It's 2008!

I actually wrote this in Word them forgot to post it on here on January 6th. So I'll post it now. Sorry about that.

I can’t believe it is now 2008! I don’t know where 2007 went. And I don’t feel as old as I tho’t I would if I lived this long (most of the time anyway). 2008 arrived very quietly at our house. My husband was doing one of his SUDOKUs and I was playing Mah Jong on the computer and it just sneaked in. The moment was here before we knew it.

New Year’s day we went to the Rexburg Temple open house. It is such a beautiful building! It sits there on top of the east hills so majestically. We went to the Stake Center next door first. They ushered us into the chapel to wait for our turn to start the tour. We waited about 20 minutes. They then took us to a classroom and showed us a video about the history of temples. Many of the temple rooms they showed us were of the Rexburg temple I realized as I went thro’ them. After that they guided thro’ a covered walkway over to the temple. It was about a block long and had three sets of steps (kind steps) on the way. Then we were there. The first floor has the baptistery and the locker/dressing rooms for both men and women.

We went up two flights of stairs. They did give us a choice of using the stairs or the elevator. The stairs also looked just like the ones at Winter Quarter’s Temple. I knew I had done those so I chose the stairs. Little did I know?? On the second level were the main dressing rooms for the patrons. The other dressing rooms were for the people doing baptisms for the dead. . They had so many people there to show us the way it wasn’t possible to get lost. But as my group was to turn left, I turned right and went thro’ the women’s dressing room. It’s a lot like the dressing room at the Winter Quarter’s temple. All the way thro’ I was wondering if those people ahead of me were the same ones that were ahead of me before. As I left the dressing room I was still thinking that. One of the ushers came up to me saying “Ma’m Ma’m”. When I finally realized that he was talking to me he told me that he tho’t I had lost my group. I had. My husband had noticed that I was no longer with them and had told him I may have gone the wrong way. So I went thro’ the women’s dressing room twice. Then I was sure it was set up like the one at the Winter Quarter’s Temple.

The next flight of steps had at least 25 steps in. (what more is there to do than count the steps as you are going up them?) On this floor are the ordinance rooms. There were two of them but we only got to see one of them. They each have murals in painted by Leon Parsons who grew up in or around Rexburg. The one we saw was a mountain scene with deer and elk etc. and lots of trees. It was beautiful. The room had rich brown wood and beautiful chandeliers. We also saw the Celestial room on that floor. It is sooo beautiful. It had mirrors on either side and such beautiful crystal chandeliers. It had such a feeling of peace there also. The pamphlet they put out explained that many of the materials were imported from other countries, wood from Africa and stone and tile from Israel. There are stained glass windows throughout the building that depict a wheat stalk. The last and final floor had the sealing rooms on it. The last steps we went up had 35 steps in it! The sealing rooms are very spacious and beautiful. They all are at least as big as the largest one in the IF temple. They had a smaller version of the chandelier in the celestial room. And small crystal lamps on the walls like the sealing rooms at the Winter Quarter’s temple. And the Mt. Timpanogos also. Then we walked all the way down all of those steps without stopping. There was another flight of stairs that I wondered where they led to but I wasn’t disappointed that they didn’t take us up there. I counted 89 steps on the way down! I’m not sure if I lost count or not when my husband spoke to me. but there were at least 89. My husband asked me if I wanted to take the elevator down. I told him no that going down wasn’t nearly has hard on my knees as going up was. He says that going down is harder. But it doesn’t hurt as much. But my knees were surely wobbley by the time we got down. Even going down the kind steps in the walkway I could feel the weakness in them. It was good to sit down while we had refreshments. The weather was cold but no wind and the sky was a beautiful blue with the bright sunshine. It was a beautiful day all in all.