Then, five years ago, there was a devastating fire that left almost nothing and broke so many hearts. Now this place has been rebuilt and converted into a House of the Lord; people have compared it to "a phoenix rising from the ashes." Some of the "pioneer bricks" are even included in the outer walls.
With our friend, Kayalauna Kuhn, my mom and siblings and I went to the noon dedication at our Stake Center. In fact, I was the primary motive; Mom wasn't planning on going at all, but when she saw that I wanted to go and had even obtained a recommend from Bishop Kippen, that convinced her to get one for herself and for the other kids.
You couldn't have asked for a better day for a temple dedication. Today was the first official day of spring, and the weather was nothing short of perfect. You could say it was a reflection of everyone's joy and gratitude for this new temple.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks was the one to dedicate the temple, and as I said, Elder Ballard was also there, along with at least two members of the Seventy and Sister Linda Reeves from the Relief Society Presidency. There were some very memorable talks. Probably the one that stood out to me the most was the story of Sister Reeves's teenage daughter who died in a tragic accident, and her family had been planning to do her temple work within the next six months but at least three or four people received very distinct impressions that she needed her temple work done now. Sister Reeves also mentioned a former home teacher who was about to undergo surgery, and everyone was positive of his chances for recovery, but he wanted to make sure he had a current temple recommend since he didn't want to take the chance of facing Heavenly Father without one. So he asked Sister Reeves's husband to give him an interview at his own home right before the surgery. As it turned out, the surgery was a success but he soon died anyway.
It seemed almost a shame to leave when the dedication was over. I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to go to this temple, since it's a fair distance from where I live. But I would like to try to go to a temple more often; with all the things I've been dealing with this last year, the things I'm dealing with right now, I'd say the temple's one of the very few places where I can really feel better.
Just look at that. Isn't it amazing? A real masterpiece, a mansion truly worthy of a king.
