The Gila Valley Temple, Part 2: The Temple Choir

One Sunday in January before Sacrament Meeting, President Gore asked if he could talk to me after the block. All through church, I had to stew about what he was going to ask me to do... if he was going to release me from my current stake calling, or call me to something else, or... I had NO IDEA why a member of the Stake Presidency wanted to talk with me and I was very nervous! When I finally was able to meet with him, he asked if I was scared, and I said a little. Then he told me this would not change my world, but it would change me life! I was very confused and a little more nervous. Then he proceeded to call me into the choir. I was humbled, honored, and more than a little amazed that he called ME to this once-in-a-lifetime choir. He asked me not to say anything to anyone (except my family), so I had to keep it quiet for many months. Of course, word got out anyway, but I tried not to perpetuate it.

I had to wait about two weeks before the first choir practice and for me to see who else I would be singing with. When the first practice finally arrived, I was really excited and very nervous. There were ten people from the Sierra Vista Stake and ten people from the St. David Stake that made up our 20 person choir. They called three sopranos, three altos, two tenors, and two basses from each stake.

From the Sierra Vista Stake:

Soprano: Kellie Braun, Marlee (Haymore) Forsberg, and me
Alto: Marnie Goulding, Debi Urkov, and MaryBeth Harper
Tenor: Rick Harper and Rick Holden
Bass: Ron Curtis and Tom Goulding
Chorister: Pam Clark

A couple weeks into the rehearsals, Bro. Holden was deployed to Iraq, so he was not able to continue with the choir. Tim Smith was called in his place. I was really happy for Tim, but devastated for Rick.

I didn't know too many from the St. David Stake. I did know a girl from 13 years ago at Eastern Arizona College (Billie [Palmer] Bright), and a man who used to live in Sierra Vista with his family in the early 90s (Bro. Kempton). That was fun to reconnect with them.

The organist was from St. David, and they also called a backup chorister from St. David and a backup organist from Sierra Vista (Genevieve Kovacs). They wanted to cover ALL their bases.

We were assigned to sing three songs: The Morning Breaks (from the choir book), Come, Oh Thou King of Kings (from the hymnal), and The Hosanna Anthem (from the choir book). We were asked to memorize these songs. We practiced every week for several months. We switched off between the Sierra Vista Stake Center and the St. David Stake Center in Pomerene. I loved going each Sunday and practicing these beautiful songs, and during the weekdays, trying to memorize the words.

Bro. George Harris from The Gila Valley was called to be over all the music at the Temple Dedication. He would travel to the four participating choirs every week to make sure everything was as it should be. He also gave us a lot of words of encouragement and words from the general temple committee. He also bore his testimony and promised us if we prepared now, we would have a pentecostal experience at the dedication. Wow! I was blown away when he said that!

We were all asked to put this choir above anything else. If there was a conflict, the choir always came first. Luckily, I didn't have too many conflicts. However, I had to make sure my UK vacation wouldn't be a problem. Kelli and I reserved this vacation way back in October before any dates surrounding the temple dedication were announced. Because of that, everyone was really supportive of me leaving and being gone for two practices. It was a little challenging to come back from vacation and get back into the swing of things, because I only had one more practice before the big dress rehearsal. I had to really focus at home to finish memorizing and perfecting the songs, but I was still not very confident with myself. I was mixing up words, accidentally singing when only the altos sang and the sopranos rested, and singing the wrong section at the wrong time during the challenging Hosanna Anthem. I was trying so hard, but it didn't seem to be coming together for me. But I prayed hard, and knew I would be blessed for my efforts.

