Young Women Four-day temple trip!

We met at the church at 6 a.m. so our four-day temple trip could begin!
A quick picture of the entire group before we left:

The two vans that drove: eight people per van.
Red van code name: Cherry Tomato
White van code name: White Storm

We had a 4 p.m. appointment at the Las Vegas temple but arrived at 2:30. They were able to get us right in. I was able to be baptized also. It was an amazing experience. I have only performed baptisms for the dead once before so it was a real honor for me to be able to do that and also to perform them with the young women present.

A group photo outside the Las Vegas temple following the baptisms...

Following the Las Vegas temple we had dinner at Wendy's and then drove on to St. George.
Here is a photo of my friend Joanne and I outside the St. George temple. She recently was put in as our Laurel advisor - I am so glad she went on the trip with us!

Molly and I in front of the St. George temple:

Me with the pretty flowers:

We were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie at the St. George visitors center. It was a wonderful start to our day!
Part of our group in front of the Christus statue:

Molly and I outside the Jacob Hamblin home:

We toured the Brigham Young home:

A favorite attraction was the St. George Tabernacle - the girls just loved it! They let our group sing "I am a child of God".

Brother Johnson shared his testimony and some thoughts about baptisms with our group following our touring of the Tabernacle.
We got matching t-shirts for our group - they say "Stand Ye in Holy Places" on the front and have a picture of the St. George temple. It was nice having the shirts because it distinguished us as a group.

We performed service at the St. George Deseret Industries. They had us pull all the blue labeled clothing items from a section of the store. We got a lot done for them and it felt great to perform service:


The sweet Young Women of the Desert Willow Ward:

The women leaders/chaperones. Each of these women is just amazing. Through our combined efforts our trip was a huge success. We also had two priesthood accompany us that were just as great serving as drivers, general help and priesthood.

We got to attend a spiritual concert at the Dixie College Institute. They have only been meeting a few weeks but they were great! They let our young women choose a closing song to sing with them. Our girls choose "As sisters in Zion", the EFY version. The director actually had the music for that song and we all think it was the highlight of the concert.

The girls with Patty and Claire. These two ladies did an enormous amount of work getting the homes ready for our stay. The girls sang "I love to see the temple" and "Families can be together forever" as a simple thank you to them.

We went to pioneer park and Brother Nichols gave an outstanding talk to the girls about what guys look for in girls (and how their expectations change between the time they are 12 and the time following their missions). (Julie Nichols spoke to us the previous day on the topic sacrifice. Her talk was just as amazing. The girls (and leaders) really connected with her message.)
I followed him and spoke on the value virtue. Molly helped me by reading a quote:

Everyone signed their name of a gold banner as a symbol to the world of our commitment to remain virtuous. They also wrote their names on a gold balloon and we released them on top of the red rock.



We ended our last day with a testimony meeting. There were so many amazing experiences during this trip. I really don't think this blog post is touching on a portion of good things that occurred. It was well worth our year of preparation!