A Slice of Life in Utah County

There are some things that make life here in Utah County especially unique and wonderful. We experienced a few of them this past week. The first one has to do with temples.

When Jim and I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1972, there were no temples even remotely close to our home at Fort Rucker, Alabama. When we made plans to go to the temple to be sealed together as a family, we had to drive to Manti, Utah, which was our temple district at the time.

We were happy when the Washington D.C. temple was dedicated in the fall of 1974. In order to serve in the temple, we would drive 18 hours and spend several days there.

When we PCS'd to Permasens, Germany, we were excited to be able to attend the temple in Berne, Switzerland, only a four hour drive away.

Back at Fort Rucker three years later, we were able to attend the new Atlanta Temple, five hours away.

Once again in Germany, we were only an hour and a half from the new Frankfurt Temple, where we were called as temple workers.

When we retired from the Army five years later, we found ourselves in Mobile, where eventually we had the opportunity to be part of the new Birmingham Temple district, only five hours away.

And then we moved to Utah..... From our new home we live about 20 minutes from our temple in American Fork.







We look forward to the day in the not to distant future, when the Oquirrh Mountain Temple will be our nearest temple, only fifteen minutes away from our home in Saratoga Springs.





So last Thursday evening I went to the temple with my new friend, Mary Bucklew. We planned to attend the 7:00 session, and left in plenty of time. When we arrived at the temple, we found ourselves having to park on the very back row, as the parking lot was completely full. When we got into the temple, there was a line to get into the chapel to wait for the session. Needless to say, we had to wait in the chapel for the 7:30 session, and even that one was full, so we finally were able to get into the 8:00 session, sitting in the very last row. The endowment rooms each hold 100 people, I think (I actually counted the seats while waiting for the session to start.), so there were at least 300 people in the temple Thursday evening, trying to get into a session. What a blessing to be a part of all this! I am anxious to attend the temple again in the near future, and hopefully I will be able to, despite the fact that I lost my recommend as soon as I showed it at the desk upon entering! I should have a new one by the end of this weekend.

Note to self: Don't put off writing in this blog next time... I have forgotten all my cool "slice of Utah County" stuff I was going to write about!