That brings us to this weekend's events. But this post is already too long, so you can read about the dress rehearsal in my next entry:

Next Post: The Dress Rehearsal

But first, here is a little blurb from an announcement about the Temple Dedication. This part was specifically about the choirs:

Choirs are rehearsing in preparation for the Dedication and Cornerstone Ceremony. A 60-voice choir, directed by Bruce Bishop and accompanied by Ramona Lines, will perform at the Cornerstone Ceremony. Three different 20-voice choirs will perform at the Dedication Sessions, one from the Safford, Thatcher, and Pima stakes directed by Michael Bradley, accompanied by Janice Holladay; one from the Duncan and Silver City stakes directed by Larry Martin, accompanied by Marie Stailey; and one from the St. David and Sierra Vista stakes directed by Pamela Clark, accompanied by Carrie Fenn.

The Gila Valley Temple, Part 1: The Open House

Last weekend was the dedication of The Gila Valley Temple. What a magnificent event! I want to tell you about my experiences, but I will split them up in different posts so I won't bore you with a super duper long post. :o)



Part 1: The Open House

Kelli, my mom, and I were able to go through the temple during the Open House on Wednesday, May 12. The Open House was from April 24 to May 15. Two of those three weeks, Kelli and I were in the UK, so we didn't have a lot of time after we got back to go see it. I invited one of my co-workers, Lynda Hickey, to go with us. It was fun to bring someone to the temple who had never seen one before. I think she really enjoyed it.

I personally LOVED it! There were so many take-your-breath-away moments while walking through this remarkable building!

It really is a beautiful temple. It is not the smallest temple, but it is a smaller temple. We were told that they spared no expense during the building of it; they wanted this temple to be a tribute to President Spencer W. Kimball, who lived a lot of his life in this valley. They even named it "The Gila Valley Temple" to honor President Kimball's memory. This is one of two temples with "The" in the title (besides The Hague, but that is the name of the city, so it's a little different). President Kimball always referred to "The Valley" as the Gila Valley, even while living in the Salt Lake valley. "The Valley" to him was never in Utah.

There is a lot of beautiful glass art walls, marble floors and baseboards, crystal chandeliers and sconces, original paintings and murals, and hand sculpted carpet. The Celestial room has the most beautiful chandelier. Here is an excerpt from an email that was forwarded to me. It was written by Mark Smith Bryce, the Coordinator on the New Temple Committee:

In the last minutes just before the closing of the Open House, I decided to take one last walk through the temple, by myself. It was quiet. Once again I walked through the array of oil paintings, marveled at the majestic mural in instruction room one, and delighted in the fine furnishings of the beautiful House of the Lord. I entered the colorful, joyous celestial room. Then, although I had passed this way many times before during tours and visits, I saw two perspectives of the massive, crystal chandelier which I had never observed: the reflection of the chandelier in the art glass which forms the towering south wall of the celestial room, with prisms of color reflecting and glistening in glorious brilliance. And then, by standing across the room from the huge mirror of the west wall of the celestial room, I could see that the massive, brilliant chandelier was not just one beautiful formation of crystals, but a series of crowns, one above the other, rising up toward the hand-painted colors, designs, and gold leaf of the towering ceiling: crown upon crown, upon crown, as if to ascend infinitely into the highest Heaven. And I thought, "this is a beautiful symbol of Light, of Glory, and Honor, and Eternal Lives."

Here is another excerpt:

Over 90,800 attended the Open House of The Gila Valley Arizona Temple!

On the last evening of the Open House, this thought came to me: "Is there any object, person, or event which would bring over 90,000 persons to The Gila Valley? We are located hours from any major metropolitan area. If we brought the Hope Diamond? Would they come? If the monarchies of Europe came for a visit and to be greeted? If we held a major sporting event, such as a prize fight, basketball or football game?" Would this many come? The the answer it "No." There is nothing on Earth which would bring 90,000 visitors to this obscure, mountain valley in the desert of Arizona. Then why did they come? Was it to see a building, or outstanding art? No-- we have witnessed a miracle.

The definition of a miracle is: an event that occurs that has no explanation based on logic, science, or the laws of nature, an event in which the God of Heaven has intervened in the lives of us on this planet and blessed us, beyond our ability to comprehend. Without a doubt, we have been part of a miracle. The Spirit of the Lord brought many thousands of choice souls to The Gila Valley.

