Ahh Springtime

With spring in the air, the senior missionaries are enjoying some outings to various places here in the mission.
I'll divide this into three posts for ease of browsing.

 Our first trip was to downtown Philadelphia to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

You had to have timed tickets to get in, but Elder and Sister Rogers who are assigned to the downtown arranged to get our tickets.  Inside they had many things to see.  Here is a view of the room where they worked on the Declaration of Independence.

They were arranged in a couple of semi-circles, with each colony sitting together.  The chairman sat at this desk.  The top of the room in front was a symbol of blind justice.

And seated just below was the Chairman of the assembly.

At the top of his chair was a carving showing a sun, either rising or setting.

When all was said and done, Benjamin Franklin said "I've been looking at that rendering all during this convention and have tried to decide if it was a rising or a setting sun.  I've decided that it is a rising sun."
We stopped on the way out and another tourist took our pictures.

From Independence Hall we went across the street to the visitors center.

And just around the corner to the right is the walkway to the Liberty bell.

The white building at the end of the grassy mall is the National Constitution Center, which we didn't have time to visit this trip.

At the end of the walkway on the left of the previous picture and around the corner, you enter the building that houses the Liberty bell.  After walking a ways inside you get to the actual Liberty bell itself.

For awhile, you couldn't get close to the bell, and then a couple of years ago they opened it up.  Then they used to let you actually touch the bell, but someone brought a hammer and tried to ring the bell, so now you just get to look at it, and we did.

After leaving the Liberty bell, we went across the mall and visited a cemetery where Benjamin Franklin is buried.

It was a great time to be there with the other missionaries.  If you get to Philadelphia, you should come and see the birthplace of freedom.