Fort Worth Temple!

Yesterday, we drove to Burleson to tour and serve at the brand new Fort Worth Temple!

Nia: The FORT WORTH TEMPLE!!!!!

I am so very thankful to have a temple that will be only 75 minutes away instead of close to two hours (or 3 hours with bad traffic) and such a pleasant drive all the way there.

Nia: And we don't have to deal with the construction on the freeways. I have nightmares about dealing with those.

(For those wondering, it was 50 degrees when we got there.)

We arrived at 9am, just as the open house started for the day. There was already a line outside the chapel next to the temple that went around the corner of the building. We joined the line, which moved quickly, and got to sit in the chapel itself for close to an hour before it was our turn to tour the temple.

JT: That was an hour??

They had lovely music playing from the Tabernacle Choir. We played 20 questions using scriptures: Nehemiah and the dung gate of Jerusalem, Jairus, potter's clay, the land of Goshen, and a girdle (to gird up your loins with!).

The inside (pictures from the Church) is of course beautiful. One of the motifs is the red wildflowers, found on pictures and stained glass and wallpaper.

Joy: When we were going through our first tour, I noticed over and over in the stained glass the red wildflowers. They may not have meant to be wildflowers, but I felt like they were, and I'm so touched by the artistry that ties in the local area inside of the temple. I've also been touched by that at other temples I've visited. For me, it was those red flowers that were my favorite.

The kids noticed the baptistry had the same paintings that the Dallas temple has, of Jesus' baptism and baptism in the Book of Mormon. Many of the paintings showed scenes from the New Testament, as is common, but there were a number from the Book of Mormon that were new to me.

Nia: There was one from Noah's ark just as you come in that was new to me. The ani-mules were cute. There were chickens!

I noticed the longhorn cattle approaching the ark. (That painting is on far left of the picture on the right, behind the welcome desk.)

JT: The carpets were really soft and padded. The mirrors in the sealing room let you see forever. And you can see one of you and six of your dad!

I told both kids about how the sealer (the person who married Joy and me) asked me that question, and he said that you could see 50 of your wife. And that's how often you should think of her vs. yourself: think of her 50 times as much as you think of yourself.

After our tour, the three of them went back to the chapel to receive their service assignment. I drove the car to another chapel for parking and took a shuttle bus back to the temple. They were assigned to the very front of the temple, where they helped put little white coverings over people's shoes to keep the temple clean. There were 6-8 youth at a time helping folks with that, while Joy kept them stocked with footies. I was sent to the front of the chapel to welcome people in and keep the line moving and organized. I was paired with a sister from our stake. It was a pleasant time, greeting everyone. I particularly enjoyed watching the streams of small children doing gymnastics on the metal handrails.

(One story I enjoyed: there was a group that was waiting for a mother feeding her baby. I told them to text her and come up to me when she was done and we would let her in right away to join her group. When she did show up, she said her family had told her to talk to the guy in the cowboy hat. I was not the only one in a cowboy hat - this is Fort Worth - but it did help people feel welcome, I think.)

Joy: We felt a little rushed through the first tour, so we took another tour after we served.

Nia: And hopefully we'll get to go on another one tomorrow!

When we had toured the Baton Rouge temple, some 7-8 years ago, we fondly recall that Hyrum didn't want to leave. He stopped before leaving so he could stay a moment longer, and made a promise that he would be back. It was very sweet. JT was similarly downcast this time when he left the temple after the tour. He had wanted to sit in the celestial room and feel the wonderful spirit there longer. But with the line wrapping all the way around the long side of the building by now, I didn't see how we could. By the end of our shift, though, the line was GONE and we could just walk straight in to the chapel. 

Nia: So we put shoes on EVERYONE in that huge line! The best people to put shoes on were the tiny children, cause they had teeny tiny feet.

The first time through, I walked with Nia, and the second time I paired up with JT, to share about the rooms and the work that goes on there. On weekdays, they have guides who are stationed throughout to explain what goes on, but with the massive crowds on Saturday they couldn't keep up.

Tomorrow, Joy, Nia, and I will return to do another service shift while JT is at school. Then on Wednesday Joy and Nia will go for a third round.

JT: So in the room where they trained us, there are about 40 seats and they should all be filled, but there were only ten of us!

There is clearly a great need for more volunteers.

And afterwards we went to our current favorite Chinese restaurant, Ocean Buffet in Crowley, to start celebrating Joy's birthday! It's only 15 minutes away from the temple and on the way home!