Happiness

"If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing. If you want happiness for a month -- get married. If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else."

--Chinese Proverb

Salt Lake City, UT temple
Mt. Timpanogos, UT temple

St. George, UT temple

Today was amazing. I was out of bed before my mom. We went on our usually walk. Then we went to the dreaded store that we can't seem to avoid, but got out of there in 45 minutes. It was a miracle!

Then half an hour before we were supposed to leave to do baptisms for the dead, David calls me.

Me: Hello?

David: Hi Michelle! How's it going?

Me: Good! How about you?

David: Well, that's the thing. I was mowing the lawn and I burnt myself with the engine. I don't think I will be able to go anymore.

Me: (Flustered) Oh no! I am so sorry! I'm really sad that you can't come.

David: I know, me too.

Me: You could always just come with us for the ride.

David: Yeah, but that wouldn't be as fun.

Me: That's true. I know! You could just do confirmations!

David: Do people do that?

Me: Yeah, but girls do it a lot more than boys.

David: Oh. Okay! I guess I will come then!

After that part of our conversation, David told me that his dad didn't want us to take their cars. So I had to ask my mom if we could take her car to St. George with David driving in the nasty traffic. She wasn't too thrilled about that one.

Side note: The last time we went to St. George, the traffic was nasty. There was an accident and construction. I was reading my book, almost finished, and my mom slammed on the brakes. We were going 75 and the traffic ahead of us was stopped. Yes, stopped. The brakes locked and the brake smell came. It was freaky.

I felt Satan pulling me, not wanting me to go. But there was no way in this world that I wouldn't not go. I had been waiting for a long time to have an experience like that with my friends.

David got to my house after being bandaged, and we took off to his house to pick up Eric. It took forever! They both had to change their clothes. Apparently, David's tie didn't want to tie. I think it was Satan messing with his tie tie-ing skills.

So after what felt like forever, we went to pick up Matt.

Side note: Since we were in my car with six people, it was very squished.

Matt was all ready to go, with names for us to do, and we took off! Oh, but wait! Did everyone have their recommend? Nope! Eric had misplaced his.

And he couldn't find it. So David called their Bishop. Bishop met us at the church (after what felt like forever) and Eric got a brand new recommend. By this point it was 3:00, two hours after we planned on leaving.

When we arrived at the temple, we discovered that the "walk-in" time was from one to four. It was almost four. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone scheduled for the 4:00 session, so it all worked out nicely.

Since we had names provided by Matt, we got two jumpsuits! One for the font and one for the confirmation room. And since David wasn't able to do baptisms, Matt and Eric got to do 29 baptisms each. That is a lot. Especially when I tell you that one man baptized us all. All together we had 82 names. And then we confirmed all those people, too.

Which brings me to the quote at the beginning of my post. The temple brings you happiness for a lifetime because all you do there is serve other people. I did ordinance work for eight women. The temple workers baptized 82, witnessed 164, and confirmed 82. The sister temple workers helped us with our clothes and towels and reminded us to hold on to the rod when we were coming out of the font on to the slippery stairs.

I am so grateful for the experience of going to the temple today. I had never gone without my ward. There were so many more obstacles to getting there. I felt Satan's power trying to keep me away. I also felt God's power getting me there. It was so nice to see my best friends dressed in white sitting next to me. The Spirit was so strong. I knew that I was there doing the right thing for the women who had waited years for the first step in their work to be done. I love the women I did work for, I love the volunteer workers who helped me do the work, and my friends for sharing the experience with me. But most of all, I love God for giving me all the things that made it possible to be in the temple today.

That my friends is a lifetime of happiness.