The Temple Dedication

My girls and I had the opportunity to be on the temple grounds for the temple groundbreaking ceremony here in Kansas City. BJ got the tickets from work since his company is building the temple. Our ward only got 15 single tickets so after much consideration we decided to give them to someone in the ward that had been here in the area for a long time since we didn't see how we could make it work to go. BJ was at a Father's and Sons cam pout the night before and Cardon had an 11am baseball game the day of the ceremony and I had to get ready for Brinly's birthday party at our home that evening. On late Friday afternoon I started calling people with the good news of 2 extra tickets. To my surprise--NO ONE WANTED THEM! I was disheartened and was determined that those tickets would not go to waste. All of the above mentioned reasons were not nearly important enough to miss this unforgettable event. So I woke the girls up early (figured that they could count as 1 adult and hoped they wouldn't turn us away), got them dressed in warm clothes, packed a light breakfast and off we went. The whole way in the car (45 min.) I talked to them about the importance of the temple. The spirit was there teaching those sweet spirits and as a mother to those little girls I was touched and so grateful to not have let this opportunity go by. As we pulled up to the site I saw tons of people carrying camping chairs and my heart dropped. It didn't say anything on the invitation about bringing a chair and it was cold and windy. What would we do? My girls couldn't stand there in the cold for 2 hours. I pushed the worry aside and figured we'd work it out when we got there. So as I kept showing the parking attendants my ticket, they kept directing me closer and closer to the sight. I was getting excited. We weren't going to have to walk a long way--And then to my surprise we were directed to park right next to the site (maybe 20 cars were allowed to park there). We walked up to the usher and he looked at our ticket and said "Oh, you have a special ticket." We were given colored programs and taken over to the third row of arranged seating, right in the center. I was so excited. Not only were my girls going to have a seat but they were going to be able to see everything!

Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke to us as well as several other speakers. His talk was wonderful and I felt the spirit as he spoke of the importance of the temple.
The picture of the temple was revealed. It's going to be so beautiful up on that hill.

And then Elder Rasband said the Groundbreaking prayer and proceded to brake the ground with those beautiful gold shovels.

The first shovelful of dirt.

Elder Rasband then had many other dignitaries break ground as well, including the President of JE Dunn (he's in the light colored suit)--the company that my husband works for who is building the temple. Thanks by the way for the amazing tickets!

After the ground was broken Elder Rasband got on the stand and invited us all to get a shovelful of dirt. He said, "This is your day--these are your memories--this is your temple." It was very powerful. My girls were so excited to be able to do that. I think that they will remember this experience for a lifetime. On this day I'm so grateful to say---We chose the better part (not always the case I'm sad to admit)!