In my last post, I mentioned that Palu, Godfrey, and I had arranged while at our mission reunion to go to the Salt Lake Temple together. Last weekend, we went. Palu, who I really should get used to calling Enna, is an early riser and Godfrey, aka Hayley, has little kids, so the latest I was able to push the session back to was 10:00 AM. This may not seem really early, but I'm a little jealous of my Saturday mornings since I don't get to sleep in very often and I knew that we'd need at least an hour to actually get to the temple with extra time to get ready for the session, meaning I'd have to get up to shower and all about the same time I do for work. This wasn't my version of the ideal, but I went along with it for the sake of the others.
Enna had asked me to pick her up, so we got to talk on the way up. I had heard that she had gone through cancer after the mission, which explains her change in appearance, but I hadn't heard the whole story. She filled me in on the way up. Apparently, she had gotten married to a guy she helped to convert, though not while she was a full-time missionary. They'd been married for a couple of months when she found out that she had cancer.
This, of course, meant a whole series of grueling procedures for Enna including lots of chemo, but she kept getting worse and worse, until she eventually slipped into a comma, which she was in for 3 months. Her doctors told her family that she was essentially dead and they should accept that and say their goodbyes. Her father, however, said that he knew she was a fighter and would come out of it. Her family gave her a blessing, and with time, she did come out of it. Enna's brother was inactive at the time, but seeing how the blessing was fulfilled, he decided to return to the church.
While the cancer brought this blessing into her life, it also caused both physical and emotional pain. I'm not clear when, but sometime during her fight with cancer, her husband decided he couldn't handle it and left her. I can't imagine how difficult either of those tragedies would be alone, but getting both blows together would certainly be very difficult. Her father was right, though, Enna was and is strong enough to handle those challenges. In fact, she's become good friends with her ex's current wife, who is also a member of the church and is working hard to keep him on the straight and narrow. Enna's willingness to forgive and move on is an amazing example to me. She always has been a great Christlike example.
We got to the temple in decent time and enjoyed a wonderful session together with Hayley, who we met there, since she lives in Tooele. The Salt Lake Temple will always be special to me because it is my mission temple, but also because I really enjoy the live sessions. They allow me to understand and appreciate elements differently.
After the session, we all went to lunch together at Kneaders. I'd never been there before, but had heard great things about it, so it was nice to finally get a chance to check it out. The food was delicious and we had a great time catching up more. I served around Hayley only once for a transfer, so while I've always thought her a solid person, I didn't know her extremely well. I was certainly not deceived in her on the mission. She really is wonderful, and it was nice to have time to get to know her better. She has a firm grip on important principles like marriage relationships and serving in the gospel and is clearly working hard to live up to the things she knows, which I appreciate.
While at lunch, we discussed the idea of going to the Ogden temple in the future, where Hayley's in-laws could watch her kids while her husband comes to the temple with us. I'm certainly eager to meet him as I've heard a good bit about him and so far I'm impressed. Anyone who willingly agrees to watch the kids on his own for a good portion of Saturday while his wife spends time with her friends gets a stamp of approval in my book!
During lunch, Hayley told us a bit about her experience seeing Meet the Mormons, which she'd invited a non-member friend to, though the woman left early since she brought her kids who got restless pretty quickly. I mentioned that I was hoping to see it soon to help it hopefully be considered for a wider, potentially international release. On our way home, Enna suggested we go see it together that evening, which sounded good to me. We went and bought tickets right away to be sure we got decent seats.
I went home and got some essential chores like laundry worked on for a few hours, then headed back to the theater. The movie was quite interesting, and I definitely recommend seeing it. There were a few things I could have done without, like the overly peppy, stereotypical Mormon narrator, but overall, they did a good job. I didn't find it as inspiring as Testaments of the Joseph Smith movie, but this one was definitely made for a different audience. The people they chose to feature all had very interesting stories, and I definitely felt uplifted.
Apparently, one of my coworkers was in the ward of the Atlanta bishop who was featured first while he was still bishop. She said that he really was an amazing man, just as the film shows, and mentioned that he in actually the stake president for that area now. It made me rather wonder how they chose who to feature, because they managed to find some great stories. Definitely go check the movie out!
I would have gone to see it alone, but it was nicer to see it with a friend, so I was glad Enna wanted to go too. All-in-all, it was a really fun and inspiring day filled with good people and good activities. I'm grateful to have such opportunities in my life!
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