John and Christine's Adventures: March 16th through March 22nd:

March 16^th through March 22^nd: Monday morning, Mom went to physical therapy for the second time and she likes her new therapist. He explains what he is doing and why, but she says she really only understands half of what he is saying.

Mom's new task master. (Physical Therapist)

I started cooking Chinese and we invited everyone to dinner. We went to see Cinderella and everyone loved it. We saw it on a screen 4 times the size of a normal screen and with a sound system that made our seats vibrate. I then finished cooking and we had the Rays, Roesberrys, and Penas to dinner. Sister Pena made a mango frozen moose that was to “die for” (really delicious).

Monday after our Chinese dinner and mango desert.

Tuesday and Wednesday were ground-hog days. Thursday we didn’t have to go to the temple until the evening shift because the stake that was scheduled, decided to come on Friday instead. Mom got in another round of physical therapy in the afternoon before we had to be at the temple. Friday we had 3 buses and mom had a couple hour break and then she had to cover for one of the secretaries. I stayed home in the evening and worked on a new talk. Pres. Atkinson assigned me to talk in one of the Mitla stake wards this coming Sunday. We were already scheduled to speak in the Bosque ward at 8:00am and so I get to do double duty Sunday. While I was home, I got an email from a Bishop that said he had been trying to contact me and hadn’t been able to, but he was coming to the temple with a bus-load of his ward. This was not good news because we already had 9 buses scheduled for Saturday. President Atkinson left Friday for Puebla for a stake conference and Pres. Serrano will be gone on Saturday at a District Conference in Puerto Escondido. Pres. Pena and I will have to work all day to cover for them. Saturday, Pres. Pena gave me a ride over to the temple at 5:30am. The first bus, the one that did not have an appointment was already there. We decided to get a session started at 7:00am and to start the Baptistery at 6:30am. Well, it was nonstop from then on. About 10:00am I was talking to a stake president who I thought was bringing 4 buses. He explained to me that he had arrived earlier with 2 buses, but that 4 more would be arriving at around noon. I had misread his earlier email. When I told him he could bring 2 buses in the morning and 2 at noon, he had responded that ok he would bring 2 early and that he still wanted to bring 4 at noon. So the 9 buses we had planned for, turned into 12 buses and then at 5:00pm we had scheduled 100 young single adults who were all in town receiving training to be EFY counselors in 2 weeks. It was an historic day for our temple. The previous record for ordinances in one day was just over 3500. The new record we set last Saturday was just over 4500. We tied a record, 22, for the number of people who received their own endowment and we set a new record for the number of endowments performed. I know that we had a lot of help last Saturday and there was a powerful Spirit of peace and love that was almost palpable. More than 600 people worshiped in the temple last Saturday and when we finished at 8:30pm we were exhausted, but felt like we had experienced something so incredible that words just don’t have the power to convey. We only stopped for maybe 5 minutes to eat a PB and J sandwich, but the time just flew by. We also had 7 marriages and I got to do one of them. Most of the time I was so busy in the office processing all of the personal ordinances and handing out tickets for the next session, that I only had time near the end of the day to take a break and be a sealer. There were a lot of happy people in heaven after the work that was performed last Saturday. It was an historic day, to say the least. Sunday we were up early and spoke in the Bosque ward at 8:00am. We didn’t stay for the rest of the meetings because we would to going to another ward at noon. I taught the 3^rd hour, a combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting. I felt like it went well and at the end mom said, “I didn’t know you could be so charming.” There you have it, I can be charming. I taught that we become yoked with Christ through sacred covenants that we make by receiving the ordinances of the temple. The days are long, especially ones like Saturday, but the weeks fly by. We love you all and remember, take care of each other, make time to worship in the temple. Blessings await you there.