For my 101 list, I made the goal to do the photo challenge of taking a photo every day for a month. I ended up doing that during the month of April. As I started to do it, I decided to take a picture of the Boise temple every day for the month. I accomplished it! I took pictures from lots of different angles and perspectives, as well as at different times of day. And as I wandered the grounds each day to figure out where to take my picture, it was so neat to feel the Spirit there constantly. (Fantastic side benefit of the photo challenge... I highly recommend it.)
After I finished the challenge, I made a little collage where I took every photo (or two) that I took each day and I placed them in order that I took them. It was a very fun project.
And after I made that, I decided to make another collage, but this time highlighting some of my favorite pictures out of the ones that I took. After taking forever to arrange them, I ended up with a blank space that I figured I could fill with a quote relating to temples. There were a lot of awesome quotes to choose from and it was a hard decision. I finally did pick one, and you can see it on the completed collage below.
I ended up picking that specific quote because I could so completely relate. It comes from a great talk given by Elder Stevenson in General Conference in April 2009. I've identified with that quote a lot lately. Being new to Boise (and still getting lost more often than I'd like to admit), it's been so nice to know that I'm close to home when I can see the temple. I especially remember one time that I went running around the neighborhood and I wasn't sure where I was. (The streets in my neighborhood truly don't make much sense.) But then I saw the temple and was able to find my way home quickly and easily. That analogy fits perfectly in to our lives. When we go to the temple, we can find so much peace and direction that we would truly be eternally lost without, and it makes it so that we can return home to live with our Heavenly Father. I love the temple so much. I love going to participate in baptisms and confirmations every week and it makes me so sad that I won't be able to go the next two weeks, as it's closed for scheduled maintenance (At least I can still see it every day!) But I am so grateful for the peace and direction I am able to receive in the temple and I'm so looking forward to receiving my endowment later this year. I feel so blessed to a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to know that this life is not the end to family ties, thanks to the ordinances performed in these holy houses of God.
I'm not really sure how to wrap this post up, since I feel like there is still so much I can testify of and share. I have a whole list of quotes and scriptures that I love about the temple and maybe I'll have to share those later. But I'll just end with the other quote I almost used for my collage... "Let us truly be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people." --President Howard W. Hunter