I just thought I'd update that blog since it's been a few years ;) Well, let's focus on the best thing that's been happening in Egg life: TEMPLES! I can hardly believe it but we now have a temple in Hartford. I was driving to church on Sunday morning - alone, and at 7:30 in the morning - (because one of the glamorous perks of being the Young Women's President is that you GET to attend WARD COUNCIL! WAHOO! At 8 in the morning!) and as I was driving, I was reflecting on these past 2 years. The experience of seeing a temple being built in our area from the ground up has been an amazing and special blessing. When our temple was announced, I remember the Bishop saying something like: 'ok, Heavenly Father is blessing us with a temple and where much is given, much is required. So we have to show Him that we're up to receiving this blessing'. I can say with all my heart that the Southbury Ward has come through, big time! The Southbury Ward loves the Lord and wants to do the work!
This picture is actually of the Eggs attending the Philadelphia Temple open house. It was such a great experience. I got a little resistance from the other adult Egg, but he'll be the first one to say it was a great idea for us to take that RARE day off from work, take a long weekend and go to Philly and see this beautiful temple. It got us really excited for our own temple open house which would be happening soon after this. The city was great. We had so much fun there, did a lot of great things, had one or two mishaps, ate some good food and visited the Philly lib, which is right next door to the temple!
Here's me and the kids when we took my dad to the temple open house one night. I love going to the temple at night, even though I usually attend early morning sessions. That's just kind of the best time to go for a mom, Saturday morning at the crack of dawn. But there's just something about the temple at night... love it.
The kids had a half day during the last week of the open house, and even though they had already been there twice, I let them all play hooky to go on one more temple tour! (yes, they were thrilled with this plan, and the plan to go to McDonald's afterwards!) This is their only chance to walk through the House of the Lord until they are old enough to come and do temple ordinances. I wanted them to remember the temple and that special spirit that is there. And if there's one thing I want to teach my kids, it's this: the Temple is the House of the Lord! When they're all grown up and maybe with their own kids and grandkids and I've moved on from this life, I want my them to think of me and say, Boy, Mom sure did love the temple, didn't she?! I want to watch them give testimonies from beyond the veil and hear them say, Mom taught us that the temple is important. And she never let us forget it!
These two pictures are from Saturday. The youth had a temple trip to come and do baptisms in the afternoon. I was able to get my grandfather's work ready and I gave his card to a very special young man in our ward who did his baptism and his confirmation. Earlier that day I went through the temple for my grandmother (my dad's mother). I had done her baptism and confirmation on Tuesday night and I was so fortunate to have Brother Mason -who I love so much - do the baptism. It was one of the best experiences I ever had at the temple. Brother Mason is also in the temple presidency, so it was just a very powerful and special moment.
On Sunday during Young Women's we were talking about spiritual gifts. One of the gifts we talked about is the gift of faith. I know that one of my spiritual gifts is the ability to see the restored gospel so plainly and clearly. This gift grows stronger all the time. To me it is so obviously true that this work is real, that the Book of Mormon is true, that the Gospel has been restored, and that there is a living prophet on the earth today! I know that there are a lot of people who struggle with their testimonies, and I am sensitive to that. I didn't always have a testimony that was this strong. I think I always knew that the church was special and good. But there were times of struggle. These last 2 years have brought me to such a strong place in my testimony. To me, it is so clearly true that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He was not perfect, and no prophet ever was perfect. If you seek to find fault in Brother Joseph, you will find it. He wasn't perfect. But he WAS a prophet. And if you seek to find out if he was a prophet, you will find out that yes he was. That's what happened to me. I wanted to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and Heavenly Father answered my prayers in very plain and in no uncertain terms. I can testify that Joseph Smith opened up this last dispensation, that's for sure! To me, there is nothing more obviously true than the fact that someone has opened up the last dispensation!
