Families are For EVER ♥

First on the agenda
for catching up is
the
Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House
yes you can correct my spelling if wrong :)

It was a beautiful family outing.
I love those times when
you forget everything
but being together.

For the July RS Newsletter
I wrote the following:


Our family attended the Open House of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. We had also attended the Draper Mountain Temple House, and attending with extended family, the six of us had gotten separated. It was my goal to keep us together this time; without being fussy and irritating, and while allowing them to reverently enjoy the setting.

While there we were all enamored by the beautiful paintings, the woodwork, the feeling of reverence and love as we entered each room and found our way to the celestial room. I was keeping an eye on each of them and holding Jeremy's hand. We were enjoying the Celestial Room, and I got distracted. Turning around I found that Brian and I were alone, with Clarissa. We hurried forward, but then I thought maybe we had lost Jeremy behind us.

I felt a panic, much like the worldly panic that we feel as we try so hard to keep our families together, on the same straight path, here in the world. In my panic I sent Clarissa one direction and Brian another. They both came back to me without Jeremy. I was so worried.

Brian was calm, and he and Clarissa entered the sealing room. I couldn't, not without knowing that he was okay, what if he came out of one of the rooms, and what if I wasn't there waiting. So I stood out. I stood gazing at a large painting of some mountain scenery. It was there that my life, my real life, began flashing before my eyes. This was my real life. Me scrambling, not focused, distracted, and in the meantime losing sight of my family members.

I was seeing that all my efforts were good, but the lack of effort in some areas was not so good. I, for one, had not expressed my desire to stay together as a family, which easily could have prevented this mix up.

Each of the rooms began to open, and families exited, tears in their eyes, as they had experienced the spiritual testimony of sitting together, the desire to fulfill that promise of being an eternal family. And there I stood, alone. Jeremy did not come out, no one from our family came out...I kept waiting.

Finally a room opened, and there was Jeremy, with Gavin and Sam, and our family members. He ran to my arms, yet, had no idea he was lost. He wasn't lost; he had stayed on the path. He had made it to the destination. It was me who had strayed; who, distracted, had been left behind. He ran along like he was literally in heaven.

Brian and Clarissa came out of the sealing room they had entered, both joyously pleased with their experience. Both wanting me to come see, come hear. We entered the room, the three of us. As we sat and listened to testimony of families being sealed together forever, I thought of how desperate I was to have us all in that room.

How much I wanted us to experience that together. It hadn't happened the way that I wanted it to. But it had happened in a way that I learned what Heavenly Father wanted me to learn. I don't want to end up in heaven wondering where my family members are. They need to know the plan, that we stick together, that we end up together. It can't happen randomly. It can only happen if I do my part to lead the way, with Brian, reverently and humbly depending on Our Father in Heaven. Then our family can partake of the riches of temple, and we can be found together, forever.

It begins in how we live, each day, and how well we recognize that we literally are temples of God, that his Spirit dwells within us, and that we have the power to overcome all things with him. Even our fears. As I stood staring at that mountain portrait, thinking of my life, the hills ... the valleys that feel so low that cause doubt that I will ever reach that desired peak, the trials of the climb, the treacherous journey, that leads to exaltation. We are never alone.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? [1 Corinthians 3:16]

Entering the physical temples of the earth brings such a Spirit of peace, on inspiration to all who arrive prepared to be filled with His love, comfort, and to be inspired. We have been blessed to have two new temples within a bird’s eye view of our Salt Lake homes. These temples have welcomed visitors and have opened their doors to us and to all who will come. As we take the opportunity given to us to attend the recent and ongoing [until August 1st] open house for the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple, we can gain insight of our Heavenly Fathers plan for us, and reverence for the many blessings that he pours upon us.

The Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple is the 130th temple built since A.D. 70, when according to the pamphlet presented at the open house, "the last temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and temple worship ceased until God's Church and priesthood authority were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith."

Parts of the temple came from all over the world. The exterior Granite pavers came from China, the interior limestone from Morocco and Egypt, interior wood from Indiana and Kentucky, and the doors and veneer from the German Alps. [as reported in the Deseret news, Thursday, June 18, 2009]

The article compared the size of the new temple, at 60,000 sq. ft.; half the size of the Jordan River Temple, and the Salt Lake Temple is four times larger. Also reported was that "the district for the new temple encompasses 26 stakes, which include about 83,000 members in southwest Salt Lake County. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve said, 'I think it's an exciting thing to know that the church is growing so strongly here...and the temples have been...put in places where the people are.' "


This temple has more pictures of the Savior than I remember ever seeing. And as Sister Johnson related in Relief Society, when you leave the sealing rooms if you will look at the glass while exiting the area and notice the little circular pieces in the wall you will see a reflection of the Savior in each piece. It is an amazing illusion, and testimony of our Savior being available to each of us, in our every need. As Elder Ballard said, "temples have been...put in places where the people are." Are we in places where the temples are?
Are we putting ourselves there?
My hope is that we will.




Families are Forever ♥