The End of Summer 2017 And (A Little Bit) Beyond

After returning from the Nash family reunion in Vernal, there wasn't much summer vacation left; just two weeks! Our charter school starts earlier than just about everyone else (July 24th or thereabouts), and there was a lot to get done after we arrived back in Tucson. Some of it was dull & boring (school supply shopping, yuck!), some of it was pretty fun! Here's a rundown of some of the more memorable things we experienced in late July/early August.

Nathan and I went on not just one, but TWO date nights with other adults!!

This is in bold-face because this so rarely happens anymore.  When we are lucky, we manage to sneak out of the house and pull off a quick date with just the two of us. We still have a decent number of friends living in the area, but we are all getting so busy with work, kids, church, and life in general that our socializing has been reduced significantly...especially during the school year, when all the kids' extracurriculars are in full swing.

Imagine our happiness, then, when the Savoies (some old friends from another ward) invited us to attend an "escape the room" date in Tucson, just one week after we returned home from vacation. We had been through a different escape room last year, but we really enjoyed it and were excited to try it out.

We ate a delicious dinner beforehand with our fellow "escapees" at the Brushfire BBQ, and then headed over to the Escape Room. Right from the start, I enjoyed this escape room better than our previous adventure. Why? Because this room was pirate-themed!

Rather than simply "escape" the locked room, our team had to unlock the pirate's "chest" and "steal" it. It was fun to have a different objective other than "find the key and get out." The decor was lots of fun, and there were some truly clever tricks involved in this room. For example, the eight of us started out in a very small room, with a large wardrobe taking up the bulk of the space. We reasoned that opening the wardrobe would be a key step in progressing towards our ultimate goal. When we finally got the doors open (hint: it involved magnets), the inside revealed: a secret passageway into another room, with a half-dozen more puzzles to solve inside! It was really cool.

In the end, our group managed to open up the treasure chest with about seven minutes to spare. We were pretty proud of ourselves! In our previous escape room, Nathan and I had been attempting to catch an international jewel thief. There were a lot of number- & geography-related puzzles to solve in that room. In this pirate-themed room, there were more riddles, anagrams, mirrors, and magnets; there were a greater variety of puzzles and it was great fun. We were so glad we got to go!

Just one week later, we went out with a different couple...some friends of ours from our ward (I teach her children piano, and she gives my two oldest daughters voice lessons. It's been a good trade so far!). We had mentioned to them once that we would like to try sushi...and so when they invited us our for a sushi dinner as a birthday date, we were excited to go along! The Hibberds have a lot more experience eating sushi than us, so Nathan and I were relieved to have some relative "experts" to help us pick some tastier choices.

Mmm...Beet sushi! Baby squid sushi! Eel sushi!

 

We both went more "exotic" than I think we were expecting, but we had a lot of fun trying everything out...even the stuff that we decided we didn't like. It was fun to do something different for dinner! Hopefully we will get a chance to go out for sushi again sometime.

The girls completed all their summer "extras."

Throughout the summer, our girls had each had their own "special" activity. As the girls have gotten older, and as they are slowly transitioning into teenagers, it is getting harder to figure out how to keep them entertained in the summer. Example: I signed all three girls up for swim lessons offered at our local pool by the Tucson YMCA. The lessons were free: Hooray, I thought! Well, it turns out you get what you pay for. The instruction offered was on the extreme end of basic; each of my girls already knew all of that stuff. To make matters worse, they inexplicably put Aurora in the more advanced class, and Lorelai and Celeste in the intermediate class! My older girls were offended and bored, and even Aurora thought there wasn't enough to do at these lessons. I guess next summer, if I want my girl's swimming to improve, I will put them on the local swim team (unlikely; too expensive) or sign them up for private lessons (more likely; we'll see what our schedule allows).

Despite this hiccup, we had some better luck with our other summer "extracurriculars." Lorelai at first asked to participate in a basketball camp; unfortunately, our budget and the timing of our family vacation didn't really allow her to participate. Instead, we tried something in the summer that we'd never done before...we gave Lorelai private trombone lessons! Of course, she has been taking private piano lessons from me for years now. However, she does love her trombone, and she's asked me for lessons before.

