Message for Monday

I deeply apologize for my lack of blogging! My grown-up summer starts next week at my family reunion... So there will be more exciting things to blog about once that time comes!

On July 24th Utah celebrates Pioneer Day to remember all those courageous pioneers who came here and made Utah what it is today. For FHE, my ward went to the Salt Lake Cemetery to visit the gravesites of some prominent people in our church's history! I was so excited, as I have been wanting to go to Gordon B. Hinckley's gravesite ever since he passed away in January of 2008. 

This cemetery is probably the biggest ever known to man. I looked it up online and there are 130,000 burial sites there, with 121,000 of them already taken. It's 250 acres big! It sits right in the heart of Salt Lake, and the farther you go up, the more gorgeous view of Salt Lake you can see. Seriously it was breathtaking. What a place to be put to rest!

There are lots of people we know of buried there, including all the prophets except Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Lorenzo Snow, William Clayton, W.W. Phelps and many other apostles. We only went to the graves of four people that were spread out a ways from each other, but saw others along the way. I definitely got a good workout in walking up those steep hills!

Our first stop was the one I'd been looking forward to - Gordon B. Hinckley. His wife was buried there of course as well. We shared some memories we had of this beloved prophet of ours and some of the best quotes he said as well.

Directly in front of the Hinckley's grave was David O. McKay. His gravestone was huge! It was triple the size of the Hinckley's. Although this wasn't one of our stops, we still passed by it which was neat.

We then walked to John Taylor's. His was so tall and in the shape of the Washington Memorial, I couldn't get a full picture of it. Plus the sun was in the perfect (meaning worse) spot for a picture to be taken. But he was surrounded by family members.

Third was Wilford Woodruff. He had a gorgeous gravestone. 

Last was Mary Fielding Smith. Hyrum Smith's wife, and her sister Rachel. We stopped there and were told a really touching pioneer story of all that they went through during their life. It made me appreciate pioneers more than I already do! I didn't take a picture of their graves, but they were your average graves.

Near Mary Smith's grave was Joseph F. Smith's grave, not one of our stops but we stopped anyways! I have to say, it was weird seeing his grave then the graves of like four of his wives lined up right next to it. I know polygamy was needed back then, but I am so glad it's not needed now! I would be so jealous of my husband's other wives!

And that's that! That cemetery is a very sacred place and I'm glad I was able to go there. I definitely want to go back and see more graves, since it could take all day and then some to get through them all!