Our temple is finally done!
We have watched it being built from viewing the groundbreaking in November 2010 (via satellite at our stake center) to seeing it in its various stages of construction...
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| December 2011 |
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November 2012
we toured the small visitor's center that was on site and each brought home a piece of the temple that day |
We finally got to go inside!!
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| 407.020 people toured the temple during the month long open house!! |
February 12, 2014
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| Our ticket |
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| I ran into my friend Laura!! Ü |
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| its our turn!! |
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| Tanner getting his booties on |
INCREDIBLE!
It is one of the largest temple the church has built in a quite a while.
5 levels, 82 1/2 feet tall with the spire reaching 195 feet up to heaven.
The inside is MAGNIFICENT. The kids were in awe of the chandelier in the celestial room and always love the mirrors in the sealing rooms. This is the 3rd temple open house they have been to (so lucky!!)...but the first for our whole family. Ü
Tyler and I actually got to volunteer during the open house on February 5th. I helped in the stake center as guest came in to view a short film about the temple before their tour. Tyler was inside the temple helping on the bottom floor with elevators. I was amazed at how many people there were! We crammed them into the cultural hall each time and after they left there was always more coming!!On the day we volunteered 16, 927 went through...a record. It was a great experience!!
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| The agave plant is everywhere in this temple!! It is a plant native to AZ and represents the living waters of Christ. |
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| (We did miss the raising of Angel Moroni though in May 2012...SO bummed about that!!) |
A new temple means a temple celebration!!
It consumed the youth all through January and February but planning...at least on the stake and ward level started back in November!! I was lucky enough (because I'm lucky enough to have a Bishop for a husband who asked me if I wanted to help with this Ü) to be the secretary on our ward committee.
The theme of the celebration was Live True to the Faith. Here is our wad committee making the Live True sign.
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| Judy Searle (props), Jennifer Johnson (music), Vicki Poulson (ward chair), Caroline Payne (costumes), Bonnie Milius (costumes), ME! (secretary), Ariann Davis (dance) |
Our ward was part of Region 6 and they got to dance in the True to the Faith number.
This involved each kid making their own flag...or title of liberty...which started with sanding sticks. Ü
(Most of these pictures that I am posting of the celebration I did not take. While I did take some, a lot of the pictures of our ward were taken by Sterling Wilkins - one of the youth in our ward who was given the assignment of documenting the celebration. Pictures of the actual celebration were grabbed off facebook and other news sites. You can probably tell which pics came from my camera and which came from others by the quality of the picture.)
Learning the sign language to "I Choose This Day"
Learning the dance
Writing on their Titles of Liberty
Regional Rehearsal @ Queen Creek High School
(which my cousin Jamie Snow directed!!)
There were 3 stakes in our region.
Super Saturday
February 22nd
All 26 stakes met for an all day rehearsal at Discovery Park. It was a hot day and they were actually shut down by the city about 3 hours early because of all the dust they were raising. Several of the youth were sent to the hospital with respiratory problems and others with asthma and things suffered as well.
Look at all the people!!
12,000 + youth!! Plus all their leaders!!
Go Region 6!!
Hi Jamie!
She later told me she was the dance director for 3 different regions. So proud of her!!
Here is Region 4...my cousin's son, Zachary, is on the right in the black sweatshirt....
Tyler got to go down and spend part of Super Saturday with his youth.
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| Brother Richards, Matt, Rawson, Zach, Blake, Shane, Tyler, Dexter, Patrick, Brother Johnson, Adam, and Alex |
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| The Young Men just chillin' |
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| some of our Young Women with Sister Fish |
Cool aerial shot from that day
Game Day
March 1st
Because we had our lanyards...
...and a special ticket...
Tyler and I were able to go down to Discovery Park for the afternoon and stay for the actual performance. There was a chance of rain on Saturday...a heavy chance...like 80%. We were all sure it would not rain...that would be our little miracle...because(in the words of one of the youth) "why would Heavenly Father make it rain on this own parade." It did rain a bit in the morning, and drizzled on and off. I took this picture as I was walking toward the park...dark skies all around but clear above the temple. Tyler called it the Lord's bubble. I knew we would be spared.
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| Tyler went down to the celebration earlier than I did. He said when he walked by the temple President Monson and President Eyring were just getting out of their cars and walking with their security team into the temple!! |
Practicing...
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| LOVE how they danced with the temple in the background! So neat!! |
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| Meg, Tanner, Dylan, Jaycee, Caitlin, Erin, and Nicci |
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| Dylan and Tanner (and AJ Fiaui in the dark blue) got to play their ukulele's in a special # called How Can I Be |
It was fun to see random family members there Ü
My cousin Melissa and her fam!
Spencer, Rylie, Zachary, Shay, & Melissa
Melissa took this awesome picture. This rainbow made everyone smile. Ü
(I took a similar one but it didn't catch the rainbow as well as this one did...so I used hers off of facebook. I figure whatever is posted on facebook is fair game. Ü)
I found Jamie!! Love her!!
I know a lot of these guys too from different wards and stakes...
This was one of my favorite parts of the program...young adults in the area who had their mission calls were able to march in carrying the flag from the country they were going to while the youth sang Armies of Heleman/Sisters of Zion. Then every youth raised their flag to show they would choose to live True to the Faith.
(Every single youth had a tittle of liberty flag...however only our region used them in their dance #)
The tent where President Monson, President Eyring, and others would sit to watch the program.
