Winter Quarters Temple

Temple #63

Winter Quarters, Nebraska

April 12, 2016

    We were still headed home to Utah and had just left beautiful Nauvoo. We stopped by Adam-Ondi-Ahman on the way to Nebraska, which is a beautiful place with rolling green hills. The church does a great job taking care of that area. Nearby as well was the cornerstones for the Far West temple where we went and walked around the lot. We then went and did the Kansas City temple again and went to Liberty Jail where we met my grandpa’s cousin who was serving a mission there. We went to the Independence temple site as well and walked on the grass there. They were all small sites with no one else around and so we had each place to ourselves which was really nice. It was a spiritual trek that we made following a similar road as to what the pioneers did. 

    We eventually made it to Omaha where we first went to Council Bluffs and the visitor center there. We learned quite a bit about the pioneers and the leaders of the church as we went to all the visitor centers on our journey. It was an amazing experience. 

     When we got to the Winter Quarters temple we were surprised at how small it was. It was another small cookie cutter temple, but we soon realized it was still unique in quite a few ways. There was another visitor center right next to the temple that was fun to visit as well. 

     We walked around the temple and admired the stained glass first. In the stained glass were pictures of pioneers and other people that were amazing. From inside the sun shines through the glass and really lit them up making them beautiful. 

     We didn't have a lot of time and so we did sealings, which was still wonderful. In the sealing room light shone brightly through the stained glass which was pretty. It ended up being a surprisingly beautiful temple. 

     After the temple we went to Ivy's uncle’s and aunt's home there in Omaha. They were kind enough to let us stay the night with them. The next morning we went to the Omaha zoo, which apparently is one of the best zoo’s in America. It was a great zoo and was about the only thing to do in the area. 

     We then drove home across the flat nothing between Omaha and Denver. It was wonderful and exciting to see the great Rocky Mountains rising in the West as we drove closer to them. We had only seen a few hills for the past eight months and so were happy to see the snow capped mountains. 

     In Fort Collins we stayed with my friend Cody and hung out for the day and then drove home through Wyoming that evening. It was a long drive and we were ecstatic to be home. We surprised our nieces and nephew and got a fun video of them screaming in joy as they saw us. It was a great reunion to see all our family again. 

     The past eight months had been quite the adventure, going from Texas to Pennsylvania and then home. We had done twenty-eight new temples and had many spiritual experiences. They were eight months full of all sorts of experiences we would never change for anything. We give all our credit to the Lord for what we were able to do and know that He is the reason we were able to see and do so much. So go out there and explore the world, get out of your bubble, experience new things and trust in the Lord!