Salt Lake City Temple Session

While we were in Utah, Russ and I were able to make a temple session the morning of December 20th.  It was one experience I will always remember.

We had never been inside the SLC temple and had heard about it being all live sessions.  We wanted to see what it was all about.

The rooms were amazing and I found myself constantly looking around to see what else I could find or see. I noticed that none of the rooms had 90 degree wall to ceiling corners.  All the ceilings were curved.  Not sure why but it was notable.

As I sat in the Celestial room with Russ, I began to take in all the beauty and detail around us.  I began sobbing.  What a great feeling to know that this place was created with such exquisite detail that one can not begin the convey the words.  There are simply no words to describe the feeling I had in that room.

We asked one of the temple workers if there was anything else they could recommend we see inside the temple since we were just visiting.  We were then showed a very special room.  The room where the Prophet goes when he is inside the temple.  I sat in awe and stared at the door.  Wondering if he was beyond the door itself.  I imagined the steps in front of the door and began to the imagine the possibility of him sitting there and pondering the needs of the church.  The strength that is given to him to be able to get through any day must be considerable.  I leaned over to Russ and shared my overwhelming feeling of burden that is placed upon his shoulders.

I know it seems like we pray often for our prophet and other leaders of the church but then I wondered if anyone actually puts his name on the temple prayer roll.  Well, I felt like I needed to.

I left the temple that morning with a new testimony of our temples and our past and present prophets. Did one trip the this particular temple do that?  Yes in deed it did.

Winter Memories In Utah

Day #1 of Our Utah Trip 12/19/2014

We planned this little trip about 2 weeks ago with the intent to visit temple square and to visit a few temples. Never did I expect to walk away with so much more.

We were able to make it to the St. George temple, Provo temple, Draper temple and Salt Lake City temple on day one.  Seeing all the nativity sets in front of the temples was great and SLC had no comparison.  AMAZING!  We walked through down town SLC and through temple square.  Stopped and watched sister missionaries singing along the way.  A pretty great Christmas experience.


The boys found a tie store and were in heaven.  We walked out with 6 ties.  Russ saw a little girl in the food court who appeared lost.  After she passed us twice I stopped her and confirmed she had lost her parents.  We found a security guard and finally found her parents.  Poor girl.  Damian got his first cinnabon ever.  Yummy!

I found on this day that I would love to retire in Draper, UT.  What a dream!

Day #2 of Our Utah Trip 12/20/2014

We started our morning by attending a temple session at the Salt Lake temple.  That was a who additional experience I will share in a future post

We made it to South Jordan temple, Oquirrh Mountain temple, Brigham City temple, Ogden temple and Bountiful temple. They all were so beautiful.  Who knew that upper Utah was pretty much farm land.

We then made our way up to Park City to go to Gorgoza.  What a fun time.  Nice to be in the snow (or at least for me and Damian), and enjoy the winter weather.  Flurries falling on our faces made it all the more special.  It was a little nerving to drive in that weather so I pulled over and made Russ do it.  Also helped to say an extra prayer for safety. 

We stopped and had dinner, went to find a 'top' for the kid he was looking for, saw some reindeer and made our way back to the hotel.  We were completely exhausted by then end of the day.

                                 

Day #3 of Our Utah Trip 12/21/2014

Making our way home we stopped at the Mt. Timpanogis temple and Payson temple.  Explained to Damian that we plan to attend the open house of the Payson temple in 2015.  It will be such a good experience for him as well as us.  It was raining pretty good.  Taking in the beauty of the landscape and clouds as we drove was priceless.  Sang to some tunes and just enjoyed the time with the family.

This was a trip to remember.  Not the most adventurous but a lifelong memory of the time we spent together.

                                   

Kindness of a Stranger

Yesterday, Damian had his glasses stolen at school.  At first I was angry as to why he even removed them from his face but a heartwarming stranger ultimately made the season of giving have a deeper meaning.

I called eye glass world where we got them and asked if our warranty covered stolen glasses.  She replied "not usually but I will check your account."  I explained what happened and she then replied "I can't believe someone would do that."  She then went on to tell me that our coverage would not cover them for replacement.  I asked her to please get me a price for a new pair as we had already used our benefits for this year and we would have to pay cash.  I made a statement like "Seriously, during the most stressful time of the year."  She put me on hold me a minute and came back to say, "I am going to get this taken care of for you."  "What do you mean," I replied.  She then told me that she wanted to take care of replacing them for me and would have a new pair ready tomorrow afternoon.

I stopped, took a breath and then clarified what she meant and the cost.  She then replied back again "I am taking care of it for you.  You do not need to pay anything.  I just feel horrible that someone took his glasses."

I started crying on the phone and I am sure she was a little surprised as I continued talking thru tears and sniffles.  She said "Why are you crying?".  I replied "You have no idea how much that means to me and there are just not that many people who would do that."

She then said "The season of giving."

I thanked her once again and then continued to cry in my office.  Not only did she save us about $200, she reminded me of just how giving we should be to those in need.  Open a door, help someone to their car, do some act of service beyond our normalcy.

Needless to say, we are tempted to make him wear the thing that goes on the end of the glasses so he can't just lay them down, but I somehow think he would be totally humiliated if we did that.

Family Picture Day

They kick and scream, well not really, but they put on their fake joy and always are willing to be tortured with yearly family pictures as though I do not take enough throughout the entire year already.  This year we went to Nelson's Landing which is an old western 'ghost town'.  We didn't stay late enough to see if the portion of 'ghost town' was accurate.

Enjoy a peek at my amazing family!