Like a Fire is Burning

Finally, today, we saw snow here for the first time. We knew it was coming, but we just didn’t know when. Not a lot, but enough to let us know that we are not exempt. We have enjoyed the same chill in the air that has affected the rest of this country. Once in a while we see temperatures climb up out of the freezing variety, but usually it has been right around 10-25 degrees all day long, every day. Beautiful boughs and big red bows adorn many of the sites and white picket fences here on the flats. Here is a picture of the nativity scene displayed on the temple grounds here.

This week has been a relatively quiet week at the temple as well. People just aren’t anxious to venture far from the comfort of their own homes when the temperatures dip the way they have recently done. It’s easy to cover our bases when the temple is quiet. We could just about send each of the ordinance workers on a session every day as a patron and still have others sitting around wondering what they could do to be more productive. Then a day will pop up when we get real busy – you just never know.

At one point in time, we had a small group arrive at the temple to do baptisms. They arrived later than what was scheduled, and the brethren we had scheduled to help out there were now needed elsewhere and had to leave. We were now lacking the needed priesthood to complete the ordinances and I was scrambling to find others that I could send to the baptistery when another group of people just walked in, also wanting to do baptisms. Included among them were the needed priesthood. This group had come all the way from Perth, Australia to visit us and other Church sites here in America. I felt that the Lord had sent them more than half-way around the world just to help us in our need.

Friday evening, the site missionaries put on a special Christmas event. Unfortunately the temple missionaries could not join in until it was almost over. In the historic cultural hall, they has set up a live nativity scene. I understand they had missionaries dressed up in appropriate costumes and took the part of Mary, Joseph, angels, wise men and shepherds, while others provided music, narrations, etc. In the Family Living Center, there were eats, dancing, etc. – quite a party. Along with it all, if one got cold, they could stand next to one of the fire-barrels provided here and there. One of the dear sisters evidently got too close to one of these barrels and not realizing it, had allowed her dress to catch fire. Before she knew it, one of the Elders had knocked her down and was rolling her on the ground with the intent of extinguishing the flames. She was air-lifted to a burn center in a nearby town, and as I understand it, she is now doing okay but she and her husband are being released from their mission so that they can return home and give her the needed recovery there. We think they may have been close to the end of their mission anyway. Previously, while on this mission, she had suffered a broken ankle, had caught pneumonia three times, and now this. She is trying to determine, what they were supposed to have learned from this mission experience.