St. Patrick's Day Weekend of Celebration

St. Patrick's Day has long been a holiday near and dear to my heart, though not for the reasons most people enjoy it.  Mostly, my love of the holiday stems from my deep appreciation for Irish/Celtic culture.  I love the music, dancing, fairy tales, history, and also the landscape of Ireland as well.  It's one of the places in the world I am most eager to visit.  Because I love all things Celtic year-round, I make it a special point to enjoy March, when Irish activities and events are much easier to find.  For me, the celebration lasts all month, but I've especially enjoyed various Celtic activities over this last weekend.

On Saturday, I decided to go check out the annual St. Patrick's Day parade that is held through the Gateway in Salt Lake.  The parade was supposed to run from 10:00 AM to 10:45, after which a siasma (party) featuring various music and dance groups would be held.  I was somewhat interested in the parade, but mostly was going because I really like live Celtic music and also wanted to see a bit of the dancing.  Because the parade wasn't my main focus, I showed up at about 10:30.  I got lucky with parking, so even though it was pretty crazy crowded, I managed to find a spot on a side street not far from the main Gateway plaza.

There really were a ton of people there, but I managed to find a decent spot to watch from after just a bit of walking.  Unfortunately, it was in the shade, which wouldn't have been a problem, but I hadn't dressed warmly enough as I'd failed to factor in that there would be a chilling northern wind blowing through.  Without the help of the sun, I was getting quite cold in my light sweater pretty quickly.

I saw a few things of interest during the parade.  There was a roller derby group that was doing jumps over 3 people laying on the ground.  That was kind of interesting.  There was one beer distributor that had a bunch of people dressed in beer bottle costumes that were pretty well done.  In the back of their float there was a giant six-pack filled with one of these individuals in each slot.  The effect was pretty cool, and I had to concede that though it's a beer company, they were much more interesting than the many school groups, local organizations, etc. that were simply walking along.  Shortly thereafter, a bunch of union groups started coming along one after another.  Not only were they super boring, I was also quite tempted to boo them, so I decided to split at that point.

Since it was almost 10:45 at that point, I decided to go in and see what was going on with the siasma and try to get a better spot since most were still watching the parade.  They had various tables set up that displayed a schedule for the groups that would be playing and dancing at three different stages that were set up.  About 5 minutes after the scheduled start time, the first dance group did indeed start at the stage I was waiting at.  It was one of the seeming dozens of Irish dance groups that have cropped up here in Utah.  I'm pleased that such groups exist here, but it does greatly puzzle me that there should be SO many.  My theory is that they are targeted toward girls who like dance, but are not coordinated or graceful enough to cut it in regular dance studios that teach ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, etc.  I watched this group for a while, but they weren't especially wonderful, so I decided to wander off and check out the music at the other stages.

This group of standing stones was the only Celtic thing I got a picture of at the Gateway

Unfortunately, the scheduled musicians were not playing at the other stages.  In fact, nothing was going on.  I was disappointed by this, as honestly, live Celtic music was the main reason I had come.  I figured the musicians weren't started because the parade wasn't over yet.  I figured I'd get some lunch while I was waiting and walked down to the other end along the parade route.  There were a few other interesting things in the parade that I saw as I went.  One that was fun was a group of kilted Stormtroopers lead by a kilted Darth Vader that were marching to promote ComicCon.  They were entertaining.  There were also a few shelters that were marching with a bunch of cute dogs.  The best was definitely the pipe band.  While I saw a few groups with a couple pipers earlier, this group had over 20 pipers as well as the drum corps.  It was awesome.  They were my favorite part of the whole event in the end, and I walked along almost the entire route with them because I liked hearing them so much.

