A story I have to tell was back when we lived back in the Quince Street house.
The best thing about that house was that it was within walking distance of Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. Even as a small child, I could walk there. It was only a few blocks away.
Can you imagine what it was like, being a small child, and walking up to that glorious temple? It was a fairytale castle for a king, and it was easy to imagine myself as the princess who would go inside and live there myself someday.
I would see couples coming out in tuxedos and wedding dresses, which only added to the mystique of it.
The Visitors Center was more than just a visitors center - it was more like an interactive museum. It was the best playground a kid could ask for. In the Visitors Center next to the temple, there were lots of pamphlets. I always picked up as many as I could hold, just because they made me feel important, and I loved the pictures of Jesus and Joseph Smith on them.
If you've ever been there, you know about the walkway that gradually rises above the earth, into the stars and planets up into the air, and then you walk out into this beautiful blue expanse of carpet and marble, and the statue of the Christus stands as the focal point of the room.
I would run eagerly up these steps, or twirl my way up and pretend I had died and was rising to meet Jesus. The Christus statue put unspeakable feelings of love in my heart. It was huge, because I was so small. I barely came up to his knee. I would stand there and stare at him, sure he would move and look at me, or wink at me, or something. I loved Him so much.
Still do. :-)
Then...if I was lucky, I could run over to the right door, where there would be a movie playing. The missionaries were the ones who could turn on the movie for me, so I'd either have to wait or I'd have to find one and ask them to turn it on for me. But when they did, oh it was magic.
They played this movie - Man's Search for Happiness - and I soaked in every word, every frame. The stained glass window of Joseph Smith at about 11:00 minutes in was the stained glass window at the front of my church building behind the podium. This movie had been playing at Temple Square for about ten years already when I discovered it, but I loved it so much.
After I saw the movie, I would run downstairs for the puppet show. There was a puppet show that played and talked about Family Home Evening that was mesmerizing. After that, I would run and find another movie that played, that talked about the story of the Book of Mormon.
The best part of that show was the part after the destruction of the people by earthquakes and whirlwinds, and then the lights would go totally out to simulate the three days of darkness talked about in 3 Nephi. I would cringe in my seat - couldn't see a thing. I'd never experienced a darkness so dark up to that point in my young life.
And then...the screen rolled up to show a sort of diorama of Jesus Christ appearing to the Nephite people, and I would just gaze in wonder with big googly eyes, trying to take it all in.
After that, it was time to wander through the busts of the prophets of the Church and look at their faces and wonder about all this. Sometimes my young mind would try to wrap my head around this big thing that I was a part of, and I couldn't do it.
I would walk out onto the Temple Square grounds to kind of digest what I'd seen, and then head home, fully satisfied.
We moved away when I was around eight or nine, and I missed those times ever after.
Later on, there was a lady in our ward who said she'd played the baby in Man's Search for Happiness, which was wonderful. She was a very effervescent lady, and a performer, so it was easy to believe.
After that, Sam and I went to a reunion for his family when our kids were little, and we arranged to go to Temple Square and see the temple again. I hadn't been there for decades, and it felt like coming home. There were lots of changes, of course, but the walkway was still there. As we climbed to the Christus, I was eight years old again. It all came back.
We had our temple recommends, so we actually got to go inside and do some temple work in the Salt Lake Temple, which was amazing on so many different levels - spiritual, personal, and historical. The Lord gave me a special gift when we went inside, which made the experience that much more transcendent.
Can't tell you what it was though - it was something between me and Him. :-)
This last Conference, President Monson talked in his talk about the movie, "Man's Search for Happiness" and his first experience with it. Brought me right back to Temple Square all over again, sitting in the dark, waiting for the first light of the screen to go on.
I love that place. I love everything that it represents. I love Jesus Christ and His gospel with all my heart, from my young life, and even more now.
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