Clearly I am pretty behind, so I will attempt this morning to catchup. Today is August 17th. It is approximately 6am. I woke up at 4 this morning since I am catching a flight to Boise today to visit an old friend and once I woke up, I couldn't fall back asleep, so I will attempt to bring you up to date.
So much has happened in the last month since I posted.
July 17th- I got to work in the Baptistery again this Saturday. As I was in the lobby of the Baptistery, my shift coordinator told me, there is someone I want you to meet, her name is Rachel. I walked up to Rachel who was confined to a wheelchair with severe mental and physical disabilities and was probably in her 20's. As I approached I could feel my smile widening.
You see, I was blessed early in my teenage years to have been apart of Special Needs mutual and had the chance to fall in love with so many individuals with special needs that span the entire spectrum of physical and mental handicaps. I learned long ago how truly special and loved these sweet spirits are by our Heavenly Father. They truly are royalty in my eyes, and so are their parents who work so hard to take care of them.
After approaching Rachel, her mom told me that she loves to give out the towels to those exiting the font. Since that was my task for this group, I was so excited to have a helper. I told them both I was so excited they had come to the temple that day and headed to the font. I moved a chair out of the way to make sure Rachel's wheelchair would have enough room and stacked the towels for her to use.
As they made their way into the font area I could feel of not only her and her mom's sweet spirits but many loving spirits of those that surrounded her. I could truly feel of Heavenly Father's love for two of his choicest daughters.
Her mom opened each towel and placed it into Rachel's hands so that she could give one to each person as they had completed their baptisms. Rachel would dose in and out of sleep every now and again as her mom tenderly massaged her head.
As I was squeegeeing up the excess water from those exiting the font. I accidentally hit Rachel's slipper. I quickly apologized, and commented to her mom "I accidentally squeegeed Rachel". Her mom's sweet reply with a smile "It happens all the time". After she left, I thought of my friend Willie who passed away not too long ago. I was in the baptismal font area by myself waiting for the next group to come. It was so quiet and peaceful. In my mind, I told Willie I wish he could visit me. I wished I could see him, even if only for a moment. The response I was received was, you can't see me, but I sent Rachel to you today in my place. The tears came as I realized what a gift it was to have been able to feel of the spirit Rachel and her mom brought with her to the temple.
As I finished tidying up after the group had gone in the locker room, my shift coordinator said she noticed me several times with Rachel. She said you were so perfect with her, and so natural! You didn't seem uncomfortable at all. And other's noticed as well how sweet you were with her. I just smiled at my coordinator, there wasn't time to explain why, so I just said I was grateful to have had a helper today.
July 24th-Pioneer Day-No temple shift, but I did teach a lesson on obedience to our combined young women on the 25th. This was a very different lesson for me to teach. I shared many of my personal experiences over the years to try and help them know that whatever wrong paths they take, they can always come back to the straight and narrow and that they can never lose the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, no matter what they do. I did video a practice run of this lesson and actually shared with several individuals that requested it. Here is a link to that video which I am extremely hesitant to share, but pray that it will be useful to someone at some point in time that may come across this post. Link to Practice Run of Lesson on Obedience. Also the beginning is slow and I struggle a bit, but it picks up pace I promise.
July 31st-I believed this week was my last week in the Baptistry. I was a little sad since I had grown so comfortable in this assignment. I didn't want to leave. I had grown such a love for the other workers I had come to know over the past couple months. Today a small family had made an appointment. A mom and dad and their two sons ages 11 and 16 approximately. As the two brothers went into the font, I found out that the 11 year old had researched the family names that they were doing the work for. As this 16 year old baptized his brother for these family members, the spirit could be felt by everyone in the room. You could tell that there was more happening than could be seen with our eyes. Henry and I have also had special spiritual experiences for members of our family that we have researched and done the work for to prepare the names for the temple. There is definitely something different about doing your own families names. These experiences are not easy to describe but I was so grateful to have been there today to feel of the sweet spirit they brought with them.
