Temple Moment

Oct 23rd
Mom was in a Las Vegas hotel with Dale and some of his family watching San Diego tromp the Ags. Oh sure...it was a fun party at first while there was still hope. In the meantime the Cache Valley family had taken over mom's tv watching room to suffer through the game without her. Check out our "game faces."  Grahm was the funnest to watch. He is really into football and spent the first half until he was whisked away to bed being "tackled."

Nothing had gone as planned this weekend, including being able to catch a ride to Logan and having our Mount Timpanogas hike cancelled for Saturday the 24th. Since I had stopped at the Brigham temple on my way up and baptized a few distant cousins I decided I might as well go back and do their Initiatories. The men at the front desk told me that it was full and I might not be able to do them or it could be quite a wait. I decided to check it out anyway. Turned out that I was the only one waiting at that moment. I doubt I would have been willing to wait around. One of the ladies giving the blessing was really struggling remembering the words. Another lady would peek her head through the curtain and whisper the next line to her. Afterwards I commented to her that she had a difficult job with so many words to have to memorize. As I stood to leave she asked me a question. "Do you know Sheri Bischoff?" I could feel the tears start down my face. I said, "Yes. I love her." (When you are feeling the spirit you say unusual things like that) She asked me how I knew her and I answered, "I am her replacement." The lady behind the other curtain peeked her head through the curtain and said, "You are not a replacement, YOU are an angel in your own right." Then I really started crying. I have had a personal struggle realizing that the reality of my situation is that I am taking care of Jon until he can be eternally reunited with Sheri. I just really needed to hear that message. I asked the first lady how she knew Sheri and she said she was her cousin. She gave me a big hug. I knew at that moment that everything had fallen or not fallen into place this weekend to put me in the temple for this experience. The lady who had been helping was so intriguing to me. She was so beautiful but not from an outward appearance although I think in her younger days she had been. I felt as if I could see right into her soul. She seemed to glow and never stopped smiling. When we were done I asked her if she had worked in the temple a long time because she had everything so well memorized. She said, "Yes, I love it. It's all right here" and she put her hand to her chest. Then she said, "This is how I get to be with my husband. He died 13 months ago." Still she appeared to be the happiest person I had ever met. I had gone to the temple with the goal of helping some distant cousins with their eternal progression but had not expected to be helping myself as well. I hope I will never forget how I felt. Sheri's cousin's name was Jan Holmgren.