General Conference Week-end

The announcement yesterday of converting the Provo Tabernacle to a Temple was amazing.  The Church News this past week highlighted the groundbreaking ceremony for the Philadelphia, PA temple, to be located right there close to Constitution Square.  When living in Bethlehem, PA during my work assignment in Newark, NJ, we were only 40 miles from Philadelphia, and so we were able to visit the historical sites there.  One of the funny things I remember was all the pennies people had dropped on Benjamin Franklin's grave.  I guess they all knew his adage "A penny saved is a penny earned".  We live in exciting times.

I took the 8 Elders of our zone out for pizza yesterday after the Priesthood Session.  So here we are, all nine of us, in our suits and ties, in this very casual pizza place.  At home I would have gone with Ross and Carl, and would have been "Ross' guest".  I have comfortably made the transition where I let Ross pay.  We have come a long way from the "ice cream cone at the A & W", but it has become a great tradition that other members have also taken up.  At home we always run into other Dads and their sons that we recognize from church.

Tomorrow we will receive 2 sisters from the SLC Temple Square Mission.  A part of their 18 month assignment to Temple Square, is a 4 month assignment in a "regular" mission.  One is a convert of 3 years, and has been a "District Leader" and "Trainer".  The other one has also been a trainer.  Wait 'till I tell the guys that Sister Harris was a DL.  Our regular Transfer Day is next week on October 11th.  We have 14 missionaries going home and will receive 16 new missionaries.  Since the missionaries count everything in Transfer Cycles, we will be involved in 13 transfers during our 18 months, and this will be our 5th Transfer.  We have been out for 6 months already!!!!!  Hard to believe.

Mom told of the birds we feed in the back.  They are fun to watch.

We live in neighborhoods, but also have undeveloped fields close by.  The building we are in is a former Stake Center, where our offices are in what used to be the Stake Suite.  We are close to these undeveloped areas of farm land, and the other day we had about 7 wild turkeys by our office entrance.  I will have to check if there is a Turkey hunting season around here.  Thanksgiving is not too far away

We are entering the time of year that to me always moves fast, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas happening in each of the following months.  We had the realization that since we live in a neighborhood, we better be prepared for "trick or treaters".  Where we have lived in the past 18 years, we have lived so far out that the only trick or treaters were our grandchildren.

We are getting to know our neighborhood better.  Our 1 1/2 mile walk each morning gets us known to the neighbors. They wave and say "Hi" when we walk by.  We recognize the cars that belong, and know the name of the dog.  There is this one young couple living with their folks, and they have a 2 year old son who has to be out in the morning on garbage day to see the big truck pick up the garbage cans.  All the homes here have these same sized garbage containers that are mechanically picked up by a hydromechanical contraption on the side of the garbage truck (their dog's name is Lucky).

Guess that is all for today.

Love,

Elder and Sister Kolditz