Our ward has been preparing our walk to the temple since the beginning of the year.
Tonight...we took the 3 mile trek.
We had......
- great weather,
- good walking shoes,
- cool clothing,
- water at every mile and....
- the knowledge that our car was at the Temple so that we could drive home.
I was able to talk to my boys (all but Porter who ran the whole way) about what the pioneers had to endure. There is absolutely no way that we can understand what they went through but tonight...we got a tiny taste (probably just a granule).
We walked 3 miles, they walked 15 a day.
We had comfortable shoes, they had old boots that were worn through and soaked.
We had appropriate clothing, they had heavy skirts and coats that would hold in the wet and cold.
We had water at every mile (along with our bellies being full of dinner before we left), they had a small amount of flour and water for the whole day.
We also had the knowledge that we would be able to go home and sleep in our nice warm beds with pillows and plenty of blankets.
We didn't have to bury anyone on the way.
When we reached our destination, there was civilization, trees and lush grass.
I am so grateful for this experience we had to walk to the Temple to feel close to the pioneers. Another important lesson we learned from this was what we need to do to prepare ourselves for our Temple. We were united as a ward in reaching this goal physically, now we will help each other reach it spiritually.
I love going to the temple and am so excited for ours to be done!!! I hope my kids were able to get something good out of the activity tonight other than 'It was soooooo long!!!'
Thank you pioneers.