I was able to get in touch with Sammie, a former band-mate of Lorelai's from Great Expectations Academy. These days, Sammie is in high school, participating in marching band and playing first trombone in the jazz band as well. Lorelai always looked up to Sammie (as she should; Sammie is a sweet girl and an excellent trombonist!); and I decided it might be nice if the two of them could have "jam sessions" once a week! Sammie (and her mother) jumped at the chance for Sammie to be a music teacher for the summer. I paid for the lessons (not a ton of money, but hopefully a nice sum for a high-school student), and the two had a lot of fun together.

Sadly, I don't have any photographs to commemorate these lessons, but they were a nice opportunity for both girls and Lorelai really enjoyed herself. It was a good opportunity for Lorelai to see what sorts of things she would have to work on in her performance before entering high school. She got several pages of scales, exercises, & technique builders from Sammie that she worked on diligently through the summer. Besides that, she also got the chance to "goof off" with her instrument a bit; the two of them practiced improvising back & forth with each other and they enjoyed that. When the school year began again, I noticed a significant improvement in Lorelai's playing ability. Maybe it was my imagination somewhat...but I think if nothing else came out of of these lessons, they were a confidence booster for Lorelai going into seventh grade. I think that when the time comes for her to try out for jazz band in high school, she will be ready!

There was one more major activity that Lorelai was involved in this summer...

...Girl's Camp! It is a yearly event for all girls in the LDS Church (plus any of their friends who want to come along!), aged 12-18. The girls travel several hours from home and spend most of the week doing all sorts of things: outdoor activities; faith-promoting experiences; spiritual strength building; sports; music; crafts; or just plain goofing off. It is a highlight of the year for many girls, and Lorelai had been looking forward to her first year of camp for a long time.

The girls in our ward are expected to do their own fund-raising in order to attend camp, and last spring, Lorelai baked over a dozen pies to be delivered on "Pi(e) Day" (March 14, or 3/14, for you math nerds).  I helped her make the pies, of course; that is quite a workload for any one person, let alone an 11-year-old!

We ended up with fourteen pies altogether: three mixed-berry pies (my personal favorite); five apple pies, of two different types; a cherry pie; two chocolate-cream pies; and two Virginia Peanut Pies (Think a pecan pie made with peanuts instead! It was sweet and salty, and pretty tasty). We kept one of the peanut pies for ourselves, and made a "grasshopper pie" (chocolate mint)...because there was no way we weren't having pies for our own family on Pi(e) Day!

The girls from our ward, getting ready to head out to camp

Thanks to Lorelai's hard work in March, she managed to pay off her entire fee for Girl's Camp four months before camp! I was very proud. After that, the hardest part for her was waiting to go to camp! We had a busy summer, so it was still a little hard to believe my eyes when she was goofing off with her friends that first morning, waiting to board the van. It didn't feel real to me that my daughter was heading off to Girl's Camp...that's something that teenagers do, not my "little" girls!

Of course, Lorelai has been off on overnight activities several times before this; as a member of jazz band, she has traveled as far as California without me. But on those occasions, she still had cell phone access, and was still able to contact me frequently. Not hearing from her for five days was disorienting and a little worrisome. However, she had a wonderful time...and some merciful parents who'd gone along to Girl's Camp posted a few pictures on social media, so I knew she was alive and well.

Lorelai hasn't shared a whole lot with me, but I gathered that she had a very nice time at camp. She made a few crafts, went boating, got to rappel down a rock face, attended a few devotionals, participated in a gift exchange, and even went on the traditional "snipe hunt" that has been a Girl's Camp tradition since I was a girl myself. She enjoyed every minute, and had a few spiritual experiences that I suspect strengthened her testimony (of course, she will never tell me about them, because she's often close-mouthed about such things).

Girl's Camp took place outside Alpine, Arizona; it's a city up in the northeastern part of the state (in the White Mountains). The girls were frequently rained on and got a little chilly at night. When Lorelai arrived back in hot, sweaty Sahuarita, it was obvious she needed a shower! But she looked very happy to be home, and happy with her experience. I sincerely hope her next Girl's Camp is equally memorable.

But Lorelai wasn't the only daughter in our household with extra activities this summer: Celeste & Aurora got to attend a sewing camp, and make a few items!

I am one of the world's worst sewers. I can reattach buttons, and that's about it. Luckily, our neighbor Trista (the same lady who currently gives Lorelai & Celeste voice lessons!) is an excellent seamstress, and she offered a weekly "sewing camp" to interested grade-school kids this summer. I was happy for them to have the opportunity; at least they would be taught by someone with better knowledge than myself! Each week for about an hour, the girls would head over to Trista's house, and she would instruct them on basic sewing tools, use & care of a sewing machine, and stitching techniques.

