This last weekend our family got the opportunity to go to St. Louis so that Jaron and I could attend the temple. Temples are not open to the public; not even all church members are allowed to go inside. Our children had to wait outside while Jaron and I took turns going through the temple. The reason that temples are so exclusive is because they are extremely sacred places to us. It is important to us that temples stay clean and so members of the church have to uphold a personal standard of worthiness in order to be able to go inside.
In the temple, sacred covenants are made with God. One of the things that takes place in the temple are marriages. Jaron and I were married in the temple in Idaho Falls. We believe that because our marriage was performed by a proper priesthood in the temple, our family will be together forever - even after death.
For that, I am so incredibly grateful, especially since these three joined our ranks. I really, really like being with my family! They are the source of some of my greatest blessings and joy.
Since it's a bit of a drive to St. Louis and Jaron and I were staggering our chance to go inside the temple, we made a weekend of it. Everytime we've tried to go to the temple we've been able to score an amazing deal on a hotel in St. Louis. This time we paid $25 for our hotel!
We rounded out our weekend by going to the St. Louis Zoo. I think the St. Louis Zoo is the best zoo I've ever been to (out of the 6 zoos I've been to in 3 different countries). And the best part is, it is FREE.
We spent a lot of time looking at bugs this time. The bug exhibits are absolutely amazing. I cannot believe how BIG some bugs are! ICK! But the kids loved it.
This display right before the huge butterfly room (okay, it's not called a "room" but I can't remember the name) has hundreds of butterfly cocoons that are alive and about to hatch! We got to SEE a BUTTERFLY come out of its COCOON!!! Amazing. This is just one of three display cases they had full of cocoons.
Thank goodness for awesome FREE stuff to do. We didn't have time to make it to the science center (which is also free). Hopefully we'll be able to make it to St. Louis one more time before Kansas City gets its own temple in the spring!
4 comments:
What a fun trip and neat explanation of the temple. When is the local temple going to be done?
There's no date yet! In fact they read a statement at church asking church members to stop speculating - that even though the exterior was finished, the interior was being completed and the temple would open "sometime in the spring."
We can't wait!
What a fun trip. That temple is gorgeous, I don't think I've ever seen a picture of it. Also, a FREE zoo?!?!? Amazing. We paid something like $19 a person in Phoenix. . . sick.
That's a very pretty temple!
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