A picture of the Saints building the Temple
Actual photo of the Temple today. It is now owned by the Community of Christ Church.
Us at the Newel K. Whitney store.
Inside one side of the store. I love the old stuff!!!
The saw mill and ashery. The only restored ashery in the US. This was pretty cool.
So the surprising thing was that while we were at the visitors center we got word that David Archuleta was in town and was going to do a "fireside" (that's a meeting where there is a speaker, just kind of an uplifting thing...) for the youth in this area and that he was going to be the speaker. So of course we found out when and where and WE WENT!
Now, you must know that Kendahl is a typical teen girl who loves David and all things teen-ish! She has posters of him on her wall, etc... So mostly she was super excited and it was fun to watch her!
But the important part was that David was a really neat kid! He fumbled over his words, he wasn't an elequent speaker at all, he wasn't polished and he sounded like every other teenager... BUT... He had a great message for the youth!
The format was that the kids got to write down questions for David and he basically read them and rambled on trying to answer them and going off subject and back on again. It was cute. Some of the questions were, "how do you stick to your standards while you are in this industry?" He said he had these standards before he ever thought about becoming famous, before he ever sang in front of people. These are the standards he has always had for himself so it wasn't different now. He said he gets teased sometimes but he doesn't take it to heart.
He was asked if he would be going on a mission. After a long story about the whole American Idol experience (because he gets off track easily) he said he feels he just started his mission early. He has people come up to him and tell him that when he sings they really feel something special and he said that is what he tries to do in his music. He feels that music is a testimony and that is how he shares it. He also said that in this industry anything can happen and no one is garenteed fame for long, so maybe some day if everyone forgets who he is he will be able to be called to a foreign country or something, but for now he is just on the mission early and takes every chance to tell people that the feelings they feel from him or the music is the Spirit. It was really special.
I mostly enjoyed that he was so down to earth and wanted people to know how much his faith meant to him. He shared his testimony in ways that the youth could really relate to, and that was wonderful. I was excited because I hope that for Kendahl he left the "poster image" on the wall and became an example of stregnth in a troubled world and that even young people can have that stregnth within them!
So what a great treat for us to be able to go experience that with the kids! Just a great bonus on this trip and a testimony builder for our children. I was so grateful for this experience. It is the kind of thing that I feel will really stick with them (Kendahl especially) and help them to be proud of their heritage and the background of the church they come from. That it is something to be proud of and the standards set for them are a wonderful way to live life.
(Sorry People, NO pictures of David! They wouldn't let us take any, but they let all the youth shake his hand afterward! That was nice.)
I'm just grateful tonight for this whole experience with our children and as a family. I'm not so hip on being gone 3 weeks, I don't really like that part at all, but I love the lessons we are learning and nothing can be more precious.
This is the joy in life! Brodric loves to do cartwheels and he does them EVERY WHERE!
