Palmyra NY Temple

Kennon got to go help out at the temple for the first time last Friday night. A couple times a year they plan a trip for the youth. Since Kennon just turned 12 she was invited. They had extra room in the back of the van so I came along. Kennon is the only kid her age in the group and so she was happy to have me.

It is such a beautiful temple located near the Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith saw and spoke with our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. All Christians would love to visit the Holy Land in Jerusalem and walk where Jesus walked. And Mormons also want to visit the Holy Land in Western New York.

This is one of the reasons I was so excited that we chose to come to Buffalo NY for dental school. The interesting thing I have found since moving here though is how few people around Buffalo even know this story. A month after we moved in, Kennon invited a neighbor girl to a church activity and I was explaining to her mother that we were Mormons. She had heard the name but knew nothing about the Mormon's good or bad. So I told her about a spot nearby and what we believed occurred there less than 200 years ago. I told her that my family once drove thousands of miles when I was about Kennon's age so we could visit this spot.


Since then, I've always remembered what it felt like to be in a place that something so wonderful had occurred. It's a pretty incredible story. Many people don't believe in modern day miracles and visitations. It's easier to believe in the ancient miracles in the Bible but when it comes to our day, it sounds too crazy to be true.

But it is at the heart of Mormonism. You can't be a mormon if you don't believe it's true. And if it is -Wow! The whole world would want to know right? God still speaks to man.

Just a few years ago they built a temple there. A temple is a place that we go to ensure that our family relationships will go on after this life. That's why it was so wonderful to be there with Kennon, my daughter.



Also, We had a lot of screaming at our house last night at 8:04 p.m. Brent got an email that confirmed that he had passed his final NERB exam, a practical one he took this weekend with patients. He also finished up all his required CPU's last week so nothing left at all to do now but keep his patients happy and coast through the last month of dental school.

So many people (1/3 of his class) failed this last exam over really nit picky minor stuff. What a pain to take it again for all of them when they were so close to being done. It could of been us pretty easily Brent tells me. According to Brent the entire last four years, he is always one step away from failing everything. Somehow he did several things right though because he is soon to be a real DR. I am super happy for him and can't believe the whole thing is almost over. It flew so fast for me. Maybe because he did all the work.