On a dark and stormy night in 1984...haha, just kidding....
When Marty and I moved to Arizona, we were just a couple of blocks away from the Mesa temple. It was hard for me to go there at first because I couldn't go an hour or two without getting really morning sick, and going that long without nibbling something was simply out of the question for me. But I went a couple of times, and after I had the baby it was relatively easy to get there. We got baby-sitters easily, swapped with friends once in a while, and whenever our family was in town we made it a priority that if they ever baby-sat we would go to the temple first.
Then after we moved to Queen Creek the temple was 50-ish minutes away. The more kids we've had, the bigger the challenge in getting there. That's a pretty long time to leave our four young'uns in the charge of another young'un. Even when family has come to visit and offered to take our kids, it's still been tricky to block out that much time in a single weekend. Not to mention the many times someone has been sick, or our baby girl refuses to be parted from Mommy. We've still put a lot of effort into making it a priority, but it just seems to get trickier all the time.
The Gilbert temple was announced not too long after we moved to Queen Creek and of course we were so excited. But I just assumed it would seem like an eternity before we could actually use it. Well, it hasn't! Time flies when you are having fun (and are too busy to think strait)! Marty and I took the kids to the site, timed the drive, and walked around the dirt field a little. We found a sewer lid that we figured most likely wouldn't change even while it's surroundings would. We decided to take our pictures on it and come back periodically. The temple has grown and so has our family!
Every time we came to our sacred little sewer lid for a picture, there was something really funny about the whole situation. But something really profound also, a feeling a non-writer like me can't describe. I knew the weight and importance this whole temple-building process would have on our family. It was like there was something with tangible eternal implications I could watch grow right along with our family. I wish so badly I could describe that feeling every time we went there. I hope Brynn remembers it. For Bryce, it's a long shot, but I pray he'll remember something from this period of OUR temple coming to life.
May 2011
October 2011
January 2012
(Missing - a hilarious picture of newborn Gabe held precariously by his two older siblings - WAAAH!)
October 2012
May 2013
January 2014
Ta-da!!
The drive to the new temple will be about 20 to 25 minutes. The hour-ish it is going to shave off for us is Heaven-sent. YES. I know we have had it so good to travel less than an hour (usually) to the temple, but when you are on the clock for a baby-sitter or know that your baby has now been screaming for two hours without you, every minute counts.
This temple is so personal to me and always will be. I'm not sure if we'll be in Queen Creek, or even Arizona for forever, but this will always be one of OUR temples. These feelings were culminated this weekend by the Cultural Celebration on Saturday and the dedication on Sunday. First the dedication:
Marty is in his eighth year teaching seminary here. And one of us (for a time, both of us!) has been in the young men/young women presidency since around Brynn's second birthday. I'm happy to give it, but that's a lot of time in the form of Tuesdays nights, scout camps, and a million other responsibilities. It's been a huge period for a family - three babies while serving the youth! Sometimes it's busier than others. The youth cultural celebration has been one of those busy times for sure. There were times I wished Marty would have just passed along his "Captain of 10" assignment on to someone else. There were a lot of long hours and a ton of administrative stuff that he could have "gotten out of." But now I'm soooo glad he was able to be involved. And I know he was able to do so much good where he was and I'm so proud of him and grateful to be his. He's such a good person, I hope he rubs off on me someday.
The cultural celebration was a program of song and dance (think the Manti Pageant) that went through different heroes throughout time (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Captain Moroni, the pioneers, Native American and Latin heritage, etc.) and ending in Arizona. There were literally 12,000 youth performing in it from the stakes around our area. So factoring in all the adult participation, I don't have any idea how many thousands of people it ended up being. As much as I cringe using this newly popular word, it was epic. Two Saturdays ago they planned to rehearse at Discovery park across the street from the new temple from 7 am until 10 pm. They finally had to shut the operation down around 7 pm because of the dust. A cloud of dust so huge (think of 12,000 kids in a field of mainly dry, dead grass and AZ dust) that many of the youth were sick and coughing for days. Some wound up in the hospital, and I know one of Marty's students was in the ICU and never did make it back for school last week. So everyone prayed, and as I've mentioned before, Heaven has a sense of humor. The rare winter storm made an appearance that night and dumped on Discovery park. Our youth were soaked to the bone and freezing cold, but they did it and I was so darn proud of all of them. ABC15 broadcast the event, but our digital TV antenna is a little funky so Brynn and I were able to watch a live stream of it online.
