Temple Trips

One of Dave's and my Church callings is to help a single mother in our ward, Susan, and her two children, Catherine and Michael, get to Church.  We come to their house half an hour before Church starts to help the children get ready, and then we sit with them, armed with iPhones and coloring books, during Sacrament Meeting.  On Sunday, March 20, 2016, we tended Catherine and Michael while Susan attended the broadcast of the Provo City Center dedication. We took the children to visit Temple Square and then home to our house eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches and roast marshmallows over our fire pit.  I love this photograph.  It symbolizes, for me, that Jesus loves and protects even the most vulnerable of Heavenly Father's children.

 On Saturday, March 19, Paul and Julie Emmer joined us to attend an endowment session at the Manti Temple.  We found peace in this lovely pioneer temple, with its rose-colored walls, murals by Minerva Teichert, and tasty pork chops and pie in the temple cafeteria.

 I attended the 9 a.m. session of the Provo City Center Temple dedication, before Dave and I picked up Catherine and Michael on Sunday morning.  I was touched by the story the temple president told about his deaf father, who faithfully attended temple ceremonies even though he couldn't hear them. When he finally received a transcript of the temple ceremony, tears rolled down his cheeks as he read the promises made to him.

Catherine and Michael are best friends...sometimes.  Michael wanted to see the garden on top of the Conference Center, so we took him there.  Catherine showed us the eight pink items she wore and carried, from a pink sequined cap to raspberry-scented pink hand sanitizer.  "I like pink," she explained.

 Our guide at the Temple Square Visitors Center comes from the vineyard country surrounding Zurich, Switzerland, which was home to my great-grandmother, Mary Bomelli Eyring.  When I spelled "Bomelli," the guide said, "Yes, that's a typical name from my part of Switzerland.  Lots of words have 'i' at the end."  She said that Bomelli should be pronounced "Boomli," with the accent on the first syllable, rather than "Bawmelli," with the accent on the second syllable, as I had assumed.