Not so "Social"...

Tonight we went to a social for the High Priest Group at our church tonight and I totally forgot my camera, but thank goodness for phone cameras. 

Although I still didn't get any appropriate photos to capture the event.

I was a little distracted by one of Jacob's friends who had just arrived home from Utah State for the weekend to start his mission papers.  His birthday is in June like Jacob's so he wasn't planning on  doing papers so soon... until the recent change in age for missionaries.  So exciting! 

Well he didn't really come to see me... 

His grandparents were at the social.

And if the truth be known, I think he was actually hoping to catch his friends there who usually play soccer on Friday nights in the gym.

haha ha

They asked everyone to bring something to display about themselves so we could learn more about each other.

My strong silent mysterious man really fell in love with these buckles!!  And he KNEW the missionary would go crazy for them.

This guy was a rodeo clown and had all kinds of photos and memorabila from his years of working with the bulls.

He was telling Jim about a bull that had a really tough reputation... and he said if he knew he had to tangle with him the next day he usually didn't sleep the night before.  At the end of the bulls career in rodeo... I missed the middle part of the story... but the end was he has a putter made from his hide.  So cool!!

There were lots of neat stories, and things shared tonight amongst the men.  I wish I would have taken more pictures... not sure whats wrong with my trigger finger and the photo journaler I have always been.  I am still just not in sinc... I guess that's what happens when part of your heart goes all the way to Paraguay!

I hope I can be whole again one day, I am trying, I am trying so hard!

It's a weird discombobulated feeling I can't explain nor understand.

Boise Idaho Temple Open House...

Last night we went to the open house for the Boise Idaho Temple.

We were with a friend Jim works with and his wife. 

They had moved to Idaho from Salinas California just after the Boise Temple first opened in 1984 and they had wished they would have been able to go see it then, but just missed the open house.

28 years later that wish would come to pass.

It was beautiful!  Beyond words for me.

I especially LOVED the subtle colors with a green and blue earth tone base.  Every detail so perfect.  The wood and glass work was breath taking and I felt like a little kid having to hold my hand back from touching everything.

It was especially neat for us to be with friends who had not been inside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint Temple.  Seeing the newly renovated temple for ourselves, and sharing it with friends.

You can learn more about our Temples HERE.

Some of my favorite observations they shared with us were how the paintings of Jesus Christ seemed to have a bright white glow coming from them.  And the Idaho State flower, syringa, was incorporated into stained glass, wood carvings, fabric and in so many details of the design.  And the observance of the baptismal font being built at ground level and the progression of the rest of the temple to be on a rise from that, noticing how symbolic that was to the ordinance of baptism.  And the lighting getting brighter as we reached the celestial room, and what a very special room it was.  They were really looking through spiritual eyes and their hearts were so opened to how they felt in the Temple.  It was such a wonderful experience to see this beautiful House of the Lord.

We had made plans to go to dinner, so we breezed through the cultural hall afterwards, but it was so beautifully decorated and comfortable, that you could sit and reflect on the tour and talk to the missionaries there about any questions that came to you in the Temple.  It didn't resemble a basket ball court at all!

We did slow down to look at the map with the gold pins to show where all the temples are around the world now, taking a special photo for Elder Dayley noting the temple in Paraguay!

Then having to apologize all over ourselves for touching pretty much all the pins on said map and THEN reading the FRAMED sign asking us NOT TO TOUCH THE MAP!!! 

duh