This temple is truly an miracle. People have been and will be blessed to have this temple in our midst. This temple was one of the fastest to be built and dedicated. Everything went smoothly: choosing the temple site, zoning and planning, getting the plans passed through the city government, ground breaking, construction, landscaping, the open house, and finally the dedication. All in all, it took only 15 months. That is truly remarkable!

I found this article about the construction of the temple from the contractors point of view:

http://arizonabeehive.com/showstory.php?article=1

Also, here is a video of the Media tour through the temple.



I am grateful for this temple and am excited to have many opportunities to go more often than I have ever been able to go before.

Next post: The Temple Choir

UK There and Back

Our vacation came and went in a blur! We were afraid we were not going to be able to go because of the volcano in Iceland that grounded all air traffic in the UK for six days. But a few days before our scheduled departure, the ash cloud moved off, air traffic resumed, and Heathrow airport was reopened. We had no problems getting to London, even though it was an extremely busy and full flight. They even had to have added security at the terminal to make sure all re-routed passengers and those wanting desperately to get home would remain calm in the line and peace would remain. There were no incidents, and everyone was very grateful to finally have tickets and be moving again, instead of spending their days and nights at the airport.

We were not as lucky on the way back. We were seated on the very full and hot plane hour late, and as soon as the doors were closed, the pilot came on and said the new ash cloud (a straight stream from Iceland to Spain) was causing delays. Every plane in Northern Europe heading west had to be re-routed to go through a narrow air lane above Iceland. Because of all the coordination between all European airports, we were stuck waiting for our window. The estimated time was 2 1/2 hours to wait. They moved the plane to a temporary holding area, and we waited about 3 hours. Then the pilot said it was our turn to leave, but our engine #3 would not start, so we had to go back to the terminal and get engineering to fix the engine. We did that, and had to wait another hour for it to be fixed and the paperwork to be finished. Finally, they were able to put our plane back in the queue to wait for another window. Luckily, we had an advantage, because the crew could only work so long, and we had an 11 hour flight ahead of us. We only had to wait another hour before we were on our way. Once we took off, there were no more issues. I was so glad to be off that plane! Over sixteen hours in a hot, stuffy plane is just too long!

But this return trip will soon be forgot, because I can focus on all the great and wonderful things we saw and did while exploring many cities and towns in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Some of the most memorable: going on a river cruise on the River Thames at night, visiting Windsor Castle while the Queen was in residence, walking around Stratford-upon-Avon, exploring the Royal Mile (and it's underground) in Edinburgh, Scotland, eating Haggis at a Traditional Scottish Evening, seeing the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, watching Kelli dance on stage with a cute Irish guy during a Traditional Irish Evening (the "Let's Dance" Wii Game really gave her an advantage!), driving around the Ring of Kerry (breathtakingly beautiful area in Ireland), kissing the Blarney Stone (actually I had to do it twice to actually kiss it. The first time I missed it...kissing a random stone on the Blarney Castle wall...and I didn't want to have to buy the T-Shirt that said "I Missed the Blarney Stone"), getting proposed to on a Jaunting Buggy in Killarney (the buggy driver wore me down until I agreed. He was very convincing :), having dinner in the Cardiff Castle (Wales), seeing the odd, but intriguing Stonehenge, exploring the Roman Baths in Bath, England, and finally seeing WICKED on The West End (Britain's version of Broadway). I loved, loved, loved Wicked. If you ever get a chance to see it, GO!! You will not be sorry and you will be singing the songs for weeks after.

Overall, this tour did not disappoint! I loved every minute of it. I seriously did not want to come back and face reality. It took me a week to recover from it and have any type of desire to do anything. I did have to go to work, but I was only there in body.

I took over 1400 pictures (that is not including the pictures Kelli took), and have been trying to go through them so I can start posting pictures for you. I will probably post a few different entries, split up per country, or maybe even per leg of the tour. I haven't decided yet. Just know, I haven't forgotten you. I am just slow at getting organized. I hope to have the first entry by the end of this week. I'll post pictures as soon and as often as I can, so you can get a taste of the wonders and beauty that Kelli and I experienced.

