Have you ever had such an amazing experience that you knew that you needed to write it all down right away, or you might forget how wonderful it was? Well today, I have experienced one of the most wonderful things on this mortal earth. I went to the Rexburg Idaho temple dedication.
There aren't really words to describe it. First of all, I was truly blessed because I was able to go inside the temple for the dedication. Yesterday, the stake president pulled me aside after a training broadcast since I had been looking at my dedication ticket. He asked me what stake and ward I was in. Since I was in his stake, he asked me if my ticket was for inside the temple for the dedication, and I told him that it wasn't. He then proceeded to ask me if I would like a ticket for the dedication inside the temple! He said that he had just been given a few more, and was wondering if I would want one. Of course! Darci came up to me just as he was handing me one (there were perhaps only 15 or so of the tickets in his hands to give out). I told him that Darci was my roommate, and so he asked if she would like a ticket as well! :) It felt as if Heavenly Father was shining the sun down on me; I couldn't have been more happy! :) Darci and I couldn't stop smiling all the way home! :) :)
We were going to get up really early this morning to go camp out a spot for the dedication so that we could get as close to the prophet as we could. However, we found out that there was a session before us, so we had to get there after 9 AM. So, instead of getting up at 6 AM, we got up a couple hours later, and left around 9, and got there a little bit before 9:30. However, there was almost no one there...we were the third "group" to arrive...as in, there was a mom and daughter sitting in there, and a family that kept getting up and going somewhere (I don't know, one would get up and leave then come back, then another one, then another one--I think there was someone out in the hallway they were talking to maybe?). Anyways, around 10:30, when the chapel had started really filling up, an usher makes the announcement that because of weather conditions, President Monson arrived about an hour late this morning, so they had pushed back the sessions about 30 minutes. So Darci and I look at each other and think--ok, so now we will have been waiting to go inside for two and a half hours! Needless to say, we were very excited, and weren't very patient with the hurry-up-and-wait, but it was still nice--a guy had been playing really pretty prelude music the entire time, and it was really gorgeous. It felt kind of like the Mormon Tabernacle choir was right there with us, singing.
Then comes the announcement that we will be starting an hour after time (12:30 instead of the original 11:30). Aaaagh! But then an amazing thing happens...an usher comes in and says that the session ahead of us is just saying the closing prayer, and to get ready to move! :) Darci and I jump up, and race to the front of the doors, and start heading out with the front of the line. We're going!! :)
Once inside the temple, we go up three flights of stairs, and end up being seated in the waiting room for the youth being sealed to their parents. It was so beautiful. It was a wonderful ceremony, and it gave me the goosebumps during the last song when everyone was singing "The Spirit of God", and I just knew that if I were standing right then on the stairway, that I could hear the echoing of all three floors of latter-day saints singing the exact same words that I was singing, and that we were all there in the Lord's house united in the Spirit of the Lord. It was very moving, and I don't think I will forget that feeling for the rest of my life.
We left the temple, and the sun was shining (remarkable instance, because that just doesn't happen that often up here). I felt like the heavens were shining on us today, pleased with the work that's being done, and for the great accomplishment that today's dedication was, for all who are in the area, and those who have passed beyond the veil. I know without a doubt that it is the Lord's house that I see sitting upon the hill, and every time I look up I can always be reminded of how great a gift it is to be alive to see the Lord's work spreading forth over all the earth, and get to be alive to help it grow. I know that this church is true, and that this is Christ's church here upon the Earth. I know that He lives, and loves each one of us, and that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are His words to us today, and I bear testimony that temples are His way to allow us to be forever families and return to Him again, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
