Static home page issues

I created a page to use as a static homepage based on a template. In it I have added code to show posts below the static content. I can see the page fine if I go to it directly

(here: https://thewillowfarm.com/wordpressTEST/home-2)

but it won’t display as the actual Home page that the “Home” link in the nav bar links to.

https://thewillowfarm.com/wordpressTEST/

Perhaps I over thought this approach, but would love to get it working.

Here’s the code for the template:

<?php
/*
 * Template Name: home
 */
?>
<?php

get_header(); ?>

	<div id="content" role="main">

<!-- PAGE -->
		<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
		<div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
                <?php breadcrumb_trail(); ?>
		<h2>
                  <?php
                      if (function_exists('ghpseo_output'))
                             ghpseo_output('secondary_title');
                      else the_title();
                  ?>
                </h2>
			<div class="entry">
				<?php the_content('<p class="serif">Read the rest of this page &raquo;</p>'); ?>

				<?php wp_link_pages(array('before' => '<p><strong>Pages:</strong> ', 'after' => '</p>', 'next_or_number' => 'number')); ?>

			</div>
		</div>
		<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
	<?php edit_post_link('Edit this entry.', '<p>', '</p>'); ?>
<!-- END PAGE -->

<!-- POSTS -->
<h1 id="whatsNew">What's New at The Willow Farm</h1>

	<?php $temp_query = $wp_query; ?>
	<?php query_posts("showposts=2"); ?>  

	<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
			<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
				<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
				<small><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> <!-- by <?php the_author() ?> --></small>

				<div class="entry">
					<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry &raquo;'); ?>
				</div>

				<p class="postmetadata"><?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?> Posted in <?php the_category(', ') ?> | <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?>  <?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?></p>
			</div>
	<?php endwhile; ?>
<!-- END POSTS -->

	</div><!-- END Content div -->

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>