By the end of the summer, they had both each made a pair of pants, and a handbag! They picked out their own fabrics, so each item had their own sense of (interesting) style. It was awesome! I am really happy they had this opportunity. I don't know if it's something they would ever want to do again, but I'm glad they got to try sewing out this once. Now if only I could follow up with them and help them expand on what they've learned! Sadly, that may not happen. Maybe I need to send them to Grandma's house next!

I had a few home projects too...and one project (literally) fell to earth.

Even though there wasn't a lot of time left in the summer, I still found time to get my homemaker on. For a while now, I have been wanting to repaint the white walls in each of the girls' bedrooms Originally, we painted all the walls of each bedroom but one, leaving one wall white as a contrast. However, the paint on that white wall was the flat, unattractive matte paint left behind by the original sellers. As a result, a lot of ugly smears & smudges had appeared on the walls over the years. I determined to buy some better white paint and cover up the mess. Besides the bedroom walls, I also decided I had enough paint to do one additional wall in our main loft area upstairs. I guess after painting the stairwell in the spring, my house-painting "itch" still needed some scratching.

It took me several weeks to get all the walls done.; I did Lorelai's room while she was away at Girl's Camp, and I had to wait until school started to take care of the other girls' rooms. When I was all finished, the walls didn't look especially different or flashy (it was more white paint, after all). However, they definitely looked cleaner, so I was satisfied. Now, most of our house has been painted the colors we want! All that remains is our upstairs loft & hallway. Here's hoping we can complete it before moving out!

As I was trying to complete this home improvement project, another, much more unwelcome home project reared its ugly head. We were sitting inside one rainy night, when we heard a sickening, wet thud come from outside. We peeked out and saw this:

A very rainy monsoon season, combined with the weakened wood inside our backyard balcony, meant that the materials had rotted through and lost all structural integrity in the rain. Sheetrock and particle board alike gave way and fell to the ground; for the rest of the summer, a steady stream of water poured through the hole during each storm.

It was very disheartening for us to see the damage. Nathan and I had known that the balcony was in bad shape and needed repair, but we had hoped to put it off for another year or so. In a year when we have had so many appliance & car repairs, as well as getting our home exterior painted, it has been scary and disheartening trying to calculate the costs of this repair. In fact, we still haven't finshed the job...although our family has had many offers of help so far. I'll share more on this later, once things are more settled.

Losing our balcony made me depressed...and like many women, when I am depressed I bake. Luckily we had a lot of fresh produce to work with this summer...

I found a recipe for Lemon Zucchini Bread, and it was so incredibly delicious I literally couldn't stop making it for a couple of weeks. I delivered loaves to many of my friends. I sent several of them up to Girl's Camp. I may have eaten a few myself! Soooo good!

I also ordered a huge crate of plums from Bountiful Baskets; I don't do as much home canning as I would like these days, but I was in a "plum" mood this summer, so I tried out a bunch of things:

I canned some halved plums to start things out; I've done that a few times before. I also froze a bag or two of plums, to use for later. But then I tried some slightly more exotic items. I made a whole bunch of plum jam, which looked and tasted delicious. Finally, I canned a few jars of spicy Asian plum sauce; it's excellent on chicken, duck, and pork. We had a little extra sauce left over after canning, and I dipped some egg rolls into it. Fantastic! It was fun to try a few new things.

I also made some plum cobbler. Yum!

Best of the rest!

When Lorelai was at Girl's Camp, Celeste & Aurora had a great time. They missed their sister, but they also had fun having the house to "themselves." We took a trip to the Tucson Children's Museum, a place Lorelai is getting a bit tired of, and they had a terrific time.

And, of course, our beautiful Coco was surviving the summer as best she could indoors.

Coco is a very active dog, and being cooped up inside all day is difficult for her (especially because she is actually afraid of the sound our air conditioner makes when it turns on! Sigh...our "brave protector" she is not.). We tried to get her some extra toys to play with...

And when it started to cool off in the evenings, we would take Coco to the local dog park, and watch her run off all her energy. Coco is a very fast dog, and we love watching her fly across the grass and play with other dogs. We are happy to have a place like this in our neighborhood.

And just like that...

