Draper Temple Open House

After Katie's baptism, we left my sister's house on Sunday afternoon and drove to Spanish Fork where we spent Sunday evening with Bryon's sister, Alicia, and her family. We had a great time visiting. The kids loved playing with their cousins.

Monday morning we got up and went to the Draper Temple Open House. The temple was beautiful. After the open house we went back to the Stake Center for a cookie and bottled water. A lady there offered to take our picture in front of a huge picture of Christ. Here are the pictures from that. I always catch a lot of flack because I am not in the picture very often. My mom often comments about how can I know if I was actually there if I am not in any pictures. So here is proof that I was actually at the open house!

Attending this temple open house has made me do a great deal of thinking. My children are adopted and so have had opportunities to go to the temple to be sealed to us and the older ones have had the privilege of going to the temple again to watch as their new siblings were sealed to us. But more than this I have thought what a wonderful time this is for my children. I remember growing up and attending the open house of the Logan temple (when it was open after having had some remodeling done). We also went with my cousins to the Boise temple open house. However, that is about all of my temple experiences until I was old enough to do Baptisms for the Dead. Besides being sealed, my children have had the opportunity to go to the open houses of the Rexburg, Twin Falls and now Draper. We have plans to attend the Oquirrh Mountain open house later this summer. What a great opportunity for them to learn about the sacredness of the temple. When we were in the Draper Temple as we entered the Celestial Room, Natalie said, "Wow." She was in awe. She kept looking around. The Spirit bore witness to me that she felt the Spirit in that sacred room. I hope all of my children will be able to remember the special feelings that they have felt when we have been in the temple together as a family. I hope this will increase their desire to live their lives worthily so that they too may one day receive the blessings of the temple in their own lives.

I am so thankful for the blessings of the temple and for the blessing of Eternal Families.

Rexburg Temple Celebration

What an awesome experience our family had tonight. You see tonight was the celebration for the Rexburg Temple. The main celebration was being held in the Hart Auditorium on the campus of BYU-Idaho. There were very few tickets available and so most everyone would be watching it broadcast to the various stake centers in the area. They were going to broadcast the live celebration at 5:00 and then at 7:00 they were going to rebroadcast the celebration. I figured we probably should try to be at our stake center at 4:00 in order to get a good seat. It was about 3:00 and I was still in my housecoat. I had just pulled Logan out of the bathtub and gotten him dressed. I had just yelled outside to Sam and Conner, who had been out playing in the snow, that it was time to come in and start getting dressed. No sooner than I had done all this and my good friend, Brenda Floyd called. You have to know Brenda. She is an awesome friend. She has been determined to see the production live. She said she decided to drive up to the college and just try to get in on standby tickets. She told me the line wasn't long and if we hurried, we could probably stand a really good chance at getting in. I have never kicked it in gear faster. We were heading out the door by 3:30 p.m. Brenda was the first one in line. She had been there since 2:00. So we sat there for waht seemed like an eternity to try to get in. Then someone in our old ward came by and had two tickets that they weren't going to be able to use. Brenda and two of her children used those to go in and get seated. By now it is 4:30. We were told they were going to release the seating at 4:35. Bryon and I knew that our chances of sitting together were pretty slim. We picket out a spot to meet at once the production was over. Pretty soon, Brenda's daughter came out with two extra tickets. Another one of Brenda's daughters went in and I took the other one and took Natalie and headed in. The lady taking tickets at the door, asked if I had been in before. It being a church production and all, I decided to try and tell the truth. I told her actually we hadn't. Then she starts looking at my ticket closer. Then she asks how old Natalie is. I told her two. She informed me that everyone two and older had to have their own ticket. I informed her that Natalie was just going to sit on my lap. She said for fire code reasons, Natalie needed her own seat. The ticket lady ho-hummed for what seemed like an eternity. Finally she told me I was probably right and let me go in. I got to sit by Brenda and her son Braden. As soon as I got in Brenda had tears in her eyes as she told me how desperatly she wanted me to see it live. I was still so worried if Bryon, Sam, Conner, and Logan would make it in. What I didn't know is shortly after I went in, they came and told the standby line that they would not be releasing any seats. Bryon figured he had waited there for quite a while already he would just wait until the production started "just to make sure". Pretty soon another guy from the ticket office came and said they had four available seats. Bryon said he needed three. They followed the guy inside. They walked right by me and so I grabbed Conner so Bryon wouldn't have to wrestle three kids.

Our seats were awesome. Yes we were on the bleachers but we were not that high up and you could see the General Authorities from where we were seated. Bryon sat almost directly behind Elder Russell M. Nelson. Bryon wants to watch the newspaper the next few days because he is sure that he is going to make the paper. The paper came and took pictures of him and Logan. I also think if any pictures of Elder Nelson were taken, Bryon stands a good chance of being in those because he was sitting so close to him. The prophet wasn't there but Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder Bednar were there. It was so awesome. As they came in, everyone stood up. You could feel the Spirit so strong. It was a feeling I hope not to soon forget. The program was wonderful. It had so much fun singing and dancing. I think one of my boys favorites was a dance some men did with sprinkler pipes! I think I cried from the beginning all the way to the end. One thing Brenda and I found amazing was it talked about the Teton Dam flood. The flood happened in June and the city held a 4th of July parade down the middle of Rexburg, just a month after the flood. I loved the ending how a small choir of children dressed all in white sang "I Love to See the Temple" and "The Spirit of God". As they sang, more and more children dressed in white joined them. It was awesome!

Tonight I am just feeling so blessed that we were able to see this production live. I don't think seeing it in the stake centers would do it justice. It was just so great to be there and see it in person and feel of the Spirit that was in that room. I am so thankful Brenda thought of calling us and getting us to go up there. I am also so thankful for having a temple in our town. Indeed, we really are a blessed people.

Rexburg Temple Open House

Saturday we were able to attend the open house of the Rexburg Temple. What an awesome experience. My parents, my sister Alyson and her two children as well as my husbands aunt, uncle, and three of their children all came up to attend the open house with us. Our tickets were Saturday morning at 10:30. It was a busy Saturday for the open house with it being a three day weekend. We went into the chapel to wait for a room to view a video that talks about the importance of temples. We really didn't have to wait long. I was so touched by Elder Holland's comment about heaven not being heaven without his wife and children. I feel the same way, I cannot think of heaven without thinking of being there with Bryon and my four children. We then walked through a maze of tents to take us into the temple. The temple is such an awesome building. It is so beautiful.

I think our oldest, Sam, was very touched. I was very young when the Logan Temple was worked on and then an open house was held before the temple was redidicated. All I remember about that event was holding my Grandma Roskelley's hand as we walked from room to room. So although Sam may not remember a whole lot about the Rexburg Temple Open House, I hope he too will remember holding his Grandma Roskelley's hand as he walked room to room and the special feelings he felt while in the temple of our Heavenly Father.