A Special Day

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove up to Salt Lake City to see my cousin's oldest son's baptism.  It was held in an old Church building across the street from the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake and several people at the baptism told us that we needed to check out the stained glass, organ, and vaulted ceilings in the chapel.  The baptism was sweet and lovely and we were so happy to be there to support Xavier and his family.  Afterward, Cat asked me to take her to the chapel.  Ben already had Jack and Eliza in the car, all ready to go, so Cat and I just walked in and had the chapel to ourselves.  She immediately started telling me how beautiful it was and how much she loved it.  We talked about the stained glass for a minute and I explained a little bit about how it was made, then we walked up to the front so that she could get a closer look.  

I found this image online.  I don't know if this is from the actual chapel we were in, but as far as I remember, this is what it looked like:

The First Vision was depicted in the stained glass, and when we were close to it, I asked Cat what it was of.  She answered that it was Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Joseph Smith - and his clothes - were much darker than the other two personages, so I had to point him out.  Cat recognized him by name, then told me that this was a picture of the time when "they were telling Joseph Smith which churches to join and which not to join." We talked about that, and how Joseph Smith was told that he wasn't to join any of the churches on the earth at that time.  Then Cat said, "Mom, I feel the Spirit."  I asked her how she felt and she said, "just really happy."  I explained to her that we feel the Spirit when we make good choices, or when something is true or important.  I asked her if she thought the story of Joseph Smith's First Vision was true, and she said yes.  What a special experience!


Soon after that, Cat and I joined Ben, Jack, and Eliza in the car and we drove up to the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

This is the cemetery where President Gordon B. Hinckley's body is buried.  I've been really eager to visit this sacred place.  President Hinckley will always have a special place in my heart.  I still clearly remember sitting in the Columbia SC Stake Center during the Youth Fireside when he first shared the 6 Be's.  And I remember seeing him and his adorable wife at a huge area conference in Atlanta when I was in High School.  My family always quotes something Sis. Hinckley said during that conference.  "Every day I get up.  I look in the mirror.  And I say to myself, 'How did a nice girl like me get into a mess like this?'"  Sometimes I still get emotional when I hear recordings of Pres. Hinckley's voice.  What an extraordinary man.  And he had an amazing wife.  


The office was closed, so we just wandered around for a few minutes before we found Pres. Hinckley's gravesite.  Other prominent Church members are buried at this cemetery, so it was neat as we were driving to spot many names we recognized, particularly a large grave marker for Hyrum Smith.  We finally saw Pres. Hinckley's grave up on a hill and pulled over on the side of the road so that we could get out and pay our respects.  Eliza was asleep at this point, so we let her sleep in the car while the 4 of us walked around.  It was a special experience for me to stand at the grave of Pres. Hinckley and his sweetheart, Marjorie.

We noticed that there was a large pile of pennies on the big marker, but didn't know the significance of the pennies.  Cat counted about 50.

I guessed that Pres. Hinckley had told a story about a penny at some point, and I didn't want to miss out on the chance to join in a traditional way of honoring someone who has been such a significant influence in my life.  So Cat looked in the car and found a few pennies we could leave.

It turns out, there doesn't seem to be anything specific to Pres. Hinckley about pennies, but it is simply a tradition that people leave pennies on graves.  There are a few different reasons, ranging from ancient mythology to Benjamin Franklin's "a penny saved is a penny earned," to the Jewish tradition of leaving stones at graves.


But I'm going to tell myself that it is a way for us to show Pres. Hinckley how much we support the work of the temple.  When I Googled "Gordon Hinckley pennies," I found a story in The Church News and one from The Friend about Primary children saving pennies for the Nauvoo Temple.  That's something that resonates with me, considering I have ancestors who lived in Nauvoo at the time of Joseph Smith and received their endowments there.  I was also in Nauvoo listening to General Conference when Pres. Hinckley announced that the temple there would be rebuilt in 1999.  And I sat with my family in the Celestial Room of the Nauvoo temple during one of the dedicatory sessions in 2002.  


Just down the hill from Pres. Hinckley's grave was another LDS Prophet's grave.  Jack seemed to grasp the sacredness of the place, and walked with his arms folded.

David O. McKay died long before I was born, but he is special to my Mom and many other Church members who were alive during his tenure as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

It was neat to see the way the children reacted to all of the grave stones.  I was surprised at how respectful they were.  I made sure to tell Cat that I felt the spirit while I was there.


And to top off an already spiritual day, Ben and I got to go on a date and attend the temple that night.  Yep, living in Utah definitely has its perks.  What a lovely day.