I had the beautiful opportunity today to go through the Draper temple and receive my endowments. I wish I could share with you everything that happened because of the power and spirit that I felt. However, due to the sacredness of this experience (and my lack of memory, there was a lot of stuff) I can only share some things.
One of the things that I want to share is actually an experience I had that confirmed my knowledge of God's awareness of me. Yesterday morning I was subbing for a class that was really hard for me! I couldn't believe the stress and frustration I felt after I came out of that classroom. I was legitimately angry (and that very rarely happens)! As I walked out of the school I started saying a prayer in my heart asking God to help me feel happy again (I don't like being mad or frustrated). I waited a moment before a laugh burst from my mouth! Nothing had happened, nobody had done or said anything funny, I just started laughing. I'm sure if anybody was around me they would have thought that I was a complete psychopath. I laughed all the way to my car; I'll tell you what, laughing usually makes things better! This story is important to the experience I had in the temple.
I had the opportunity at one point to wait in the Bride's Room. There were some scriptures on the table, so I grabbed them and decided to let them fall open and I would just start reading. The scriptures fell open to Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-8. It reads:
I chuckled to myself and showed my Mom the scripture. She laughed with me because she knew how I was feeling about that class and the experience I had had with them. The part in the scriptures that stood out to me the most was "...if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high ..." I knew that God was blessing me for enduring that small trial well. It was a sweet tender mercy!
"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes."
Another sweet moment was just having the opportunity to go through and have my Mom be my escort (so she was with me whole time and helping guide me to what I was supposed to do) and then my Dad there with me too! During part of the session we watch a movie that talks about the creation. Dad was saying that he loved watching me during the movie because I would react to whatever was happening on screen. I'm probably really hilarious to watch during movies!
I want to express how I felt as I came out of the temple that day. There was a whirlwind of things that happened when I was in there (for me, who had never gone through before it felt like a lot). And yet through it all the Spirit was there! I felt so incredible when I came out! The first few words that came to my mind were: pure, peaceful, complete, clean, and blessed. I absolutely love the temple and for the opportunity I had to make those sacred covenants with God. I am grateful for His love and His hand in my life! He truly does love all of His children. I am grateful that I do not have to be perfect in life, because Heaven knows I am so not perfect! But God allows me to repent and have my sins washed away! I love Him and am grateful for the sacrifice of His Son, my brother, Jesus Christ! I love Him with all of my heart.
I am sorry that this post doesn't even touch a lot of my experiences in the temple. I am afraid I am not very good at putting experiences like this into words. It is easier for me to verbalize it than write it (but it would still be all over the place).
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| Eating at Water Moon before going to the Temple |
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| Mine and Mom's Fortunes! :) |
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| Pre-Session |
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| Post-Session |
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| This picture makes me laugh, because we were all laughing! |
