Katelyn's Special Day at the Gilbert Temple!

It was a beautiful day! It was overcast and cloudy and threatening rain, but it was beautiful! It was such a neat experience at the Gilbert temple. Katelyn and I had to leave at 10:45 to be there by noon. We had a nice visit on the way over! It was so nice to have over an hour to just talk about the temple and how special it is! We were able to have a really neat talk together about the importance of what she was about to do and how well she has prepared. When we got there, we had enough time to walk around the grounds and take pictures together. She kept wanting to walk around due to the nerves, but at noon it was time to go in! Everyone was so friendly and helpful. I especially enjoyed talking to the matron—Sister Hill. She was so sweet and explained things so very well! She wanted to answer any questions that Katelyn had, and was so attentive to her needs. I appreciated her kindness and excitement that she felt toward Katelyn! The session was beautiful. I felt such a strong, peaceful feeling. I felt so much love and such a strong sense of peace. I didn’t want the session to end! I remember just wanting it to go on forever. Having all my children together inside the temple was such an amazing feeling! They were ALL there!!!! I am so grateful to have kids who desire righteousness and understand the blessing of the gospel in their lives! That in and of itself is a blessing to me and brings me so much joy and happiness! I felt that in the temple! After the session, we went into the Celestial room and had such a good talk about many of Katelyn’s questions--which she had many of. I felt such a sweet feeling as I pondered the blessings of all that happens in the temple and how the Lord only desires our happiness—to bring to pass our eternal progression and exaltation! It was hard to leave, but after a really long while of talking, we decided we’d better get going. Shelby watched Luke for Megan and Todd and they needed to get back to pick him up. We took a picture outside the temple and headed over to Deseret Book to check on garments for Katelyn. We were only able to get her 5 pair due to the shortages. Turns out this Deseret Book didn’t have ANY of her sizes! She’s going to have to get them up in Utah. I feel really badly that I’m sending her up to school with only 5 pair. She’s going to have to do laundry a lot until she can get a few more!

Katelyn chose BJ’s for dinner! It was soooo good! We went there for both Brooke and McKenzie's endowment too-- I guess it's tradition! It was such a nice day to celebrate!  I love to see the temple, to be inside that holy place and to FEEL the peace that is always there!  (PS: the Phoenix Temple is closed for 2 months for renovations... Katelyn wanted to go through that temple and was disappointed it was closed, but chose Gilbert instead.)  It was a beautiful day!