Special Day In The Temple

It Does Snow In Upstate New York
We had our first real snow storm last week.  We had about 6-9 inches over a 3 day period and actually had to delay going to the branch until Sunday morning because of lake effect snow at the branch.  It made our weekend very unproductive.  We were not able to visit anyone.  Until this week it has been the least snow here in many years.  We were 30 inches of snowfall behind the normal year.

Special Day In The Temple
This morning was a special day.  Normally the temple is closed Monday in the winter.  Today we had scheduled two families coming in around 9am to the baptistry.  We were able to do many family files there and had a great time with fathers and grandfathers doing the baptisms for their families.  A father baptized his wife and 3 children.  The grandfather baptized his 2 grandsons.

We also had an endowment session with about 33 people from a single ward in the district.  They were all soldiers and their wives from Ft Drum, east of Watertown.  Of course they were all young couples and there was a tremedous spirit with them.  Many of their spouses are currently deployed and most of them have been deployed in the Middle East multiple times.  It was an thrill and an honor to have them in the temple.

When the President schedules special sessions like this, it is the temple missionaries that staff the temple.  There were none of the local ordinance workers.  We have 6 temple missionary couples and it is just enough to do this kind of a day. None of us felt it was a sacrifice to lose our day off.  It was a priviledge to be there.  Much more fun than doing laundry.