Temple Dedication

Getting to the actual temple dedication today has been a challenge, beginning with 2 weeks ago when President Hinckley passed away. None of the events could necessarily be blamed on anyone, it is just the way it has worked out. Luckily, it all did work out and we now have a dedicated temple in Rexburg.

When President Hinckley passed away there was suddenly a bubble burst in our area, at least with our family and within our ward. Our youth, in particular, were so excited to have him come. On the Monday following his passing we received word that the dedication would be held off for a week because of the funeral. We could accomodate that but it certainly seemed to drag things out with all of the practices for the Youth Celebration which included about 800 youth in our area. The weather was another factor. Just getting to practices was a chore and traffic has been terrible all week long. Our area also had to reschedule a few activities due to the one week change

Then our new first presidency was announced. That took a little mental adjustment by all of us but I think we were doing well with that, even a little excitement with the kids already loving Elder Uchtdorf and his way of speaking and his accent. We were once again gaining excitement when we heard that President Monson and President Eyring would be at the Youth Celebration and Temple Dedication. Then on the night of the Youth Celebration it was announced that President Eyring was not going to be here because he broke his ankle and that President Monson would not be here for the celebration, just the dedication. So many of our kids in the celebration were disappointed but there was still the dedication which we were planning on attending.

This morning we had a neighbor girl (age 7) over while her parents went to the 9 am session of the dedication and her family was going to watch Nathan while we went to the 11:30 session (needing to be in our seats at the temple at 11). As 10:30 came we were ready to leave but still, the other family was not coming. We sat in their driveway until 11:03 and when they finally arrived they told us that the 1st session had started 40 minutes late (we later found out that it was because President Monson's plane couldn't land because of all the fog). We were now late to our own session, not even knowing if we would be able to get into the temple with it being as late as it was already and to top it all off we sat for another 20 minutes in traffic. There were so many people leaving the temple and campus buildings that we couldn't even get up the hill. By the time we finally got there it was exactly 11:30 and we found that we had to park at the Stake Center below the temple, walk up through the enclosed pathway to the temple which is a pretty good hike, all uphill and up several stairs, and just as we walked in the temple doors we took a seat (right inside the doors in front of the check in desk) and it started. By this time I was having constant contractions and had been sitting for almost an hour in a vehicle. It was hard to focus because of the series of events and because there were several interruptions at the door and it was hard to really enjoy the actual dedication. However, by the time President Monson did the dedicatory prayer there was a calm spirit among our group (we, of course, were not the only ones who had had this kind of morning) and the kids were in awe at the Hosanna Shout.

So to sum up the past events, nothing went as anticipated and we had to really work at keeping a positive attitude and not giving in to disappointment throughout it all. As we discussed with the kids later, the important part is that we now have a dedicated temple and that we were blessed with the opportunity to sit in the temple as a family with the prophet there as it was being dedicated. As President Monson mentioned in his remarks we can use that moment (sitting in the temple) to mark the beginning of a new goal to be back to the temple often, for our children to receive their own endowments here and for the kids to be married in the temple. Our hope is that the kids will be able to remember past all the inconveniences of the experience and focus on the feelings during that brief time of the dedicatory prayer and Hosanna Shout.

As was also mentioned in the film at the Youth Celebration, time here is Rexburg has for the last 29 years been marked by "before the flood" and "after the flood". Now it feels as though we have a knew time landmark for our area: "before the dedication" and "after the dedication". We are ready to move forward "after the dedication".