I ate lunch and then walked back to see if the music had started yet.  This was around 12:00, and the parade was just finishing.  I was pretty cold and tired of walking and standing at this point, but didn't want to leave without getting what I came for.  I did get to catch a small music group on one of the stages, fortunately.  It was just a couple of whistlers with a guitarist, though, so I only stayed long enough to hear a handful of numbers from them.  It was helpful to me to see other whistlers play so I could observe their technique.  These whistlers and others I have seen seem to play their tin whistles with pretty much entirely straight fingers.  I don't really understand how this works.  I always play with my longer middle fingers fairly bent so the pads of all my fingers are hitting the holes, as you would with a recorder, but this doesn't appear to be how professionals do it.  I probably need to experiment with it more, as I can see how it could increase your playing speed.

I soon left the Gateway, as I knew that I wanted to do a session at the Salt Lake temple while I was there.  It's been close to 7 years since I was last there on my mission.  I have never been since, so I was eager to find a chance to go there as I haven't been able to return on past occasions, though I always wanted to.  It was a pretty potent experience for me.  My mind was flooded with many memories of my days attending there as a missionary also coupled with reflections on how much everything is the same there, and yet, how much I have personally changed.

I am certainly not where I hoped and imagined I would be by now the last time I sat in those chairs, but I feel like I have learned so much since those days.  I learned a lot on my mission, and in many ways that experience has defined me as a person.  Yet I truly feel that while the mission taught me a lot about the world in general and solidified my character and convictions in many ways, I have learned more about myself in the years since I have come home.  I've faced more of my personal demons and have had to more actively choose who I will be and how I will view myself than ever before.  I now have what I mostly lacked on my mission: that is, the conviction borne of experience that I will choose the God's plan no matter how much it contradicts my own, and even when I can't see the progress and blessings I desire.  There have been many tender mercies from the Lord along the way.  What I fully believed and taught about how the gospel blesses us in all circumstances as a missionary, I have now also experienced in my own life.  I have been more strenuously tested, and my confidence in myself as well as the Lord as grown as I've seen that I can actually do what is required.

The Salt Lake Temple will always be special to me.  From the familiar figures of the murals to the live session, each element serves as a reminder to me of both my personal and my family history.  It is a place that I think will always make me feel grateful.  I have been blessed beyond measure, and the Salt Lake Temple is a personal reminder of that.

When I got home after dinner and a bit of shopping in Salt Lake, I watched The Secret of Kells, which I've had on my watchlist for awhile.  I highly recommend it.  The story is not what you would typically expect for a kid's movie, and neither is the animation, for that matter.  In fact, while it's no doubt marketed for children, I think adults will be able to appreciate it much more.  Basically, it imagines the endeavors of  Irish Illuminators to create the Book of Kells around 1000 AD in the face of Viking invasions in the country.  What makes the movie special is the animation and styling, which is based off of early Irish art, especially in the Book of Kells itself.  It's beautifully done and quite an engaging, though sad tale.  I liked the moral of the story, and also how it showed a nature fairy/goddess character becoming invested in helping the monks produce this sacred text to enrich the future.  It was a wonderful way to represent the pagan age willingly yielding before Christianity's spread.

My St. Patrick's weekend of celebration was much more subdued on Sunday.  I listened to Celtic music throughout the day and of course wore largely green as I did each of the three days.  I also read a few of my favorite Irish folk tales from William Butler Yeats' Fairy and Folk Tales from the Irish Peasantry (also sold under other names).  You can get this version as a free ebook.  My favorite tale is probably "Teig O'Kane and the Corpse".  It's certainly the one I return to most often, though the collection as many other wonderful stories.  The rest of the day was occupied with more normal activities like church, attending the dedication of our new stake center, and talking to my parents.

