I Love to See the Temple!





Our ward had a very exciting primary activity this past weekend. The children, mostly jr. primary, met at the church for the 45+ min. drive to the temple. The goal of the activity was to have the kids touch and see the temple, and feel the Spirit. Once everyone arrived at the temple, we listened to Sister Dunn give a brief lesson about what happens in the temple. She asked one of the girls to hold a comb and brush her hair, however, she wasn't allowed to bend her arms, elbows, shoulders etc. Finding this difficult, the group came to determine that this was not something she could do. In order for her to have her hair combed, somebody else had to do it for her.
Sister Dunn likened that to doing Baptisms for the Dead. After the lesson the children had a few minutes to color a page that taught us how we could prepare to go to the temple.
The children then lined up and walked from the Stake Center grounds to the Temple grounds (across the parking lot). As they walked past the temple they were able to touch it and look in the doors briefly.
We had time to take a picture of each child in front of the temple. After walking around looking at the beautiful temple grounds, we went and listened to the Temple President and his wife share a brief message with us. They also allowed the children to ask questions about the temple. One of the questions was, "Why does everyone wear white in the temple?" The President answered Two reasons one, white represents Purity, and the second one, Heavenly Father loves us all, and doesn't look at what we wear. So to help us remember not to focus on what we're wearing, and whose stuff is better, He has us all dress in white so we're just the same, and just as loved. That was really neat. After the questions and things we sang I Love to See the Temple and included the sign language that we learned for it! They wanted each child to have a picture of the temple that they could put somewhere to remind them to choose the right so they can someday go to the temple too! After passing out the pictures of the temple, they ushered the children inside the temple doors and to the waiting room. Inside we talked more about what goes on in the temple, and how important it is for us to be able the marry in the temple so our families can be together forever. They had the kids sing Families Can Be Together Forever in the waiting room. It was such a sweet spirit that was felt. For most of the children, that was their favorite part...just being inside the waiting room. This was a fun activity that we were able to enjoy.

From there, we let the children do potty and drink breaks, then we headed back over to the stake center grounds and had a brief lunch of crackers, bananas, grapes, lemonade, and string cheese! Then we loaded up, and headed back to the 'Boro.

This activity went very well, and amazingly enough, those who usually have a hard time sitting still in primary, didn't have one today!
Thanks again to the Primary Presidency who planned this wonderful activity!