New York, here we come!

 New York, here we come!
Well, actually, Connecticut!  After preparing our hearts and minds to be living and working with inner New York City people, we were contacted by the mission office and told that we had been assigned to work in the Stamford CT Ward.  When we looked it up online, we were surprised to learn that Stamford is one of the safest and wealthiest cities in the country!  We had to do a quick paradigm shift!  While at the MTC, we called the NYNYC mission office and found out our apartment is actually in Norwalk, Connecticut, which is 50-60 minutes north of NYC.  Our MTC training finished at noon on Friday, March 18, so we put our new address into Google Maps and off we went!  Well, not exactly that smoothly - first we had to load all our luggage and boxes into our little car (we didn't want to try driving and parking a big SUV on the streets of New York).  We had to chuckle because all the other senior couples were having the same problem!  After meeting Alan for lunch in Lehi, we followed Neil's plan to just get on I-80 and head east for 2500 miles; however, no trip is without its problems, and this time it was our phones - they both stopped sending and receiving calls!  We were delayed almost a full day as we worked to resolve the problem and finally had to buy two new phones.  But the rest of the trip was beautiful, and we got to stop and visit some inspiring spots.

After church in Lincoln, Nebraska, we drove up to Winter Quarters, now part of Omaha.  There is a beautiful interactive visitor's center there just down the hill from the temple and the pioneer cemetery.

We loved visiting Kirtland, where so many revelations for the restoration of the Church took place.  We went to the upstairs room in Newell K. Whitney's store, which is still the original building.  We also saw the sawmill and ashery (now there's an interesting story!) and visitor's center.  The Kirtland Temple was still closed due to COVID, but we were fortunate to arrive at the same time as another family who had arranged an outside tour with the groundskeeper, and they let us tag along - we even got to take a peek at the interior.  That building still has a very sacred spirit about it.

From there, we drove to Niagra Falls and decided to take a walk down to see the falls lit up at night.  We were really glad we did because it was raining in the morning and when we tried to drive over to the Canadian side, they wouldn't let us cross the border without a current negative COVID test - which took 30 minutes and cost $200.

Instead, we drove to Palmyra, hiked up to the Hill Cumorah monument, toured the Joseph Smith, Sr., log home, and spent some time in the Sacred Grove - beautiful and peaceful even with no leaves on the trees.  We call this grove "sacred" because it is the place where Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy prophet, Joseph Smith - truly hallowed ground.

Our last stop was the Hartford Connecticut Temple, where we were able to do  sealings for some of my ancestors, including one couple and their eight children. I could feel their joy as their family was united eternally. And, because it's such a small world in the Church, the sealer and his wife were well aquainted with Tom and Janet Weed in our home ward!  Tomorrow, we officially enter our field of service...