August 7th- I found out that I got to be in the Baptistry one extra week to help train the new sisters that would be working there. I was so excited. Since I knew it was my last week, I really tried to be in the moment and just really enjoy it. There was a large youth group that came through and after they had all exited the font and were doing confirmations, it was discovered one of the names had missed receiving their baptism. So two of the youth got dressed again in their baptism clothing to return to the font for that one name. I can imagine that individual who they performed the work for may have felt a spectrum of emotions. Excited that they would finally be baptized, and then sad that they name was missed, and then grateful that they two individuals took the time to go and perform the work for just them. If this isn't an example of Christlike love, I don't know what it. How many times does the Savior in the scriptures remind us of "the one". All sheep are loved by the shepherd, every sheep is important to him. Every soul is priceless to our Savior. These youth could have pushed this name to their next trip to the temple, but they didn't, they knew it was important and that their work mattered. I am so grateful for the reminders and lessons I am learning each week in the temple. The love that exists in this world because the love our Savior has for us is incredible. How blessed we are!
August 10th- I had made an appointment for an endowment session and was inspired to finally complete the work for Henry's Great Great Grandmother Lena Sinckawiez. (This is on the Becker Side)
As I was getting ready for the temple and putting my makeup on that day, I thought to myself I will go downstairs and say a quick prayer to see if the Holy Ghost can inspire me as to whose work I should be doing that day. In my temple binder are many names I have prepared to take to the temple. I hadn't even said the prayer yet, just had made the intent to do so. The name Lena Seinkeiwicz came to the forefront of my mind. It was unmistakable. I went downstairs after getting ready and opened the binder. Sure enough, her name was on the very top of the stack. I felt comforted by the Holy Ghost that this was not a coincidence. She was in fact ready to accept her work being done. All the way to the temple I felt her presence near and spoke to her in my thoughts from time to time. I felt so privileged to get to complete her work. On previous days I had performed her other ordinances starting with her Baptism back in December of 2019. Henry has also done several ordinances for her husband George Becker. Once Henry finishes his endowment work we will be able to have them sealed together. As I sat in the Celestial room of the temple praying and pondering after the endowment session, I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude from her for performing those ordinances for her and for doing genealogy work for the Becker family. I can't wait to meet her on the other side one day and give her the biggest hug!
August 14th- My first shift on the second floor. So far I have been spending my Saturdays on the 1st floor of the temple in the baptistery. Starting this week I am on the second floor. I will be assisting in many different capacities on this floor. One of my tasks this week was to check different items on the family name cards people were bringing to the temple as they exited the locker room before they ascended the staircase to their endowment sessions. After I had sat in the chair mere minutes, a brother at the top of the staircase, that was also a temple worker, looked at me and gave me a thumbs up. So naturally, I gave him a thumbs up back. As I sat there a couple minutes longer, I questioned, did that thumbs up mean something? I thought he was just being nice, and was basically checking to see if I was good. I came to find out that because people coming to the temple each had to make an appointment for specific times, the thumbs up was to indicate that everyone that was trying to make their appointment had finished dressing and was out of the dressing room. After learning this, I discussed it with some of other sisters and brother workers there. Luckily, everyone had made it on time, so my thumbs up was the correct gesture, but we all got a good laugh about it. Now every time one of the Brother's passes by me he gives me a thumbs up and says "You Good?" Lol.
Also on this shift I had the opportunity to perform other sacred ordinances that I am unable to go into detail about so not sure how much I will be able to share this month because alot of my time is spent in this area, but I am so grateful for all that I am learning each week. I can feel so many things about my heart and mind changing for the better as I spend more and more time in the temple.
This last week this scripture has come up several times and has spoken so sweetly to my heart, mind, and soul.
D&C 84:88
"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
At a recent devotional put on by our temple presidency, our temple president said "You present your Holiness to the Lord when you walk through the temple doors." I had never thought about it in this context. Initially, I really loved this quote, but as I pondered on this statement for the next several days this concept felt unachievable. As I thought about this phrase "Holiness" it seemed almost to be an unattainable attribute in this life. How are any of us holy enough to truly be in the Lord's house, with the exception of the prophets and the apostles? This is where personal revelation matters for everyone. As I pondered this phrase the Holy Ghost suggested I change the word holiness in that phrase to love and commitment. So the new phrase would read "You present your love for the Lord and your commitment to Him and your covenants when you walk through the temple doors." This felt like something more that I could relate to. I do love the Lord and I am committed to keeping my covenants and obeying his commandments even though I know I am going to fall short because I am not perfect. As I continue to ponder this phrase I think we can become more Holy and more worthy to enter His house as we worthily partake of the sacrament to be cleansed of our sins each week and sincerely and intentionally try to overcome our weaknesses. In this way, both versions of this phrase are possible in this life.
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