This is a picture of the Columbia, SC Temple, which is the temple we attend. It takes us about four hours to get there from our home. Stakes in the Columbia Temple District are asked to take a month each year to clean the temple, which is done twice a week in the assigned month. Recently Duane was asked to find 6-8 people to fulfill our assignment to clean on a Tuesday morning so he and I along with our son, Logan, and three others agreed to go. For some reason I felt very intimidated about fulfilling this assignment. I have done it one other time a couple of years ago and I felt the same way then. The cleaning has to be done by OSHA standards and I was so afraid I would do something wrong. I guess I am a visual person because with most things if you show me how do do something I understand better than if you tell me. Listening to Brother Black (the brethren assigned over the cleaning) tell me how to clean was very confusing for me and it really upset me. Logan and I were assigned to clean the men's bathrooms so I felt comforted knowing that Logan would understand better than I did but I still wanted to just cry after we were told how to clean. However, it didn't take long to get the hang of things and before long we were through cleaning the bathrooms and we went on to dust some of the furniture in the foyer and in the bride's room. The whole cleaning didn't take us any more than two hours. What started out to be a very intimidating chore turned out to be one of the best spiritual experiences I ever had. By the time we finished, I knew that I was cleaning the Lord's house and all he expected of us was to do our best. One of the counselors to the temple presidency, his wife, and the Blacks, all spoke to us after we were finished and it took all I had to hide my tears as I listened to them tell us how much they appreciated what we had done and how they knew the Lord was pleased with our dedication in cleaning his house. I heard the President say it but I felt the Lord's spirit in my whole being. What a privilege it was to be there and of all things, clean bathrooms. I can hardly wait until we are asked again. I will make every effort to be there.Sunday, May 11, 2008
This is a picture of the Columbia, SC Temple, which is the temple we attend. It takes us about four hours to get there from our home. Stakes in the Columbia Temple District are asked to take a month each year to clean the temple, which is done twice a week in the assigned month. Recently Duane was asked to find 6-8 people to fulfill our assignment to clean on a Tuesday morning so he and I along with our son, Logan, and three others agreed to go. For some reason I felt very intimidated about fulfilling this assignment. I have done it one other time a couple of years ago and I felt the same way then. The cleaning has to be done by OSHA standards and I was so afraid I would do something wrong. I guess I am a visual person because with most things if you show me how do do something I understand better than if you tell me. Listening to Brother Black (the brethren assigned over the cleaning) tell me how to clean was very confusing for me and it really upset me. Logan and I were assigned to clean the men's bathrooms so I felt comforted knowing that Logan would understand better than I did but I still wanted to just cry after we were told how to clean. However, it didn't take long to get the hang of things and before long we were through cleaning the bathrooms and we went on to dust some of the furniture in the foyer and in the bride's room. The whole cleaning didn't take us any more than two hours. What started out to be a very intimidating chore turned out to be one of the best spiritual experiences I ever had. By the time we finished, I knew that I was cleaning the Lord's house and all he expected of us was to do our best. One of the counselors to the temple presidency, his wife, and the Blacks, all spoke to us after we were finished and it took all I had to hide my tears as I listened to them tell us how much they appreciated what we had done and how they knew the Lord was pleased with our dedication in cleaning his house. I heard the President say it but I felt the Lord's spirit in my whole being. What a privilege it was to be there and of all things, clean bathrooms. I can hardly wait until we are asked again. I will make every effort to be there.
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2 comments:
I am glad that you had a wonderful time..I am so excited to all go to the temple together.
This is our temple as well. It takes us about an hour and 45 minutes. We live in the Charlotte, NC south stake. Maybe, I will see you down there. I love President and Sister Black, aren't they wonderful people. In the dedicatory prayer for the SC temple it is a promise and a blessing that all those who come heavy laden and burdened will leave feeling up lifted and strengthened. For each different temple I have the opportunity to attend. I always look up the dedicatory prayer so I can see what special blessings each temple holds. I popped over from a link on Alice's blog.
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