Looking Back...

September kind of zipped past me and tonight is my last chance to write a post for September. It feels like I've been learning to live again this last month. I changed back to a regular 8 hour day, 5 days/week after working 10 hours 4 days/week during the last 3 years. It's been more of an adjustment that I thought it would be. I like the shorter work days but I sure miss my long weekends!

This month I've been thinking a lot about the trip I took last September and that I never took the time to blog about it. I enjoyed going to Kirtland, Ohio and then Nauvoo, Illinois with my parents. We saw several church history sites for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was an amazing trip!
Here are a few pictures:

The Newel K Whitney home at the LDS Kirtland visitors center
(notice the fall colors starting to show)

A stop sign in Amish country

Fairport Harbor
The John Johnson farm house
The Kirtland Temple
Mom and Dad in Chapin forest
The Family Living Center in NauvooJonathan Browning home and gun shop
Dad admiring all the tools in the post office
With Chuck and Charlie...they gave us a good carriage ride through Nauvoo
Morley Settlement marker in Tioga
What a great name! :)
The view of the Mississippi River at the end of the Trail of Hope
Going for a ride in a covered wagon
Carthage Jail
And my favorite, the Nauvoo Temple
I took way too many pictures to post them all here but this gives you an idea of all the amazing places we saw. Next week we're going on part 2 of this trip, we're headed to Palmyra, New York. We wanted to do it all last year but decided it was too much for us to do in one vacation. This time I have a Nook with Wi-Fi access so I won't wait a year to blog about it.

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If you want to read more about the sites I mentioned here and why they're important to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints you can click the following links:
Kirtland, Ohio
Nauvoo, Illinois
Palmyra, New York

Finding comfort and strength

I read this quote today and it was comforting as well
as a good reminder. I decided to share it here:

"If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as evidence that the Atonement is working in your life. For that reason and many others, you would do well to put yourself in places and in tasks that invite the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost works both ways: the Holy Ghost only dwells in a clean temple, and the reception of the Holy Ghost cleanses us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You can pray with faith to know what to do to be cleansed and thus qualified for the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the service of the Lord. And with that companionship you will be strengthened against temptation and empowered to detect deception."
Elder Henry B. Eyring

If you would like to, you can read the entire talk here.