Bryce made it about 30 seconds into it before he was out on my shoulder. Yummy boy.
Again, the whole thing was just so emotional. Because of Marty I was able to get a glimpse of how much blood, sweat, and tears have been contributed over the last few months. I felt the testimonies of these youth and felt the sacrifices they have all made. They will certainly never forget it. I feel Heavenly Father gave them an opportunity for a real sacrifice that just often isn't required the way it used to be. I feel how meager my tithing and time are as sacrifices to the temple when I compare it to, say, the pioneers who gave everything they had and then went without food for a few days. Or broke their fine china to make the walls of the temple sparkle. But what these youth went through was actually right up there with those types of sacrifices you just don't get opportunities for anymore.
Here is the dusty Saturday:
And here is the rainy Saturday:
Some parts of the field they were wading through while performing. You can see it better here as it's being taken down.
Then Sunday morning we had the temple dedication that was broadcast to our stake center. Another emotional morning. The spirit was so strong and I felt so grateful to not only be here in Arizona, but to feel at home here in AZ, which I didn't know I'd ever feel when we first moved out here. I feel like the Lord is gathering his people here in the Gilbert/Queen Creek area and it's incredible and exciting to be part of it.
The open house was an amazing experience as well. I missed seeing it with the family (including Marty's dad) because the babies were sick. But right before they closed the open house, I left the babies with Marty and took BandB with me. They were happy to go a second time. However, being one of the last days of the open house it was wall to wall people. We waited in line for hours before actually making it into the temple. I kept waiting around for the kids to whine or want to be held, but it just never happened. They were so darn good-natured about the whole thing. Especially considering they didn't get dinner until around 9:00 that night (I had no idea it would take so long!). But the temple was the most spectacular one I've seen since the week I got married. In one week, I went through the Timpanogus, Salt Lake, and San Diego temples - all considered some of the most spectacular ones. But this temple was right up there with those. The builders used the agave plant found here in the desert as inspiration all over the temple and it was just so so beautiful and unique.
I didn't take any pictures from my trip, but Marty took a few at the open house.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that one of the kids took these next two pics....
Well, I guess now the truly exciting part begins - actually getting to serve in our new temple! I feel so overwhelmed by our blessings right now. I'm so grateful for this weekend.
P.S.
Brynn came in my room about a half hour after the live stream of the cultural celebration was over, telling me she couldn't sleep. I asked her if she'd like to tell me some of her thoughts about tonight and I would write them down. Here is what she said (with some prompts from me):
"I can't believe that President Eyring and the Prophet came. I bet they liked the fire dance. There were some white dresses and the shirts had flowers on them and they were my favorite costume. I liked the Captain Moroni song the best because I liked the horse running through the flags. The person riding the horse was even riding with one hand and carrying the title of liberty with the other hand. I remember there was a girl on the video that was happy she was adopted and there was also a man that cried and cried in his truck because he sold his favorite toy so his family had enough money to travel to a temple. I learned that way back then when the pioneers were alive there were lots of things that were different and they had to do lots of work. When I was watching the program, I felt like if I was there President Monson would be impressed by all the hard work of a little seven year old girl.
This is happening once in my life and I don't want to forget it (her words!). My favorite part of the temple that I got to see was the Celestial Room because it had many lights and a chandelier about fifteen feet tall. I was really good at finding all the agave plants in the rooms at the temple.
I know that when I get married in the temple that I will have an eternal life with my family."
1 comment:
so exciting to be a part of this dedication...I love all your posts!! keep them coming
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