School began! Lorelai got home from Girl's Camp on a Friday; our first day of school was the following Monday. Yikes! Every year our summers seem shorter. I will blog more about school another time, though...for now, I'll close the blog post with the end of summer. It was a lot of fun, and over a little too soon.

I Love To See Our Temple

Summer is mostly over and I haven't blogged about any of our summer vacation yet. Time to start!

After the big announcement in LDS General Conference almost five years ago, the Tucson Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is (finally) just about completed! In mid-August, the temple will officially open its doors for worthy members of the LDS faith. Inside the temple, these members will do sacred ordinance work for both living members of the church, and for those who have passed away without the chance to hear the gospel. For a member of the LDS Church, the temple is both a symbol of God's love for us and a workplace in which we learn more of Christ and strengthen our eternal family bonds.

To say that the members of the church in the Tucson area are excited is an understatement. Some residents have been waiting their whole lives for a temple to be built in their town. Nathan and I have only lived in Tucson for about 14 years, but it has still been a long, hard wait for us at times. Before this year, the closest temple was in Mesa, Arizona (a two and a half hour drive away). Now we are able to get to the temple in a mere 40 minutes! Sure, it's still a bit of a drive, but sooo much better than it was before. Nathan and I hope we can set a good example for our kids and visit the temple much more frequently than we have in the past.

As a family, we have been following the temple's construction closely. I joined the Facebook page of a local LDS photographer, because he has posted weekly construction updates that include photos. We have also been to visit the construction site several times with the kids, each time pointing out the progress of the temple, and talking about what a great blessing the temple will be for our area.

Despite seeing the steady construction progress, we were uncertain how long it would take for the temple to be completed. We received a pleasant surprise early this last spring, when the church announced that the temple would be dedicated on August 13th of this year! That was sooner than many of us had predicted. A tiny part of me had wished that the temple wouldn't be dedicated until early 2018 (when Aurora turns eight years old; that way, she could have attended the dedicatory sessions). But our community was getting a temple several months earlier than expected, so I wasn't too upset about it!

Along with the dedication announcement came two other, related announcements: the temple would be holding a public open house through most of June; and the local church youth (ages 12-18) would be performing a large "cultural celebration" that showcases the history and traditions of our area, and celebrates the arrival of a temple as part of that. These cultural celebrations, once rare events, have now become common, taking place almost every time a new temple is finished somewhere in the world. It is a lot of work, but it gives the local church youth and their families an additional sense of "ownership" of the new temple.

With all this exciting news, our family got a little "temple fever" this spring & summer, getting a little giddy about its imminent completion. I even splurged and bought a lovely canvas print of the temple to hang in our house, along with our family pictures.

I don't usually spend big bucks on art for the home, but I made an exception this time; I don't think anyone in the family minded! It is nice to have a visual reminder of the temple in our home.

The temple open house dates were June 3-24, 2016. The youth cultural celebration was announced for Saturday, August 12, 2017. As her (amazing) luck would have it, August 12 is the day Lorelai turns twelve years old, which means she qualified--by the skin of her teeth!--to participate in the cultural celebration. Even though she is still eleven years old, she has started attending the weekly Mutual activities held by our ward to practice the singing & dancing for the celebration. Just like that, she said "goodbye" to the twice-monthly Activity Days, and she is now hanging with the "big kids" every Wednesday night. At first, when we told Lorelai about the cultural celebration, she wasn't all that interested in participating! I suspect part of it was the timing of the announcement; she had just finished performing in The Little Mermaid, and she had hoped for a bit of a break between performance practices. But after the first week or so of practice, she started to warm to the idea and enjoying herself.

Nathan joined the fun just a couple of weeks later; he was asked by our bishopric to serve as a "captain of ten" for the cultural celebration performance. The "captains of ten" are basically kid wranglers, making sure that the performers have all their costume parts, are in the right place, have enough water, etc. The plus side to the job is that these captains will be the only adults on the field with the performers at showtime; they have front-row seats for the action! It's a pretty exclusive club, and we are all happy that Nathan got the gig (he was probably asked to do it because of his calling as a seminary teacher; he already has a relationship with many of the youth). Our family will be excitedly looking for Nathan and Lorelai on camera as we watch the celebration broadcast from our local church meetinghouse (the performance will be held in a local baseball field, and there isn't room there for all the families who will be watching it).

