Adalie's First Temple Trip!

What!??? I can't be old enough to have a daughter in young women's! Yet here we are, she is getting so old right before my eyes. This past weekend I had the great opportunity to accompany Adalie to the temple for her first time to do baptisms for the dead with the youth. The Baton Rouge temple is closed right now for renovations and so we drove about 5 hours to Birmingham. Just past Birmingham another hour is a church girls camp the stake youth and leaders stayed at for the night. We drove out early Friday morning and got to the camp a little after noon. Once we got all unpacked into the cabins we had the rest of the day to play around, the only problem was the weather for some reason did not want to cooperate, the temperature was in the 40's, overcast and windy. Are you kidding me? this is the south it should never be this cold down here. I had not packed accordingly and only had shorts and a t-shirt without a jacket or sweater. Adalie was not phased by this weather however, she decided she was going to have fun no matter what!

Are you kidding me? That looks freezing, no way I was going swimming out there, I'll just watch from the shore while freezing in my shorts and t-shirt, thanks. Looks like something I would have done at her age though so I can't blame her. Eventually I gave in and drove to the nearest Wal-Mart and bought a sweater and some jeans, that got me through the evening. We had pizza and a nice fireside that night put on by the stake, each ward's youth put on a short skit and there were some nice talks prepared. The Holbrook's spoke about their recent trip to Jerusalem and the chance they had to stand in the tomb where it is thought Christ was laid, and to realize that he rose on the third day and truly lives again, what an experience it must be to walk where he walked and to be where He once was. That would be a great trip to take the family on when they are older.

The next morning we woke up early, packed and headed down to the temple.

Adalie was so excited to go into the temple, and I was glad to be there with her. It was a great experience to be there together and really got me thinking about what it will be like one day to see her take out all of her covenants in the temple as she grows in the gospel and gets older. She says the feeling in the temple was amazing and even better than she thought it would be. It was well worth the long drive and the cold night in a cabin for the experience to be in the Lord's house doing His work with my wonderful daughter. I hope she always keeps her same sweet spirit and willingness to help everyone around her. She is such a peace maker in our family and I couldn't imagine out lives without her in it. I look forward to many more great experiences with her as she grows and matures into becoming the woman she is becoming, I couldn't be more happy for her and who she is becoming. I hope she always remembers the peace she felt in the temple and carries that felling with her, and I pray that her testimony continues to grow stronger and stronger through many more special experience like the one we shared together in the temple.