On Monday, I was able to fit in some additional Irish-themed celebrations.  I made rainbow treats for my roommates, Gerrit and Elisabeth's family, and Joel and Emily while I watched Brave.  Okay, I fully realize that Brave is Scottish and not Irish, but it's still a Celtic group and I felt like watching it!  This picture is actually from the ones I did last year, but I basically did the same thing, except I attempted to freehand write the message in a Celtic font I found online.  That came out with moderate success, I suppose.  I also played my tin whistle for awhile and watched part of a documentary I started a while ago called The Celts.  This last was a substitute for the movie I had intended to watch, which was a period movie about the Irish War of Independence, but I pitched that idea after a group of Black and Tans dropped the f-bomb about 10 times in the first 5 minutes or so.  That didn't seem to bode too well for the rest of the movie to me!  The rest of the evening was pretty well filled by running the stuff over to Gerrit and Elisabeth's and FHE afterwards.

It was a pretty low-key celebration weekend overall, but I had fun.  I wish I had gotten to hear a great Celtic band live, but you can't have everything, I suppose.  It was simply nice to get to share my love of all things Celtic with others for a few days at least!

A New Train of Thought

I had originally planned to return home from Idaho on Friday so I could attend a stake women's conference, but I decided to stay through part of the day Saturday to get some more work done.  This turned out to be perhaps not the best decision, as on Saturday morning, a decent amount of snow started falling in Idaho Falls.  The forecast said the snowfall would continue through the afternoon accumulating to potentially over 5 inches, so I figured I'd better not wait to leave until after lunch as I'd thought.  Even with my plan to depart ASAP, there were still several things I wanted to complete, so I didn't end up getting on the interstate until about 11:00.  Fortunately, the worst weather was in Idaho Falls, so as I drove on it got progressively better.  True, there was some pretty torrential rain at parts, but nothing I didn't feel equal to handling.

In contemplating my trip home, I'd thought to make another stop along the way at some point of interest like I had on the way up.  My first thought was to go to Logan and visit the temple there, but it was a little farther out of the way than I wanted to go.  Then I thought about maybe just going to the Salt Lake temple on the way home.  This seemed rather too ordinary, as I will no doubt get myself there in the near future anyway.  Finally, I remembered seeing something about Promontory Point when I was in Brigham City and thought that would be a good place to go see.  I wasn't sure where it was, so I looked it up and it appeared to be not much farther off the interstate than Brigham City itself, though to the west rather than the east.  This seemed like the perfect scheme, so I'd settled it in my mind to go see Golden Spike National Historic Site on the way back.

While it was no longer snowing, it was quite dreary and cold when I got to Utah, and I seriously considered giving up my plan.  When the moment of decision arrived, though, I figured that despite the less-than-ideal conditions, it was worth taking a chance to see something I may not get another occasion to visit so conveniently in the future.  I was rather regretting my decision about 30 minutes later when it became clear I was headed out to the middle of nowhere much further than I'd originally believed based on the map.  It was definitely farther than Brigham City and it was so deserted and ill-marked along the way, that I became uneasy that I'd somehow passed it and started off on a wild goose chase.  Fortunately, my courage didn't altogether fail me, and eventually I started seeing markers again and came to the right place.

When I went in, there were only two cars in the parking lot.  The ranger inside told me a group had just left to tour the enginehouse.  He radioed the other ranger and asked if I could join the tour, which was affirmed.  So I made the short drive up and joined the group.  There were about 5 other people already there.  A few things had already been explained apparently, but I made it for most of the tour.

Lots of interesting things were discussed.  The two engines, the Jupiter and the 119, are pretty much exact replicas based on pictures of the originals.  Even the paint jobs are historically accurate.  In the Gilded Age, bright colors and beautiful engines were typical, and each engine would be completely wiped down after each trip.  This remained important until hauling passengers became less profitable than hauling freight, at which point more subdued colors were preferred.

This is a picture of the sand dome on the 119.  It stored the sand that would be released to run under the wheels to provide traction on uphill climbs.  From pictures, it's well known that the dome had a painting of Johnny Appleseed on one side.  Because there were no pictures of the other side, it was decided to paint a picture of prominent Utah figure Jim Bridger, who is credited with discovering the Great Salt Lake.  I was proud of myself for coming up with the right answer when the ranger asked what the train would use sand for.  But don't worry, my ego wasn't too inflated, because I also answered several questions wrong!  Basically,  I was the only one willing to venture a guess.

