Turnover

The temple was turned over to the temple department on February 19th.

I ran a gamut of emotions for the last couple of weeks before turnover  between depression and discouragement to elation and joy.  Some of it had to do with everything that was going on at the temple. 

It was interesting to me the things that went wrong the last few weeks before the temple was turned over.  It got to be that something new seemed to be going wrong almost every day!  I finally just had to laugh—it all seemed so over-the-top!

I know to Mark it was no laughing matter, however.  He has been so incredibly stressed out!  And he worked so long and hard to get everything ready for turnover, as did so many others.

I wrote him this email one morning after my morning prayers.  This message seemed so appropriate:

In part it read:

"As I was praying this morning and it started to rain hard, I just had to laugh because here was another obstacle being thrown in your path! 

"I was reading today in the Book of Mormon about the incident where Nephi's bow breaks and he is unable to provide food for his family.  In the student manual, a quote from Elder Richard G. Scott caught my attention.  I hope this will encourage you:

'May I share some suggestions with you who face the testing that a wise Heavenly Father determines is needed even when you are living a worthy, righteous life and are obedient to His commandments. (Personal emphasis added)

'Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously.  (That's for sure!)  'When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Proverbs 3:11-12).  He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion, which polishes you for your everlasting benefit.  To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain' (Ensign, Nov. 1995, 16-17)

"It may be that these experiences are just what are needed for the next temples you will work on-as hard and frustrating as it is right now...  I know this will all work out.  I know you will do your best as you always do.  I am thinking of you and my prayers are with you."

(mushy stuff deleted)

Throughout this time I enlisted the faith and prayers of our family.  I'm grateful for their love and support and prayers.  I believe they really helped.

I went in to the temple on the Friday before turnover to clean the inside and I couldn't believe what was happening.  Sidewalks were torn up, plastic everywhere outside, a big dumpster onsite, crews everywhere, the font torn apart.  I walked into the Celestial room and saw everything covered in plastic and I started to cry. 

Everyone worked hard all weekend, including me cleaning.  By the time everyone came on Wednesday for the turnover, a miracle had taken place.  Everything was cleaned up, a crew was working on the outside making sure trash was cleaned up, but the sidewalks were finished and the inside was completely cleaned.  The font was still torn apart in one area where the leak is located, but everything looked great.

I had gone back and forth on whether or not I should go over to be at the temple during the turnover and tour, but in the end, I felt it was important for me to go as a show of support for Mark.  I’m really glad I went.  It meant a lot to him and I think it meant a lot to Cory Karl and Bill Smith.  They both give me hugs and Cory always puts his arm around me and tells me how much he loves Mark and “when is he going to learn Spanish?”  (They are now over all of the international temples and special projects).

After everyone got there, we met in the chapel for the main meeting.  We opened with a prayer, and then Mark went over everything, answering questions.  He did everything with confidence, even though he’s never done a turnover for a temple before.  Cory told him he did great!

Those that were there that day included the temple department, ecclesiastical side, the temple department building side and Suffolk head guys, including a couple of vice presidents.

Everyone was so complimentary and pleased with how beautiful everything was.  Through all of this I took pictures and watched Mark.  I see how he has grown throughout this process and I am so proud of him!

An appreciation lunch had been arranged at “Brimstone Wood Fire Grill” restaurant for our construction group and Suffolk’s leadership group.  It went very well.

I went on home after the lunch, and Mark and the others went back to the temple to discuss what more needed to be done.

That evening, we ended up at an Argentinean beef restaurant- a small place, but the food was awesome!  It was a wonderful, relaxing evening.  We stayed for quite a while just visiting—a celebration dinner for sure.

We have been asked to stay until after the dedication.  I was a little surprised, but of course I said it was fine.  I had geared myself up to go home in March or April, so the next day I was down a bit but I just needed to readjust. 

I’m fine now.  Mark will be flying out every week to Hartford one week, then to Salt Lake the next.  I will be alone four days out of the seven, but he has things he has to get going on.  It will give me a chance to really work on the history.  If I stay busy, I should be okay.

Mark continues to go to the temple when he's here. When the temple president and recorder finally come on, he may end up working at home. 

I had the opportunity to fly to Salt Lake with Mark on the 28th of January.  He flew back for business, but Gabe was getting baptized that weekend, so I came too.  It was so great to see the kids and grand kids.  The baptism was nice and we had a lovely family get together afterwards.  I'm really looking forward to going home and spending more time with family.  Lyndsay's mom, Melody and her lovely grandma was there too.  My kids are so lucky to have such great in-laws.

Jonathan and Gabe

Jonathan, Lyndsay, Gabe, Reagan and Felicity

Two of my lovely granddaughters:  Maisen and Celeste Dailey.  My camera died after that, so there were no more pictures.

The air conditioning in our Jeep died.  The weather hasn’t been terrible, but it has been uncomfortable driving the car without air and just rolling the windows down.It's not the first thing that has gone wrong.  The CD player died quite a while ago. The windshield is pitted, the side driver's mirror needs replacing, and it has been overheating sometimes.   We finally realized with everything that has gone wrong with the car the last little while that it was finally time to get a new one.  The jeep had 154,000 miles on it and we have had it for 10 years.  It's been a great car, but it really was time. 

We bought a Chrysler Town and Country van.  It seats seven.  We decided on a van because we know when we get home we will want to take kids and grandkids places.  We had talked about buying a regular car to travel home in and then getting a van in Utah, but then we asked ourselves why?  It was a long drawn out process, but we settled on one fairly quickly; it was just the process of getting the price down, then the financing and everything else.  We left to go around 5 and didn’t finish until about 10:00!  Everyone who helped us were awesome!

We love our new van!  It has some great features including doors that open and shut themselves and Bluetooth, plus a lot of other features I haven’t figured out yet.  We have a free year of Sirius radio.  I’m going to really enjoy that.  Mark says we should get a sign on the back that reads "Grandma's Taxi", but I think it should be Grandpa's taxi.