(The skies were so black that way...but still quite clear over the park and temple)
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Each stake had their own little "camp" they would go to around the park when it was time to eat and take a break.
Dinner Time
tacos in a bag Ü
These are the lines for the bathroom!
I think I was told there were 84 porta-johns...all lined up in a row!
Here's where it gets crazy!! This pic on Ty's Ipod was taken less than a hour after the dinner pics...where it was still pretty light and nice weather. At about 6:30, a half hour before the celebration was to start, the Lord's bubble broke and it started to rain!! The youth ran back from dinner to throw their costumes on. About 6:40 they called them onto the field to await the arrival of the prophet. I don't know if they expected him to get there early or what...but they stood out their on the field - just in their costumes without umbrellas for anything - for about 20 minutes until he came. All the while it rained and rained and rained. The prophet's "motorcade" drove right by the top of the hill where we were standing to watch the show...this is us waiting for him.
President Monson finally got there, President Eyring spoke, and the show started. The rain did slow and stop while President Eyring spoke but it started up again shortly after he was done and it got heavier and heavier. It just poured!!! President Eyring told the youth in his talk
"You will never forget this night!!"
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Elder Walker, President Monson, President Eyring
The youth waved and cheered for their prophet |
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Go Captain Moroni!!
In an email from Sister Tidwell, the director of the whole production, she talked about how she was so worried about that horse in the rain...but her prayers were answered and it cooperated fine! |
I Will Follow the Lord |
both Madilyn's from our ward
Madi Hayes (middle, looking) & Madi Searle (in front) of her |
The youth were SOAKED!! I was probably the wettest I've ever been and I was in a water proof jacket with a hood and umbrella. Those kids looked like drowned rats. Some of them did sport some fancy trash bag ponchos.
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| David Marken |
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| The retention basin the kids were dancing in held up pretty good..although by the end of the program there were pars were the waters were md calf high,. |
He liked it!
Wow! Unbelievable in so many ways. The kids did great! They were soaked and freezing but happy and smiling. I wish Tyler and I had gone down afterwards to help them break down camp and get them to their cars. I hear there was lots of great synergy as everyone worked together happy, quick and well and the YM were real gentlemen in letting the YW get in the cars first and doing their best to keep them dry.
So why did it rain??
People say lots of different reasons...the angels were weaping for joy, that was the youth's sacrifice for their temple, so the youth could prove that they could do hard things...
We did have our miracle.
It rained all around the valley all day long with tornado winds in some areas. If it had done that in Gilbert the celebration would have been canceled. Or at the very least a good majority of the youth (or their parents) probably would have said forget it and gone home. Instead we had nice cool weather all day with enough drizzles to keep the dust down. One of our youth said, "You all were praying for no rain but we were praying for no dust." I really liked this post on facebook...
Whatever the reason...they did it...and now they can have this cool shirt because of it. Ü I wish I could have one!!!
The youth of the Skyline ward
We had about 45 participate
Live True signs!!
Youth, Captains of 10, and other leaders
AMAZING EXPERIENCE!!!
The day after the celebration was the dedication. In order to attend the dedication (at the temple or to watch from the stake center) you had to have a special ticket from your Bishop (your "green card" Ü). Ages 8 and up could attend. Tyler got to interview Abby, Andy, and Alex for their tickets here at home. It said it's always neat when he gets to interview his own kids.
There were 3 different sessions of the dedication. We helped babysit kids during the first 2 sessions so others could go. I had 13 kids over at one point!!
Then it was our turn to go. Ü
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| Tyler was given 8 tickets to attend a dedicatory session at the temple...but he chose to give them to couples who were preparing to receive their own ordinances..why does he have to be so good?!? Ü |
The Gilbert Arizona Temple
Announced by President Monson April 2008 ~ Dedicated by President Monson March 1, 2014
The cornerstone
After the dedication I told Tyler I felt like going down to the temple right then just to be on the grounds and continue feeling that special spirit. Tyler felt that it would be better to do once the grounds were officially open. (I kind of wish we had gone right then on dedication day..several picturs were posted of people who got to see the prophet that afternoon as he was leaving...)
So a couple weeks later, during spring break, I took the kids down so they could stand where the prophet stood.
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| March 19th |
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| walking the temple grounds |
We also went over to Discovery Park. They all watched the celebration at Grandma Pam's house but we got to show them where everything happened and tell them all about it!
And now...we have a temple! 20 minuets from our house! And its beautiful!!
Tonight Tyler gets to go clean the temple...how cool is that?!?!
Now we wait for the fun to all happen again when the Phoenix temple is done...maybe by the end of this year. We obviously won't be as involved as we were with the Gilbert temple but I'm sure we will go over for the open house and hopefully get to watch the celebration. After that it will be the Tucson temple for a total of 6 temples in AZ. I wonder if there will be anymore??
~ Links to Cultural Celebration & Dedication ~
http://vimeo.com/88015349 (Time Lapse)
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9UhNKR6VEa6a29RWnZOeVFDSXM&usp=sharing (pics)
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/64472/Gilbert-Arizona-Temple.html (article on dedication)
https://www.lds.org/church/news/gilbert-arizona-temple-dedicated-as-a-sanctuary-of-serenity?lang=eng (article on dedication)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxzqtCtuv8
(Sterling Wilkins video)
http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/gilbert/
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Oh, my goodness! I can't stop crying as I read your blog, look at all the
amazing pictures, and watch the videos. Thank you so much for sharing the spirit
of this special day. Love you! ~ Grandma Allen
