AND OUR NEXT SPEAKER WILL BE...

Today, we picked up Eleanor and her little boy Sasha to take to church. As often happens with little ones, it took them a little longer to get ready. Consequently, we were a little late for church. But the meeting had not started yet. Just as we were about to sit down, the counselor in the Branch Presidency came up to Arnold and asked him to give a talk on family history and his ancestors. We decided later that they had not started the meeting on time because they didn’t have enough speakers. The meeting started immediately after that.

Arnold gave a great extemporaneous talk. (That part was written by JoAnn – lest you think that Arnold boasts about his great talk.) He tied in temple work, history of temples and ended with telling about his ancestors that were among the very last to have their temple work done in the Nauvoo Temple before the Saints went West.

Brigham Young had announced that the temple would be closed for good. They had to plead with him to leave the temple open long enough for them to go through. The temple was open all that night and Brigham Young worked around the clock as so many of the saints needed to have their temple work done before they left. What a blessing to be able to endure the crossing of the plains knowing that they had been sealed to each other for all eternity. The temple was then locked up and the Saints began their trek to Utah.


The Elders talking with one of the members after church. Because so many of the members are on long vacations during the summer and there are not enough teachers to teach all the classes, they have started having only 2 hours of church. They have sacrament meeting and then Sunday School/one hour of Primary. Everyone seems to want to stay longer and talk this way.