Two weeks have passed since my last entry and I am making a special effort to do this amid the busy schedule we are now keeping. The pageant is now in its second week. I have been called upon to help at the translation table many times already. And with the number of people visiting the temple increasing, we find ourselves heavily involved.
Last Saturday, while I was providing Spanish to the visitors at the pageant, and we were about a third of the way into the production, a major cloudburst disrupted our evening. I think it is the first time that we have ever been “rained out” since the pageant began several years ago. There were several visitors there that had come a long way to watch this production and their schedule was such that they could not stay for the next performance (on Tuesday) and left disappointed that they could not see it in its fullness. Except for that rain storm, the weather has been delightful – if not just a bit on the cool side. I actually took a sweater with me the last night or two.
On Tuesday, this week, we normally work the afternoon shift at the temple. But because there was another Hispanic family coming that morning to be sealed, we were called upon to be there during the first shift to help translate. That was only supposed to go for an hour or so, right? But during the events of the morning, this family, along with their guests, over 40 of them, decided to also stay on afterwards to go on an endowment session as well. We were called on to officiate that session as the majority ruled and the session was conducted in Spanish. By the time the session was over, so was the shift and we were then expected to stay on to work our own shift. An hour or so into that shift, someone took pity on us and replacements were found so that we could go home and eat and rest up since I was again expected to work that evening providing Spanish at the pageant. When the time came to go to the pageant, not only was I there but the same busload of Hispanic people showed up as well to enjoy the production. I think we had a record for Spanish listeners that night as we had every available set of earphones in use. I hope they enjoyed it.
On Wednesday, we substituted for the afternoon shift coordinators who were out of town that day. Again, we felt the pressure as the temple was way busy with all the extra people here to watch the pageant that night. I didn’t feel that we had enough workers on the shift to cover all the areas that we needed but somehow the Lord provides and we made it through to the end of the day.
With this being the p-day closest to our wedding anniversary, we had hoped to celebrate today or tonight, but again the pageant is calling and I need to help provide Spanish again tonight. So we will wait to celebrate on a p-day sometime after the pageant is over in August. We plan on going on a dinner-cruise on a Mississippi steamboat that sets its paddles to turning in Hannibal, MO. Every night. We look forward to it and the peace that will come when the crowds go home.
