Friends Visit the Temple

 It was so fun and such a pleasant surprise to see friends from Utah here in Missouri!

The first friends that came were Brent and Natalie White from Plain City, unfortunately I didn't think to get a picture.  Sorry!

Brandon Peterson, Kit & Jerry, Mark Peterson
(Brandon is Mark's son, they both live in Plain City)
Mark and Jerry served in the YSA Bishopric together.

Kit & Jerry, Aaron and Candice Parr
 (Candice and Kit were VT companions when we served in the YSA Ward)
They were on their way to Nauvoo, so we were able
 to have them spend the night at our apartment.
It was so fun for us!

Jensen, Corinne, Briggs, Dean & Jack Parker
They drove from Lincoln, Nebraska, the very last day of the open House.
It was so great to see them!

Elder and Sister Jensen & Sister and President Eddy

President and Sister Eddy are serving in the Temple Presidency.  Their home is in
Utah.  The came to Missouri the middle of March and will serve for a year.  They live in our apartment complex!  They are such great people, we are so glad they are here!  They happened to come over to the open house while Corinne and Dean were here.  President and Sister Eddy asked if we had seen the bride's room while in the temple.  Neither of us had.  So they took Corinne and I and two sister missionaries on a private tour of the temple just so we could see the bride's room!

Elder Hansen & Elder Jensen
In 1970 these two served as assistants to the President together!

The Hansen's live in Denver, Colorado. 

Joseph Smith Family Gathering

During the second week of the Open House two special meetings for the descendants of Joseph Smith was held, one on Friday and one on Saturday.  About fifty family members attended each one.  A few that were there are already members of the church, but most were not.  Both meetings were so special.  The temple president, President Hardy, the mission president, President Keyes and Michael Kennedy (first descendent of JS to hold the priesthood), all spoke and bore testimony of Joseph Smith.  Both meetings were so spiritual.  Imagine listening to these great men telling Joseph's descendent that he truly was a prophet, and that he restored the gospel of Jesus Christ to this earth in it's fullness.

Jerry did a lot of preparation for these special meetings.  He was able to "Pre Set" the film on temples the descendants all watched before their tour of the Temple, which also gave him an opportunity to bear his testimony to all 100 descendants of the greatness of their Great Grandfather. Once in a life time experience.

President Keyes and Sister Keyes, Ivor Jones and Gracia Jones
(Gracia was the first family member to be baptized.
She has written several books about Joseph and Emma)
A special meeting was held after the Joseph and Emma meeting,
 the picture below was presented to Dan Larsen,
 he was very surprised and very touched.

A painting of Dan Larsen portraying Joseph Smith Sr.
 at a Smith family gathering held in the Kirtland Temple.

Dan and RoseMarie Larsen admiring the painting!
Dan is the Great grandson of Joseph and Emma Smith

This picture was sent from St. George, Utah by Julie Rogers, the artist.  The paint was still slightly wet!   It hasn't been finished, but they wanted to have it there for the Joseph and Emma Smith meetings.  It was huge! And very beautiful!
Joseph is at the far left, Joseph Smith the III is next, then Emma.  Their posterity stands to the right.  Joseph Smith the III was the last of Joseph and Emma's children to die in 1914.   Joseph and Emma are welcoming him "home".   The artist will fill in the faces of other descendants behind Emma, going up to the left of the picture.  Hope wee can see it when it is finished! 

This is the shipping crate the picture arrived in.
 Elder Wells picked it up for us and delivered it to the Stake Center.
  It was not an easy task!
We sat it on the floor of the chapel to the right of the pulpit so it could be easily seen.  

Beautiful Temple

           Just some different pictures of the beautiful Kansas City Missouri Temple

The weeks go on . . .

We had such an amazing time at the Open House.  Lots of members came through of course.  But lots of friends of other faiths too.  There was an average of 5,000 people a day.  People lined up to come in, hopefully they came at their appointed time.  Seven rooms were available, some holding 30, others 60.  They would fill up a room, a sister missionary would come in and "pre set",  she welcomed them and introduced herself and told them they would see a short film about our temples before the tour began.  After the tour they would come back into the cultural hall for punch and cookies.  They were asked to fill out a comment card when they returned from the temple.  The sister would then turn the time over to the "host", who started the film and took them through the temple. When everything worked right, this happened every 4 minutes in a different room.  The film took 12 minutes.  Then they would walk to the temple and a new group would come into the room.  