Stay tuned!

The Best of Britain and Ireland -- Day Sixteen

The following is my journal entry for Day 16 of my vacation to Britain and Ireland.

Today is our last day in the UK (I'm a poet!). This trip has been an adventure in wonderland! We have seen so much and had so many wonderful once-in-a-lifetime opportunities! I am so glad we took the opportunity to come on this tour.

We had to stomach one more English Breakfast before we left the country, but we managed to find some things we would still eat. Sixteen days of the same food (even it is good food) is really hard to manage. Now I sound like I should be on http://whitewhine.tumblr.com. Haha!

Fortunately, we were able to see some of our tour members around the hotel lobby while we were checking our email for the final time (and letting our mom know we were getting ready to leave for the airport). We were able to say goodbye to our favorite Australians again before checking out of our room and waiting in the lobby for our coach. Another American couple from our tour were returning home today as well and were being taken to the airport at the same time as us. We were able to sit and visit with them as we waited for our transport bus. Finally it came and there were about five other couples on the small bus. We were the last to be picked up, and it was off to the airport.

All the couples were dropped off at different terminals and Kelli and I were the last on the coach. Our terminal was away from the main airport and it took about 10 more minutes to get there. We finally arrived and were dropped off, but we were too early to check in. We had to wait for about 30 minutes in the airport lobby before the big screen told us we could check in. Then we made our way through security (which was a bit of a wait, but wasn't bad, since we were super early...we didn't feel that stressed). We then proceeded to go customs so Kelli could turn in her paperwork for her diamond claddagh ring she bought so she could get the VAT tax refunded (it saved her about $200). Then we wasted more time by going through the airport stores to try to use up the rest of our UK pounds. We really got too much money out of the ATMs and now it felt like we had a shopping spree where you had to use it or lose it. We bought a bunch of cookies and chocolate and a few more souvenirs to take back as gifts. Then we had a nice sit-down lunch in an airport pub. We still had about 15 pounds each that we just could not spend. We were so sick of shopping; we were done. We just decided to keep those pounds for next time. :o)

We found our gate and waited to board the plane. We waited and waited. Finally, about an hour late, we boarded. The line was long and we had to climb aboard and be crammed onto buses to be taken to our plane, but after that process, we were finally seated and ready to go.

But nothing really ever goes as planned, especially with an active volcano not too far away.

Our pilot came on the loud speaker and told us there is a long line to leave today....about a three hour wait. The Iceland volcano is spewing ash into the Atlantic from Iceland to Spain. It is a solid wall of ash. Every airport in Europe who is sending planes westward has to coordinate with each other to send each plane through a tiny window to the north of Iceland. In other words, all of Europe had to use the same air traffic path above the volcano, so on a first come first serve basis, every plane got in a virtual line and waited their turn to fly through it. What a mess for the air traffic controllers! What a mess for us already boarded on the plane! When the pilot gave us that BAD NEWS, one obnoxious man sitting next to Kelli on the opposite aisle seat gave a loud groan while slamming his legs into the seat in front of him and forcefully pushing his chair back into the person behind him. He was acting like a child and he continued acting that way for the rest of our time together (which was a substantial amount of time). The old man who almost took the seat back to his face was a good sport, though. He and his wife would look over at Kelli and I and we would chuckle or smile when the man would do something else during our long wait.

And wait we did...We watched several movies (luckily British Airways has a wide selection and you can individually choose what you want to watch...each person has their own screen in front of them.) Right after the pilot talked to us the first time, he moved the plane to a place on the tarmac to wait until our turn to leave. There we sat for three solid hours.

Finally, the pilot got on the loud speaker again and told us he had good new and bad news. The good news was it was our turn to leave. The bad news was that when he tried to turn back on the engines, our Number 3 engine would not start. We would have to return to the gate where maintenance would fix the engine and once that is fixed, he would put our plane back in line to leave. More groans and tantrums from our childish "friend" on the opposite aisle.