Several railroad jobs were discussed.  Interestingly, being the engineer was considered the best job on the train, though it was pretty filthy and unpleasant, considering it was right near the boiler and the cabin was open to the air in the back so the firemen could get to the fuel to throw into the boiler.  I was lucky enough to have more of a reference point for what the engine jobs were like, having seen the episode of Top Gear where Jeremy raced the others on a steam train and worked as a fireman.

The worst and most dangerous job by far, probably on the entire railroad, was working as a brakeman.  Each brakeman would typically have charge of several cars, and his job would be to apply the wheel brakes when a slowdown was required.   He would apply the brakes on one car, then dash along the top of it while still moving and put the brakes on the next car and so on until he applied the brakes for all his cars.  While this responsibility seems dangerous enough while the train is in motion, the brakeman's job was even worse before the trip started.  He was in charge of placing the connecting pin to link the cars up at the station.  This was very dangerous because there were two major risks.  First off, if he didn't place the pin correctly quick enough, he was likely to lose fingers or a hand.  Secondly, brakemen were crushed to death between the cars with some regularity.  Apparently, when hiring brakemen, they could tell how experienced you were by how many fingers you had.  Someone with all their fingers was a newbie and someone with no fingers was retired!  I was caught by surprise by realizing as the ranger explained this while putting his hand on the coupling that he was missing several fingers on that hand.  It lent a weird kind of realism to what he was saying, though I'm pretty positive that isn't how he lost his fingers.

It's hard to see why anyone would sign up for such a dangerous job as brakeman, but the pay was very good for the time.  Also, there were many former soldiers after the Civil War who were looking for jobs along with recent Irish and Italian immigrants, and the railroads were one of the biggest employers at the time.  They did have problems keeping people on though, as many would work on the railroads just long enough to acquire funds to go west and make a gold claim.  This is why the Chinese ended up being a major force, especially for laying the track.  They came initially for the gold too, but were later banned from laying claims.  This left them little recourse other than signing on with the largest employer, the railroads.  They ended up being hugely integral to the success of the transcontinental railroad efforts.

There were other interesting tidbits too.  Like the fact that between the wood used by the track along with the much larger wood supply that was required to fuel some of the engines, like the Jupiter, 1/3 of California's forests were used at the time.  Interestingly, the Jupiter was also not intended to be the engine used at the Golden Spike ceremony.  Due to a signaling error, the Antelope, which was intended for the honor, was struck by a large log rolled down a mountain by a logging operation and damaged as they didn't know there were two engines passing.

After the tour was done, I asked the ranger what I had missed.  He was there with one of the engineers who had answered a few of my questions earlier in the tour.  I hadn't missed much info, but then I had a number of questions which both answered for me.  This went on for quite awhile, as both of them were adding more info than I probably needed in response to my questions.  I think they were just excited to have someone actually interested, since I think they don't get many visitors in the winter, and if my group was any indication, most are pretty passive and uninquisitive.

The ranger eventually had to get back to the visitor center, but in response to one of my questions, the engineer suggested showing me the cabin of the Jupiter.  So I got to actually go up in the train and see everything.  It was cool to be on the train itself.  The engineer even let me ring the bell, which was pretty awesome.  The bell would signal certain things while the whistle would indicate others.  I remember that one indicated which direction the train was going, but I can't remember which.

After getting out of the Jupiter, the engineer also showed me the machine shop where they do all the repairs for both engines.  This was probably a little more than I had much desire to see, but he showed me the different machines they use and explained a bit about them.  While it was somewhat interesting to me to see, it no doubt would have been appreciated much more by someone like Gerrit.  I think that the engineer believed me to be rather more entirely interested than I really was.  It was nice of him to show me everything, though I was a little unsure how acceptable it was for me to see everything I did.  I definitely got a much closer look than the regular tour, as I went to areas that are roped off for the general public.  Either way, there was no harm done, and I had a great time seeing and learning about everything!

