something cool...

Tonight we were able to go do Baptisms at the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It is opening day for the temple, and it happens to be Tommy and Tori's 12th Birthday. They were so excited. I was able to help Tori in the dressing room, it was special for me as a big sister. We have always been so close. I loved having the opportunity to be there for her first time. Because it was the first day, and because we aren't in the Temple District, they asked us to bring our own names. We had a hard time finding some, then we thought of Mike. He is really into genealogy and we needed to round up around 40 names within two days. We called him up Sunday night to ask him if he had any family names. He said he had a few, but had just given a whole bunch to the youth of their ward. He told us he would work on it though and let us know. Monday afternoon he called us and told us that he had 54 names from Linda's side of the family. There was such a special spirit in the Temple. Not only was it the first day, and Tom and Tori's first time, but we were able to do the work for so many of Corey's ancestors. Mike is allowing us to keep the names and finish all of the ordinances for these people. I love doing the work for strangers, but their is something so special when it is your family. Thank you Mike for getting the names for us and allowing us to keep them! When we were done, and as we were waiting for the names to be recorded upstairs, one of the Temple workers told us a really neat story. He said, "Last night at our last planning meeting, the last question that was asked was, "When do we need to here in the morning?" He then explained that every morning the temple workers have a devotional. He continued the story, "I told them to arrive at 5:30, that will give us a half an hour before the baptistery opens." Another gentleman raised his hand and said, "what if no one is here at 6:00." "I told him, well we will just have to change our clothes and baptisms ourselves." He then said. " I arrived at the temple at a quarter to five, and to my utter disbelief, there were 75 young people lined up at the gate. I rushed in and began rounding up some people. Our first baptism in this temple was a 12 year old young woman at 5:30." He then said that they didn't even have a second to breath the rest of the morning. He said, " We had folding chairs taking up all of the extra space in the chapel, and that still wasn't enough room. We had young people sitting all the way up and down the hallway. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen." At 2:00 that afternoon. A man came down from upstairs and said "What have you been doing down here?" There reply was, "Doing baptisms!" Then the man said, " I just wanted to let you know that as of right now, this temple has done more baptisms on the first day than any other Temple in the world." We were one of the last groups of the day and there was such an awesome spirit there! I am so grateful I was able to be a part of it!