Temple Bucket List

A goal

without

a plan

is just

a wish

I have had a goal since my freshman year of college (2007) to visit every temple in Utah. All the temples between Provo and Logan were easy. I visited those in just a couple months. However, the outlying ones, Vernal, Manti, St. George, and Monticello, have been a little more difficult. Finally I realized something about goals.

If you make them happen, they do.

It just takes a little planning, a little determination, maybe a little time and money, but once you decide to just do it, it actually happens. So far this summer, I've accomplished more towards this goal than I have in the last six years. Granted, I was out of the country for one and a half of those last six years, but the point is, I let six years go by without making any progress toward a goal that took less than a few months when I actually buckled down.
So here's my progress:
I finally went to Vernal with my family. We visited all the dinosaur sites and made a weekend of it.

I finally went to Manti. I just grabbed Aubrie, Mary, and Chanel and drove down there. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get to Manti. I've lived in Provo for several years, and Manti is only an hour and a half away. I've been to Manti 3 times to see the pageant, but never had the opportunity to go inside.

It was such a beautiful day. I had a handful of family names that I helped my mom find and prepare for the temple. They were some of my German ancestors. My friends and I took the names to Manti and spent SEVEN hours in the temple. We did all the baptisms, confirmations, and initiatories for all of the women I had, then the endowment for four of them, and we were also able to do some sealings for Aubrie's family. It was a long day, but so rewarding to be able to spend a day performing every ordinance in sequence. I absolutely love the Manti temple. My mom has always said that the Spirit is stronger there, and I thought she just said that because that's where she was sealed to my dad. Well, it's true!
Maybe it is because that is where my eternal family began, but the Spirit there was stronger than I've ever felt it. It is the most beautiful temple I've ever been in. It's a true pioneer temple. I felt like I walked in just after it had been dedicated. So beautiful. (I also got to see the sealing room where my parents were sealed, and let me tell you, they must have spent six of the seven years that it took to build the Manti Temple just decorating that room.)

Then, just a few weeks after we went to Manti, Aubrie and I took a mid-week adventure/road trip down to St. George. We packed in hiking and letterboxing in Snow Canyon and all over town, Mary Poppins at the Tuachan theatre, and Love's Labour's Lost at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. But the highlight of the trip was the St. George Temple. We did initiatories and an some more endowments for my German ancestors, and it was wonderful.

So, now all I have left is the Monticello Temple (Until the Cedar City Temple is built and we'll have to take another trip down to Dixie). We planned to take a weekend and go to Monticello and then go camping in Moab, but we ran out of time before school started, so it will have to wait till I get a little break. But hey, I think I made some good progress this summer.

“It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.”

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love Mitch Albom's books. They make you think about life in a different way and appreciate what you have. It's been a while since I read his other books, but this one may be my favorite.
The story is about Father Time; how he became Father Time; and how he must now help two people, one who wants more time in this world and one who wants less, learn to appreciate the time they have. It's an interesting commentary on the value of life and time. 

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"There is a reason God limits our days. . . . To make each one precious." 

“We all yearn for what we have lost. But sometimes, we forget what we have.” 

“When you are measuring life, you are not living it.” 

As a side note, I went to see "Nostalgia for the Light," a documentary comparing two groups of people who are searching for the past in Chile's Atacama Desert. Astronomers look heavenward to find answers to the origin of life and a group of women are sifting through the sand of the desert trying to find the remains of their loved ones that were killed and disposed of during the regime of the dictator Augusto Pinochet. 
The documentary brought up some interesting points concerning time and the delicate nature of it. One of the astronomers said that there is no such thing as the present, because by the time you hear what he is saying, time has already passed since he said it (I.Q. reference anyone?). It made me think about The Time Keeper and just how fluid and fragile time is. 
One of the astronomers, who was also the daughter of two of the political prisoners that disappeared, said that the reason she loved astronomy so much is because observing the vastness of the stars and galaxies helped her feel like maybe time and space went on forever, and it wasn't all over for her parents.
If only she understood the full truth about eternity and the plan of God. 

All of these things make me grateful for the knowledge I have about our eternal potential. Knowing that life goes on after this life, makes it a little easier both to appreciate the time we have here on earth and live it to the fullest, and to understand that this life is but a small moment in the span of eternity and the best is yet to come.

I'm Goin' on a Mission

I have been called to serve in the Albania Tirana Mission (Tiranë Shqipëri). I report to the MTC on July 20th to learn to speak Albanian and how to share the gospel. I can't wait. I stopped by the Liahona while I was in Salt Lake last week and got some Albanian magazines. The Albanian Liahona is only published four times a year, but I am excited to get to read it that much. Maybe someday God's Albanian speaking children will get twelve issues of his word every year. Until that happens, I am glad they get to read conference, the Easter issue, and any special issues.
I read through the conference Liahona, and after about ten minutes of reading the names of the speakers I had figured out the sounds that the letter combinations make and I could describe them and started reading non-name words, and figuring out what some of them meant. My mom told me I was a nerd. I took that as a compliment.

So, in case you haven't gathered, I am excited to learn about the Albanian language, I'm excited to meet and serve the people, and I'm excited to share with them the joy that the gospel has brought to my life. The Church is true, and I can't wait to tell the double the 20,000 members and ten branches in Albania! I already love those people and I haven't even met any of them yet. Just learning about their country and their history has made me so excited to get to know them.
I think that could happen with every nation and people. If we would all get to know the people around us, we would realize they aren't so different from us, and they are all worth loving. I've been thinking about this concept a lot lately. So, no matter where you are, take the time to get to know someone you wouldn't necessarily think to love, and see if they don't become one of your favorite people. Have a great day, everyone and share the love!

Më pëlqen Shqipëria: I love Albania (Courtesy Google translate)

http://www.mormon.al