Temple!!

Friday, March 25, 2011

On Friday morning, our group left to go to Hamilton to go to the temple. I was so excited. I have missed going to the temple multiple times a week. The three months of being in New Zealand and waiting for our trip down to the temple has been the longest I have gone without going to the temple since I started college. It makes me so excited that I get to got the Atlanta open house the day after I get home and that shortly after, it will be rededicated and open and I will be able to go to the temple often. I love how strong I am able to feel the spirit with in the walls and grounds of the temple. It really is the house of the Lord on Earth and my favorite place to be. I love the peace and the spirit I feel every time I go and am so grateful we have temples on the Earth today that we can go to and feel closer to our Heavenly Father, serve Him, make covenants with Him, and to have the opportunity to be sealed to my family for time and all eternity. My testimony of the temple is one of the things I am most grateful for. Going to the temple is exactly what I needed and what I have been missing while I have been in New Zealand. I am so grateful that all 16 of us girls were able to go to the temple in Hamilton and do baptisms for the dead. It was such a wonderful experience. 

Afterwards, we had lunch in the temple cafeteria and then walked over to the visitor's center. In the visitor's center, we watched a video on Matthew Cowley who was a missionary in New Zealand in the 1800s and was greatly loved by the people of New Zealand. He later returned to New Zealand as a mission president and then became an apostle and was asked to oversee the stakes of the Pacific. The movie was so motivating and inspirational. I am glad we had the opportunity to watch it and see how missionary work has impacted the people of New Zealand. I then had the opportunity to walk around the visitor's center. I had the opportunity to talk to one of the missionaries there, Sister Thomas and found that she knew the Hutchings when they served their mission at the temple. I was able to tell her how they are doing and give her their contact information.  The Hutchings are my cousin Cory's in-laws. I met them last fall and had the opportunity to get to know them pretty well. I also went downstairs to the distribution center and had the opportunity to tell Rachel Hello for them. They came down for Rachel's wedding last year in the temple. I am so glad we came to the temple on a day when I was able to make so many connections with people. It was such a great experience to be able to go to the temple in New Zealand. I think it is my favorite thing I have done in New Zealand. 

After going to the temple, we loaded back into the vans and drove two more hours to Rotorua where we would be staying for the next few days. We stayed in the house of Annette and Tom Bronze. They have a gorgeous home and all 16 of us stayed there sleeping on mattresses throughout the house. That night I stayed up playing a bunch of card games and then  most of us went outside to our own personal natural hot pool in their back yard. It was pretty cool that they have a naturally hot spa in their backyard because of the sulfur. Some of the girls also made a list of the order that all of us are going to get married, oh my you know it is a room of 16 girls when that happens.

Rotoura is full of natural hot pools and has the smell of sulfur everywhere you go,which if you aren't familiar with, it smells like rotten eggs. You kinda get used to the smell after awhile, but it can be pretty bad.