Kentucky Trip

Ohio Countryside

 

There were many bridges on our trip

KFC Center

Slugger Bat Factory

Slugger Baseball Field 

Louisville Kentucky Temple

Kentucky on a cloud day

October 4, 2012

Dear Family & Friends;

Our lives are busy. We have been shut down for the past week and a half and will be back up and going next week. We have had a "delimiter" installed to regulate the height of the celestial room chandelier, a new back-up generator is being installed, the media is being upgraded, new computers are being installed, and several pieces of upholstery are being redone. It seems like everything else is either being washed, ironed, or touched up with paint, but we are happy to see the improvements. 

Ed and I took the opportunity to go to Louisville, KY. for an overnight stay. President and Sister Lunt of the Louisville Ky. Temple invited us to come for a visit. Their temple is small like ours. When they first arrived in Kentucky there was a lot of confusion in how their temple was organized, so they made a visit to Columbus to see how we did things.  Some of our suggestions they have incorporated. Anyway, they have been after us to come for a visit. So  last weekend we drove down, met them for lunch, did a session, and then stayed overnight in the Courtyard. Got up the next morning, had breakfast, and drove to downtown Louisville where we visited the Louisville Slugger Factory and saw how baseball bats are made.  [Came home with three of them. Two were souvenir gifts they handed out, the third one Ed bought and it has his name burned into the handle just like the “big boys” do it.] They make 80% of the professional bats used by the big league players. We saw Babe Ruth’s bat, along with several other famous player’s bats. They even had life-sized statues of some of the players. Babe Ruth was a good sized man! It was both educational and fun. Afterwards we drove home and continued our “fun” temple activities.  

Sunday we drove to Parkersburg, West Va., for a fireside.  They love Ed around here. They haven’t had anyone with his knowledge and are very hungry for what he has to offer. He teaches in leadership meetings, firesides, stake conferences, women’s conferences, empty-nester family home evenings, seminary and institute pre-school training and anything else anyone can get him to come for. [He loves every minute of it. There is nothing so flattering to an old school teacher as a request to share his knowledge with someone.] The brethren and sisters at the temple are constantly leading him into some subject or another to “pick his brains.” Since coming to Ohio, we have spoken at 25 stake conferences. When you consider that there are only 52 weeks in a year, that’s a lot of weekends on the road.

I think I shared the following with you, but just in case I didn’t, here is a repeat of an experience told by Gordon H. Smith, a member of the Area Seventy, in a Stake Conference in Ohio.

When Elder Smith was serving as a senator for the state of Oregon, he received a call from the then Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf asking him if he could help him with a problem the Church had. The problem had to do with the fact that the Church was not recognized in Italy. Elder Smith told Elder Uchtdorf that he didn’t know anyone in Italy, but that he would check with the ambassador to the U.S. from Italy and see if something could be done. Elder Smith contacted the Italian Ambassador and told him of our desires being careful to mention that we had been in Italy since the mid -1800’s and that we encouraged our people to respect the laws of the land and to be good citizens, etc.  A few days later, the Ambassador called Elder Smith and asked him if he could fly to Rome to meet with the Italian Minister of Interior. Elder Smith assured him that he could and called President Uchtdorf to invite him to go with him.

When they were to meet with the Minister, they were ushered into a large room with a table that seated around 30 people. They were seated in the middle on one side.  A few minutes later the Minister and her Aide entered and sat opposite them.  She inquired what their problem was and what they desired.  Elder Uchtdorf told her how long the Church had been in Italy, the fact that we encouraged our citizens to be good, honorable, law abiding people, and that we had thousands of members in Italy. He requested that we be recognized as a Church and be allowed to purchase property to build chapels, etc. on.  The Minister turned to her Aide and said, “What do you think?”  He responded, “Well, last year my wife and I flew to the United States for a vacation. One of the cities we visited was Salt Lake City.  We went to a place called Temple Square.  We hadn’t been on the property very long before two lovely young women from Italy were called to be our Hostesses.  They gave us a wonderful tour of the grounds and answered all of our questions.  I feel that if those two young women are representative of what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can produce. I would be happy to have that kind of people in Italy.

The result of that interview was that the Church received full recognition in Italy and we are now able to have not only chapels, but a temple there. 

Now this didn't come about because of President Uchtdorf or Senator Smith, but because two young sister missionaries fulfilled their assignment in a quiet, efficient, spirit-filled way. And the Lord was able to do the rest.

Sending our love to one and all,

Ed and Carol