A Temple of Our Very Own

April 26, 2008 was an exciting day for us LDS folks in Gilbert. We found out we were going to get a temple right here in our town! What a wonderful blessing! From that day, the stakes and wards around here have done their best to help us feel part of the temple. The primary children drew pictures and wrote their names on rocks that are part of the temple's foundation before construction began. It was also suggested that we should go with our families down to the site, once that was decided, and take a family picture. I love that idea! I'm so glad we have this picture now because it helps me feel like we're a part of history!

June 2010
 
(The kids look so little!)

In November of the same year (2010), was the groundbreaking ceremony. I don't have the best memories of that one because we were way in the back so we couldn't really see anything and the kids were crying/whining the whole time. But hey, you can't win them all right?

This was basically what our view was...


And here we are in the nosebleed section! :) (You can see Holly crying).
 

I was surprised to see it was November because I remember it being hot! Weird.
 

Once they started construction we loved driving past the temple to see the progress. Finally one day we made a point of going after church with the camera! :) Yay!

These are from January 2012- Two years before the open house began.
 



Fast forward 2 years- the temple was all but completed.
January 11, 2014 our stake had a "temple walk". They asked everyone to wear a white shirt and we all parked at a park about a mile (or maybe two) away and walked to the temple together. I loved it! You can see the temple off in the distance...
 

They had some facts about the temple posted on signs along the route. This fact happens to be one of the neatest things about our temple...
 
The agave plant is seen in stained glass windows, furniture, rugs, you name it- inside the temple. It's so beautiful!

Of course we found friends on the way :) Love these girls!
 

When we got there they took a family picture. The grounds were still being completed so we couldn't go all the way up to the temple yet.
 

On January 24, on our way down to California, we took the opportunity to go to the open house. We didn't have tickets, which on a Friday morning when most people are at school and work, worked out fine.
 

We were so excited to finally get to take this family picture right in front of the temple!
 

The kids loved the open house and the chance to see inside the temple. What a treat for them to get to go inside such a special place. It's really breathtaking.
See the agave plant on the windows?
 
From the temple website: "During the month-long public open house of the Gilbert Arizona Temple, 407,020 guests toured the facility." Pretty amazing!

When the church opens a new temple, of course there's going to be some celebrating! All the youth in the temple district practiced for a few months to put on the celebration. They had to be 12 before March 2 (dedication day) which meant that Eli made it by a week! What a blessing for him to be part of a piece of history he'll never forget! So he got to start attending mutual a little early to go the practices. They had a couple all day practices out on the field where the show was. The big one was on Eli's birthday! He was thrilled ;) He really was fine in the end. He knew his big celebration was going to be his 12 yr old trip just a couple weeks later.
 
There were about 12,000 kids in the celebration! So amazing! March 1st was the celebration. The whole week before, rain was in the forecast. And for the first time in the history of weather reports, it never changed. All week: 80-90% chance rain on Saturday. For a long time during the day the rain was everywhere but the temple. Lots of people posted on FB, pictures of a spot of clear skies above the temple and dark clouds/rain everywhere else. It was good because then the kids were at least dry during the day and weren't already soggy for what was to come! We watched the celebration on TV. One of ABC's smaller stations aired it live- at least on Cox. Lots of people watched it on the computer or at the stake center. We searched for kids we knew the whole time but didn't have much luck with that many of them. I'm the only person I know that wanted it to rain. My kids love the rain and we rarely get rain. Some people were saying to pray for it to not rain on the celebration. I thought about it but couldn't do it. Growing up in drought-stricken southern California and praying for rain many-a-time as a child, I just don't have it in me. If it wants to rain, let it! And boy, oh boy did we get rain! It POURED on that celebration! And you know what? Those kids will NEVER forget that night!

Here are Emma and Eli before and after:
 


There were puddles following them across the floor as they came in!
 
They were both muddy, grassy, drenched and besides being cold, had, had a great time:) They ran straight to the showers and got warmed up.

Last Friday night we had our first ward temple night in our new temple and I got to do my first session there (Dana was on a scout camporee with Eli).

We are so grateful to have a temple in Gilbert!