"I'm going there someday"

Isn't it funny how seeing something you've seen many times from someone else's fresh perspective can completely change the way you see it? Let me explain. Friday night was our ward's youth temple trip, and I had the chance to drive up with two other young women leaders and one of our laurels who also happens to be a rather recent convert. She is an amazing kid who has been through more heartache in her eighteen years of life than most people deserve or experience in a lifetime. Anyway, she was telling us how tough her summer has been and how happy she'll be to leave for college, and then we started heading up the Oakland hills and she turned suddenly giddy. She realized she was about to see the temple for the first time. It was the cutest thing watching her catch that first glimpse of the spires through the trees, seeing her awed reaction to the grounds and the breathtaking view of the bay and of course the temple's majesty itself. It made me feel like I was seeing it all for the first time again.

And seriously, what is about seeing a bunch of normally-rowdy teenagers dressed in white that melts my adult leader/former high school teacher heart? The fact that their behavior is about ten times more reverent at the temple certainly helps. Seeing their willingness to spend seven hours on a Friday night serving those spirits who've passed on was pretty touching, too. Even the girls who couldn't come in to do baptisms still felt the spirit of the temple. Two girls spent the evening in the visitors' center and couldn't stop gushing about the scriptural sculpture exhibit ("Sister Geddes, you have to see it! The sculptures are so pretty") or the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. Just being there seems to soften everyone's heart.

I love [to see] the temple.