Dedication of the Gila Valley Temple

May 23, 2010

What a great experience we were able to witness today, The dedication of the Gila Valley Temple. There were no church services today anywhere in the state of Az, only different sessions of dedications that were being broadcast to the different stake centers around the state. Our ward attended the session that began at 12:00pm. This was the first time that any of my children would remember watching a dedication. My girls thought the hankerchief thing was kind of funny, but I guess if you have never seen anything like that, you would. This is the temple that my children will be most likely familiar with, at least the ones that actually live in Safford. And since 3 already live there, and Jordyn soon to join them, and Kylie planning to live there next summer, that would be most of my kids. Chase and Devon and Kylie were blessed to be able to see the prophet, Thomas Monson, and Chase was able to shake his hand. Chase and Devon decided to drive by the Temple after the last dedication and noticed that the prophet and his counselors were standing out on the lawn and since the parking lot was not blocked off, they decided to pull over and see the prophet up close. There were other people around, and the grass was blocked off by ropes so that people could not crowd, but the prophet came to them and was shaking the hands of some kids when he looked up and saw tall, red-headed Chase and told the kids. If you ever need help, here is the young man you will want to be friends with, and then he came over to shake Chase's hand. Devon said that he did not feel he needed to shake his hand, but was content to see him smile at him. Kylie was invited to participate, along with her two friends, in the cultural event that happened on Saturday night. She got to be an usher and was close enough to see and shake the hand of the prophet. They were all very thankful for their experiences. All of us were impressed with the prophets sense of humor. The kids thought he was silly at times, but it makes them feel good that he could play and have fun. He especially like to sing!
It was fun taking the time to travel to Safford to go to the open house. It was mothers day weekend, and Jordyns birthday as well. We had several friends join us. Jordyn drove the Corolla and took Danae Turley, William Foote and Paige down. Lloyd and I took down Kylie and her two friends, Katie and Kammie Maschue.We sang almost the whole way to Alan Jackson and the Cars. The Quinlans were also heading down that same weekend, so we were not able to stay with Heather and Chase. Lloyd and I, and Devon and Paige stayed in a hotel. Kylie and her two friends stayed with the sister of the Maschue's and William and Danae and Jordyn stayed with our cousin Alice since that is where Jordyn and Danae will be moving shortly. We had taken a load of Jordyns stuff down, just so it wouldn't be too much to move later. The Temple was absolutely beautiful, I loved the stain glass, and the elegant chandeliers. I cant wait to go attend a session there. The endowment rooms were painted in the scenery that surrounds the Pima area. It was beautiful.
On Saturday we were able to enjoy some of the scenery up close and personal as Heather and Chase took us to a place that we could play in the water. Huge rocks and waterfalls were all around us, and we loved it. We had a small birthday party for Jordyn, but mostly everybody did their own thing and had fun.