More so than the cultural celebration, Nathan and I were excited to participate in the temple's open house. The Open House ran for about 18 days. Since there are currently nine LDS stakes in the Tucson temple district, each stake was assigned two days in the schedule to "staff" the open house with volunteers. Our stake was given Tuesday the 13th and Friday the 23rd of June as its dates. There were hundreds of volunteer positions to fill, of many different types. There were parking lot attendants, tour guides, medical & security personnel, ushers, tour guides, and more. And on top of that, each day had three different four-hour shifts to fill.

There was an online sign-up for all the volunteer jobs; the day the sign-up went live, I called Nathan at work and told him we had to sign up soon, if we wanted one of the cushier jobs. We were a little nervous about volunteering for one of the "outdoor" jobs; since this open house was taking place in June we knew it was going to be pretty hot & miserable. So we promptly signed up as temple ushers for Friday the 23rd. That was the job everyone wanted; volunteers stayed indoors virtually the whole time, it was very light on physical labor, and best of all, it was inside the temple so volunteers could admire the beauty of the building along with the visitors! We considered ourselves lucky to get the job.

After a week or so, we noticed that there were still a lot of volunteer positions available for Tuesday the 13th...especially in the parking lot! The stake was having a hard time filling all the positions for a number of reasons: our stake is one of the farther stakes geographically from the temple; children were home from school and babysitters were scarce; and many families were leaving on vacation. Despite worrying a bit about the intense heat, we both felt moved to action. After giving it some thought, Nathan and I decided to each sign up for not one, but two parking shifts on Tuesday the 13th. I would work the morning shift at the temple parking lot, then switch to the stake center parking lot for the afternoon shift. Nathan would work both the afternoon and evening shift at the stake center. We thought it might be fun to have a "date" as open house volunteers, even if that date consisted of standing around in a hot parking lot.

But there was yet one more volunteer opportunity that the open house presented to us! Our ward choir director informed us after practice one Sunday that there was a VIP open house, taking place over a couple of days just before the public open house was to begin. This VIP open house would include prominent local leaders, businessmen, church leaders, and others. At the conclusion of this open house, there was to be a small reception area, complete with snacks and light music. And the open house organizers needed musicians to play some of that light music!

I leaped at the chance to perform at the VIP open house, as did my friends Tabatha and Julie. We pooled our efforts and chose several three-part songs. I played piano, Tabatha played flute, and Julie played violin. For several weeks, we practiced our music and prepared for our half-hour performance time.

At the last minute, we found out that the time slot after ours was available, so we ended up playing our "set" twice; we ended up playing together for about 50 minutes! Frankly, it was not a life-changing experience. We were performing inside a tent; thankfully, it was air conditioned, but the noise of the portable unit made it difficult to hear the music unless you were standing right next to the musicians. And our particular time slot was very sparsely attended; the only visitors who heard us were some of the other volunteers!

None of us minded, though. This was the closest any of us had been to the temple thus far. Before that day, we'd had to park in the nearby neighborhood or next to the nearby office building, and walk to the temple grounds, which were until recently gated off. On this day, we were able to park in the actual temple parking lot and walk around briefly on the temple grounds! We didn't go inside the temple yet (although we might have been able to if we'd just asked the right person), but simply being close to this beautiful building and making sacred music was enough for that day.

That Sunday night, Nathan and I attended a volunteer training meeting for the temple open house, where we got the basics of what was expected of us volunteers. The usher job seemed straightforward enough...the parking attendant job less so. We saw slide after slide of parking lot maps, complete with station identification & traffic flow directional symbols; it was a bit overwhelming at first! Luckily, everyone was in a good mood and we were all confident that even if there were a few hiccups, we'd be able to manage everything smoothly.

Our family's turn to tour the temple came just a few days after my musical performance. We had booked a free tour reservation online for Tuesday night, June 6th...just a couple of days after the beginning of the open house. We were very excited to take our family to "our" temple! Our family's tour was in the evening, so we got to see the temple's beautiful blue dome just as it was hit by the rays of the setting sun. It was a lovely sight.

We didn't take pictures of the temple's interior, but this video has several shots of the interior, as well as an explanation of the temple's importance to the church and its architectural significance in the community.

It was dark outside by the time our tour was done. This temple is not one of the LDS Church's bigger temples, but it is still obvious that a great deal of work and care went into its construction. The ordinance rooms of the temple are smaller than I was expecting; on the other hand, the sealing rooms (where eternal marriages are performed) were larger than I thought they would be. And I thought the baptismal font was strikingly beautiful! In the end, all the space will be put to good use.

