Today our young women and young men along with adult leaders and some ward members walked/rode a bike (for 6 miles) from our church in Layton 22.8 miles to the Bountiful Temple. I'm so amazed at all of them! My mom walked most of it, too; I'm WAY proud of her! I helped at a couple stations, and got to greet them at the temple. A friend of mine asked me the point to this forever long walk (as Ford says, "It's like 2200 miles!"). I don't think I ever really answered, so I'm going to share that now! Sister Dalton had talked (http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/guardians-of-virtue?lang=eng) about a group of young women that walked from the Draper temple to the Salt Lake temple, which happened to be about 22.? miles. We immediately thought we could do that as a stake! Our stake president had some questions, that we never really answered, so our ward did it, and now we have our answers. So, next year, all of the young women in our stake are going to make this trek! The walk to the temple was symbolic of our actual preparation for the temple. You can't just go to the temple, and expect to get in. You have to be prepared and have a recommend. Our girls needed to remember to have the correct kind of shoes and have exercised enough to get up the 3.8 mile trek up the gigantic hill. Life is like that. Reading the scriptures, praying, attending church, following the standards in the For the Strength of the Youth book, and doing Personal Progress are all things that help prepare us to attend the temple. Of course, there are going to be hills and mountains to climb, big trials, but we can do it, by choosing what's right. When we fall off the path and make mistakes, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can repent and get back on the path. When we sin, our priesthood leaders (bishop), young women leaders, parents and friends are there to help us through. Just like today, when people were struggling, there were people there to pick up kids and help them along, a nurse to comfort the blisters, Bishop Macrum to fix the bikes. I loved seeing people helping each other, that normally don't have much to do with each other. After nearly 8 hours, they were blessed by having a member of the temple presidency come speak about the temple, and say that as they commit to prepare themselves to enter the temple, that when that time comes there will always be those wonderful temple workers there to welcome them with open arms. After listening to his sweet message, Pres. Theurer, in our stake presidency spoke, as well. It was an amazing day! Thanks for letting me be apart of it!
I'm so grateful for the temple in my life! I'm grateful for the many blessings and miracles that I've witnessed in my life and in the lives of family and friends! I'm so grateful that I'm sealed to my family, and that I will one day get to know my daddy, and one day, hopefully, I'll be able to be sealed to my own family!
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