We Miss the Temple

This beautiful sabbath morning we went for a bike ride.  We stopped in front of the temple as I wanted a photo of the changes across the street.  

There used to be some shrubs that were quite overgrown.  They have been removed and new plantings are in place.  

The new plantings let us see the river behind the statue of Joseph and Hyrum.

Many, many years ago we made the goal to attend the temple once each month and we were pretty good at it.  If we happened to miss a month we would make it up by going twice the next.  Since arriving in Nauvoo last June, we attended the temple once each week.  Some weeks we attended more than once.  Only on the weeks when the temple was closed did we not attend.  

The last time we attended was the final day the temple was open prior to the pandemic.  My desire is that we will go to phase 3 prior to leaving this beautiful place so we can return.  It has been our blessing to be 3 minutes from the temple rather than 3+ hours.

Oh how we miss the temple!