This is a great panorama the church brings in, it explains the restoration really well.
Lots of people spent time reading each caption.  One gentleman was a WW II vet, he was copying
word for word the picture of the Savior.  He told me he wanted to "prove" to his friends that we believed in Christ! 

After the first week, the fresh flowers were replaced with artificial flowers . . .
(One sweet old lady asked me what the religious significance of the bird cage was!)

The walk to the temple.  The people here are some friends we have made that live in Liberty,
 Jerry was able to go on the tour with them.

Answering questions and visiting!

This was probably the busiest day.  Two buses pulled up, I don't think they had reservations ,
but it all worked out well.  They didn't have to wait much more than a half hour. 

Getting the "booties"

A little "grandma" fix!

Open to the Public

The Open House for the general public really started on the 7th of April, at 4:00 in the afternoon.  All of the special appetizers were put away and the SNICKERDOODLES came out!  For the next three weeks every day, all day, this is what we saw . . . .  snickerdoodles, punch and water.

 People began lining up to see the temple and the line never seemed to stop!

The above pictures were a taken by Sister Satterthwaite (my camera).
Pretty great! 

St Louis Temple

March 2, 2012

We got up early this morning and drove to St. Louis so we could go to the temple.  It is out of our mission, so we had to get  permission from President Keyes.  We were hoping he would let us go, it probably will be our last chance to leave the mission.  Once our temple is dedicated, we won’t have a reason to leave!

We got there in time to do the 3:00 session.  We were a little late, so we had to run in!  The Brother at the recommend desk said, “don’t worry, you will be fine, we won’t start without you, we need you!”  Turns out there were only 4 of us in the session!  They really did need us!

We had a nice Thai dinner, went to another session Saturday morning, then drove back to KC.

It was windy and cold!

The First Week

It was fun to learn how the church runs and be a part of an Open House for a new temple.  The first few days are reserved for special invited guests.  The very first day,  people who had actually helped with the construction of the temple and their families were invited.  People who live in neighborhoods near the temple were also invited.  It started at 4:00 and lasted until 9:00.  The next two days were filled with important people from the community, our stake President works for the Attorney General - so many state officials came!  Over 3,000 people were invited.  All of those who might be influential in business areas, government officials and leaders from other faiths.  On Friday night the governers from Kansas and Missouri were invited to a special dinner held in the cultural hall.  There were at least 50 or more in attendance that night.  The tables were set in fine China, the dinner was roast pork, scalloped potatoes, and spinach salad.  Fresh flowers on the table . . . .
The refreshments for the rest of the special guests were all catered and quite lovely!  All kinds of yummy appetizers!  

The singing Sisters!
Sister Kavea, Sister Payne, and Sister Van Camp,
Elder Jensen and Sister Hall

Part of the time, we had to stay in another room, no missionaries invited!
The sisters kept busy studying or singing.
(Sister Wright and Sister Copeland)

Kanas City Missouri Temple Open House

April 4, 2012

The Open House begins!  April 4th -7th will be for special invited guests only.  Then the afternoon of the 7th, the public will be able to attend.  The sister missionaries will be the hosts in the cultural hall after people have their tour of the temple.  The sisters will answer any questions people may have and ask them to fill out a commit card.

All of the sister missionaries met today at 1:30 for a special meeting with Elder Walker who flew in from SLC.  He is in the first Quorum of the seventy, and the executive secretary of the temple committee.  Some of the sisters drove 5 hours to be here.  Elder Walker trained the sisters for about an hour.  Then we walked to the temple and had a special temple tour.  The sisters were thrilled!  Most of the missionaries had to return to their assignments.  Those that drove the furthest stayed.  The Open House was starting at 4:00.  They were going to do the first shift, spend the night, do the morning shift, then drive home around noon.  The plan was to have the sisters that had to drive a distance come once a week, spend the night, then return to their area.  The rest of the sisters rotated a shift every other day.  We have 42 sister missionaries  in our mission.

While at the temple we were able to gather all of the sisters together for a group photo.  This is a really rare opportunity!  That hardly ever happens in a mission.  They loved seeing each other!  Old companions were hugging.  Yet there were some who had never even met each other.  

