renewal

Last week we attended four zone conferences. We love zone conferences since we get to see all our missionaries and get our batteries re-charged by the inspiring words of our mission president, his wife, and others. Each morning, while Elder Ellis (Carl, Grandpa, or Dad) helped check the mission cars, I was setting up my missionary "shop", with all the clothes missionaries going home give to us. I don't know how we packed it all in our car.   The missionaries were excited to select clothes they needed (wish I had taken a photo of that).  We managed to get rid of 2/3 of everything. Most of the  leftovers went to Goodwill today.

And here is part of a  talk by our awesome mission president, Jack Christianson ---

After one zone conference, we stopped off at the Sacred Grove to enjoy the summer beauty.

The beauty continues as we walk out of the grove.

Walking down the path towards the Joseph Smith Log home, we see the beautiful Palmyra Temple.

Summer is is full bloom at the Smith log home.

We finished up the day at the Hill Cumorah, where we hiked through the ancient part of the forest to the 240 year old sugar maple tree (a "witness" tree) that our mission president calls the "Moroni" tree.

We feel so blessed to be serving a mission in such a beautiful place that has such significance in our church's history -- the cradle of the Restoration. There is a very strong spirit in these special places. Our love  for the Savior grows even stronger with each day. This is a wonderful opportunity to be of service to show gratitude in a small way for all He has blessed us with.

Moroni tree and I

(And where else would I want to do a photo shoot with a tree?)