Can't miss a week......

A few years ago, if you had told me that I could/would go to the temple weekly, I would have said you were crazy. Now it seems it is something that I need to do to feel complete. Another bonus, is my 4-day work week, which I DID NOT like for the first 9 months, has become a blessing because I know that on FREE Friday, it's my temple day !

Yesterday I met Landon there in the late afternoon, and we accomplished initiatory work for our ancestors. I did 3, and Landon did 5. We also saw President John Porter there, and had a chance to talk to him in the Family Name room. He stopped by there, as everyone should, to see if there were any Morgan Stake names to be done. I LOVE the temple !!

BIC

I was BIC - Born in the Covenant. As a small girl, I remember looking at mom's genealogy papers and seeing BIC by my name and my brothers and sister's names. I took it for granted. My three oldest kids were not BIC, but were sealed AFTER they were born (and died in Ambure's case). I was THRILLED to finally get to put a BIC next to Landon's name.

Last night, I had the most wonderful opportunity to attend a sealing session in the Ogden Temple where some of my ancestors were joined together for time and all eternity. I have been working with these "names" for a couple of months now. First the baptism, then initiatory work, then their endowment, and finally last night, the sealings. They are from my Grandma Dickson's line, and many many have Danish names which are hard to pronounce. The names of Terstall, Gerstall, Schaling, Koosen, Renjse, Tintje, Prage.......... they are burned in my mind, and I KNOW I will meet them someday. We were able to seal grandparents to their children, and then those "children" as parents to THEIR children. It was a very special experience for me, and I felt the Spirit very strongly.

The words, "as though they had been Born In The Covenant" are the SWEETEST most TENDER words imaginable.......

Landon was planning on meeting me at the temple, but he had to work late. Brother and Sister Staples, and Brother and Sister Ralphs, and Brother and Sister Robinson came from our ward, and 2 couples from Coalville also were there. Something interesting happened concerning one of my ancestors on the Dawson line.  After he was sealed to his parents (his mother was my Grandma Tonks' first cousin), Brother Reese, from Coalville spoke up, and said, "I think I knew that man!". Sure enough, he was born in *1915, in Henefer. It is such a small world. I love the gospel, and I love Family History work.

*The policy of the church, is that you need to ask permission (from immediate family) to do someone's work who has been born less than 95 years ago.  When I completed Brother Hennefer's work (sealing to his parents), I was contacted by his grand-daughter anonymously (via non-published blog comment), who was understandably upset that his sealing to his parents had been done by someone who was not a close family member.  I feel really bad about this, and in the future will wait even longer than the 95 years required. The last thing I would want to do is hurt someone's feelings and possibly cause bad feelings towards temple work. I wish I could apologize in person, but hopefully she will check back and read this post.

Yesterday I went to Ogden Temple in the afternoon. I did an endowment session for one of my distant relatives, Anna Andersdotter. It was nice and peaceful, and I enjoyed it. I'm as so blessed to be able to go as often as I do.

Betho Rojas, our tour guide in Cusco, Peru included this information in a recent letter to us. It sure makes me appreciate all I have.

"Our Ward has been planning to go to the Lima Temple at the end of March. Our family has been waiting for this experience for 7 years. This is probably the last time we will go as a group. It takes about 40 hours on the bus for the round trip. Our family has saved some money so we can go. In the past four months, we have made cakes to sell, and also typical Peruvian food. We have also rented sleeping bags to travelers on the Inka Trail, and of course I have provided my services as a tour guide to LDS families and other tourist groups."

Awesome Picture

My good friend Bonnie Thomson emailed me this picture today. I've seen it before, but not with President Monson in it. I just love it. The setting is the Celestial Room in the Salt Lake Temple. I was just there there other day, and it was wonderful.

Can you name them all? Let's see if I can run the song through my head - gotta love those Primary days :)

Latter-day prophets are, number 1, Joseph Smith, then Brigham Young, John Taylor is third we know, then Wilford Woofdruff, Lorenzo Snow. Joseph F. Smith, remember the F. Heber J. Grant, and George Albert Smith, David O. McKay was followed by Joseph Fielding Smith. Then Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, Ezra Taft Benson, we honor him. All Latter-day prophets show the way, we hear and honor their words today ! Of course since the time I learned that song, we have also had Howard W. Hunter, Gordon B. Hinckley, and now, President Thomas F. Monson. I'm really excited for General Conference - it's coming soon !!

A Great Story - Santiago Chili Temple

Message from the Santiago Temple President, Ted & Cheryl Lyon, written by his wife, Cheryl:

Thanks to all of you who have emailed your concern for us. We can state unequivocally that we're fine. We can also state with the same emphasis that riding through that quake in our rocking fourth-floor apartment was for me the scariest experience I've ever been through!

