This post was mostly written by Candace. This was just great. Here you go:
Yesterday we had the experience of a lifetime. Our temple was dedicated today. It’s hard to write about because I am at a loss for words but I’ll give it my best shot. The whole experience was really just incredible. But that doesn’t really tell you a whole lot, huh.
When we first found out we were in the new temple’s district we were told it would be unforgettable. I thought about the different temple open houses I had seen and was excited because in a million years I never thought we’d be able to be involved in such an undertaking.
Our first assignments came with the open house. For some reason (that Fernando and I cannot figure out) our stake was given many days to assist at the open house for the temple. The open house ran for 2 months and we had 4 days along with additional random assignments. Other people from other stakes seemed to have one day or two days total. Based on this, you’d think we live close to the temple or are a host stake but we are actually the furthest stake in the district. We live a whole 30 minutes away (I know. It’s Utah. We have 5 temples within 30 minutes).
Notice the tents surrounding the temple to keep people in the shade. I read an article stating that there were almost 600,000 people going through the temple during the two months. 'Course we went on the tour 3 times so thats actually close to 599,996 people.
So for each day of the open house our ward alone needed something like 60 volunteers. We helped usher, host, and clean the building. I must say even though smiling and swooping your arms in the direction visitors should walk was fun, cleaning the temple was much more fun. We even got to vacuum the celestial room. During the time of the open house we also dragged as many people to the open house as possible, bringing our total visits to the temple during the open house period to 8 visits. We know that temple in and out.
It’s a beautiful temple where the spreading of natural light seemed to be the main architectural feature. They used walls of frosted glass to allow the light to sweep throughout the temple instead of solid normal walls.
The chandeliers are in a unique star shaped pattern and hang 15 feet tall in the celestrial room. (Have you ever seen something this pretty?)
The temple contains three times more pictures of Christ than any other temple, including a painting of the resurrection where Christ is speaking to Mary Magdeline which Fernando and I fell in love with (and are dying to figure out who the artist is so we can buy it for our house). All the art work was digitally remastered to make the colors brighter and more unique. The baptismal font is surrounded by rich wood and beautiful stone. The colors surrounding it are so vibrant (and yes, we got to clean here too and we even got to go down to the basement and walk around the oxen).
The endowment rooms are painted by hand by a local artist. Its going to be fun to find all the little animals on the walls while I try to stay focused.
My favorite feature is the double grand staircases in the center of the building with another 15 foot chandelier. It looks like something out of a fancier Bellagio. It is definitely the most beautiful temple that I’ve ever seen and it makes me very proud that it is ours. This temple feels much more like a really really nice house, rather than a building with hallways and rooms. Everything seems much more open and inviting. We could definitely see ourselves putting these staircases in our mansion in heaven (yes, we're saving for that down payment).
The second big undertaking our family was involved in is that Fernando was asked to sing in one the dedicatory choirs. So yes, Fernando got to sing in the celestial room literally right behind President Monson (about 2 feet behind his chair). At first we were told spouses wouldn’t get tickets to the dedication to watch our spouses perform (which I was ready to revolt about) but then we were able to get tickets after all (which was very good).
The celestial room seating was reserved (I’m pretty sure) and the remaining seating throughout the temple was first come first served. So Mateus (who we also were able to get a ticket for) and I got a couple of seats in the terrestrial room. Little did we know, Fernando was just on the other side of the curtain with his choir.
This is what his perspective would have been while he was singing. Well, take out the furniture and add chairs, and the back of Pres. Monson and Pres. Eyring's head, but still... just not fair.
Fernando: It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Everything about it was amazing. It was hard to see a dry eye as we were singing (I'm hoping that's a good thing). We sang "Oh My Father", "Behold the Mountain of the Lord", "Song of Praise" and the Hosanna Anthem. Sister Dibbs, President Monson's daughter was sitting there in the front and she pretty much cried during the whole session. The talks were beautiful and the spirit was very strong. President Monson told us a beautiful story about some members in Guatemala who wanted to go to the temple (this is probably in the early 70's) and the closest temple to them was the Mesa Arizona temple. The temple president was anxiously waiting for these members to arrive, but they were 3 days late and had no sign of where they were. The temple president went to his office and prayed that these poverty-stricken members would arrive in safety. After he got up from his prayer, he just felt that these members would be arriving that day and that all the temple workers should get ready for their arrival. The temple president contacted these workers and asked them to get their homes ready to host these Guatemalan members. He also asked them to prepare the temple cafeteria to feed them that night. He then went to the street in front of the temple and just waited. After a few hours a rickety bus arrived. The bus was falling apart. The trip took them a lot longer than predicted. The bus had broken down and their arrival was delayed. When they got out of the bus, one of these members hugged the temple president. The temple president told them that they had a feast prepared for them and that they also were going to be staying with the members in the area. This Guatemalan member said they were not hungry, but their children were; they had not had any food for 3 days. They had spent all their money fixing the bus, and didn't have enough to buy food during the trip. These families were able to visit the temple and get sealed there. What a story! After the benediction, President Eyring looked at us and just gave us a big smile and said Thank You. President Monson got up and looked at everyone in the choir and said "Thank You". Then he looked at me and the other men standing right in front of him and said "You will never forget this day, will you"? A few of us responded "no" and President Eyring said "Neither will we". There's absolutely no way I'd ever forget this day. What an incredible opportunity.
You’d think, being so close to the celestial room, where everything was happening, we would be able to just hear what was happening, but we couldn’t hear a single noise, even the choir. Knowing this, they televised the dedication to each of the rooms.
The dedication was beautiful, but most exciting, was getting to see President Monson and President Eyring. They passed by our room on the way to the celestial room and waved. And I swear, President Monson looked right at me when he waved (but I’m sure everyone else will claim that too). I thought that was as lucky as I would get but then at the end I got to see him again walking through the building. I thought I was really lucky at that point, but then after we exited, we went and got our camera from the car to take some pictures and walked over to the front of the temple.
And as we were taking pictures, President Monson, President Eyring, and Elder Hales were coming out of the building. So we got to stand literally 3 feet from him (wow!). It was awesome.
Elder Hales
President Monson and President Erying
And more
At this point we were really late in meeting some friends for a wedding reception so we had to go but Mateus stayed, and like a good stalker, he went and found President Monson in a parking lot and introduced himself and got to talk to him for a while (no fair)!
