Manhattan Temple Trip

The senior missionary activity for May was a trip to the Manhattan Temple.  Sister Wrigley did a wonderful job of arranging for the Mega Bus to get us there and back, scheduling our temple session, and arranging for our Big Bus tour of Manhattan.  There were 14 of us who left from Philadelphia and another couple joined us from Pottsville, PA.

I have a whole new concept of New Jersey.  Most of what I have seen is rather nice country views.  We passed through Burlington County, which is where the Beck family comes from.

 We are about to enter the Lincoln Tunnel.

 After this, I won't be as apt to complain about traffic in Philly anymore, 

or anywhere else for that matter.

 The Manhattan Temple view from the street.

The temple is small, but beautiful.  It occupies only the upper floors.

I found a quote about the temple construction by Elder David R. Stone of the Seventy:

"My involvement with the building of the Manhattan Temple gave me the opportunity to be in the temple quite often prior to the dedication.  It was wonderful to sit in the celestial room and be there in perfect silence, without a single sound to be heard coming from the busy New York streets outside.  How was it possible that the temple could be so reverently silent when the hustle and bustle of the metropolis was just a few yards away?

"The answer was in the construction of the temple.  The temple was built within the walls of an existing building, and inner walls of the temple were connected to the outer walls at only a very few junction points.  That is how the temple limited the effects of Babylon or the world outside.

"There may be a lesson here for us.  We can create the real Zion among us by limiting the extent to which Babylon will influence our lives."

This is a group of the greatest people I know.  We had a wonderful time here in the temple.

A couple of Sister Missionaries took our group picture.  Typical sweet, awesome sister missionaries!

 

Jerrol found out that Sister Armstrong is from Moroni.  They had a lot to talk about.

- - - - -

After leaving the temple, we began the rest of our afternoon which meant a taxi ride to the Big Bus tour stop.  I actually hailed a taxi in Manhattan!  The tour took us all around the city.

Here are some highlights:

That bus along side us is just like the one we are on.  It's a tight squeeze on these streets
with all the traffic. 

 

 Time Square wasn't as big as I thought it would be.  Places always seem bigger in the movies and on TV.

Recognize that ball?

We listened to the tour recording for a while, but the narrative was out of sync and didn't match where we were.  Mostly we just looked.

Here's the Chrysler Building.  I think it is the prettiest one in New York. 

 The Empire State Building.

This makes me think of Miracle on 34th Street.  This store takes up the whole block!

 This picture isn't very clear, but it is Madison Square Garden.

Nice hats on the missionaries.  We were worried about getting sunburned . . . 

. . . but mostly the buildings are high and block the sun and we didn't need them.

 I don't know what this building is, but it is wonderfully weird!  I caught the sun just right.

 This is as close as we got to the Statue of Liberty.

This is the newly finished One World Trade Center.

 Our tour took about 2 hours.

We took a taxi from the Big Bus stop to the Mega Bus stop for our trip home.  We didn't have time to go out to eat, so we got a hot dog at a food cart at the bus stop. (Lunch was brought from home which we ate on the way to NY.)  We got back to Philadelphia about 10:00 and took a taxi from the Mega Bus stop home.  That's four taxi rides in one day!

Manhattan is a very busy place!  I don't understand people wanting to live there, but I guess there are those who love it.  It is so much bigger than Philadelphia.  It makes being here much more tolerable by comparison.  I thought traffic was bad here, but now it doesn't seem so bad.

Of course the best part of the day was going to the temple.  I was so happy to be able to go.  It has been a while and it was just what I needed.  I love the spirit there.

I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting on Mother's Day on developing a relationship with the Savior.  It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what I have learned while on my mission and how being here has helped me strengthen my testimony.  I have learned that the Lord is very patient with me as I have to learned to improve and correct my faults and shortcomings.  I have also learned that much of my life I have been spiritually malnourished, and I have learned what is is like to be more spiritually fed by studying the scriptures for at least an hour each day and watching a Bible video each night before retiring.  I have learned to love some wonderful people here, members of our ward, the missionaries, the people we work with and others.

 My love for the Lord has grown so much.  I am grateful for the opportunities to learn to trust Him an depend on Him more.  I  have learned more about Him than I have ever known before.  His ways are so much better than my short-sighted ways.  His Gospel is the truth and He has the answers.