October - An amazing whirlwind of activities

Where do I begin in an effort to capture the flurry of activities we have experienced along with the tremendous feelings we have had during the unraveling of the month of October?  I’ll begin in that last week of September while we were busy in our usual temple duties.  Henk received a phone call from Salt Lake after which he came to the office I was working in and asked me to come to his office, immediately.  He then told me that we had been asked by Elder Bednar to come to SLC to assist in the training seminar for the new temple presidents and matrons who were preparing to start their service on the 1st of November.  This seminar was scheduled during the week of October the 14th through the 18th.  He wanted us to be part of a panel discussion that would include 4 couples, the president & matron of the Hermosillo Sonora Mexico, Albuquerque New Mexico, Oquirrh Mountain Utah, and us of The Hague Netherlands temples.  We were excited because these are our friends that we met a year ago when we were in the group being trained and prepared to serve in these temples.

President & Sister Call

President & Sister Homer

President & Sister Webb

  

These pictures are of the other three couples that were also asked to be at that seminar with 

Elder Bednar and his wife, Susan.

We had a great time hearing and seeing the reactions as we called our children and shared our news with them.  Stacey’s reaction was dramatic.  She burst into tears and couldn’t stop crying.  Henk said to her, “You don’t need to cry.  If you don’t want us to come we can call back & tell them we can’t do this.”  Kimberly started jumping up & down & up & down and started clapping her hands.  The girls are always a little more apt to show their emotions than the boys do/did.

The first three weeks of October were super busy at the temple.  We had a group of 88 youth and their leaders come by bus from the Friedrichsdorf Germany Stake to do baptisms for 2 full days that first week.  They were very well organized and kept us busy scanning and stamping their family cards as they did the baptisms and confirmations.  On Tuesday they did well over 1500 ordinances and on Wednesday they exceeded their numbers by about 100.  On Thursday a bus from the Dortmund Germany Stake brought about 100  brothers and 15 sisters for their Priesthood temple trip.  The spirit these 2 Stakes brought with them was amazing and we were excited to have them there.

The next week we had extra sessions scheduled by a couple of the stakes here in the Netherlands on Tuesday and Wednesday, which are days that we are not normally open. It is fun to see an extra effort made to organize temple days or weeks and see the members participate to the extent that they do.

Starting on Tuesday the 14th of October, the third week, the saints from the Dortmund Stake had another bus load of people come.  Our councilors took care of everything while we were gone to SLC.  This group has been anxiously awaiting the rededication of the Frankfurt Temple which is the temple district that they belong to.  These sweet people have come regularly for a week at a time for the past four years while their temple was being renovated.  We will surely miss them.

We left from our apartment at 4:30 on Friday morning the 11th (so we could be at the Amsterdam airport the required 3 hours ahead) and flew out about 7:30.  We arrived in SLC Around 1 in the early afternoon.  (That time difference is so crazy). We stayed for 5 days and left again on Wednesday afternoon the 16th. It was a complete whirlwind for us and the whole family.

The kids had planned for us to have dinner at one of their houses each night so that we could just spend as much time together as possible

Almost the whole family (29 of the 33) were at the airport to pick us up.  Part of them were missing school and others had taken off from work.  It was so good to see them all with their signs, flowers and drawings etc. for us.  We headed to Jon & Stacey’s place where everyone showed up for dinner &  fun.  By about 9:30 our 26 hours of going, going, going “hit” and we decided it was time to head out to the hotel.  (The temple department had booked us in the Radisson Inn downtown close to the SL Temple.)

We were able to get some things that we needed and we went to some of our grandchildren’s activities that we have been missing. .  We went to a basketball game of a team that Kevin coaches and Isaac, Carter and Spencer  all play on.  It was a fun game to watch them win.  They are all really quite good players!!  On Sunday we attended a primary program in Kevin & Meghan’s ward to see Mason and Makenna sing and do their parts and then we hurried to get to our own ward where we saw many surprised looks and received many hugs.  It was great!   That afternoon the kids planned to have our familyThanksgiving dinner.  How wonderful and how grateful we are for our family!

The Temple Leadership Seminar began Monday afternoon with the opening meeting held in the Solemn Assembly Room on the 5th floor in the SL Temple, a tour of that floor and then introductions and dinner in the Conference Center.  Tuesday  morning started with breakfast at the Joseph Smith building and then at 8 we needed to be in our seats in the auditorium of the Church Office Building where President Nelson was the opening speaker.  What a magnificent and inspiring message!   I truly felt that he is the prophet for our day.  He does receive revelation!  Of this I can testify.

The discussions and speakers after the first presidency and most members of the quorum of the twelve left, were also very uplifting and informative.  Our small part in the day’s agenda came just before  lunchtime.  We and the three other couples had been asked to be on a panel where Elder Bednar would raise questions for us to answer.  He met with us just a few minutes before we came up to the front.  He told us that his questions would not be directed to anyone in particular but that we could answer as we desired.  He is such a master at asking questions to help reach the desired focus.  The discussion was to help calm the overwhelmed hearts of the presidents and matrons by helping them place their focus on the things that really mattered.  We, having a year of service behind us, have a perspective that they needed as we were able to share our experiences of this past year.  I think one significant point that we were all able to attest to is that, if we allowed it, the Holy Spirit would guide us to do what was right and most important and then all the other worries would be taken care of as they needed to be.  All who were there agreed that the discussion was successful in alleviating fears for the new leaderships and that such a panel discussion would be part of future training seminars.

We had the option to stay for as long as we wanted after Elder Bednar’s discussion so we stayed for one more speaker and then left to spend the evening with the kids.  They wanted to hear what our seminar had been and anything we could share with them.  We shared our testimonies, especially of the foremost place that temple work must have in our everyday lives more-so now than in the past few years even.  That is evidenced by the messages we heard in conference.  We truly had a wonderful time with our dear children and grandchildren.  Several of the grandchildren had to go to school the next morning and their parents had work and other duties to fulfill so no matter that we didn’t want the evening to end it was time to say goodbye.  We took lots of pictures as we gave hugs and kisses that will have to carry each of them and us until we meet again.

Our plane out of SLC was scheduled at 2:35 so we had to be at the airport at 11:30.  We packed our bags and drove to Stacey & Kim’s places Wednesday morning in time to walk the kids to the bus stop.  After adding a few more things and weighing our bags we were ready to leave.  Kevin came to accompany us with Kim, Stacey and Curtis and Emmy.  The airport wasn’t as crowded as when we had arrived a few days earlier but that changed quickly.  More hugs and kisses and lots of waving and we were off through security.  We were near the end of the great whirlwind.  The flight back ‘home’ gave us plenty of time to reflect on activities, conversations, looks, inspirations, ideas, and aspirations that this magnificent opportunity had given us.  We felt fired up and ready for our future service which would commence when our shift started at the Temple just  a few hours after we landed.