Happy New Year! Welcome 2017! I had an amazing week. My heart is full and I will undoubtedly fill pages in my journal over the next few days with all the amazing things I saw and felt and learned and did. As part of our parenting plan, the kids spend Christmas morning through New Years with their dad. As it turns out, I always have this week off from work as well. This year I felt inspired to take a road trip by myself and do some good while the kids were gone.
Monday I cleaned the house and did all the laundry and put away all the new Christmas goodies. It took pretty much all day to put the house back in "show-ready" order. In the evening I went to the theater to see Rogue One and was pleasantly surprised to see the Bosse family there and Rebekah and Brianne joined me on the front row! It was really good in my opinion, they did a really good job of making it congruent with the older movies which made it much more enjoyable...they also used the wonders of CGI to bring back characters just as they were 40 years ago! I threw some things in a backpack when I got home and went to bed with intentions of leaving early.
In my quest to serve in every temple in the United States I thought I could get the most for my time if I headed north and went up I-15 and just stopped and did work in each temple I came to. I ended up leaving around 6am, which was later than I had hoped, but I really embraced the idea of going with the flow and seeing where I ended up. I made no plans, made no hotel reservations. I left with a list of the temples in my path, their addresses, and their schedules and I set out on my adventure. You have a lot of pondering (and singing) time when you drive for more than 12 hours alone! There was snow in Flagstaff, and from there on, and the reservation was beautiful to drive through. I stopped when I needed to stop and I just did my thing.
First on my list was
Manti. The temple was incredible. It was completed in 1877 and stands as a testament to the faith of the early saints. The craftsmanship of poor outcasts working with rudimentary tools and yet 140 years later this temple of the Lord is still as majestic and incredible. I got to go up and down some very old staircases where the hand rails were just lower than you'd expect them to be and the steps were not a standard depth, you could feel they were old. One of the great things about the Manti temple is you get to progress through the rooms of the temple, so you get to see a lot of it. I remember noting a beautiful white peacock in one of the murals (because Felicity loves peacocks) and its the first temple I've been in where we were seated on long wooden benches instead of chairs. It is definitely one of my new favorites! Man was it cold outside when I got done! I drove to Payson, UT and got a nice little hotel room for the night.
Wednesday I got up early and was at the
Payson temple before the sun came up. I could tell pretty quickly that it is a sister temple to the Gilbert temple here in Arizona. It was basically the same layout, but had an apple blossom motif. When I was done I went to the
Provo City Center temple. This temple was constructed when the
tabernacle that was there was lost in a fire. They kept the edifice and built a temple from the ashes so to speak. It was so beautiful. It was, however, busy since Provo was closed. I loved that the murals in the ordinance room went right up onto the ceiling too and we got to go up a tight spiral staircase moving from one room to another. It was lovely. When I was done there I drove to
Mount Timpanogos. It had great art glass in all the interior and exterior windows that were iridescent and glimmered in the sun. You could tell that it was constructed in the mid 90s from the decor.
I drove to Salt Lake City when I was done, to see the lights at temple square. They did not disappoint! It was very cold and there were a lot of people there, but it was truly an amazing experience and I'm glad I took the time to go. My lovely friend Holly, who incidentally was the sister missionary who taught me before my baptism, offered to have me stay with her and her family. Normally I wouldn't want to impose, but felt strongly that it was a good idea, it also meant that I could spend another night and see more temples because I wasn't spending that budget on a hotel for the night! We had a great chat, it felt like we picked right back up where we left off 13 years ago!
In the morning I went to the
Draper temple and then
Oquirrh Mountain temple. I drove further north and was able to attend the
Bountiful temple in the evening. It was beautiful too. It is laid out very similarly to Mount Timpanogos, but the interior design is very different. I liked the chapel, its the first one I've been in with vaulted ceilings. When I was done I drove to Ogden and got a hotel for the night. Let me tell you, it was a pretty crappy place! I just told myself it was all part of the adventure (and slept with my gun by the bed)! In the morning I went to the
Ogden temple. One of the best parts about the temple interiors are the original works of art. They are decorated with many paintings that I would consider standard works for the church, but then the temples have original works too. Not only murals in ordinance rooms, but paintings. I saw contemporary saints picking apples, or pioneer women holding children. My favorite was a life-size painting of the Savior holding two little Lamanite girls at his side. This one was in the Ogden temple and I stopped and looked at it for quite awhile. After Ogden I was then onto my last stop,
Brigham City. This is another new favorite. There was so much natural light in all of the rooms. The dressing room had the largest round windows with glass art flowers. There was a
beautiful mural in the ordinance room, it was all birds, which was different. Geese and ducks and all manner of other birds. One of the workers (who found out about my adventure) pointed out that it was an inspiration from the late President Packer who loved birds and painted and sculpted birds. It made it that much more special to me.
I got dinner and then drove back to Holly's to spend the night before heading home. I left Saturday morning and had lots of time to think and ponder on the many things I learned, insights I had gained, and new resolutions I have made for myself. When all was said and done, I performed 13 initiatories and 9 endowment sessions and spent about 30 hours in the temple. It was such a spiritual and enlightening experience. I can't think of a better way I could have spent my week alone. My drive home was uneventful. I did stop to take some really pretty pictures of Glenn Canyon. My car performed perfectly, I ended up logging 1,841 miles and averaged 58 miles per gallon, so it was less than $80 in gas.
My meetings went well today. I substituted in Primary for second hour and enjoyed a really spiritual lesson in young womens. I have been writing and reading today and have been going through 2016s photos. It was a hard year, but I think the work I did in the last week will propel me into 2017 with a renewed sense of direction and hope. It's going to be great!
Here is the updated list of the temples in the US and the ones I completed. I have a lot of work left to do!