I was sure we were about to die - that either the ceiling would fall on us or that we'd collapse through the floor. It truly was an emotion I'd never experienced before. My whole body shook for the next two hours, and after that I couldn't stop crying.

We didn't even have the presence of mind to get out of bed during the quake. I felt paralyzed, staring at the ceiling and wondering when the earth would stop rolling. It was the longest two minutes of our lives! We could hear things falling out of cupboards, and pictures falling off the walls. But the sound and the movement was the worst.

Our sturdy building held up fine. Just lots of dust and a few broken dishes. But elsewhere, as I'm sure you've seen on the news, people didn't fare as well. Lots of damage. Virtually no stores open. Most parts of Santiago still have no electricity. Collapsed overpasses have closed major highways. The airport is closed because of damage, and planes have been rerouted to northern Chile or to Argentina. Our new missionary doctor was to arrive this morning, so I don't know where he and his wife have ended up.

What a joy to walk into the temple and find it in perfect condition. We just had to close a few drawers and straighten a few crooked pictures. It felt so good to be there in that peaceful refuge and find normality. Moroni did lose his trumpet, however! That was the only noticeable damage.

How grateful we are for how well the Church takes care of us. We've often thought the 24-hour emergency lights in our building were excessive, but we were surely thankful for them at 3:30 this morning as everyone was evacuating the building - including the missionaries downstairs in the MTC. It was so disconcerting to get out of bed in the dark and stumble over fallen items in the bathroom. We got just a taste of what the Haitians have suffered, though their damage and deaths have been so much more devastating, even though their quake a weaker one. So far here they're reporting 123 deaths, but we assume the toll will climb.

We had to decide what to do about the temple. We had every session booked for the day, and wondered if people would arrive. We met with one of Ted's counselors - who had arrived at 5:00 for the early shift, as faithful as ever - and our registrar. We knew it would be difficult for the employees and workers to get to the temple and there was not electricity at the time. One faithful laundry sister came a great distance to help, but there was no gas for the dryers, so she had baptismal clothes from last night lying out all over the laundry.

The temple has an emergency generator which roars into action the second the power goes out. But we learned that it runs on petroleum which lasts only four hours. By 8 a.m. we knew we were about to go dark again, so we made the decision to simply close the temple for the day.

Then, just in the second that the lights began to dim, the power came back on! (We've learned since that we're the only section of Santiago that has power yet.) So then we decided to hold just one session, since we had three out-of-town couples staying in the hospedaje who were expecting to receive their endowments and be sealed today. We mustered all the missionary couples, along with a group of faithful sisters who work the late shift on Fridays and then stay over for the Sat morning shift. We had a most moving morning. The quake had brought such a sense of unity to workers and patrons, and the Spirit was amazing. I've seldom had such a moving experience at the veil - with three consecutive young sisters who were receiving their endowments.

Right now we're sleep-deprived, and Ted has already gone back to bed. The stress has left us exhausted - but we're alive and well! We're still feeling aftershocks - called "replicas" in Spanish. They're reported about 25 of them. One just rolled by as I was writing this.

So, that's the report. After some rest we may venture out and about to see what we can see. Thanks for your love and concern.

I am so blessed !

Those are the words that I thought, as I took the opportunity to go to the Salt Lake Temple yesterday. I had meetings at the State Capitol, and afterward as I drove the short little bit down the hill to the temple, all I could think of was how going to THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE is such a dream and desire of SO MANY members around the world.......and here I was, able to go, without much effort, cost......how very blessed I am.

I spent a few hours inside, doing initiatory work and an endowment session. I have never done initiatory work in the Salt Lake Temple, only participated in baptisms, witnessed sealings, and attended endowment sessions. I was able to do initiatory work for 5 of my ancestors, 4 of whom were a mother (Alice), and her 3 daughters, Alice, Kate, and Margaret. Their last name was Hatfield.

The endowment session was wonderful. I enjoy moving from room to room, enjoying the beautiful mural paintings on the walls of the Creation, Garden, and World rooms. I am always in awe of the Celestial Room at the end, it is indescribable. The intricate workmanship just leaves me shaking my head in awe. I sat there for quite a little while, just feeling the peaceful spirit, and observing the people. Young couples, older couples, a sister reading her patriarchal blessing, and little old man who couldn't have weighed over 80 pounds shuffling along, everyone a child of God. How blessed we are to be members of this church, and to have the gospel in our lives, and to enjoy the blessings of the temple.

When I came out of the temple, it was raining and snowing, and I didn't have a coat, hat, or umbrella, because it had been sunny when I entered. The young sister (who was reading her blessing) and I were soaked as we waited to cross the street and enter the conference center, to take the elevators down to the parking garage. It was an adventure ! I suppose the next time I will attend this temple will be for Kacey's own personal endowment, which will take place a week or two before the wedding in April. I can hardly wait !