Patience

Tonight was our ward temple night. The Salt Lake Temple has sessions on the hour, and we were going to go to the 7:00 session. I was there with ten minutes to spare, but it turns out that another ward and two other stakes decided the third Thursday of the month was a good time, too. So there were about 20-30 of us who had to wait until 8:00.

I think maybe the Lord wanted me to learn more patience this week, so I patiently waited for an hour reading the book of Luke. Besides learning patience, these are some things I enjoy about temple worship:

1. A time for meditation
2. A time to open my heart in prayer
   
3. A reminder to see the forest for the trees
   
4. A respite from a hectic, chaotic, materialistic world
5. It helps turn my heart to my fathers
   
6. It helps me to be more humble and teachable
   
7. It gives me strength and courage
   
8. It helps me feel closer to God

In remembrance

This afternoon I was looking at January's First Presidency message in the Ensign. It was an article entitled "The Master Build Bridger" written by President Monson. He spoke of how a bridge builder builds not for himself, but those who come after. Jesus Christ's atoning grace is the bridge and the only way for us to cross the chasm of sin and death and return to God, our Heavenly Father.

I looked at the photo of Thomas Monson and the thought passed my mind that he's going to be our next prophet, and I thought that President Hinckley's time would soon be over. I didn't give it much more thought, until tonight we found out that President Gordon B. Hinckley, our beloved prophet, had died at his home, surrounded by his family and loved ones. He was 97. News release

President Hinckley has made a profound impact for good for the church, it's members, and to an extent, the greater world at large. He has worked ceaselessly for good for so many years, working much harder than many men younger than he.

I have always revered him as a prophet of God, but I remember very vividly how I felt when he unveiled the plan for the Perpetual Education Fund. When I was a missionary in Chile, we went hiking up a mountain with a Chilean returned missionary on one of our free days. I remember him telling me how he went on a mission with many Americans, and how he worked hard, and even learned some English. But all of his American companions went home and had school and work opportunities, but we he went home he had nothing. He returned to his small town, and though he learned leadership skills, and worked hard on his mission there were no job prospects and no way of financing any education. I didn't know what to say to him.

After President Hinkley told of us this plan to finance education for young members of the church in developing countries via very low interest loans, I felt so joyful. This inspired man of God saw a real need and found a way to make it happen. I felt in my heart that this man truly is a prophet chosen of God.

Under President Hinckley's direction the number of temples in the church has gone from less than 50 to over 120. He also announced the building of the Conference Center and he raised the bar for the standards required for missionaries to serve. Also, his openness with the media was unprecedented. He was interviewed by Larry King, Mike Wallace, and Tom Brokaw.

But above all of the measurable things that he accomplished, I will remember him for the man of faith that he was. He was a true witness of Jesus Christ. I will remember his love for the Savior and his faith in Him. I will remember how much he loved his people and all people. I will remember how optimistic he was and how he saw the good in everyone.

I feel sad for the loss of this great man, because he made the world better, and we will miss him. But I do not feel sad for him. I know, as he knew, that he is now in a much better place. I'm sure he is having a wonderful reunion with his wife and his family and friends that had passed before him. He will be rejoicing and feeling immeasurable love, being reunited with Jesus Christ his Savior.

I loved our prophet, Gordon B. Hinkley, and as many, I will miss him dearly.

Family Downtown Evening

This year we bought a family pass to the Utah Children's Museum at The Gateway. The kids have been there a few times, but I've only been once so we decided to go downtown and make a visit for Family Home Evening. They had a special Robots exhibit that was pretty cool.


They had robotic toys, statues, and these really cool robotic arms you could control. It was a big hit with the the kids. We spent almost two hours there and we didn't even hit half of the place, so we decided we need to go more often. I had forgotten how fun it is. It was great because they're open later on Monday nights, and there was hardly anyone else there. Plus it's such a great opportunity to play with the kids.


On our way to the museum I took this shot of Temple Square through the car windshield while we were waiting at the light. It looked so inviting that we made a whole night of it and wandered around the temple grounds admiring the shimmering lights after the museum.

The Assembly Hall looked stunning with all of the vivid orange, yellow and purple lights all around it. I'm usually quite the Grinch, but even I can't help feeling a little jolly with all the Christmas lights up.

The temple of course looks very majestic and inviting behind all of the brightly lit trees. Somehow it's always so comforting and peaceful to me. Of course it was Christmastime 1995 when Melinda and I were married in this temple for time and all eternity. I was going to say that was the best Christmastime for me, but when I honestly think about it, they keep getting better; especially with each of the children.

I loved Melinda then, but I love her so much more now. Now we have Lisette, Miles, Ian and Saffron, too. My love hasn't been spread thinner now that we have them; my capacity to love has grown more than I could have ever imagined.

They had nativity scenes from different countries and cultures around the grounds. Lisette made sure we saw them all. We really liked the New Zealand one, with the lamb and the kiwi. It's always a good reminder that Christmas is about Jesus Christ and not Santa Claus or the Christmas Monkey.

We finished the night off by getting cinnamon rolls and egg nog from Harmons. Yum. We made hot cocoa with little marshmallows and sang some Primary Christmas songs before we prayed and went to bed. It was a very nice family evening.

Day Off

Friday I took the day off. It was glorious. I slept in, lounged around, and took a nap. It's so nice to just stay in bed with warm comfy blankets on a cool fall day. I got a couple calls from work, but I was able to remote-in an fix them pretty easily.

Today I slept in again! It was great. I felt like just lounging around all day, but I thought I'd be happier get a few things done. I was contemplating cleaning up the back porch or going to the temple. I thought the temple was a loftier goal, so I drove downtown and spent a couple hours there (Melinda had gone on Friday morning with her cousin Emily).

Then I got home and rounded-up all the kids and directed them in cleaning up the house. They washed dishes, did the laundry, mopped the floor, and Ian even mowed the lawn. I went out with Ian while he mowed the lawn and ended up getting the back porch all cleaned up like I originally wanted to. I guess if you get your priorities in the right place, you can make room for some of the other things as well.

Downtown dust

Ten minutes before I was supposed to go home from work tonight, I got a phone call (which usually means trouble.) Our downtown clinic was switching DSL and phone providers, and their install tech couldn’t get their network up. So at the last minute I got on the freeway and drove downtown.

I got the problem fixed fairly fast. The DSL router had the same network address as the internal wireless router. After I changed one of the network addresses it came right up. I took a little longer there because my former technician (who has since left) setup the router without any security. I wonder how many neighborhood people have been using their Internet for free? They will be sorely disappointed tomorrow morning.

So it was interesting being downtown today. Even though our mailing address says “Salt Lake City” we don’t actually live in the city. They have these 2 massive malls right by Temple Square that are being demolished. The Crossroads Mall is almost all rubble now, they just need to implode the Key Bank tower. Next they will tear down the ZCMI Center. The whole place is a massive destruction zone and they have these banners of Downtown Rising. It sure doesn't look like it's rising, it looks like it's being brought down to the dust. There are construction walls and rubble all over the place.

So since I was downtown already, I thought I should go to the Family History Library and finally get some ordinance cards printed out. I've had some ancestors flagged in PAF (Personal Ancestral File) to get their missing temple work done for a while now. So being downtown I decided that there's never been a better time than right now.

The library there is great, and the people are very helpful. They steered me in the right direction and I got exactly what I needed. It's exciting to get that step done and go on to the next; to go to the temple. It feels like I'm taking my ancestors names out of the dust.