Dave and I work at the Provo temple every Tuesday morning. The women's shifts are organized in 2-month stints. That means that the coordinators for the shift come up with a schedule for each worker that covers the 5-hour shift. My schedule for the past two months has looked like this:
5:00 - 5:20 Prayer meeting
5:45 - 7:30 Follow the 5:50 session
7:30 - 8:00 Work at the veil
8:00 - 9:00 Work in initiatory
9:00 - 10:00 Name issue
I have really loved working in the temple these past 10 months. It has been an awesome and uplifting experience. During the past 10 months, I've had all kinds of different shifts, but this current one has been my favorite. I think it's been my favorite because I have gotten to recognize and meet a lot of the regular patrons who come in faithfully.
These regular patrons are so inspiring to me because they are ALWAYS there! Faithfully. Every single week. I would have to say that about 75 percent of the patrons on the early session are the same every week, and the other 25 percent changes weekly. In initiatory, there are probably 5 or 6 women who I have come to know by name because they are there every single Tuesday. One of them is Sister Gordon. She's just the cutest, sweetest little old lady (and I love her cute curly white hair!). She gives me a huge smile every time she sees me walk into the initiatory booth. I just love seeing her. There are other regulars who I recognize by face. I am inspired every Tuesday when I go to the temple and see these wonderful, faithful women.
Another one of my favorite patrons is Sister Hendricks. Sister Hendricks attends the 9:30 endowment session every Tuesday. She comes during the time I'm working at name issue, so I get to see her there. Her granddaughter brings her and attends the session with her. Sister Hendricks wears a hearing aid, but other than that, she seems perfectly healthy and spry. The other day, after I had helped Sister Hendricks and she was on her way, one of the other works told me that Sister Hendricks is 105 years old! And that she's been coming to the temple faithfully for as long as that worker could remember.
Wow! What an awesome example of enduring to the end in faithfulness! I think it is so inspiring to see these women come to the temple regularly - come snow, rain, good days, bad days (I'm assuming they have them too!) - whatever, they are there.
My goal is to become as faithful as these wonderful women are in their temple attendance.
(P.S. On a side note - my other goal is to live to be (a healthy) 105 years old. If I can do that, it means that I'm not even middle-aged yet!)