The visitor's center was pretty anti-climactic after the enginehouse.  The Golden Spike isn't even there, it's at Stamford as the original maker willed it to them or something.  Plus, the monument wouldn't have sufficient security for it in the end.  So maybe I will have to go to Stamford sometime to complete the picture!  I did learn about how Promontory Summit was graded too steeply in their eagerness to join the lines, which over time meant a lot of strain and expense for the engines, requiring helper engines to be used in the area.  These expenses lead to the construction of a causeway across the Great Salt Lake in 1903, which cut off a significant distance from the Promontory line and resulted in major savings.  The whole Promontory line was pulled up in World War II to use the metal for war efforts and a ceremonial undriving of the spike was performed, although the real Golden Spike had been removed long before.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.  I got home safely and was very glad that I'd decided to take time to swing by Promontory.  It was very interesting and allowed me to see some things I probably couldn't have seen any other time.  The whole trip was a very good experience for me.  It allowed me to feel very useful and have some valuable experiences along the way.  I'm glad that I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go to Idaho.

Telling Grandpa's Story

A couple weeks ago, Grandma called to ask me to come and help her put together a book for Grandpa.  She's put together books for other ancestors in the past and done a great job, but wanted some help with this one.  It worked out that last week, I was able to go and lend a hand.

It was a good week, though in many ways a challenging one.  We worked every day from 8:30 AM until 11:00 PM with only a couple hours off each day for meals and such.  On Monday, we went to the gym or spa as Grandma likes to call it for some exercise.  I haven't been able to go to a gym for quite awhile and I was surprised by how much I really have missed it.  I guess it's partially that I miss using the various machines where I am able to track well just what I am accomplishing, but it's also the fact that I'm able to get a variety of different workouts there.  I started off on the recumbant bikes, which I've always liked.  These were cooler than the ones I've done in the past because each bike had its own screen for watching TV and getting additional stats.  Its nice to get to choose your own channel rather than watching whatever someone else has chosen for the joint TVs or asking for the channel to be changed.  After 45 minutes there, I did free weights and finally did the rowing machine.  I'm not sure why, but I've always really liked the rowing machine.  I'd say its one of the best overall workouts.  Someday, I think it would be fun to go rowing in a real crew boat.

On Tuesday, Grandma and I walked down to Subway about a mile or so away for lunch.  We also stopped to check on carbon monoxide detectors at Ace since Grandma's was giving signals that it was dead after we changed the batteries twice.  They were a little expensive there, so we didn't end up buying one.  Just a day or two later, the news came out that a family of 4 from Pocatello were all found dead in their beds from Carbon Monoxide poisoning after they missed church and a family dinner.  The saddest thing is that the only survivors from the family were two children serving missions.  Its a terrible thing for a young missionary to have to deal with and I pray that as difficult as the experience is, it will be one that makes their faith stronger rather than leading them to apostasy.  The good news is that for now, they seem to be handling it well.  After that story came out, all the carbon monoxide detectors in each store nearby were sold out.  Grandma put in an order for two at Ace, where they are going to offer a special on them.

We also went and had dinner with Skye and Lance on Thursday, which was awesome.  Skye made honestly the best steak I've ever had.  It was a teriyaki marinated steak that was really tender and flavorful.  Normally, I'm not a big steak fan because it's often not done very well, in my opinion, but when it is, it can be pretty dang delicious.  It was fun playing with their dog Roxie and hearing more from the kids.  Sylvie showed me her two photo albums and told me about the pictures she's saved, which was really cute.  Dutch was showing his Lego treehouses he has built.  Lance and Skye are really good parents.  Their kids are all very sweet and fun while also being smart and having a lot of other good qualities.  I think that can be pretty challenging these days, but fortunately they've not only been blessed with good parents, but good natures as well.  Dutch and Christian even walked Grandma and Rayola to the car, which they apparently always do.  It may seem a small thing, one that I would probably have never thought of in my crassness, but it makes a difference to Grandma and Rayola.