Just one week later, I would return to the temple...this time, with the glorious responsibility of being a parking attendant!

At least the view was nice! Being a parking lot attendant at the temple was relatively uneventful but not boring. We had our opening devotional inside the temple itself; after that, we headed for the maintenance shed on the opposite end of the parking lot for our super-quick attendant training. Our friend John was the shift supervisor; it was fun to shoot the breeze with him throughout my shift!

All of us rotated our jobs every half hour or so, taking one lengthy break inside to rest our legs and drink some fluids. At some stations, we merely waved cars into parking spaces (these were usually cars with handicapped stickers). At other stations, we oversaw tour bus loading and unloading (open house visitors were bused to the temple from the closest LDS stake center, a few miles away). In still another location, we spent most of our time turning away visitors who attempted to park their cars in the temple parking lot (visitors were told to go first to the stake center, where they would be bused over; the temple parking lot was too small for that many visitors). Overall, things kept happening, and it was fairly interesting throughout.

Plus, we had these awesome huge umbrellas for shade.

I had to leave that shift a little early, though, in order to make it to the stake center; that was where my afternoon shift was going to be. My temple parking shift had been in the morning, so it hadn't been too hot (Mother Nature was blessedly merciful that day all around; the high temperature was "only" around 96 degrees! That is pretty low for Arizona in June. We got lucky!). I was excited to meet up with Nathan for this shift.

This job ended up being less exciting than the temple parking job. Here, we mostly kept the parking lot exit clear whenever another tour bus arrived back from the temple. Once in a while, we had to halt a car trying to leave, but mostly we just tried to hide in the shade and drink lots of fluids, while trying to look important.

I was grateful for the company; it was fun to do this service with Nathan, even if it was a hot, sweaty day. Bonding through volunteer work was quite rewarding! I left for home around 5:00 pm, while Nathan stayed behind to bravely man his post throughout the night (he finally made it home around 9:00 pm; luckily there were a few other friends of his hanging around that he was able to pass the time with in that parking lot after I left). Our girls had spent most of that afternoon taking care of themselves; we had trusted them on their own, and thankfully they did not disappoint us! In fact, our next-door neighbors, who had signed up as tour guides, also dropped their kids off at our house. For a few crazy hours, there were eight kids (all under twelve years old!) at our house, plus one over-stimulated dog. Luckily, everyone survived, the adults had a lovely spiritual evening, and everybody went home that night a winner (although Nathan and I were very tired).

Just a week and a half later, it was time for one more volunteer shift. This one was the last weekend of the open house, so we anticipated it being a busy, crazy night. But no more hot parking lots for us; this time we would be volunteering as ushers inside the temple itself! We carpooled up with some friends and got to work.

On this occasion, I left my camera & phone behind, so I could stay 100% focused on the job at hand, and not allow myself to be distracted by "worldly" things. This way, I was able to concentrate on my job (which, to be fair, was pretty easy; I mostly directed traffic with my hands from one room to the next). I was also able to hear and see visitors' reactions to the beautiful things they were seeing, and the spiritual impressions they were feeling. I saw many people that were genuinely moved at being in the temple...some of those people were probably not members of our church, either!

At one point, while directing people into the Celestial Room (a special room for quiet meditation & prayer), I heard one father whisper earnestly to his young daughter, "Honey, this room is a piece of heaven on earth." The girl's eyes widened and her hand tightened in her father's. I had to fight back tears; I completely agreed with those words! I am so grateful that the temple is a place where we can set aside our worldly cares and draw spiritual strength from our Father in Heaven. At the same time, though, it is also a place where we can bring our cares with us into the temple, then pray to God for direction. I have often done so in other temples; quite often, I have received strong spiritual promptings as answers to these prayers. I am grateful that soon I will have a place to commune with God that is close to my home!

After our shift was over, we grabbed a quick dinner with our friends and then rushed home. We were tired, but so very satisfied with the night's work. Just a couple of days later, the open house concluded, and our temple came one step closer to its completion. As of this writing, it is being thoroughly cleaned, furnished, and prepped for full service. Tucson youth are still practicing for the cultural celebration. In just a few more weeks, all those big preparations will see their culmination, and I can't wait to witness it! Until then, it has been gratifying to help out (even in a very small way) with presenting this building to the public.