Laie Hawaii Temple Dedication

On Sunday, November 21st Scotty and I had the honor and privilege of attending the Laie, Hawaii Temple Dedication. We were blessed with the opportunity to attend the re-dedication INSIDE the Temple. Because there are so many people who want to attend and not enough room to hold them all there were 3 separate re-dedicatory sessions which were held inside the Temple and broadcast to all the Stake Centers in Hawaii.

It was really neat to see so many people inside. They had chairs set up in all the rooms. We ended being in the room where the youth wait to perform baptisms for the dead along with several members of our Ward. It is always so nice to see people that you know when you attend the Temple.

The biggest highlight for me was at the end of the session when we all sang The Spirit of God. It was such an overwhelming feeling to sing it inside the temple with everyone else including The Prophet and President Eyring! You could hear the beautiful song ring throughout the beautiful building and we were all at the same place, at the same time doing the same thing....AWESOME!!!

Since we weren't in the same room as Presidents Monson and Eyring we watched them on a Flat Screen TV (the church is so organized!). I loved the cozy personal atmosphere and especially loved how you could see the personal exchanges between President Monson and Presdient Eyring. When it was time for President Monson to talk, President Eyring leaned over and said "You're Up!"- it looked like President Monson was enjoying everyone's talks.... It helped me to remember that they are people just like us who are not perfect but are chosen of the Lord. It also helped me to not feel too bad when I forget a few things when I am conducting Relief Society! Heavenly Father surrounds us with awesome people to help us with the things he asks us to do and he loves us just as much as his special chosen General Leaders of the Church. No matter what are calling is, it is from our Father in Heaven and he will help us and will surround us with others to do it.

Afterwards, everyone exited the temple and went straight to the front of the building to line up and bid farewell to President Monson. My friend Becky and I got a really good view as we were right at the front of the line waiting to see the Prophet.

 There was this older gentleman there who told us that he was gonna come in front of us to meet the President of the Church. He had a cane and was REALLY old so me and Becky were nice to him and let him take our opportunity to shake President Monson's hand (even though the security guy made us all promise we wouldn't try to shake his hand).

 Becky even let President Monson know that he was waiting to meet him. Look how close we are! He was so kind an very funny! It's so sad....we didn't even notice President Eyring until much later as we were so focused on President Monson.

 At one point people people in the crowd started to sing "We thank thee, O God for a prophet". President Monson stopped and said "Do I hear singing?" And then he started to wiggle his ears! He waived good bye and we said Aloha to our beloved Prophet.

Afterwards, all our friends from the ward gathered for a quick picture. I think Scotty's expression is hilarious, but what's even more funny is how it looks like he has his hand on Becky's waist- we had a big laugh at this....but if you look closely you can tell it's her husband Tony's hand. lol!