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| Photo by LaVell G. Miller |
The open house for the Pocatello Idaho Temple began September 13 with VIP tours all week. I had the opportunity to drive the shuttle van from the church parking lot to the entrance of the temple on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. It doesn't look like a long way, but it's quite a hike if you're walking! I didn't take any photos, I copied this off of Facebook from another shuttle van driver volunteer in our stake, LaVell G. Miller. I love how the windows are glowing in the sun!
One of the VIPs that I had the privilege of driving was Larry Fisher, the Pocatello Communication Director and regional spokesman for the Church. He was the tour guide for a group of community leaders. He said that we had the honor of trying something new with our temple - involving youth in the preparations. In addition to the day when the youth cleared brush for the new temple site before they started building, a couple of weeks ago, the youth from various stakes in the region were invited to plant flowers on the grounds. Here is a photo of some of the youth in our stake planting flowers, taken by our stake president, President Gibson. My kids were not there, but these photos feature our neighbors, the Clarks, with whom Alexander has been playing at least twice a week all summer, sometimes at our house, sometimes at theirs:
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| Emily, the oldest of the Clark children |
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| Sarah, in the back |
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| Porter, wearing a black shirt in the back, has spent some time with Dallin this summer when he wasn't working on the yard of our neighbor, Tony |
I had an interesting and very unexpected temple adventure on September 9. All of the youth in the region were invited to tour the temple, even before the VIP tours. I brought Em and Dal and picked up a couple of young men on the other hill and drove them to the church building to start the tour. We met some of our leaders and other youth in our ward outside the doors, and stood on the sidewalk waiting for anyone else who might show up. As I was talking to a leader, we realized that we had all of the youth who were planning to come except one family. I volunteered to text the parents and see if they were coming. Well, this just happens to be the family of a mom who has some seriously dangerous people in her life. Her own mom caused the death of her brother and has been targeting her because she is trying to get her mom prosecuted for it. So when I texted her that her children weren't at the temple, she freaked out. "They were dropped off by their sister 20 minutes ago! The GPS on their phones say they are in front of the temple. Where are they?! Should I leave my class to come find them?!" she texted. I let the other leaders know and said that I would go up to the temple to find them and meet them up there. As I said, it is quite a hike from the parking lot to the temple entrance if you're walking. While I walked, I called the mom. "I'm on my way to find them right now," I said. "Don't worry, they are surrounded by angels!" She responded, "My mother goes to the temple!!" I felt so bad for upsetting her. As soon as I found her kids, I took a picture of them and sent it to her - "I have your children. I will not let them out of my sight again until they are back in the vehicle on their way back home to you." That proved to be a very rash promise for me to make.
I did not realize that youth leaders were not actually invited into the temple - only the youth themselves. The leaders were invited to sit in the tent in front and help put booties on the shoes of their youth. When I walked up to one of our Young Women leaders to get booties, she said incredulously, "Are you going in?" I answered, "I promised their mom that I would not let them out of my sight." But after she said that, I thought, "What if the ushers don't let me in?!" I had plenty of time to worry about it, because we were waiting quite a while in the tent before we actually went in to start the tour. I decided that if someone said something to me, I would just have to explain the situation - these children's grandmother is a murderer and trying to get at their mother, so I promised her that I wouldn't let them out of my sight, even in the temple. But no one asked. I tried to avoid making eye contact with the ushers until I was well inside the temple.
On a side note, in my anxiety to try to meet up with the rest of our youth and keep track of all of them so they didn't get separated, I had not worried at all about my own children. I knew Emerald and Dallin would be fine with the leaders and other youth in our ward, so I left them at the church with the others to watch the video and start the tour there while I went to find the other kids. As I was waiting anxiously in the tent for the tour to start, it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't actually seen my own children come up with the other youth in our ward. I thought, "Oh no, did they wait at the church for me?" I called the leader whom I had been talking with before, and said, "Where are my children?" "They're coming in," he answered, "They're just about to walk into the tent." I found Em and Dal and let them know that I would be in the tour ahead of them, and I would see them at the end.
Another interesting thing that happened was that Sandy and Barbara came that night and ended up on the same tour as I was. That was a fun surprise.
It turned out that I could not actually keep all five of the other children in my sight throughout the temple tour -- the youngest son was always walking ahead and often went into the rooms ahead of us, and the oldest son hung back at the end of the group and often lagged behind. So I tried to stay with the three kids in the middle, and each time we went in a new room, I counted to make sure all five of them were still there and hadn't been enticed away by a devious grandmother or aunt. It made the temple tour very exciting. I felt very guilty for being in the temple when only youth were supposed to attend, and that dampened my enjoyment as well. But I did have a spiritual experience in the sealing room.
After the tour we went outside and sat down on the granite benches to wait for the rest of the group. I felt the bench I was sitting on with my hand - I have been waiting and imagining for months what a relief it will be to touch the temple, to feel that it is real. I expected the stone walls to be cold and hard, but the bench was still warm from the heat of the day even though the sky was dark and it was almost 9:00. It was warm and not hard at all. Full of love and light and peace. God is in His Holy Temple!
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| Photo by LaVell G. Miller |
Eventually Emerald and Dallin came out with their group, and our whole ward walked together back down to the Satterfield church building for the closing reception. I stayed with the other family until their dad came to pick them up, then I walked them out to their van, saw them safely in, then texted their mom, "Package delivered intact to dad."
Then I went back into the reception to find my own children. One of our youth leaders took a photo of us in front of the Christus statue which I found out later that Brother Fisher's wife did all of the finishing work on:
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| Pocatello Temple Youth Open House |
We talked about the temple, and I told Emerald that I was thinking about her, and even though we weren't in the same group, we toured together in spirit. We had the opportunity to walk into the bride's room, and I thought that some day I might be in that room with one of my daughters - Aysha or Emerald.
I am looking forward to touring the temple together with our whole family!
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