The work pretty much encompassed the rest of the week.  There was a lot to do.  Part of the problem was that about 4 of the pieces Grandma wanted to include were typed, but couldn't be located, so we had to retype them.  That was about 10-15 pages of retyping to do, but fortunately with both of us working on it, they didn't take forever.  Grandma is really quite a fast typer, probably about the same as me, though I'm not super fast myself.

The workspace.  Two computers and a lot of mess!

Another unanticipated time-consumer was my discovery of a number of interviews Grandpa had done that were not transcribed.  There was at least 5 hours of recorded info to go through.  The transcribing was pretty painstaking.  First, the interview had to be listened to a bit to determine if it was worth including.  Then, the whole thing had to be typed bit by bit.  I was slower at this process than Grandma, because I type everything Grandpa said, where she tends to be a much more liberal transcriber!  It was strange hearing Grandpa's voice again after four years since I last saw him.  It was almost like he was still here.  Listening to him talking for hours and hours brought back a lot of memories for me.

The rest of my time was mostly spent locating, scanning, and placing pictures.  This was also a slow process, because I was trying very hard to match pictures with the relevant content.  Locating the perfect pictures always took longer than I would have liked, especially as it often meant trying to remember which album I had seen a good picture in before or simply hunting through photos and trying to find new photo sources to use.

Another thing that significantly slowed me down was that after I had done the life sketch on the PC as I mentioned in the last post, I decided for various reasons that it would probably be better for me to do the editing on the Mac instead.  This might not have been such a big deal, but I've literally only used a Mac for about 5 minutes in my entire life up to this point and didn't have much success in those 5 minutes.  Getting used to a new system was a challenge.  Fortunately, after going to the gym on Monday, we were able to stop by Lance's office with the Apple so I could get a quick lesson on stuff I needed to know how to do.  This was a big help to me, but practicing with it over time also allowed me to pick up new tricks on my own.  The learning curve did hinder my progress somewhat, but it was also a good educational experience for me.
The bigger problem with the Mac was that it has some sort of bug that would cause it to pick up pictures during a drag and drop, but would then get stuck and not allow them to be dropped.  This bug would then mess up the whole system and require a restart or shut down to fix.  I had a little bit of trouble with it early in the week, but the restart would solve the problem, so while it was annoying, it wasn't crippling.  Then, on Thurday night, it got to be a terrible problem.  It basically wouldn't let me do anything with pictures without picking up the picture and freezing the system.  I couldn't even resize pictures after copying and pasting them without an issue.  The worst part was that the restart fix didn't even work at all.  It would simply have the exact same problem after every restart.  This was a big problem.  It basically meant I could do nothing that I needed to do.  My research showed that this is a pretty common bug in the system caused by some operating system or features that I really don't understand, knowing next to nothing about Macs.  I just shut the computer down for the night and prayed that that would be enough to solve the problem.

The next day, however, nothing had changed.  I knew that Lance couldn't be much help, because he's not very familiar with Mac himself, and had already told me that the shut down was all he knew to do with that problem.  I tried to call Gerrit and Elisabeth, since they are quite familiar with Apples for advice, but I didn't reach them and wasn't able to hear from them about it.  After a few hours Friday morning in which all I was able to do was locate and scan some pictures and get them cropped as well as transfer a few files from the PC, I decided to just try doing the photo editing again and see what happened.  Miraculously, it worked and I didn't have problems with it again.

While there were some frustrations like this that I had to deal with, I really did have a great time doing the work.  It was challenging and time consuming, but also rewarding to know that I was helping create something that I hope will have value to my family now as well as subsequent generations.  I learned a number of things about my grandpa and now have a much better conception of what he was doing when in his life.  It also made me appreciate more fully how blessed I have been to come from a great family and also to appreciate the many blessings and miracles that have helped to get me and everyone else where we are today.

