Gilbert Temple Dedication

Dear Family,

This week was so great! The Temple Dedication was very memorable for
me. Here are a few key learnings I took away:

-There are 100 marriages scheduled there for March and 142 more
marriages scheduled in the months that follow--I thought about
marriage a lot.
-it was the first of 33 temples that President Monson has announced.
-Elder Callister: "when you go to the temple, try to imagine what you
will be doing 30,000,000 years from now.
-Spencer W. Kimball had a grand vision of building temples. It was
interesting for me to hear that because I have always seen Presidents
Hinckley and Hunter as having the vision. It shows that maybe
President Kimball didn't build as many as them but he prepared the
church for the future. It is all about having VISION.
-Elder Richards of the 70 (who has had various general authority
family members down the line) could never find family history work to
do. He trie, tried, and tried, and prayed and fasted and he found a
little untouched branch of family that lead to 700 people without work
done.
-400,000 guests did the open house (9 when I went!)
-elder Callister shared about how wearing white in the temple is as
much a sign of "equality before God' as it is a symbol of purity.
-Callister: one reason we have Temple covenants is the same as why we
have crossbars in the high jump. If there wasn't a bar and we told the
runners to jump and tell them their height will be measured by a laser
gun, do we think they will get very high?
-elder Richards shared a journal entry from his
great-great-grandfather who was at the second SLC temple dedication
(number 2 of 33 sessions)(this ancestor went to all 33) where
President Woodruff shared a vision of the previous night where he saw
Joseph, Brigham, John Taylor, and all the Saints of the ancient times
and of now. They were discussing the work of salvation. President
Woodruff felt that they all understood the importance of the work of
salvation an hundredfold times more than we do and that if we
understood it better we would be working A LOT harder. Imagine how
they feel 130 years later?
-John Widstoe (a church guy who wrote a lot of famous church things.
He graduated from Harvard in 3 instead of 4 years[youre still cooler
than him dad]) couldn't decide the right formula for a national
agricultural equation so he decided to take it to the temple and he
figured it out later. The general authorities challenge us to take ALL
of our questions and doubts to the temple for clarification; no matter
the subject.
-if the dead could, they would yell to us with the sound of 10,000
thunderclaps the importance of getting the work done for them.
-a big key learning for me was the importance of remembering the
temple covenants when temptation arises. That is something I would
like to apply. We all know what we should and shouldn't do when we are
in there. When we are out, and the temptations are around, even more
so off the mission, it is important to remember what we promised to do
when, perhaps, it was a little easier to promise. We must remember
them the most when the pressure hits us.

I felt the Spirit exceptionally strong. When we sang The Spirit of God
at the end, MAN!!! I didn't think I could hold in any more Spirit. I
just felt like I was actually in the temple (I kind of was). It was a
powerful dedication. President Eyring did the prayer! That was cool.
The Prophet was there, however, unfortunately, he was not in the
program for the third session. Sounds like we shouldn't have slept in
;) I was thinking about the 5th ward during the session. MP5! It got
me really excited for the Phoenix temple. Now that Gilbert is good to
go everyone can focus more on Phoenix.

Elder Ramos and I had so much fun this week. Seriously, it was
probably the most stress free week of my mission. We were laughing
like crazy. First off--we actually spent 5 hours in the Toyota
dealership last week(I emailed you from there). And surprisingly, it
was so much fun! We looked at all the sweet cars and trucks. We should
really consider a 2014 Tacoma! It was fun for Elder Ramos because he
doesn't get to see that in his country as much. We just had a blast
hanging out together. We were joking around on Friday that we "passed
the test" because... We got a NEW CAR! It is very shiny and came with
27 miles on it. A 2014 Carolla. The car falls really well with Elder
Ramos and he has had a lot of fun with it. We can listen to Mormon
messages from our iPads on the speakers. We have just found so much to
joke around about this week. We visited Hermano Barrera and he
wouldn't let us teach a lesson because he told the story of him
spending 27 days in jail in Bountiful Utah a couple years ago because
he got caught with someone else's gun. He said the cookies on Fridays
were so delicious, that he lead the music on Sundays in there for all
the nonmormons who came to worship with him, and that he made lifetime
friends who he was sad to part from after the month. It was such a
funny story. In the beginning, he heard cops on his street at 3 in the
morning with guns out, so he grabbed his gun, came out and offered to
help. They asked his name, he said Francisco, and then all the cops
grabbed him. It was hilarious. There are also dozens of wild cats at
our apartment and we keep chucking rocks at them as we exercise and we
pretend that they will start a rebellion and attack us one day.

I will send some more after District Golfing!!

Love elder parry