A Peaceful Weekend

March 1, 2008

This has been a peaceful, meaningful weekend.

On Friday, Feb 29th, Greg decided that since leap day is an "extra" day, that he would take a day off from work. So that morning we went to the temple in Idaho Falls.

It was a good session with a great spirit to it. I was nice to go in the morning when we were fresh and alert. I thought about the people from beyond the veil who might be present to witness the ordinances done for them. I received inspiration, reassurance and peace to my soul.

In the Telestial room, we chose to join the prayer circle. A older man in a wheelchair was also in the circle. When we got to the Celestial room, Greg pointed out that there were some changes. The beautiful murals now extended up higher. A few months ago, the false ceiling had been removed and so that you could look up into the tower and see the stained glass windows. A new, beautiful crystal chandelier made rainbows in the light. I had commented that I thought it would be nice if the mural could extend up into the new space - and now it did! I think that the original mural was also touched up a little and more flowers were added. This is a picture of the Celestial Room before the ceiling was raised. It is so beautiful; the Idaho Falls Temple is my favorite temple.

Then on Saturday, I participated in the Stake Baptism as part of my calling in the Stake Primary. When we arrived, the font, which should have been full, had only a few inches of water. The plug in the bottom had not seated correctly so the water was leaking out as it was filled. The Councilor from the Stake Presidency, and a father of a child who was going to be baptized swiftly began filling big vats in the kitchen with warm water, then wheeling them across the cultural hall on carts to the font and dumping them in. Members of the Stake Primary filled pitchers in the rest room and emptied them into the font. Greg was in the building, because he comes to help set up audiovisual equipment for the baptism. So I found him, and he found a hose in the Stake Young Women's camp closet. He hooked it up to the warm water tap in the custodial closet, which fortunately was near the font room, and ran the hose into the font. Be the time the baptism started, we had enough water. It was not quite as warm, because the water heater couldn't keep up, but it wasn't cold either.

I gave the Baptism lesson - a simple outline of the Plan of Salvation. The children were beautiful. I had taken a picture of each of them in their white clothes with their fathers. We then printed out the pictures and put them on a scrapbook page, with a page on the back to record their thoughts and memories of their special day.

While each child and their family and friends left the chapel to go to the baptisms, I put in a movie for the other people to watch as they waited for their turn. The movie is about the Savior, and is very interesting and moving. I always brings me to tears.

Several people thanked me after the baptism, and said they really liked my lesson, and said they really enjoyed the spirituality of the baptism and how we do it in our Stake.