 President and Sister Keyes are in the front, a few senior couples who helped with the driving,  Jerry and I on the end.
 The Sister missionaries are so great!  We love every one of them! 

The visiting 

President Keyes' message

Elder Jensen getting things ready . . . . .

 Waiting for Elder Walker!

 

Joseph and Emma Meeting

We have been able to help with the special Joseph and Emma meetings to be held on the 13th and 14th of April.  It has been such a privilege and blessing to be a part of this.  We had a chance to deliver a special necklace along with the packet to one of the granddaughters.  It comes in a wooden box with Emma's picture on the front.  The chain has 1,300 links, each representing a descendent.  The gold ovals have Joseph's name on one and Emma's on the other.  The ring is a replica of Joseph's wedding ring.

The Temple is Almost Ready!

March 10, 2012

I went to a Stake Relief Society Meeting today.  The chapel was packed!  We had a couple of nice talks on service, then we divided up, went to separate rooms and worked on a few service projects.  They had a quick "eat when you are ready" lunch of Chicken Salad sandwiches and fruit, then I was out the door!  It was perfect!

   Relief Society is the same anywhere in the world!

When I left the Relief Society meeting there were two huge moving trucks parked on the road in front of the temple.  They had just finished delivering all of the furniture!  

Yesterday all of the missionaries invitations for the Open House arrived at the Mission Office.  All 11,000 of them!  We picked them up and divided them by areas.  They will be passed out at the Zone Conference on the 12th and 13th.   The Open House will begin on April 4th for special invited guests, then it will open to the public on the afternoon of the 7th. 

T. Jay and Crystal Visit Missouri

March 10, 2012

                                                 Sixty-six hours with T. Jay and Crystal

T. Jay and Crystal in front of the Pony Express Monument in St. Joseph Missouri

Adam-ondi-Ahman

Elder Jensen and T.Jay on Preacher's Rock

A touch of spring!

We have been to Adam-ondi-Ahman several times, this was the first time we had seen any skeletons !

Jamesport is 13 miles East of Adam-ondi-Ahman.  There is a lot of Amish culture here.
 We were driving right behind this carriage and buggy.

A "well to do" Amish home?

Monday must be laundry day here in Jamesport! We saw a couple of homes with the same
 blue, purple, gray and black clothes on the line. 

Far West

Elvis and a wannabe Elvis!

6 women having a chat and a cup of coffee

On the way home from the church sites we stopped in Hamilton for lunch.   Hamilton is the birth place of JC Penny.  We had our choice of eating at Subway or trying a place called "Past Times".  We decided to take a chance on Past Times.  We loved it!  Had a great hamburger while listening to 60's music.  The table behind Crystal had 6 men chatting and having a cup of coffee.   We think they might have been related to the above 6 women!

We had to have an early dinner at the famous Arthur Bryant's.
 At night, they have guards watching the parking lot.  It's in a scary parts of town, but the food is great!

  Truman,  in front of the Truman street sign.  I like the sign in the background "Drugs For Less"!

Elder Jensen, Sisters Wright and T. Jay
Visitors Center

Liberty Jail

 T. Jay and Crystal were coming to visit!  We were so excited!  We had everything ready and were just waiting to pick them up from the airport when they called and said their flight had been delayed.  By the time they flew out of Austin, they had missed the connecting flight to Missouri and had to spend the night in Dallas.  We were really disappointed!  They were only going to be here from Saturday night to Wednesday morning.  So we lost one night of visiting.  We picked them up Sunday morning, then drove to St. Joseph.  We showed them a few sights then came back to the apartment to unload and let them rest a little.  When they planned the trip, our calendar was pretty clear, then a special Zone Conference was called with a visiting authority for Tuesday.  So, we spent Monday seeing Adam-ondi-Ahman, Jamesport, and Far West.  We went to the Zone Conference Tuesday morning.  Jerry was asked to be President Keyes' Executive secretary.  That was a completely unexpected surprise.  We'll have to figure out what that means!  We left T. Jay and Crystal to see the sights by themselves.  They went to the Truman Museum and a few of the church sites there in Independence.  We did a little "baby" shopping, then went home and had dinner.  They left really early Wednesday morning.  It was such a fast trip.  We were so happy to see them though.  I guess we have been a little homesick . . . .