San Diego Temple

It has been a while since I have done anything blog worthy, so I have had nothing to post.  (I know, I know, you all wanted to hear all about the dishes, laundry, and meal prep I have been doing as a stay at home wife but please try to contain your disappointment and carry on somehow ;)

San Diego Temple

I went to the San Diego Temple for the first time on Wednesday, Oct. 17th. It was AWESOME!! I was so excited to go since the temple is in La Jolla and I live in Sabre Springs and do no have a car. i.e. I have no way to get there and home by myself. Even though I appreciate the opportunity to attend the temple, I was not sure I could attend for 8 straight hours after being dropped off by Andy on his way to work, and waiting while he completed his work day. The Sabre Springs Relief Society tries to go to the temple once a month and they car pool, which is nice since I have no access to a car for the first time since my late teenage years. Being without a car is a major lifestyle change for me, and not working anywhere is a trip, (maybe I will blog more about this later)

Window over Main Entrance

Anyway, I went to the temple for the 10 am session. There are no words to describe how beautiful this temple is on the inside. Hands down of all the temples I have been fortunate to worship in, this one takes the cake. There is a spiral staircase that is absolutely amazing and the celestial room was the whitest white I have ever seen. It was magnificent, it really felt like walking into heaven. I was extremely fortunate to attend the temple with ladies from my ward who work in the temple and who were kind enough to show me around so I did not get lost or miss anything. Many of the paintings in this temple are Minerva Teichert who I have had a special love for since being introduced to her by my mother-in- law Maureen, this made the whole experience more special for me.

My first trip to the San Diego Temple

Attending the temple has been bittersweet for me since my mom passed away.No matter which temple I was in when I first walked into the dressing room I would expect to see her there waiting for me. I used to meet her in the dressing room of the Vernal temple on Saturdays when I lived in Vernal and we would do a session together. It was not uncommon to run into my mom in the temple if I was in town visiting for the weekend. As a consequence, I have missed her every time I attended and sometimes it has made it hard for me to focus. This was the first time I have been able to concentrate on the session instead of my grief.  It was a good feeling. I still miss her everyday especially whenever anything good or bad happens. She is always the first person I think to tell, and I have to remind myself that she will never answer another of my phone calls or return an email.
As a clinical intern, I was assigned a few clients who were in the midst of grieving the loss of a loved one. At the time I had never lost anyone except my Southam grandparents, and I did not really understand the full impact and scale grief has upon someone's life. This forced me to really study the subject of grief and loss.  Looking back, I can see Heavenly Father was preparing me for what was to come and I will always be grateful for the lessons I learned during that time and immediately following mom's death. Losing your mom is no picnic, and I cannot imagine how people who do not have the ongoing comfort of the gospel can get through it, it surely would have killed me as it was the single hardest thing I have experienced thus far. I am now more grateful than ever that families can be forever.