I Love to See the Temple

When I was 17, our family adopted my two cousins Mary and Cody. Soon after that we went to the Seattle temple to have them sealed to our family for time and all eternity. For those of you that aren't a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, when two parents are married in the temple, all the kids they conceive after that are born under the covenant which means that they are automatically sealed to the parents. After you adopt a child, the whole family goes to the temple with the child being adopted and has them sealed to the parents. So we got to experience the sealing covenant in the temple when we were young.This was a very spiritual experience that I will never forget. I felt the spirit so strong in the temple that day. I knew that this was the place I wanted to be married in.

Little did I know, about 2 years later I would meet the man of my dreams and be sealed to my husband Mike Nelson in the Seattle temple. It was 1993 and we were so young!!Look at Mike's hair!!

 

 

Since then I have had a strong testimony of temples and the work that is done there. I believe that families can be sealed together for eternity. I love being able to do this work for ancestors who have passed away and were not able to have this work done while on the earth. I love going to the temple and leaving the hustle and bustle of the world behind.

About 2 years later Mike and I were on vacation in Hawaii. I was 5 months pregnant with Kayla. We were able to go to the Hawaii temple with both sets of our parents. It was a much smaller temple but still very beautiful. My hair is awesome here.

The next temple we were able to visit was the Washington D.C. temple. Mikes parents were on a mission for our church there and we went to visit them. This temple is so huge and very busy. When you are driving on the beltway and come around the corner, you can see this temple from the beltway. It is quite a spectacular view, you feel so close like you could reach out and touch it.

 My brother Shawn and his wife Courtney were married in the Boston, Massachusetts temple. I loved the look of this temple. Mike and I traveled with Max to see  them get married.

 

 

 Mike and I went on a get away to Arizona. While we are there we visited the Mesa temple and visitors center.

 

Mike took the girls to the Vancouver B.C. temple open house a couple years ago. When a temple first opens, they have an open house before they dedicate the building. During this time, anyone can go on a tour of the temple and see how beautiful and special it is. When we were in Utah we went to the Ochre mountain temple open house. This was so fun because our whole extended family went together. (I couldn't find pictures of these temples)

We also love to visit Salt lake city temple square. The visitors center there is so much fun. I love learning about church history there. This temple took the saints 40 years to build.

  

 Last year we visited the Hawaii temple with the kids. The girls did baptisms for people who have passed away and were never able to hear about Christ's church. This was Lexies first time ever doing this and it was an amazing experience. It was so fun to be in the temple with the girls.

This past November our family went to New York. We saw the Palmyra Temple. We went to the visitors center and learned about church history. We will never forget the feelings we had here as we learned about the early saints of the church and the trials that they went through.

 

Then we visited the Manhattan, New York temple. It was crazy to see a temple right in the middle of a such a big city.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints has 155+ temples across the whole world. I am so proud to be a member of this church. With just over 14 million members in the church, it continues to grow and grow. I am continually learning and growing and strengthening my testimony. I hope to be able to visit many more temples in the future. I love to see the temples!

                                                   
                                     http://mormon.org/me/1WM5/Andrea

Disney World with The Mays

In the spring of 2012, we went on a trip to Florida with our closest friends, The May family. All of our kids match up perfectly. They have 3 girls and one boy in the same order as us. These are my kids best friends, they are like family to us. All the kids were so excited about this trip.

                                                     Clara was a senior(17) and Kayla was a junior(16)

                                               
                                                Livi(15)and Kenzie(14) were both freshman

                                     

 

Gillian was in 7th grade(13) and Lexie is in 6th grade(12)

 

 

Ben was in 3rd grade(9), Max is in preschool(5), and Calvin is in 4th grade(10)

 

 

Jen and Cliff are so much fun, we love hanging out with them. These kids didn't fight or get bugged with each other. Each set of kids had their own room. Mike rented a house that we all fit in.

 

 

Here are all the girls together. They all love each other so much.

 

 

This trip was magical!!

 

 

When we were home, the kids spent most of the time in the pool. Except Clara and Kayla , they took naps.

 

We spent a day at cocoa beach surfing and body boarding all day.

 

 

Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Universal Studios, Cocoa Beach, Downtown Disney and Epcot.

 

These are all the parks we visited in 10 days. We were tired but we had a blast. We want to go again when Livi and Kenzie are seniors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York, New York

Mike surprised us all with a trip to New York after Thanksgiving.  The day we flew in, we rented a car and drove to Palmyra, New York to see some church history. We stayed in a hotel and then the next morning we spent the whole day seeing the sights. We went to the Smith family homestead and walked through the sacred grove.

 

 

It was fun trying to guess where the first vision might have took place in those woods. The sister missionary that took us on our tour was so in tune with the spirit. She told us some cool stories about the Smith Family. She also said things that were just for our family and touched us very deeply.

 We saw where the gold plates were hidden by Joseph Smith under the bricks of the fireplace. Here is a picture of Calvin by the fireplace. When Calvin touched the bricks on the fireplace, he said, "I can't believe I have touched where Joseph Smith has touched."

 We were in the same room where angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. It was definitely a testimony building experience and you could feel the spirit so strong.

We visited Hill Cumorah and the visitor center right below the hill. We went to the Palmyra temple and walked around the temple grounds. We drove around the town and saw the old churches. It was such a wonderful experience and I am so glad we took the time to visit this sacred place.

 

 

 

We drove back to Manhattan that night. We stayed in an apartment a couple blocks from Times Square. This is the entrance to our apartment.

 The city was so busy because of the holiday season. We saw the tree in Rockerfeller center.

 We visited the Museum of Natural History.

 

 

 My favorite time was walking through central park and exploring. The kids loved climbing on all the big rocks and we were all in awe of this beautiful city.

 

 

 

The girls and I saw Mary Poppins on Broadway one night. It was so incredible! We were on the balcony and at the end of the play Mary Poppins grabbed her umbrella and flew above the audience. She passed right by us on the balcony before she went straight up to the ceiling. She was so close,we felt like we could reach out and touch her.

 

We saw the Manhattan Temple, It was so cool to see it in the middle of a city surrounded by sky scrapers.

 The door handles inside this temple are made to look like the Statue of Liberty's torch.

We ate at several different restaurants and cafes that all cost way too much money. The pizza was the best!

 

 

 

 

 

 The girls felt so cool to be in the big city. They loved all the cool doors and details of the buildings.

 

 

 One night we went to Mcdonalds to get hot cocoa and we got harassed by a drunk guy. The kids did really well ignoring him and trying not to freak out. Someone called security and they escorted him out quickly.

On our way to the airport we stopped in Jersey City and went to a park on the bay to see the Statue of Liberty. The shore was blocked off due to damage from hurricane Sandy, so we couldn't get very close.  We walked through this memorial for the 9/11 victims from New Jersey.  The 2 pillars represent the two towers and all the names of the people who died were on the walls. Directly across the bay is Manhatten and the pillars line up exactly where the two towers used to be.

The day we left, it was 60 degrees and beautiful blue skies.

 

 

 

We had the best time! We have the coolest family in the world. My kids are so fun to be with and they always make us laugh. Mike and I loved watching them experience something new.

                                                                            - Andrea