This week the Young Men and Young Women made a trip to the Philadelphia temple to do baptisms for the dead. The D.C. temple that's only 40 minutes away has been closed for a few years and won't reopen until November or December this year after we leave for China. So this was Thomas and Savannah's 2nd trip to the Philadelphia temple that's about 4 hours away. Briant and I decided to drive up separately so the kids could ride the bus up with their friends, and then we could stay as a family to see some historical sights while we were there, and then drive back as a family. Luckily when we dropped the kids off at the church, Thomas looked at his recommend and noticed that it was his old recommend; and luckily members of the Bishopric were going with the kids on the bus, so they were able to quickly reprint the new recommend before they left the church!
This was a special day for Rhea because this was actually her first time having a temple recommend and going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. The new church policy that started while we were in Latvia 2018, is that the kids will move out of Primary and join YW and YM in January of the year they are turning 12. So the kids can be 11 now as Rhea is for 8 months before she turns 12. It's awesome. Rhea has been so excited to become a YW after watching all the fun that Thomas and Savannah have had in the youth program. She has felt sad that she hasn't gotten to have weekly activities like they do, and she just has activity days/primary activities twice a month.
What made the day extra special, was that Thomas was the one that got to baptize her! I think that helped her to feel a little less nervous. Savannah mentioned that she was nervous that one of the smaller boys would baptize her, but it worked out that she got big, buff Ethan T. :)
Grandma B helped get names for the kids to take to the temple. It was wonderful for them to be able to do family names!
Thomas enjoyed being with Justin and Owen and Rhea enjoyed being with the other "newbie" YW friends Sylvia, Joey, and Kennedy.
Even doing baptisms in the temple, the boys went straight to their video games. ;)
After we gathered up our kids and they changed their clothes in the car, we found parking and explored Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
Independence Hall was completed in 1759 and is where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted.
It was soooo cool to be right there to imagine what it was like to have those important documents signed right there and be the meeting place for the Second Continental Congress and the Congressional Convention in the late 1770's.
Our "tour guide" was quite entertaining in that he rambled and rambled and was all over the place with the information he shared with such enthusiasm, that we walked out not being able to regurgitate anything he told us!
Our next stop was the Liberty Bell. The bell was used to summon legislators to their legislative sessions and to alert citizens to public meetings and proclamations. The story is that the bell got cracked when it was rung after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835. The bell became famous after a short story was written in 1847 that told of the bell being rung by an elderly man when he heard of the vote for independence by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.
At a gift shop on the way back to the parking, we passed Rocky and had to get a picture. We didn't make it to the "Rocky Steps" out front of the Museum of Art because time was running out. We tried to get Philly Cheese steak sandwiches before leaving Philly, but could NOT find parking anywhere! It was crazy busy, so we got Waze to get us to the freeway, hoping that we could get to somewhere for dinner outside the city on the way home since we had all worked up an appetite.
We stopped off in a small town and found this great sandwich shop that actually had gluten free bread for me! It was a nice way to fill our bellies, and we enjoyed listening to the audiobook of Dragon Watch by Brandon Mull on our way home while the kids played some games on their kindles. It was a great day!
Days after our trip, Rhea reviewed the names of the women that she got baptized for. She wants to hold on to all of their name cards for a souvenir of her first time to the temple. For now, she's keeping them in her journal. We know that those on the other side of the veil are anxiously waiting for their work to be done, so we're glad that we get to participate in this great work of gathering Israel from this side of the veil!
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