Five years ago, early in January I awaited an important white envelope. I was living in Idaho Falls, Idaho working at "The Children's Center" as a psychosocial rehab specialist. I had graduated with my bachelors degree from Brigham Young University-Idaho and was excited to explore some options available to me at this time. I had decided to join the 50,000+ LDS missionaries serving all around the world. I wanted to contribute to the spread of the most important thing I had ever learned or made part of my life- the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was thrilled to give up 18 months of my life, which is a small portion of my life, to dedicating all that I do everyday to spreading this good news, which is exactly what it is! My call came, saying I was assigned to enter the MTC in April 2007, and would be serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission. I was really excited to get the chance, I had never seen myself serving there but I was excited to be a missionary! Today, Greg and I went to Kaysville, UT to visit with family as we celebrated the departure of yet another missionary. My cousin, Chris Morrell, will be serving in Oklahoma. We are really excited for him for many reasons. In fact, I think of my mission everyday but it is days like this that cause to me think of it a little more. There are almost an endless amount of things I could write about when thinking of my mission. Learning how to learn from God and times that I did, difficulty in communicating and teaching others effectively and directly, learning how to train and help others, making a companionship work as you spend literally 24/7 with him/her, answering difficult questions people have in a way that they'll best understand, being prepared to answer any question without prior notice, being guided by the Lord to help others, etc. I could go on, and each thing has it's own separate miracle and journey to tell. This time, although sometimes difficult as I had chances to learn from failure, difficulties, and obstacles was one of the greatest gifts I have ever received! I am grateful I had the chance to spend and have reaped many blessings from it.
Everyday, while on Temple Square (besides the time I was in Arkansas and Tennessee) I would give tours. I would be assigned to different locations to help guests but when assigned at a gate I could offer incomers assistance and we would always recommend a tour...because we loved giving them! If we had guests interested in a tour, we were very happy to spend the time with them. We would teach facts, tell stories about the pioneers, and share a few basic beliefs about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each tour was unique it seemed, as questions would vary, people's interest in different portions varied, and some were more gracious then other guests.
After leaving the little get together, Greg and I left to visit Temple Square and see the tulips, my favorite time of year there! We were able to reach Ben and Amanda (the soon to be Mr. and Mrs.) and they met us while we were there. In the meantime, Greg and I walked around together. It was a perfect day, and Temple Square has never been prettier. We both ran around taking pictures with our phones, here is the result!
Green grass, sunshine, flowers, and fountains everywhere.
The perfect place for an afternoon stroll.
Not bad for pictures taken with a phone...I love this one!
Tabernacle
Assembly Hall
Ahh....the blooming flowers on the trees around the Assembly Hall smelt so good and were so pretty!
They built this amazing area downtown, which the LDS church helped to build in order to try and preserve the nature, cleanliness, and feeling of the Salt Lake City downtown area. It has stores and places to eat. All of them were closed since it was Sunday, but the area is like a beautiful park! Lots of green, water, and interesting landscape. I can remember them announcing it's construction in 2007 and said it would take at least 5 years to build. I thought, what!!?? Five years, it seemed like a lifetime to me! And what do you know, it went by pretty fast! It was amazing though, downtown Salt Lake City is now just that much more impressive!
Ben, Greg, Amanda, and Iris (Amanda's Sister-it was fun to meet her!)
The new "City Creek Center" is just across the street from Temple Square, they compliment each other very well.
Tulips, tulips, and more tulips!
And...more blooms on the trees!
Iris, Amanda, Ben, and Greg
That shimmery silver building, it's the outside of the Tabernacle.
Inside the Assembly Hall.
Whoot whoot!
Coming out of a 3-D movie! (On some random day...)
A new climbing area! Greg's new favorite place to climb. I have yet to go there, but I am anxiously awaiting my chance.
This little gal totally cracks me up! I would be so happy if she would give me the time of day. Maybe someday, but in the meantime, I found her choice of food hilarious and so perfect! Why would a three year old want salad there is an entire table of DESSERTS!? Well, she obviously saw no need for green because look at that beautiful plate full of sugary goodness. Nothing like a pulled pork sandwich with a side of three cookies and two brownies!
Greg always tells me how Spring is the worst time of the year. He had me convinced, all the days we expected to be good when it snowed, or all the days that we had to work when it was finally nice, and everything in between. Spring is so unpredictable and can get your hopes up...but days like these, they are so perfect. And even though you can't predict them, when they are among April snow showers, it sure is easier to appreciate how nice these days can be!
