Sure has been awhile since I have been on here, but this has been an awesome weekend. Starting Thursday, we went to Tammy Newbould and Juneho Rho's wedding at the Palmyra Temple. Dad and I went through a 9 AM endowment session before their sealing time at 11. As I was walking back from the Celestial Room, I met Sister Gardner and both of the Secrists. Lots of hugs exchanged and it felt like coming home to see such dear old friends. Tammy was absolutely radiant and looked much younger than she is. President Strassburg, former active patriarch in the Buffalo Stake is now a counselor in the temple presidency and he greeted everyone with a warm welcome and hugs also. He said he felt he was among family. He shared some nice and pertinent words with the bride and groom before sealing them. It was a beautiful ceremony. After a few pictures outside, we went over to the stake center where we were for over an hour where more pictures were taken. Then we went to the Macedon Family Restaurant (very nice place) for lunch. We all had a great time catching up on news with each other. Oh, and Bro and Sis Pace were there from Utah as well. They were like parents to Juneho. I think Nathan had helped to arrange some things for Juneho and Tammy. Nathan and Dad were the witnesses for the ceremony.
After lunch, we went to the Byron-Bergen library which is closing down (there is another small one in town) and the building will only be a community center. Now it is both a comm. ctr. and a library. Everything was half off and we bought 3 boxes of mostly videos, along with some CDs and some books. The books and 6 videos I took to the library the next day.
Friday evening we went to the Rho reception at the Lockport chapel in the rec hall. Again, it was beautiful. The Ignaszeks catered the meal and it was very good. They had pasta and sauce, chicken, roast beef, canned corn with baby carrots and a refreshing herb of some kind, rolls, and green salad. There was a nice wedding cake afterward. Sometime when I get my pictures off my camera, I'll try and remember to put them up, not that I took many.
Now for a bit of news. David Pace got married 2 years ago to a gal who had 3 kids. Then last year they had one of their own. They are very happy. Libby's last husband died of the cancer he had, so she is single again. Suzanne is married again after David left the scene. This man loves animals like she does and they are very happy together. The kids love him too, which is just great. Chris Secrist got married, I think last year, and David will be getting married this summer. The Secrists love both of the girls.
Tonight we went to stake conference. Brother Sherwood (he and his family were in Pageant for 12 years in a row during the times we were in it) is now President Sherwood of the Palmyra Temple. He and his wife both were among the speakers tonight. The last story he told was just beautiful. It seems he and his wife had served a mission in Nigeria before coming home and becoming involved with the temple here in Palmyra. Every 6 months they went to Ghana for r&r he said. Actually they were there for training from the area authority 70. While there they heard this story and met the people involved. It seems a while ago, the missionaries taught this family of husband, 2 wives, which is very common in West Africa he said, and all their children. One day, they came to see the GA and the husband asked which wife he should divorce so they could all be baptized as they knew the church was true. (Sort of like the King Solomon story, huh?) The GA said the church is family oriented, so do not get divorced. Rather, go to church every Sunday with your whole family and the Lord would bless them in his due time. They did exactly as he said. Well, in due time, one of the wives got pregnant, and as happens too frequently in West Africa, he said, when she had the baby, she died. A short time after that, the husband, remaining wife and all the kids old enough were baptized. That's not the end of the story though, thank goodness. When the Ghana temple was dedicated, that family went and were all sealed after the dedication. Then they went through again, this time, that wife was proxy for the departed one and the appropriate kids were sealed to her and her husband. Isn't that the coolest story? That was a goose bumps and tears type of thing.
After the meeting was over, we spoke with Pres. Sherwood. He remembered us from Pageant and thanked us for being there for his kids. I can't remember if we had any of his in our workshops or not. Lori and Wendy, you might remember since I think I had you both in my groups. Then we spoke with Bro. & Sis. Argetsinger. I told her how much her pageant stories impressed our family. She thanked me for sharing and said to say hello to all of you. Oh, also Sis. Secrist and Sis. Pace said to say hello to you all too.