💥July is the month when most people go on vacation. We have been very short on workers because school is out and many are gone on vacations with their families. That gives everyone a chance to step into roles that stretch all of us a bit as we learn how to fill all the needed areas.
On the other hand we have many visitors coming from all over the world to attend the Temple here. The number of appointments for extra baptism and other ordinance sessions has been wonderful. We are opening on days other than what are scheduled for just to accommodate them and we are always amazed to see that somehow the needs of the patrons get met. Our Heavenly Father is aware and helps the ordinance workers accomplish his work. We are grateful for those who come so faithfully.
😊Another wonderful blessing is to see how the number of people receiving their own endowment has increased dramatically. We have had many young people who are going on missions and others both young and older coming for their first time and there have been several who have been sealed or are going to be getting married soon.
Here, unlike in Utah, it is necessary by law for a couple to be married civilly before they can be married in the temple, so they have to make lots of special arrangements for their weddings. For example, tomorrow a young couple from our ward here in Zoetermeer is getting married civilly and then Tuesday the bride will be receiving her endowment just before the couple is sealed. They will then have their reception in the evening so it becomes a two day celebration for the whole family.
💟Since we were opening the temple on Tuesday for these special sessions for this couple anyway, we agreed to let another stake bring their youth for baptisms and then, a group from Salt Lake made an appointment for a sealing session on Tuesday also. It turns out that the 'group from Salt Lake' are the Simmons family from Bountiful, Brother Simmons being our Recorder at the Jordan River Temple when we were serving in the Presidency there. It's always a special treat when we get to see friends from home.
Love your posts. It never ceases to amaze me the small world we live in when we meet people from home or know people who know people from home and just how much the Lord helps His work get done against all odds. We sometimes feel we could use a much bigger army to do the work of our mission, but we get through each day in miraculous ways. We went on an excursion to another Island during the temple shutdown and met a cute couple from The Hague who had just been married. They were religious, which is unique among the millennial generation. We talked about what we believed, but were interrupted before we could invite them to meet with the missionaries. We did get a chance to tell them our friends are the Temple President and Matron of the temple near The Hauge and showed them a picture. We hope they come visit it sometime and also find some cute missionaries with black name tags like ours some day and listen to their message.
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