The Temple is Dedicated

This morning we went to the stake center to see the 9:00 a.m. dedication of the Rexburg temple. We had our yellow tickets and white handkerchiefs. The session was supposed to start at 9:00. We waited and waited and waited. The music was playing and we were seeing pictures of the temple, but no President Monson in the Celestial room. I thought maybe they were having technical difficulties or something. Finally at 9:30, the session started. We found out later, that because of the thick fog in Rexburg and all through the valley, Pres. Monson's plane could not land in IF, but had to land in Pocatello, which made him very late. President Monson's first official duty as the President of the Church, was to dedicate the Rexburg temple. Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder David A. Bednar were with him and President Eyring had to stay home because he broke his ankle on Tuesday. They also announced that Sister Faust had passed away. There were some talks (very good), some songs (very nice), the ceremonial mortaring of the cornerstone (very funny and cute), and then President Monson dedicated the temple. I started crying because the blessings pronounced upon the temple and the district were beautiful. Elder Bednar led us in the Hosanna Shout and we waved our handkerchiefs and shouted. "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, to God and the Lamb! Amen, Amen, and Amen!

Then we came home had a little lunch and then headed down to Rexburg to the temple for the 2:00p.m. session. The temperatures were warming and the sun started to break through the clouds and it was so pretty up on the temple hill and my goodness, there were a lot of people in line. It also took us about 20 min to get from downtown Rexburg to the temple. That much traffic is unheard of in Rexburg. There were policemen at every intersection keeping the traffic flowing, or in our case, not flowing. This time we had blue tickets. As we entered the temple, first thing I noticed was that there were people seated in every nook and cranny of every room. They had taken all the beautiful furniture and stored it in the dressing rooms and other unused rooms and had filled up all that space with fold-up chairs. We went upstairs to one of the endowment rooms. The one below is where we sat and were able to watch it all on the big screen used for the endowment.

Elder Bednar conducted the session and Elder Nelson presided. When the choir sang, in the celestial room, we noticed that there were four members of our stake in it: Charlotte Hillam, Portia Loosli, Bill Baxter, and Matt Brady. That was neat to see them get to have that priveledge. Elder Nelson gave the dedicatory prayer, and Elder Bednar again led us in the Hosanna Shout. This time when we did the shout, Zack really waved his handkerchief high and the little man in back of me waved his handkerchief so hard he kept hitting the back of my head. I didn't think I was that close to him, or maybe he was being uber enthusiastic. I didn't mind, just thought it was a little funny. After the dedication, we went back outside and took some pictures of us in front of the temple. Hope you enjoy them. It was a very good day for us.

Looking up at the spire and the Angel Moroni

Angel Moroni

This is from the south parking lot. You can see how long the line was. We were toward the middle of the line. I was waving at Alan when he took this, but you probably can't see me. I was the one in the black dress.



A view of the temple from the southeast sidewalk


Zack and me in front of the temple after our 2:00 dedication session.


Alan and Zack in front of the temple


This is taken on the east side of the temple.