Happy Tuesday 5-13-2014

Mom,
It was so nice to be able to talk to you and all of the family yesterday. I'm sure it was one of the shortest hours of your life. Today was really good. We woke up at 3:30am to go to DC. We went andtook sunrise pictures at the Lincoln Memorial and had some fun doing that. We slowly made it back towards the Washington Monument to try and get tickets for the monument today. It's the first time in three years it has been open. We got to the line at about 7am and we were about 50th in line. The ticket booth was suppose to open at 8:30 but they started handing out tickets just after 8am. Tours started at 1pm and my companion and I got tickets for 2pm. 

We then walked around outside of the National Mall for a while and even passed by the White House and Ford's Theater. At 10am we went to the National Archives and saw some historical documents including one of the original 4 copies of the Magna Carta, the Emancipation Proclamation, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It was amazing to see these great historical documents. We also stopped by the Natural History Museum and saw the Insect and Egyptian Exhibits. We also went to the Rex Room where the museum is working on cataloging, photographing, and putting together the T-Rex skeleton they just received. They should be done by 2019. Afterwards, we went to the Art Museum and saw some works done by many artists including Vincent Van Gough and Pablo Picasso. 

We went back to the Washington Monument and waited a little until 2pm and then we went right up. The view was amazing and it is so beautiful up there. You can even faintly see the temple from one of the windows up there. It was really cool for my companion and I being the first missionaries up there in 3 years. They also had the original aluminum tip for the Monument and lightning protection rods that were on the monument for some years. As you head down the elevator, the glass in the elevator clears and you can see some of the commemorative stones that were placed in the monument. Some are from states, cities, organizations like the Free Masons, even one from the ancient city of Alexandria in Egypt. It was an amazing experience to be up there. I took lots of pictures so don't worry about there being no photographic evidence.

View from the top of the Washington Monument (Photo Credit: Andy Feliciotti)

Also we taught our investigator last night and had a great lesson with him. It was great and we have a return appointment for today.
Love,Elder Braden Dahl