March 9th through March 15th

 March 9^th through March 15^th:  Monday, of course, we had to go grocery shopping.  I made popcorn for breakfast because we had not much else to cook.  But first we went to the temple and put the office back together.  All the cabinetry had been repainted and before we left we had emptied all the drawers and shelves, so everything had to be returned to its proper place.  I spent several hours just getting the computers hooked back up and making sure we could print and that everything was connected to the network.  At one point I had to call Salt Lake for help getting one of the computers to print to one of the printers.  The gal that helped me said that the IP address for the printer had been changed.  The weird thing is that the other three printers could print to the printer in question.  I asked her how that could be and she just said, “I don’t know, we get all kinds of weird things that happen after a temple has been closed for maintenance.”  We tried to rest up from the long trip home.  We are both feeling tired and don’t have much energy.  We had a very nice dinner and family home evening at the Roesberry’s apartment, where we talked about how to prepare for General Conference.  Tuesday we had presidency meeting and tried to get everything ready to restart the temple.  Tuesday night the Monte Alban stake from Oaxaca was in the temple and there were three endowment sessions, sealings and baptisms.  They did over eleven hundred ordinances.  As far as I can remember, that is a record for just an evening.  Wednesday after the morning shift, I took mom downtown to find a physical therapist.  Sister Atkinson had used one and President Atkinson gave us a map and let us take the car.  We found the place and set up an appointment for Thursday morning.  Thursday started the three day visit from the Cuautla Stake.  This is the most amazing stake.  They come and bring all their own workers and over 50% of all the ordinances that they do are family names.  They are so organized and spiritually prepared to worship and work it is just a joy to be in the temple and help them.  There were road blocks and people were telling us that it was impossible to get in and out of downtown so mom had to call up and change her appointment until Friday.  On Friday, another stake arrived so we had Cuautla and Cuautla Zapata in the temple.  They are from the same city and things ran very well.  We were busy but not busting at the seams.  We did about fifteen hundred ordinances. I went to the temple at 6:00am and at 3:30pm in the afternoon I was doing a sealing session and the light fixture above my chair started to drip water on me.  The witness next to me was also getting dripped on.  I told the group that it must be a sign that it was time to finish this session of sealings.  Remember that the temple was closed for three weeks so that the roof could be replaced.  Well, it had started to rain really hard and they were going to test the roof that night.  The rain beat them to the test and the roof failed the test.  Some of the roof will have to be redone.  Our temple was the first of 5 temples that are getting a new roof.  I hope the others don’t have problems.  Saturday we went early to the temple and we knew we were going to have a full house.  We had 5 buses planned for the morning and 4 for the afternoon.  Well, they all showed up.  We got a session started at 6:30am and by 9:00am we had over 200 people in the temple and participating in all the different areas.  To top it off, we had 10 people to receive their endowment and 7 marriages.  Mom, I and Martha, the secretary, were busy all morning.  Three of the marriages were all one family.  This was the most complicated set of sealings that I have ever seen.  We had a couple to receive their own endowments and then they were to be sealed and their 3 sons were to be sealed to them.  The parents of the husband were their escorts.  The parents had another son, who along with his wife, had been killed in a motorcycle accident a little more than a year ago.  They are raising their two children.  The family had been preparing to come to the temple to be sealed when the mother and father were killed.  The parents of the husband that was killed represented him and his wife as proxies on the same session as their living son and his wife. Another couple, who were friends of the family, acted as proxies on the endowment session for the parents of the mother of the two brothers.   The second sealing was for the couple who had been killed in the accident.  Following which was the sealing of their two living children who were now being raised by their grandparents.  After this, the two brothers, one living and one dead were sealed to their parents. The last sealing was the deceased parents of the mother of these two brothers and then she was sealed to them.  This represented 4 generations:  the parents of the mother of the two brothers, the parents of the two brothers, the two brothers and their wives, and the 5 children of the two brothers.  In all, 3 marriages and the sealing of 8 children.  To prepare all of the paperwork for these sealings took us, in the office, a couple of hours.  They came, but didn’t have everything we needed.  So everyone went to work and got the family cards printed that we needed for the deceased individuals that needed to have their work done in order to be able to do the sealings.   We had to make sure that someone got the initiatory work done so that the family cards could be on the same session.  When we finally had everyone on the session and things figured out, it was decided that I should do the sealing because no one else could understand what had to happen and in what order.  What an honor and privilege it was to officiate in these sealings.  Sister Atkinson asked me if I would be able to do it without crying and I said I was not even going to try not to cry.  The room was full of ward members.  The bishop had taken me aside and explained to me the history and some of his concerns for the children of the parents who had passed away.  He acted as witness for all of the sealings.  The whole family were members of his ward.  I can’t describe in words the power of the Spirit that was present for those sealings.  Every time I would finish one of the sealings, the Bishop would stand up and walk around the room handing out tissues.  There were many, many, tears shed. The children of the deceased parents are a 14 year old boy and a 10 year girl.  After I sealed them to their parents who were represented by their grandparents who were now raising them, I had the opportunity to talk to them a little bit about my experience of losing my father when I was 8 years old and how throughout my life I had felt his presence and influence.   I testified that I was sure that we had visitors from beyond the veil that had been permitted to attend these sealings and how I was sure that they were pleased and happy with what we had just done.  I can’t say more, but for me it was one of the most Spiritual experiences of my life.  As I am writing this, the tears are running down my face.  I will be able to enjoy the memory of this experience forever, for truly the Lord manifested Himself to us in that sealing room last Saturday.  He lives and loves each of us and there is a plan for us to return to our Father in Heaven.  We were exhausted by the time we left the temple, but mom still had to go to a stake relief society celebration and give a talk.  Some of you might have seen the Spanish version of the song Glorious that was written for the movie “Meet the Mormons”.  Mom asked me to download this and she used it in her talk about how we all have a part to play and that when we play our part it becomes a beautiful symphony.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJeaSrDAMz0

Here is the link to the Spanish version of Glorious that mom used in her talk.  Just click on the link above.

After the talks, we stayed for part of the program.  One of our secretaries performed in a dance that represented many of the different areas of Oaxaca.  It was a mini Guelaguetza.  

The Relief Society Celebration

Sister Atkinson and mom and our secretary Terri is the one on the right.

The dance costumes were beautiful.

The dance ended with the feather dancer.

The many different costumes.

Here is a sample of the dancing.

We fell into bed and I was out by 8:30pm.  But that meant that I was also up before 5.  Sunday we went to church at the El Bosque ward.  A mother and her three children had been baptized and they were confirmed in the sacrament meeting.  Also attending this ward were the parents of Elder Sawyer, who had come to pick him up from his mission.  Mom was able to translate for Sister Sawyer in Relief Society and also to help her converse with one of her son’s converts.  Afterwards, I went to a ward council meeting with Pres. Atkinson.  He did a very effective job of teaching them how to operate as a ward council.  

Mom and the family that was confirmed.

Sister Sawyer and the convert of her son.

We had the Rays over for dinner and then I went to the temple to prepare for the Coordinators Council meeting.  We had caramel popcorn for dinner and went to bed tired.  I don’t think we have recovered from our long journey home, surgery, and then to hit the ground running with such a busy week.  We are looking forward to some down time.  But it was a wonderful week, the temple was full of people, the Spirit was present and we did over 8500 ordinances.  Over 40% of these ordinances were for family names. What more could you ask for.  Love and take care of each other is our prayer. 

Last week. I forgot to post this last week.

This week.