Day 6: #41

Leonard and I were up early to go and serve in our 41st temple together, the Preston Temple!

When we found out we were moving to India, I first pictured us travelling across the Pacific Ocean (as that's the way we went to Taiwan).  I thought we could make a pit-stop in Japan for our family vacation.  I dreamed of us serving in the Tokyo Temple and taking our kids to the Disneyland there.  Then when I looked on our globe, I realized it's much closer to go across the Atlantic Ocean.  I then dreamed of us serving in the Netherlands Temple and taking our kids to Disneyland Paris.  We found out the official routing was Ottawa to London, the London to Mumbai.  That was good enough for us and we decided we would just stay in England, serve in the Preston Temple and take our kids to the Harry Potter Studios.  I've always been a firm believer that it's good to make plans, but then to be flexible when you have to change those plans.  Another way to look at it is that you have to be driving for the Lord to steer you, if you're parked he can't move you.  I'm grateful we were steered to the Preston Temple.  We had a lovely morning serving together and we're grateful to Brother Harvey for paying our clothing rental for us. (We mailed him the money afterwards to pay him back, but he wasn't expecting that.  He was an answer to our prayers though!)

Our traditional "couplie" shot.

I love how the temple overlooks the quaint village.  This quaint village boasts FOUR wards!!  Ottawa is a city of a million people and it only has seven.  Mumbai is a city of 23 million and it only has one small branch.

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The temple had beautiful sun,

moon,

and star stones on its sides.

The temples always have such beautiful flowers on their grounds.

I love hydrangeas!

In front of the temple was this little pond filled with pink water lilies.

After our session had ended we peaked at them again and saw that they were starting to open up for the day.

We quickly made it back to our hotel to check-out, but we had 2 hours before our train was scheduled to depart.  We decided to walk to the train station.  We thought this would help the kids get their energy out, so they would be calm on the train ride.  Well, it was lovely walking through the different neighborhoods and seeing the many shops and restaurants, but our plan backfired.  I was exhausted from carrying Ali, Leonard and Kaleb were exhausting from taking turns carrying Hiram, Noé and Gavin were exhausted from carrying our heavy backpacks, and Teague just complained the whole time.  Once we got on the train, all the little ones had their energy bursting over, ugh!

Ali was wired the entire 2 hour train ride, but as soon as we made it to Canary Wharf she decided to conk out, double ugh!!

Next year we'll turn 42 and I'm dreaming that the Laie Hawaii Temple will be our 42nd temple to serve in as we will also be celebrating our 20th anniversary!!