Kansas City MO Temple Open House!

April 30th, 2012

This is the last week of the Kansas City Missouri Temple Open House!  It has been so great to be part of the experience!

First, the open house was supposed to be 2 weeks long, but there was such an overwhelming response that they extended it another week!  The first week 40,000 people toured it, and I'm not sure what the numbers were the second week but I know they are estimating well over 100,000 people by the end.  That will give them 1 week to get everything cleaned and ready for the dedication next Sunday, May 6th.  The youth have been practicing like CRAZY for their presentations and that will be broadcast to our buildings this coming Saturday (the 5th.)  I know they expected ~1,500 youth to participate and ~3,000 signed up!

They had 2 VIP days the friday and saturday before, for the country and state delegates, leaders of other churches, and the press, but on the first day of the public open house Cliff got to serve 6 hour shift of "Security"; wearing an ear piece, walking the grounds, roaming the temple, and helping with protesters if they get out of hand, or if someone needs to be escorted out.  (No one did.)  The most interesting thing that happened was they went into the basement where furniture had been loaded, and a door was left a-jar. (*gasp!)  That same day Jared served a 6 hr. shift of grounds maintenance, (keeping the facilities clean.)

The following Monday we had our Family Home Evening on temples to prepare us to take the kids down to tour it the next day.  So, we invited our next door neighbor and her 2 little kids to come listen to the lesson (since her son is always over here anyway) and they did!  I wish that her fiancé came too...Anyway, I invited all of my strong Christian friends to the open house and none of them went down, but my neighbor (pregnant at 15, having her 3rd kid with a second guy, tattooed, immodest, chain smoker etc.) was what I thought the "least likely" to want to come, but she was SO excited and REALLY wanted to go down and take her kids through!  So, that next day we took our kids down with Jared and went through a tour, and then the following Monday I went down in the day time with my girls, my neighbor, and her kids.  The strollers were kind of difficult, and her little girl wanted to run so she got a little fussy, but even so it turned out good and I think she enjoyed it.  As a small answer to my prayer she wasn't able to find her pack of cigarettes that morning!  She's been trying to quit since she's pregnant, but hasn't succeeded very well, and I was worried I'd have to ask her not to smoke in the car etc. so I'd prayed the night before that it would be ok, and then she told me as we were getting into the car that she'd bought a pack the night before and had it laid out to take it but couldn't find it ALL morning and didn't have time to get another!  I was so happy and glad that we had to schedule a reservation time so we didn't have time to stop either :-)

The next Friday (April 20th) Cliff and I served as tour hosts!  That was a WONDERFUL experience!  Each tour lasts about 1 hr. and 15 min. from start to finish.  The people show up at the stake center across from the temple, and once a group of 15-40 people are there (almost immediately since there is a steady stream coming and they start a tour about every 3-15 min.) they send the group to a room to watch a 15 min movie about temples that a sister missionary starts.  Then Cliff or I would introduce ourselves, tell them to turn off cells etc. and then walk our group over to the temple.  The tours were NOT proselyting tours, only informative tours.  At each "station" or room, we had 90 seconds to tell them briefly what happens there.  (From what I've heard more than half the visitors were not members of the church.)

We start at the front of the temple, point out the "Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord" and the angel Moroni from Revelations "I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel..."  Then we all put on foot coverings and wiped wheelchair and stroller wheels to protect the carpets.  We made stops at the recommend desk, baptistry (where we make sure they understand that we don't hold funerals in the temple and then baptize the dead!!!) walking through the chapel and mentioning it's a waiting place to gather and go up to the instruction rooms, then up to the 1st and 2nd instruction rooms, and finally into the Celestial room where we spend 2 min. and no one talks.  Finally we go into a sealing room and then down 2 flights of stairs and out the doors.  They're supposed to end up back at the Stake center to see the chapel where we hold meetings and take the sacrament, and then go into the cultural hall and have a soft snicker doodle and soda or water.  (They probably bought over 200,000 cookies!!!)  The 3 tours we took through they mostly scattered at the end and we didn't get them back to the stake center...oh well.  At the cultural hall they have time to ask the tour host questions (which we tried to deflect as much as possible in the temple because of time) and the sister missionaries were also there to answer questions, but since it was not proselyting there were no referral cards or anything like that.  Only a comment card about the tours etc.

Things worked out perfect for Cliff and I to go together since Cliff's sister Anne lives 10 min. from the temple and could watch the kids!  On that first Friday I did a double shift and played the organ in the temple chapel right after hosting tours.  Luckily Cliff took the kids home because even though the tours were supposed to end at 8pm and be out by 9pm, there were still tours going through at 10:30pm!  I was there until 10:15 and left the last organist still playing because I had been at the temple from 11am and hadn't eaten anything yet!  The organ wasn't too bad though since there were 3 of us switching off every half hour.

