Wow! What a week.
On Sunday we spent the afternoon with the Shaklee's. She needed some help figuring out how to download music onto the two MP3 players that she brought but had no idea how to use. She invited us for lunch after church and invited the Spencer's, also. It was very enjoyable getting to know both couples a little better.
Monday was FHE at the Shakee's. We talked about the Willie and Martin Handcart companies. We are doing our lessons based on the Sunday School lessons but are about four weeks behind. Sis. Hall referred to her ancestor, Mary Murray Murdoch, known lovingly as "Wee Granny, that was in the one of the companies (I can't remember which). Her extended family on that side commissioned an artist, Clark Kelley Price, to paint a picture of her. It was printed in an article in the Church News and was also used on the cover of one of the Ensign issues (I can't remember which or I would refer you to them). The picture can be found at the following link to his art work, which he does mostly of pioneer, religious and western scenes, some you might recognize, one being of the young men carrying the handcart company members over the Sweetwater:
Tuesday was pretty normal at the temple, not too busy, as was Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday we went to the temple in the morning so we could do a session. Wednesday night we had over 18 obreras (women temple workers) so there was lots of time for me to study the ordinance cards. In fact, I finally got one section down pretty good with the help of one dear young returned missionary sister, Hermana Citlali Saldaña, who serves as an obrera on Wednesdays. She is trying to learn English and speaks a little, enough for us to communicate pretty well. She has a sister that lives in Ogden, Utah and a brother that lives in Murray. When she first arrived at the temple earlier in the evening I was serving as reception obrera and Lynn was at the desk. She came over and we gave each other a hug. I introduced her to Lynn and she was speaking to me in English. Lynn told her to only speak to me in Spanish so I could learn. A little bit later Lynn and I were talking as she walked by and she scolded him for speaking to me in English. She's really a sweet, beautiful young women. Wednesday night I also met a young returned missionary sister, Alicia Yost, who is from Sandy, Utah and here for three years as a teacher of 7th and 8th graders at an Amercian school. She served a mission to Venezuela and speaks very good Spanish. She has been here in Mexico for three months. She is also serving as a temple worker. I think she just started recently because I haven't seen her here before as a temple worker, just as a patron.
Friday night was really busy, with all three sessions almost full. The problem was that it was basically Sis. Flores (the wife of the second councilor in the temple presidency) and me. The woman's coordinator didn't come. There were a couple of other workers that were there for part of the time. I started out in the laundry room because we had a large group of youth come in that needed the clothing. I finally had to just turn it over to one of the sisters that came with the group to finish helping because I had to officiate with the 5:30 session. When that session was done I did the 8:30 session. We had to use a sister from the recorders office for the end of the session. I really need to work on that part in Spanish so that I can be of more help. This really pointed that out because they really could have used me to finish with the session. At the end of the evening we had to that care of the laundry from the baptisms. I think a lot of the women workers that usually come in on Friday were probably at the special program that the Relief Society had that night. We don't usually get to go to any of the activities that they have during the week because of working in the temple during the evenings Tuesday through Friday and all day Saturday. In fact, this next Saturday the missionaries are having a special open house that we won't be able to attend because of being at the temple. Most of our association with the members is on Sunday, at our church meetings.
Saturday was really, really busy at the temple. When we got there at 10am there were 10 buses. We had about 20 bus loads throughout the day. They had done an early session at 6am before our usually scheduled session at 7:00am, so then all the sessions through out the day were every hour and twenty minutes but one hour earlier than the usually scheduled time and we ended up with two extra sessions afterwards, at 6pm and at 7:20pm. The last three sessions ended up running late so they weren't done until almost 10pm. They had so many youth groups come in that the laundry couldn't keep up. The last group of youth were standing in line waiting for about 30 to 45 minutes or more for baptismal clothes and towels. Then after all the sessions were over Lynn and I stayed to help President and Sister Hall get the last of the wash done. We didn't get home until after 11pm. The Halls didn't get home until after midnight. They stayed for the last load to finish drying.
Next Saturday they have a group coming from Reynosa, which is across the border from McAllen, Texas. They are about 230 km or 150 miles away which takes more than 2 hours to get here. They want to come on Friday night and start with sessions on Friday night and work through Saturday. Maybe you have heard of the time when temples will be open day and night, well it's starting to happen here, at least on the weekends. The temple presidency are going to discuss how to handle this at their meeting tomorrow. They are supposed to bring their own temple workers but one of the temple presidency and their wife will have to be here on shift, maybe even a few of our workers besides to help. Reynosa really needs to get their own temple.
I have to tell you about the lizard that I saw in the temple. It actually happened a few weeks ago. I just forgot to tell you about it. One night as I was collecting the garbage I went into the restroom/dressing room that's just off of the Matron's office (which also serves as the brides dressing room and the sisters meeting room, I'll explain a little more about this later). As I turned on the light this little lizard about 1½ to 2 inches long scurried across to the drain by the toilet and crawled in. His little tail was sticking out. I walked over to look more closely and he continued on down in. President Hall says that they must come in through the drains, though he's never seen one.
These small temples are missing some of the niceties of the larger temples. First of all, they don't have brides dressing rooms, with the beautiful mirrors and dressing tables and such. They use the restroom off from the Matron's office, as I mentioned above. The office is a lovely room but doesn't provide the privacy and special feeling that the regular bride's room does. This office is where the obreras (women temple workers) meet after our prayer meeting with the brethren and where we get our assignments for the shift. It's also where we go to study and memorize the ordinance cards. The matron and her assistants also use it to give their orientation talk that they give to those sister going through for the first time.
These small temples also don't have a marriage waiting room or a nursery/children's waiting room. They have a large waiting room just off to the side of the entrance that is used for the marriage waiting room, the room for youth to meet in as they are waiting to go into the baptistry and for children to wait when they are being sealed to their parents. It gets pretty crowded sometimes. They don't have workers to watch the children. The patron's are expected to bring their own caretakers for their children. There aren't even any toys for them to play with. They have a TV and can watch some church videos, but that's about it. Generally the patrons just have the children and caretakers wait across the way at the stake center until it's close to time for the sealing. Sister Hall says she almost hates to show the special video that they usually show the children that explains what to expect as they are taken in to be with their parents for the sealing because it shows children being in the special children's room of larger temples that has toys, playhouses, cribs, books, etc. because the children wonder where are those things for them. You who have access to the larger temples need to really appreciate what you have. It's not that way with these small temples. They have just the essentials, with not much extra. There just isn't the room. Even the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temples have more than the Monterrey Temple. They have a children's room and marriage waiting area.
For a few times Lynn and I went in early with the Halls when we were serving during the same shift. She was taking me around to show me what needed to be done before starting a shift: things like checking all the restrooms to make sure they had toilet paper, checking the tissue boxes to make sure they had enough tissues, etc. As we were going through the Celestial room she mentioned that when they leave at night she has made it a point of checking to make sure that no one is left in there. She said that one night a couple had fallen asleep in a corner of the room and had not been noticed. When the Halls were leaving and turned out all the lights it woke the couple up. They went out into the very dark hall, completely dark, and it set off the motion alarm. That's how they knew they were in there. It was kind of scary for them.
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