Wow! What an Experience! 31 years later....

So, most of you know that there is a new LDS temple in corner canyon in Draper. It is absolutely beautiful and literally glows at night sitting up on the mountain. Well, there is an open house that is held for everyone before they dedicate the temple and it ran from the middle of January until the 14th of March. Over 680,000 people went through the open house in that time. It was the third largest attended open house out of 129 temples throughout the world. Chris and I were lucky enough to be able to volunteer to "work" the open house. It was a great experience and though my feet were killing me after standing on them for eight hours in high heels, I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything. It absolutely amazed me that so many people came through to see this wonderful landmark. After the open house, they closed the temple for a week, removed all the carpet runners and cleaned it spotlessly in preparation for the Dedication ceremonies. Well, lucky for me, one of the women in our ward that had volunteered to work the Dedication had something come up that prevented her from volunteering, so I was able to work the Dedication on Friday--for the Cornerstone ceremony and the 2nd Dedication session. I was stationed upstairs in one of the ordinance rooms next to the celestial room where the First Presidency presided. It was a very humbling experience to spend six hours in the presence of our latter day Prophet Thomas S. Monson and his apostles. I felt honored to work with the people that were invited to attend that day, as well as with those with whom I served. At one point I looked down the hall and saw T, Vinny and Jackson seated in one of the sealing rooms. Jackson was so sweet and reverent. It is so hard to sit that long, but they were some of the few that were lucky enough to see President Monson in person. Needless to say, I loved every minute of it! The temple glows inside as beautifully as it grows outside! This morning, it was our ward's turn to be at the 9th (out of 12) Dedication ceremony. We had to be on the busses at 7:00 AM and then be in the temple ready for our session at 9:00 AM. That left a lot of time to sit and ponder. It hit me during that time that 31 years ago today I was in the Oakland temple with my Mom and Dad--on their wedding anniversary--preparing myself for my temple wedding on the 31st of March! Wow! How great is that? The Oakland temple on March 22, 1978 for my first time and the Draper Temple on March 22, 2009--and this time with the Prophet! I felt very blessed and humbled today. I wish I had this feeling every day!