One hour later, our engine was repaired. Our pilot told us he put us back in line, but because we had an 11 hour plane ride ahead of us, and the clock was running out on the time the crew was allowed to work, we should have special privileges to be bumped to a higher standing in the line. We waited one more hour, and then we were air born! Hallelujah!

Our 11 hour plane ride was uneventful. We headed north over Iceland, then over Nova Scotia, New York, and across the US until we landed in Phoenix. Because we were six hours later than we were supposed to be, mom was pretty worried. We couldn't tell her we were delayed because were were stuck on the plane with no cell service or wifi. But once we landed, we were able to call her and everything was fine. Now we just needed to drive home and it was already 10PM. Three more hour trip home. Yuck! What a LONG day. What with traveling back over time zones, I think we had about a 32-hour day, or something like that. It was longer than the normal 24 anyway.

Poor Kelli! She had to drive the whole way home. I crashed pretty much as soon as we got in the car. I helped navigate her to I-10, but after that, I was a goner. I know she was just as tired as me, but I could not stay awake even if my life depended on it. I had hit a wall and that was it. But she was a trooper and we made it home safely!

We both decided to stay home from work on Monday, since we didn't get home until after 1PM on Monday morning. A day of waiting, jet lag and 16 hours on a plane would do that to anyone!

It's good to be home but it's good to have a lot of awesome memories of our spectacular adventure to the United Kingdom!

The Best of Britain and Ireland -- Day Fifteen

The following is my journal entry (with pictures added) for Day 15 of my vacation to Britain and Ireland.

We were greeted this morning with a fire alarm in the hotel. Luckily, it didn't last long and we were not required to leave the building.

Other than that, we had a normal morning with normal hours of getting up, breakfasting, and getting on the coach. This is our last official day on the tour, and it was filled with very historic sites.

First, we crossed back into England over the Severn Bridge. We then drove through the original town of Pennsylvania and we stopped at the elegant Georgian city of Bath, famous for its Roman baths. We paid the entrance fee and toured through these ancient structures and marveled at the wonders of Roman architecture.

The entrance into the Roman Baths

The Bath Abbey

The Great Bath


The Bath Abbey as seem from the Great Bath

The Sacred Spring. Notice the steam rising from the water.


Another view of the Great Bath from a lower angle

What the whole compound looked like during Roman times

What's left of the temple pediment. The next picture shows what the complete pediment would have looked like.

A image was projected over the top of the real stones

Rooms in the Bath houses


Spring Overflow

Bath is also has the home of Jane Austen, but we didn't get to see it. We had to pick and choose, and we chose to see the Roman baths. I am glad we chose to see these baths, because this was one of my favorite places on this trip...though I say that about a lot of things from this trip.

We boarded the coach and continued eastward, stopping again at Stonehenge. What an intriguing mystery! We had 30 minutes there, so Kelli and I paid the entrance fee and ran around the monuments listening to the audio tour wands. It was SO COLD today! Probably the coldest yet. And being outside in the open hills with the seriously chilly wind did not help matters. Needless to say, we didn't stay long outside. We saw the site, took tons of pictures, then went back to the coach to thaw out.



Surrounding Stonehenge are hundreds of burial mounds.



After Stonehenge, we stopped in Salisbury for lunch. This cathedral in this city has the tallest medieval stone spire in the world. We didn't go over to see the cathedral, so I don't have any pictures. We had some lunch at a pub, walked around an outside market, then went back to the coach.

We ended our tour in London. We were dropped off at a VERY LARGE hotel were we said goodbye to our tour group. Some members were going to different hotels so they could start their next tours (some of the Australians were taking multiple tours back to back, since they have so much vacation time). We said our goodbyes to Christina and our bus driver.


