A Family Temple Trip

The Atlanta Temple belongs to me. It's mine by inheritance as well as by natural claims and experiences. By inheritance, my parents paid an assessment back when I was little that went towards building this temple. That makes it mine too. I can claim it in other ways too. I attended the ground-breaking ceremony and saw President Kimball hold that shovel. I can even remember approximately where I sat on the ground while he did it and was able to point it out in the pictures on display at the temple. That experience allows me some claim on it too. And I was there when it was dedicated. That really makes it mine. But its also where I was sealed to Tommy. Nobody can tell me its not MY temple. So this experience has really affected me and I wanted to share it with at least my family since they are the only ones I'm fairly sure read this blog anyway...

So the temple has been renovated in a LARGE way. It is only familiar to me in a couple places...that's how different it is now. It feels smaller too, but that's ok. On Tuesday, Tommy and I and Manti went to be ushers for open house tours. We did two shifts each, and let me tell you- after 8 hours of standing on your feet,.... you are tired! But our younger children have never seen inside the temple before and neither has Manti (other than the baptistry), so we HAD to take them on the only day I had off to do it. So Wednesday we had reservations to take a tour and that's what we did. We drove up to Sandy Springs again and went through the temple as a family. Along the way, I whispered things to help the kids understand a little about what this place was and why it was so sacred. Jared wanted to look into every single mirror in the building. I think he found them all too! He was impressed that he could see so much in those mirrors. They must be special. Morgan was enthralled with the chandelier hanging in the Celestial Room. He thought it was a magnificent sight. Mesa was quite emotionally involved with the Sealing Room. (That's scary, right?) Manti was intrigued with Endowment rooms and is now anxious to go back.

I've been inside the temple before. I've been in several temples now, and each is just as awe-inspiring as the next, so I didn't expect any grand revelations to happen on Wednesday. And yet, they did. Instead of paying so much attention to the temple itself, I paid attention to my children and watched them as they experienced something that took their breath away. I stood in front of those mirrors and saw eternity with my babies in arms...and they were happy to be there. I held my husbands hand as we walked our children through an introduction to their eternity to be. It was an experience I can't describe. I just don't know how.

Afterward, we went back out to the front of the temple and took pictures.