Finally, since the open house was extended a week our stake was given another assignment day to fill so we all got to serve another shift this week - Cliff on tour hosting, me on organ again, and Jared on security.  (Jared REALLY loved that job!)  Since Cliff was just released as Elder's Quorum councilor last week and was made the Ward Clerk, he got to help make some of those assignments too :-)

Anyway, that's been a lot of our days this month!  Besides temple things, Jared is working hard on our house for the summer before we take him to school in UT - he spent 8 hours de-mucking and cleaning out and around our pond, fixed our rain gutters and cleaned them out, helped cut down a rotted tree in the front yard, cleared brush, dug down 2 inches in the front yard and put weed control down in front of our garden, built new railings for our front porch and has helped immensely babysitting when needed.  He's great.

May 7th, 2012


On Saturday, the 5th, Cliff and I got to attend the Youth Cultural Celebration down in Kansas City! There were extra tickets and they finally got passed down to us! The only reason we were able to go was Jared.
In fact, I initially turned the tickets down because I felt bad leaving the kids since I was going to take them to watch the broadcast of it at the church. However, Cliff told me to call my mom because he thought she’d talk me into it...and she eventually did! lol. At first she sided with me, and then after realizing that the little kids would probably not sit through it at the church, and we’d end up missing a lot of it anyway, she changed her (and my) mind and told me to go. Luckily it will be on a dvd that we can watched together for a FHE soon.


The prophet Thomas S. Monson and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland were both there and it was wonderful! The music and cheering was loud and there were quite a few beautiful moments that had me almost in tears. The youth worked so hard to put on a good show for the prophet :-) The Joplin stakes that wore their Helping Hands T-shirts and did a musical number about rebuilding after the the recent tornado last year was particularly moving, and the Polynesian wards put on an awesome show too.


We drove the 3 Baig kids that weren’t in the show and brother McCoy from our ward whose daughter was
in it. When we got there the line of people went around the entire building, 3-5 people deep, so we walked around it to the “end” and when we got to the “end” it had become a beginning and we walked right in :-)
At first we just tried to get seats as soon as possible, but the crowd was so congested that we crossed the basketball court and ended up in the corner with the symphony to our right and the prophet to our left! They estimated that 1,500 youth would sign up but they had 3,000 instead so it was very packed! However, we ended up RIGHT in front of brother McCoy’s daughter during our stakes performance! Otherwise we would NEVER have found her in the crowd!


The dedication was broadcasted to our ward building the following day and Cliff, Jared, and I went to the second session because we swapped babysitting with John and Jess. So, we missed the corner stone part, but we got to hear more talks and still hear the dedicatory prayer and do the Hosanna shout. We even had embroidered handkerchiefs with the temple and dedication date that I’d bought 2 of and then sister Holmes gave me 2 more for watching her daughter while they worked at the open house. I was happy because Jared didn’t have one yet and I was able to give the other to our former R.S. president that sat next to us at the dedication.


That evening after the dedication we all got together at the Hales’ and 3 former missionaries that served here and lived at the Hales’ all came over for dinner! It was fantastic. Elder Austin Dickson lived at the Hales’ for an entire year, because dad Hales could do his IV for his multiple sclerosis, so we got to know him REALLY well. I remember when I told Julie that he had transfered she sighed and said, “He was the only missionary I ever loved!...” Well, when she saw him again after all this time (I think it’s been about a year) she ran to him and he picked her up and she gave him a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek! Later she told me, “Right when I saw his face I remembered that I loved him and had missed him.” Awwwwweeeee, sweet girl. She was by

his side, in his arms, or on his lap a lot of the night. But, when you’re that little, a year is a HUGE part of your life! He also brought his parents and little brother so we had a really great visit. The other elders were Elder Rodas and Elder Frener - and all three had lost ALL their mission weight! At one time Elder Rodas drove back from the stake center with us when Isaac was a baby and he had to sit facing him the whole time and Isaac just screamed, and screamed, and screamed! Poor Elder Rodas :-)

The next day we were feeding the missionaries for FHE and Julie thought that Elder Dickson was going to be there because he was “back” :-) However, I invited my next door neighbors Tiffany and Nikko and their 2 kids over for dinner and a lesson. She had agreed before, but I didn’t remind her that day so she forgot, but since they were home I still got her to come over for the lesson! The Elders gave her the first discussion and a Book of Mormon and although it lasted a LOT longer than I expected or had told her (over an HOUR with
6 little kids trying to sit still) it still went very well. Now I just need to check back with her and keep talking to her. Maybe one of these days she will come with us to church. She is the same person that I brought to the temple open house too. Her son is 5 and he still talks about it and points out our picture of the temple on the mantel and says that “I went to the temple!” It was very sweet.