Day 8: Seeing The Prophet & Apostles

Let me just say, this was the most unexpected and exciting part of my trip. Today we were a little on the late side of getting ready, but still a decent time. We got to the temple and mom realized that she forgot her recommend. For anyone who is not a member of my church, to go inside this building, you have to be interviewed by a local leader who will ask you a series of questions in regards to your activity in the church, your faith, etc. before you can go inside the temple. Why? Because it is such a sacred place that only worthy members of our faith can go inside. Luckily for my family, we have the opportunity to all go inside together. But without that slip of paper, mom was not going to be able to go in. Mom and I had to go to the other entrance of the temple. If you've never been inside the Salt Lake City temple, it's on the complete opposite end of the building. We then had to wait for a gentlemen to call our Bishop or a member of the Stake Presidency. He called and Mom was approved and we walked all the way back.

There was a huge line up at the baptistry. Which was out of the ordinary, Salt Lake City temple is usually very, VERY quick. Then after my mom and I had received our jumpsuits, we were ready to go across the hall to go get changed. That is when one of the volunteers told us that we had to wait. We were confused. The change room was right across the hall... No one was going across. I was confused. But we stood there, waiting for whatever reason. Then one of the gentlemen told us that the prophet and his counsellors and some of the Quorum of the Twelve were coming down from their meeting that they hold on Thursdays. (Mental Note: Only go to Salt Lake City temple on Thursday mornings.) I was beyond excited. I was ill-prepared. I was beyond giddy and they hadn't even come yet.

Then I heard them talking in the hall, and they came around the corner. I couldn't even believe it. It was like I was imagining this - it was that surreal. Then Monson piped up and said: "Guys, conference is over!" We all laughed. He then asked is anyone there spoke German or Spanish. I replied (yes, I spoke to the prophet.) "Français?" To which he said, "Oh no, there's too much romance in that language." Then he waved and went on. A man in the group thanked them for his mission call to a Deutsch speaking mission. Then after the First Presidency was gone, the apostles started walking by. The ones that I saw were D. Todd Christofferson, Richard G. Scott and M. Russell Ballard.

It was so amazing and I can still hardly believe it happened. After being in the temple, we went to tour the conference centre and our tour guide was awesome. As always! He talked to us about scouting, the First Vision and a lot of other fun facts about the building. Did you know that they had been talking about building a new Conference Centre to replace the Tabernacle for about 50 years before they broke ground? I thought that was really interesting!

Then my mom really wanted to go to Welfare Square... Honestly. It was boring. We might have gone at the wrong time. I honestly don't know. I was always disappointed when I didn't go to see it when I went before but it really wasn't that interesting. Did I miss something? Did you see something more interesting there?

After that, we went to Deseret Book and I got some great books, CDs and other souvenirs for friends back home. I'm really excited to give it to them too! I know they'll love it. I got my sister some more stuff, and Brittany some great stuff too. I'm ready to be heading home tomorrow, it's been a great vacation. It was replenishing both spiritually and physically. I got to sleep in and hear the prophet and apostles speak. I can honestly say that packing was a bitter sweet moment.