well.

After the temple, we headed west in the valley to Sister Thatcher's family home.  It sits on 120 acres of farm land owned by her brothers, her, and her children.  It was a beautiful setting with lots of trees and a great "party/family" outside area.  She provided a great lunch and we got to meet some of her children and grandchildren.

Sister McClure heading across the bridge to the eating area

The trees were so pretty.  Many of the trees were planted by her grandparents who homesteaded the area so they are over a hundred years old.

Covered area of the deck

Lunch buffet---thanks to Sister Thatcher and her daughters....

Sister Thatcher is standing to Gary's right in this picture.  She is 78 years old and a widow.  She started serving her mission this past spring.  I should have gotten a better picture of her and one with her daughters but I was busy with conversation and tree watching.

As we were leaving, I said to her daughter, Kim:  Thanks for sharing your mom with us.  She quickly replied, "Thanks for loving her."  Sister Thatcher is easy to love and we are so glad to know her.  She has a life time of stories and service to share with us and she draws people to her.  Thanks for lunch, Sister Thatcher and thanks for coming on a mission to the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission.

What a great day and a fun start to our long Pioneer Day weekend.