A local LDS temple was built in Brigham City. We had to opportunity to kind of participate.
First off, we took a tour before it was dedicated. That was a neat experience. Temples are so beautiful. Elly leaned over to me and said, "Mom, I can't find Jesus." So we spent the rest of the tour, looking for the gorgeous paintings of him.
Here is my small little clan in front of the fountain.
My sweet kids in front of the door to the temple.
Here is a picture of each of the kids (I thought I would tell you in case you couldn't tell, ha ha :)
Do you like how sly he is being with trying to stick his had in the water?
Slyness didn't last long.
Jonah wasn't in a posing sort of mood.
You can't visit a temple without noticing all the flowers.
This is one of my favorite photos. My dad saw this and had me come take a photo. We call Becca, mamabecca. Jonah and she has a special bond. If mommy can't fix it, Becca always can.
My adorable parents.
Because we have a big family, this is a common scene. Random kids holding hands as I try to not lose anyone. I haven't yet, well not for long. So I guess it is working.
The babies had a blast on the bus.
So that was our tour at the open house.
A few weeks after that, we got to participate in the Cultural Celebration.
Here is a newspaper article describing it.
BRIGHAM CITY — Thousands of young people of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints performed in a cultural celebration the night before the dedication of the Brigham City Temple.
Nearly 4,000 young men and women, ages 12 to 18, have rehearsed and planned for months for this event that parents, friends and church leaders watched Saturday night.
Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Russell M. Nelson of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, shared their excitement.
"Oh, this is wonderful," Elder Perry said. "To think that we'll have a cultural celebration before we'll have the great dedication of the Brigham City, Utah temple."
The city has strong ties to pioneer history, and is named after the LDS Church's second prophet, Brigham Young, who gave his final address in what is now known as Pioneer Park. The church's fifth prophet, Lorenzo Snow, is buried in the Brigham City cemetery.
"This is an experience of a lifetime," Nelson said. "Any temple dedication is, but in Brigham City, it's very, very special, a place held dear to us all."
Before the celebration, they visited with families in the stands.
"Now, don't worry about your performance tonight," Perry said. "We just hope you've made a lot of friends that will last and endure for the eternities to come. God bless each of you."
Then the young people recreated the history of the Brigham City area through song and dance. They honored the Native Americans, the immigrants who came from Denmark, Wales and Latin America. They even recreated the building of the railroad and the driving of the Golden Spike.
"They've learned the various cultures and some of the things that drew them here and what we can learn from those other cultures," said Box Elder Stake President Ronald Frandsen. "I think that makes us better Latter-day Saints."
For the performers, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"At first I thought it was crazy but, now I'm liking it a lot," said Willard resident Ethan Mills. "I think it's a really neat experience to do something for the temple like this."
The Cultural Celebration closed with all eyes on Brigham City's beautiful new landmark.
The 36,000 square-foot Brigham City temple is the 139th to be built worldwide and is intended to serve parts of northern Utah as well as Malad, Idaho, covering 13 stakes and 40,000 members of the LDS church. The design is reminiscent of historic temples of the church. It has a very unique design, combining the old and new. A peach blossom design can be found both inside and outside the temple on various areas. Latter-day Saints throughout Utah and in Malad, Idaho will be able to participate in the dedication in their Church meetinghouses. There will be no regular Sunday services for them tomorrow.
It was an extremely long day. It started at 9:30 am at a local high school. We hung out on the bleachers and watched for a while.
We had some cousin time. My sister, Aunt Sissy, came up with most of her kids.
That is a lot of youth.
Jason invented a new kind of sandwich. It is nutella on the inside and meat on the outside.
Our lunch on the grass. Thank you Grandma.
Wow, a police golf cart . . . AWESOME!!
They had these amazing paintings at each of the entrances.
We practiced our part a few times, but other than that, we just sat around, hot, and waited to be told we were in a bad spot and should move. That was amazing.
The kids invented a new roll and throw your water bottle around the high school commons.
What ever entertains the troops. Although, we were making the lady guards nervous.
Sweet Cousins
My nanny Mya. She was always on top of where the babies were. I must admit, we forgot the stroller and the babies made it an even longer day.
Then we waited for our turn for the dress rehearsal outside. Yep-a-doodle, more waiting.
Here was all are by our mailbox. Our part was near the end of the show, they had a young man who was leaving for his mission to Mexico get a mission call out of a giant mailbox, open it and hug his family and wave a flag. Then it was our turn. Mom opened a call to Latvia we hugged her and Wesley waved the Latvian Flag. Then they had a sister missionary do it. The fun thing is that she was leaving for a mission to Canada on the next wed. To the same mission my nephew is at. Totally cool. Here were are all with our mailbox and flag.
I love my family.
Nice flag waving, Wessy.
They had put cute sayings on the lockers.
Yeah, 2 active 2 year olds were quite the handful.
They provided everyone a yummy dinner. They actually did a great job with how many kids there were.
What is a picnic dinner without some hill rolling.
We all wanted to do this, but Mya was the only one that slept.
Hyrum and Jonah were buddies. Hyrum even held him on stage. the only problem with being on stage was that the kids had done it so many times and were so comfortable with being there, Elly and Mia almost fell off the stage. But Jonah did great with Hyrum.
Here are some of the church authorities coming in to watch.
All in all it was a great opportunity to be involved. Definitely some lifelong memories. Thanks Mom and Dad for inviting us.