Then we checked in to our room and had an early night. We are leaving back to the states tomorrow, so we have repacking and stuff to do. We also went to the nearby tube station for a quick bite to eat and a little more shopping trying to get rid of our UK pounds. We still have some more to get rid of...hopefully the airport shops will have things we want to buy.

This tour has been tons of fun....but I am extremely tired. I am ready to go home. Hopefully the Iceland ash cloud will not affect our flight home, but we shall see tomorrow.

The Best of Britain and Ireland -- Day Fourteen

The following is my journal entry (with pictures added) for Day 14 of my vacation to Britain and Ireland.

Christina had warned us and we knew it was coming, but this super early morning was really hard. We were up by 5am and boarded the coach by 6.

We drove to the ferry port at Rosslare and waited to board the boat that would cross the St. George's Channel to South Wales.


Once it was our turn and they directed us to the area they wanted us to park, we disembarked the coach, and then we tried to find a place to sit on the boat. This ferry is smaller than the first. Plus, there were more areas for premiere members so us lowly folk were forced to sit along the side near the bathrooms and the store. But it was still a nice ride. Because I stayed seated almost the whole way, I didn't get as motion sick as I did on the way over. This trip was 4 hours long and we passed the time watching the election results come in. This was the first time in history (or for a really long time anyway) that they had a hung parliament and there was no majority winner. The closest winners will have to figure something out so the country will know who their new prime minister will be.

Goodbye Ireland!

We arrived in Wales, boarded the coach and disembarked the ferry in Pembroke.

Our first views of South Wales.

Disembarking the ferry

We traveled through South Wales on our way to Cardiff. We saw Richard Burton's house in Port Talbot (from a distance). It's kind of hard to miss because it's a very 70's style in a very old and "European"-style area. It's kind of an eye sore, but he loved it.

Richard Burton's house in the hills of Port Talbot

South Wales seemed to be much more industrial than North Wales. There is a steel mine still in operation in Port Talbot, in fact.


South Wales was also big into coal mining. They have since closed all those mines (the last one was closed in 2008).

We arrived in Cardiff, which is the capital city of Wales. It is also the most cosmopolitan city in the UK.

We stopped for one hour to walk around the stores near the castle. However, at this point, we were pretty tired of shopping. It really wasn't that interesting. We just walked around and wasted time before we were to be picked up again.

Outside the walls of Cardiff Castle

The Cardiff City Hall


The Welsh Dragon on the top of the City Hall


Streets of Cardiff


A pretty Garden Square

On the coach, we drove around a bit to see some of the city. We saw the huge rugby stadium called the Millennium Stadium. Kelli was a bit disappointed we didn't get to see the Wall of Water, which has some reference to the BBC shows Dr. Who and Torchwood.

The Millennium Stadium


We thought this was funny, but it is actually a brewery. Who would have thought!

We were dropped off at our hotel and had a little time to get ready for our last "Traditional Evening". This one was the Traditional Welsh Evening and it was held in the Cardiff Castle. We first had a short tour of the castle.


Funny story about these inside pictures: The tour director was nice and let us take picture IF and ONLY IF we didn't use a flash. Everyone turned off their flashes and away we went. Then we entered a new room, cameras were turned back on, and pictures were taken WITH flashes. Whoops! Apparently once some cameras are turned off, the flash setting is reset to auto. After a few rooms, the lady asked us to stop taking pictures. I continued to sneak these pictures with my flash OFF.



Then we were lead into the dungeons, which were converted into a large dining hall. We had a four course meal consisting of traditional welsh food (lamb stew, salad, other).


They sang to us and entertaining us with music, comedy, and group participating. It didn't seem as organized as the other countries traditional evenings, but it was still a lot of fun.

On the way back to our hotel, we once again had a sing-a-long on the coach. This time it was to Tom Jones songs, since he is from Wales (probably one of the most famous and timeless singers from this country). Of course, most of our group had a bit too much to drink so they were a little extra animated while singing again. :o)

Tomorrow we return to England and explore the city of Bath and the historic and perplexing Stonehenge.