A few days ago, a friend of mine from Chelsea Ward, Stephne Hilgendorf, sent me a Marco Polo, asking me if I would go to the temple with her sometime in the next week. Her father is having double bypass surgery next week and wanted to go to the temple before he entered the hospital, but he ended up needing to stay for five days before his surgery. So, all of his children decided to go to the temple for him. Stephne was hoping to go to Detroit, but seeing as the temple is closed for one more month for renovations, she looked up Columbus which is also closed. Indianapolis and Chicago were both available options, and were approximately the same driving distance, but I could only go on Friday, and Chicago had appointments open on that day.
So I told her we could go on Friday. I tried to talk her into making it an overnight affair for the simple reason that driving to and from Chicago in a day with Chicago traffic was going to leave us exhausted, but she wanted to do it in a day. So Thursday night, I went to bed at 8 p.m. and woke up the following "morning" at 3:45. I was pulling out of the garage by 4:15 and was to her house in Chelsea by 5 a.m. We then started the beastly drive to Chicago to make it by the 9 a.m. session (a four hour drive where we lose an hour).
I love going to the temple. For all of my adult life, I have bent over backwards to attend the temple. I've driven long distances, I always go while on vacation, I've worked 3-4 shifts a week in Detroit. I've gone with John, I've gone alone, I've taken my kids, I've made appointments for my kids to go. Anything to attend the temple. Honestly, it gives me hope in the idea that we lose the shackles of human frailty in heaven, because when I'm there, all despair, fear, and worry leave my mind, and I'm a happier, more at-peace person. I really think I'm my very best self when I'm in the temple.
We got there so easily. Because I was going on Stephne's invite, she drove.
*deep breath*
We all know how much I prefer to do the driving, but she must have used her "peace" essential oil diffuser in the car, because I stayed pretty zen for the entire four hours ;-)
However, the time after we left the temple was a different story. Stephne has a sister-in-law who lives just ten minutes from the temple, and she thought I would just LOVE to stop by and meet her and her kids. She promised me ten minutes. Nope, it was 45. And as Friday night, Chicago traffic backed up in my mind, she decided we would go to the diviest pizza joint on the planet for Chicago-style pizza, which as I know, takes 30 minutes to just bake the pizza. Seriously, this place was selling burnt pizza with a side of COVID...but her sister-in-law insisted it was the best, so we went.
This is the pizza I ordered. They say it is "carmelized..."
This was the pizza on the table next to me. Seriously, it was about six inches away. I guess I'll know what to order next time...(like I would EVER step foot in that place again!)
I was about to crawl out of my skin, and then ten minutes after leaving the pizza joint, we hit bumper to bumper traffic. Stephne, bless her heart, can't really talk and drive. She did fine going to Chicago because there was no traffic, but going home? Oh my gosh, I wanted to just take the wheel.
In the end, the trip was 15 hours long, with 12 of that talking. Even with my new found, therapy-built confidence, 12 hours of talking is a LOT of talking. I was exhausted by the time she pulled into her driveway--I jumped straight in Reddi and booked it home.
But none of this is what I want to focus on. I want to focus on my time in the temple because it's simply the best.
I was happy to see the same temple matron there, and she remembered me! In fact, she told me that she had spoken with Sister Doot about seeing me, and they shared how wonderful I am. I know, I know--Sister Halling is so sweet. I was happy to introduce her to Stephne too.
The session was beautiful, and as it so happened, I was sitting right next to a station at the veil where a Spanish-speaking sister was going through the veil. It was priceless to sit there and hear the man behind the veil AND the presenter AND the patron all speaking Spanish (turns out, it was the temple president). It isn't going to matter what language we speak when we get up to the veil for the final time--the spirit is so strong, and the Lord will understand us all.
When I met Stephne in the celestial room, she told me that she had started crying at the veil because of the thought of blessings on posterity. She thought of her dad and all of the temple work he had done for his ancestors, and how he was now being blessed because of that. It was really lovely.
But the whole reason I'm writing this post is for the experience I had in the initiatory booth. I had scheduled a session for me right after the endowment session, but Stephne hadn't been able to schedule one. So, using my friendliest voice, I convinced the assistant coordinator to let us both in, even if we had to split a slot (it wasn't difficult ;-)) I hadn't really wanted to do initiators because I have so few names, and I like to save them for the girls, and I'm in the booth a lot as a worker, but I felt prompted to go anyway.
The booths now are individual (instead of multiple woman rotating through) so it was just the worker and I. She stood to the side of me, but I had a crick in my neck and couldn't look at her, so instead I just closed my eyes and listened to the words. And while sitting there, I had a vision. It was like a dream, but I was awake. I was standing in heaven (it looked similar to the heaven in the temple movies), and I saw Glo, coming up through the clouds, shining and golden, with her arms outstretched like she was reaching even more heavenward. And once she was there, I saw her and Hannah, standing next to each other, again both shining and golden, and they reached out and hugged me. I knew it was taking place after our earthly time together. I wish I was an artist, because I can see the whole thing perfectly in my mind. I knew in that moment that my view of the pre-existence was being changed forever.
I have always thought of my family being formed in the pre-existence, and my children wanting to come to earth to me because of the good home I would provide them and the good parent I would be, but in that moment, everything was turned around. I saw them hugging me, and I knew that they had come to earth to be with me to help me. I saw them as the beautiful adult spirits that they are, picturing them more as my sisters, and I knew that I agreed to share our earth experience together because they would be a strength and an example to me instead of the other way around. It was such a beautiful, revelatory moment in my mind, and it was a gift. I hadn't come to the temple thinking about them, and I've been working really hard on not worrying about them anymore but trusting that the Lord has them in his hands, so I wasn't looking for any kind of answer in regards to them. But there it was. I can only imagine that someday that scene will play out in real time, and like so many other tender mercies, we will know again how much our Heavenly Father loved us while on earth.
I know there is more in that vision than what I can process in the moment. I find it interesting that John and the boys weren't in it which makes me think that there is something more special than I can appreciate about the spirits of women. And there's probably more too, but these thoughts will have to do for now.
So while we had come to support Stephne's father, and while I had come to support Stephne herself, little did I know that it was all part of the master plan so that I could have that beautiful vision that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I love the temple.
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