When Family Comes to Town (Part Deux)

Part Two of the Tracy's visit in October (and the best part by far) was our visit to the Phoenix Temple Open House. 

When a Mormon temple is first built, it is open to the public for a limited time, usually for a period of a few weeks. During that time, anyone who wishes can go on a tour of the temple; once the temple is dedicated, though, it is only open to members of the Church in good standing, so the opportunity to actually tour one of these beautiful buildings is both limited and rare. 

Wonderfully, the Open House for the Phoenix Temple coincided with a break that the Tracys had from school, so they made the long trek to Arizona from Utah so that they could be a part of it. It was such a wonderful experience to be able to tour this amazing and sacred building together with almost everyone from my family. (Nate and his girlfriend Annie came and did a tour on a different day.) 

We have been waiting years for this beautiful building to be complete and it was such a blessing to celebrate its opening with the people we hold most dear.

{J & Van at the temple site in November 2013 // Linc and Lex in October 2014}

{Nearly the whole family}

{the Terrific Tracys}

{Monsons minus Spencer}

{Fan & Zac}

{the grandkiddos}

Craig and I were also blessed with the opportunity to volunteer together at the open house on two different occasions. The first day we first worked at one of the wheelchair stations and later did tours with people confined to wheelchairs. It was toasty that day, but still a wonderful experience. Yesterday, the last day of the open house, we went again, and we served as door holders and greeters for the people coming out of the church building and onto the temple grounds. We welcomed and smiled at hundreds of strangers for three hours straight until our cheeks hurt. (We also smiled and winked at each other during our short breaks from holding the doors, I'm not gonna lie.)

Smiling that much must have done me some good because I am still in a happy mood today. I hope to never forget what a singular and lovely experience this has been.

P.S. to Cyndie:

Come back!