One of my favorite parts was putting together a collection of one picture for every year we have held Larsen family reunions.  I was trying to do mostly ones of the whole family, but barring that would just find a picture with the most people possible in it that represented that year.  It was a fun trip down memory lane to look through all the pictures and interesting to see them all together in one place spanning 24 years.  Things have changed a lot over that time, but I can only love my family more each year.  They are all a great inspiration to me in so many ways and getting to associate with them while having fun is always one of the major highlights of my year.

Grandpa Larsen definitely did well.  He left an enduring family legacy that has and will continue to bless the lives of many generations.  He was not a perfect man, by any means, but he was a very good one and his life was important.  He will not be forgotten.

Oh We Got Trouble, Right Here in Brigham City!

My trip to Grandma's in Idaho Falls this last week was great.  It was pretty packed, but it was a good experience for me.  Because I had more freedom this trip than I have any reason to expect in the future and I had no one to please in my arrangements besides myself, I decided to do some things I wanted to do along the way.  It's the first time I've gone on a relatively lengthy trip that I wasn't constrained by considerations involving time or the needs of other people.  While traveling is overall more fun with other people, this is one of the few advantages of traveling alone.

One of the things that I quite enjoyed on my trip was getting the chance to listen to a pretty significant portion of The Three Musketeers on the way.  I've been listening to it since the beginning of the year, but it's a 24 hour recording, so getting through it has taken a significant amount of time.  The speakers on my Kindle are okay, but sometimes are too soft for me to hear everything, especially  if I'm running the sink or something loudish.  Having the story pumped through the car speakers and being able to focus my attention more fully on it was great.  In fact, I was able to finish the book on my way home.  Now I can claim some familiarity with French literature, which I've typically avoided.  The Three Musketeers was quite fun, though also quite scandalous in some ways.  I guess I never really expected much different coming from the French, though!  I can't see why it's called The Three Musketeers instead of The Four Musketeers though.  It seems unfair to poor D'Artagnan, but I suppose the title could be considered a minor spoiler at that point.  Pretty much, D'Artagnan and Athos are the only ones worth their salt anyway; you could fairly well dispense with Porthos and Aramis without much loss!

I also decided that I was going to stop at the Brigham City Temple on my way up.  I've wanted to go there for awhile, and it seemed a good opportunity as I had no fixed schedule.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that they run only 5 sessions a day.  I barely missed the 12:00 one by a few minutes.  It turned out okay, though, as I was able to do sealings instead.  If I had done a session as I planned, I would have probably missed seeing the beautiful sealing room.  It was quite possibly the most beautiful I've ever seen.  There are intricately carved accent panels that run around the room as well as a gorgeous ceiling painted with a large circle of peach blossoms.  The alter and doors were also quite detailed.  Afterwards, I was able to enjoy the Celestial Room for awhile as well.  It is quite small, but also very lovely.  The temple's theme is clearly peaches, though mostly the blossoms.  The Celestial Room carpet even had peach blossoms etched in it in the middle.  The only place I saw actual peaches was in a painting in the stairwell.

I'd say that the Brigham City Temple interior is probably the most beautiful I've seen in Utah since moving here.  The only one that I would say surpasses it is the Salt Lake Temple, but I haven't been there yet since moving back.  The Brigham City Temple exterior seems to echo some designs from the Salt Lake and Nauvoo Temples in the window shapes and layout, though much of the exterior is more in line with modern temple designs.  I was told that there are also murals in the Endowment Room, and I always love those, so I will have to go back and see those another time.  Maybe when Marinda gets back.  It's nice to have something new to anticipate there still.

View of the temple from the front door or the tabernacle.  It was quite windy and cold there.

