12,000 youth practicing for the Temple Cultural Celebration
So, this is THE weekend! The Cultural Celebration and Dedication of the Gilbert Temple.
Being 34 weeks pregnant, the Young Women Leaders gave me an out on being a "Captain of 10"- someone who was in charge of 10 youth and had the responsibility of dancing in the performance if one of the Youth was sick that day.
And so, while I didn't have to attend all the practices or the Super Saturday (think 15 hr day) practice in the heat last weekend- I did go to most of the practices and learned most of the dances- just for kicks and giggles!
It was a blast! Our ward has the biggest Youth Group in the Stake (area)- think 80 youth: yes, 80! I am over the 12 and 13 year olds and we have 16 of them! Yep. There are 2 other leaders besides me over the same age group.
And, so for the past two months, the Youth have been prepping and preparing, singing, dancing and doing sign language for the big event. President Monson, President and Prophet of the Church, and President Eyring are coming! 15,000 youth dancing in costume, including fire dancing, soloists and choreography, will be performing for them.
They will do it at the Discovery Park- located so close to the Temple that a Church Authority said that this park was built for the Temple (although it was built years and years before).
And then, the news called for rain today. Today! When the celebration with 12,000 youth would be! We love rain, but not on a day such as this! Our area leader (Stake President) asked everyone- including the Youth- to pray that the elements would be tempered. And while it poured some this morning, we hope it will not pour at 7 pm tonight! (but the youth will be armed with Clear plastic trash bags from Costco to use as ponchos if need be).
In any case, I get to attend since I work with the Youth, and we are excited! A once in a lifetime opportunity! Did I mention President Monson will be there? Yep!
And tomorrow, there is no normal Church services but 3 scheduled times to attend the dedication at our local building. Everyone 8 and up had to get a special temple recommend to go. Asher will be staying home and Josh and I will take turns taking the other kids. It will be amazing!
-The Cultural Celebration will be broadcast on the internet and can be found here.
-I love this post by NieNie. I feel the exact same way after having been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder 5 years ago this past month.
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