For Family Home Evening tonight, we went to the Salt Lake City Cemetery. We had such a great time.
We have talked about going there for some time now. When President Hinckley passed away, we decided that we would go and visit his grave, along with the other prophets, as soon as it was warm. Today was the first warm day in a while...so off we went. Lisa was able to come with us, which made it even more fun.
Many of the graves were hard to find. We had a terrible map that we had picked up from the office...it really made no sense at all. It was sort of like a treasure hunt (which the kids thought was super cool).
We let everyone pick a prophet (that is buried there) and tell us something about them. The kids did such a great job. They each researched it on their own (we did help Nathan a little bit) and all presented the stories at the respective graves. We learned a lot about the prophets.
Harrison was so sweet at the cemetery. At one point we were all standing around President David O. McKay's tombstone. I looked over at Harrison and wondered what he was doing. He had a pine cone and was sweeping a headstone off. I went over and he was so sad that this headstone was covered with dirt and debris. It said "Mother" on it and he thought it could have been the prophet's mother. It was so sweet how he showed so much concern over the condition of the cemetery. Another time, he and Lisa were staying back because he had seen another one buried and was cleaning it off. He was so upset when he saw broken tombstones. He is such a sweet, caring boy.
We thought this quote on James E. Talmage's headstone was really neat.
We were all picking out our favorite headstones, this one was my very favorite. It's the one that I want when I die. I let all of my kids know, but they just laughed at me. I guess I can always haunt them if I don't get what I want!
The cemetery was so beautiful and interesting. I'd really like to go back soon and take an entire day to look around. I feel blessed to live so close to a place with so much church history. I am also grateful for children that enjoy learning as much as they can about those who went before us.
4 comments:
What a cool activity! I am biased but I am certainly impressed with your lovely caring children (and their parents!)
Hi Ellen,
I stumbled upon your blog while doing a google search for a map of the prophets gravesites at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. I really enjoyed your pictures and comments, what a neat idea to tell stories of the prophets as you found their graves. I'm the 2nd counselor in our Young Women's and we're planning an activity to take the girls to the cemetery. Though I've been to there visiting my own family gravesites, I've never made time to visit the prophets'. I'm really looking forward to it.
I am planning an Achievement Day Activity and I am also looking at that scary map online. How did you end up finding all of the Presidents buried there? My ancestor line is Alexander Hill - his son brought the 1st Presidency to the SL Valley after the President arrived. Please contact me if you by chance have a better way to find the headstones - much appreciated favor. Beautiful blog - thank you. nic_hillary@yahoo.com
I stumbled across your blog looking for a map to do the same thing for FHE. Great to know how much fun your family had. We'll be there Monday night!
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