While I was in the temple, I was thinking about how beautiful I thought it was, though it is also small and had a somewhat smaller capacity for getting work done.  This made me think about how each temple has it's own beauties and capacities, but in all of them you feel the same Spirit and the same work is done.  Each belongs to the Lord, brings glory and honor to Him, and encourages everyone who associates with it to do the same.  It serves its purpose well and does all it can with what it is given.  When it's best becomes insufficient, another temple is provided to help carry the work forward.  This should be true of our personal physical temples too.  They are each beautiful in their own way and have different capacities.  They can each also be dedicated to the Lord and accomplish good while spreading positive influence to all who encounter them.  We must each use all the talents and abilities we have been blessed with along with our temple, and when we do all we can, and more is needed, the Lord will send others who also use their temples well to move the work forward.  I hope to use the body I have been blessed with in this way, that it may house not only my own spirit, but also the Holy Spirit.  I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation that gives me the opportunity to enjoy and learn to be a better steward with the wonderful gift of a body.

After getting out of the temple, I went across the street to the Brigham City Tabernacle, which I wasn't aware was there before I went.  It was also one of the most beautiful tabernacles I've seen in Utah.  Apparently, the one there now was built in 1897 after the original tabernacle burned down.  I sadly didn't get to see the inside, but hope to see that someday as well and perhaps attend a meeting there, as the pictures of the interior also look quite nice.

The temple and tabernacle are right in the downtown of Brigham City, which seems to be a very quaint little town.  I'd love to go back and spend some time there in the future.  It would be fun to go when they do their Peach Days at some point, though no doubt the temple is more busy when the festival comes around.

The rest of the trip up was pretty uneventful.  I made good time and got to Grandma's house at about 4:00.  Pretty much immediately after I moved my suitcase in, we started consulting on Grandpa's book and got to work on a few things.  Mostly the first evening consisted of getting clear what all should be included and discussing some layout ideas and locating files which were somewhat confusingly hidden on both the Mac and the PC.  The confusing part was basically that nothing was named what I would have expected, which lead to more creative searching and plain and simple hunting.  I did get pictures chosen and inserted for Grandpa's autobiography too.  Because I've never used anything Apple more than for a minute or two in the past, I figured I'd compile and edit everything on the PC.  We finished up work at 11:00, which was a little later than I might have entirely wanted since I didn't know church was at 9:00 until the end.

I was kind of groggy for church, especially because I didn't sleep all that well, but I still had a good Sabbath.  Grandma is the ward choir director and had asked me to sing Oh My Father with the choir for her.  We practiced it a little Saturday night, and I discovered that I have sung the arrangement not all that long ago.  This was fortuitous, though I had learned it with the words for Come Thou Fount as that is the tune of the arrangement.  It was a little puzzling to keep the words right, but not too bad.  Grandma said that her choir fluctuates in attendance badly, which is why she wanted some help.  She wasn't sure which part would be needed, so we went through both.  At the beginning of sacrament, she asked me to sing soprano after looking though the congregation, but when we went up to sing, she whispered to me to sing alto, as a bunch of sopranos sprang up. In the end, it was one of the better attendances they've had for a performance apparently, but at the practice after church, the numbers were much diminished.  I can see it being frustrating to have no idea what your numbers will be most of the time and having people switch in and out frequently.  Grandma does a great job with conducting, despite her protestations, in any event.

After church and lunch, I took a small nap and Lance and Skye's family came over.  It was great getting to visit with them.  Having them in Idaho Falls has made visiting Grandma's house even more enjoyable.  It was nice to get to catch up with them for awhile.  They even gave me a good tip about a reality show called Kid Nation that aired in 2007 where 40 kids were left to set up a society mostly for themselves, apparently.  It sounds like an interesting concept, so I'm going to have to try to track it down, though it doesn't seem to be on Amazon, unfortunately.

That pretty much covered the weekend.  It talk about the rest of the week in future posts.