Gila Valley Temple!

The Gila Valley Temple is doing their open house, the temple is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours away, my parents decided they wanted to go with my brother and sister, so Marc and I tagged along. We left about 7am and were home about 6pm, it was a pretty quick trip! We have some good family friends that live in Thatcher, the city where the temple is, so we used their house to change into our Sunday clothes. These friends wrote, choreographed, and organized the Temple Cultural Celebration that will be held before the Temple Dedication. They had all day rehearsals and since we had to run get the key to their house, we got to watch some of it! It was amazing!

There were a lot of people going through that day so we didn't really get to stop and talk too much. We were in and out in about 10 minutes, not including the 12 minute video before and our pit stop for cookies after! It was so beautiful! It will be a huge blessing to the people in the area to have a temple so close to them! Here are a few pictures outside the Temple. My dad took some of the family, minus himself, I'll post some of those as soon as I get them! Sorry about our squinted eyes, the sun was so bright!

I Need Ideas!

I love our ward. It is small. Everyone is so friendly! We know this is the ward we were supposed to be in. We didn't really like the apartments we moved into, but something was telling us to do it. We found out that the ward had been fasting for new people to move in. So here we are! I was pulled into primary within the first few weeks, so I don't really know too many of the women. Some how Marc and I keep getting asked to do things. For example, a few weeks ago we were asked to speak to the Young Women about preparing for the Temple, I used to be in Young Women, but I was TERRIFIED! We did really well, and had parents come up and say how their daughters talked about it after. Well, Sunday the Relief Society President called and asked if I would speak at the Visiting Teaching Conference on Sunday. Again I am TERRIFIED, but this time for very different reasons! I have been to the temple, I remember preparing to go through, I could relate to the subject. This time I can't. The topic they want us to speak on is from Elder Aoyagi's General Conference talk "Helping Hands, Saving Hands". I have only been able to have Visiting Teachers for 5 or 6 years, but my experience has not been anything to model after. I will admit, I have had times where I don't go, I have had companions who won't go and leave me to go alone, but I have never had Visiting Teachers that come like they should. I have always been under the impression that if other sisters take time to visit you, you should do the same. I do my part, but the other half is rarely fulfilled. I don't know how to talk on how Visiting Teaching has helped me in my life other than serving others, I have to talk on both. So, If any of you have stories of how your life has been blessed by Visiting Teaching can you share?! I promise I will not claim your stories as mine, and I also will confirm with you if I can use your story if it is something I feel I should share with these sisters. I know that some of your experiences may be personal and you may not want to share, I totally understand, feel free to share your comments on here, or if you would rather e-mail me at mliving at hotmail dot com. Thanks so much!