a place where forever is promised to you

how many times will i attend the brigham city lds temple open house? so far twice...and i have one more time scheduled to go. i was only planning on going once. but when my friend who lives across the street from the temple received a vip invitation to attend a special neighbor open house and invited me to come with her i couldn't refuse! she is not a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. i was excited to answer any questions she had (and she had plenty!). she went to the open house to find peace. she was moved to tears more than once going to each room of the temple. her family joined us. they, too, are not members. they also had a lot of questions. my favorite part of the tour was when we were all in the celestial room. i looked at my friend and her family and saw the blessings of the temple right there...eternal families. it was beautiful. her family also took the opportunity to look into the "eternity mirrors" and see what eternity looks like. they asked me if those mirrors were special mirrors or if you would get that same effect putting two mirrors across from each other...i smiled and joked that they were special temple mirrors (like us mormons have some crazy power or something ha ha).

today i attended the open house with my family. currently i am the only sibling active in my church. my mom really wanted all of us to go tour the temple together. once again, it was beautiful. (although we had no tour guide & went through the temple without stopping in each room for an explanation of why the room was significant & had to be silent! the vip tour really was vip.) i remember going through the temple for the first time and being greeted by many of my families members in the celestial room. the tour of the temple with my family reminded me of that time, except my best friend (my sister) and my favorite 16 year old (my nephew) were there. these two are very special to me. i want so badly for them to partake of the blessings of the temple. the temple is a place that is so dear and close to my heart. i have had more spiritual experiences there than i can count. my hardest trials have been eased there. it is a place that has helped me with some of my toughest decisions. and, most importantly, it is a place where my family became (and will continue to become) eternal and forever.

temples are one of my most favorite places to go. i am reminded what is most important when i go there. and i am given strength to keep moving forward.