Indenpendance Ward

Saturday was spent with many of our good friends at the Washington DC temple. We went with Sarah and Celeste and a van load with the Tabers, who came later

The Bishop had a party for the whole ward at his home.

We have a great mix in the Independence Ward. We are a center city ward with a combination of many students finishing up in med school, law. dental and others. Some have loved the city Brotherly love so much they decided to stay like the Choules. The Tabers came after retiring. We have many people who were born and raised here,,like ME! I continuing enjoy driving by Temple Hospital and think about how many parents lived a block and a half away from the hospital while my  dad tried to finish med school and my mom tried to keep her  pregnancy to full term ( without success).
The other blessing is watching the Philadelphia Temple. Everyday I watch the finishing touches.The open house will begin Aug 5, the day after we finish our mission!

Blizzard 2016

When I grew up here in Pennsylvania, I remember the snow days. especially when there was no school. This Blizzard is supposed to have been the 4  largest ever recorded! I remember one storm when we lived in Levittown, around 1958, there were 10 foot drifts and we played pioneers, like Little house on the Prairie. We had no electricity so mom and dad put the food outside in the snow. We cooked in the fireplace and walked around the house with flashlights! It was great fun! Then when we moved to Devon/Valley Forge we couldn't wait for the snow so we could go down the hill at the Park with the statue of George Washington, and of course we loved skating at Narrigans Pond.

Here in Philly, We found that they sled down the stairs at the Art Museum, you know, the one Rocky runs up to get in shape for his fights.

The Blizzard preparation happened on Thursday for us. We went to two grocery stores, we couldn't find a parking place and then couldn't find a cart. We only really needed TP because, as many of you know, we Mormons always have food storage and we still had ours from when the Pope came and they told us to be prepared. But, we shopped anyways for the necessities like..cheese pretzels,

 ( it is so hard to find the kind I like). frozen yogurt  (Jim ends up eating most of it ),Licorice ( I still haven't found the family pack with black and red, but I end up eating what ever we can find which isn't the best), all the marked down Christmas goodies at Aldies..anyways, we didn't want to die without having some of the necessary goodies.
 So, when the snow started Friday evening we were ready, And it was a blizzard all day Saturday.  I cooked for 3 hours, making soup, breads, cookies and broiled veggies. I worked out twice and we cleaned our Apt.! Later we got to go down to our neighbors and share a movie on their big screen TV! What a treat! A perfect snow day for us!
 Church was canceled (we were to have Ward conference with a lot of visitors ) so we had all of our neighbors come to our Apt. for a large FHE at 10am. Jim prepared a lesson ., What does with real intent mean? and I prepared the game ( of course ) Temple Trivia. The latest is 149 temples with our Philadelphia Temple's open house beginning Aug 5th. After church we took a walk to find the beautiful city of Brotherly Love covered in snow and sun.

Here is my favorite spot, the Schuylkill River kind of half way frozen over. I remember George Washington and how he had to survive outside in Valley Forge during the war, how he crossed the Delaware all in the name of Freedom for this Nation.

Today here we can worship many religions with out persecution. We are still trying to figure out how to be a kinder, more gentle nation. We are still trying to find a way to keep God in our pledge of Alligence , the way our founding Fathers originally intended. It is my prayer that we continue to grow together peacefully

Quick trip to the Big Apple

Our opportunity to go to New York City with our good friends, Bev and Jon, happened to be on the coldest day so far. Lucky for us, they lived in the big city for many years, so they were our tour guides. Since it was so cold, Jon would pull over, we would pop out of the car, run and take a photo AND then get back in with our private tour guide! 

We saw our lady Liberty from afar. But, that did not take away any of the joy of seeing her and our love of the French people.

My daughter Valerie and I had visited Ground Zero soon after all the destruction. This was the first time we got to see the trees, the buildings and tribute to all those who sacrificed.

Of Course Jim loved all the tall structures and all the construction that continues to happen in the big cities.

We drove in one way and through a tunnel on the way home. Here is a view of the city from afar, It was a cold but clear beautiful day.

Our longest stop was the New York City Temple which is right in the heart of the city. It also has a stake center with lovely art work. As many of you know, our temples are sacred places were we do not take photos. This art is in the stake center next to the Temple

Maybe next time we can catch a ride with the horse drawn carriage. We had a quick trip, With the very cold day, me with a sore knee and us just getting over colds, we felt warm and blessed to see the beauty of New York and share some special time inside the New York City temple. Like all of our Temples. as we entered we left behind the stress and noise of the city to worship and honor our covenants with our Savior

3 Miracles

 On the Subway in Philly to see the Mummers Day parade with our Mission President, President Anderson and his wife. This week we got to be with our fellow Senior Missionaries 3 times ( but those are not the miracles). Monday we did a downtown Philly visit to Macy's famous organ, Reading Terminal for lunch and the historic Independence Mall. Tuesday we got to go to the Washington DC temple and again saw our President

We have kept our Christmas "box-tree" up because we have hung all of our letters and cards on it.

Our third miracle came Wednesday, when we had planned to go to the NYC temple but because we hitched a ride with our friends on Tuesday to DC we decided to wait.. And, early Wednesday morning while I was swimming, I could tell that there was a new very large crane in the Temple lot. Now, let me explain, everyday we have been watching the temple building. Everyday we were praying we would be able to see the Angel Moroni. Every morning,very early I would go over to the site and talk to the workmen, trying to get as much information about the building. The miracle was, we were not planning on being in town on Wednesday, but because we had a last minute change of plans, I spent the entire day texting ward members, photographing the latest development and witnessing the beautiful Angel being lifted onto the East spire of the temple. Jim was gone most of
the day visiting with others. I was sad not to be able to share this with him but happy that so many of our neighbors and friends could learn more about the significance of the Angel Moroni.

Look in the middle of the photo and you can see the Angel going up!

Now we have our Angel  Moroni facing East to trumpet in when the Second Coming of Christ comes.

Now, you may ask, what were the first 2  miracles. Well, they may seem Good Will store with the  necessary long white skirt needed for our visit to the Temple! In my size- with a red tag which meant 1/2 off! Woo hoo!  Now that's a miracle.