Enjoying the falling water and the words of the Living Water
In November of last year just after we set our goal my 15-year old sister had a soccer tournament in Phoenix, Arizona. My dad, my 23-year old sister and her boyfriend were all going down and my dad had reserved a large 2-room 4-bed hotel room. My wife and I decided to go and take advantage or a place to stay and someone to babysit (while supporting my sister in her games as well). We got there on Thursday evening and rented a car and drove out to the hotel a few mil es south of Cardinal Stadium to the west of Phoenix. It was a section I'd never been to before. Friday we got up, left our 11-month old son with my dad at the hotel and took off to the Mesa Temple. It was surprising gray, rainy and cool (see photos). The temple itself is unique. Square, flat-topped, reminiscent of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem. Tall palm trees surround it with a large pool in front. The inside of the temple is just as unique. After changing into white, you walk up a beautiful grand staircase with large paintings and some scriptural and other sayings on the wall (very unique for most temples I've been in). The murals were beautifully done. Photography within the temple (as with all dedicated temples) is not allowed. The new temple videos had just come out so we got to enjoy seeing one we'd never seen before. The new videos are a little longer so the sessions take around 15 minutes more. The Mesa Temple has 2 video rooms but just one Terrestrial Room with a curtain leading into the Celestial room so once we were done we sat for 45 minutes or more in our seats waiting for our turn to move to the other room. It was nice since it's a tranquil place but it made it the longest endowment session I ever have or probably ever will attend. We took the pictures after the session and it was sprinkling and it started to rain harder as we made our way to the car. The rain continued that day and the next day with my sister's soccer games actually getting cancelled. It turned out our highlight of the trip was the temple visit. We think it was worth the visit :) Fun Facts: | November 2013 |