I'm Going to the Temple, and I Have Strep.

Going through the Temple for the first time to take out your own Endowment is a little bit daunting.  The LDS church has a Sunday School class called and devoted to "Temple Preparation," along with a neat little pamphlet called Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple and countless books and articles on the subject all of which have the soul purpose of, as one might imagine, preparing the members of the LDS Church to enter the Holy Temple.  Despite all of this literature on the subject one still goes in relatively blind as to what the experience will provide, other than the idea that it will be deeply meaningful, spiritual and above all, necessary for Salvation.

I attended "Temple Prep" and I read the neat little pamphlet and I read some of Elder Boyd K. Packer's book The Holy Temple, but I was still in the dark about what I should expect when the time came for me to take out my own Endowment.  This is not to say that I was scared of going to the temple, I was excited, but nervous at the idea of the unknown.  Katie, as always, went before me and learned the great mysteries of the Temple.  I asked her questions, but never asked for details, because I honestly didn't want to know what the mysteries of the Temple were until I was there, in that holy place, at the right time, because I knew (thanks to Elder Packer) that the things of the Temple are not secret, but sacred.

From the moment that I decided to put in my mission papers, Katie and I talked about how awesome it would be if she were my Escort through the temple for the first time.  It would have been undeniably adorable, but like all great relationships, the timing was wrong.  Katie left to begin her mission on March 20, 2013 and my Marlee Patrice, the sister I was glad I didn't have until I was old enough to appreciate her, came home from her mission March 21, 2013.  A sweet blessing to me, in losing one dear friend, I got another one back.  I flew out to Philadelphia to welcome Marlee off the plane and in the car ride back to her house, I asked if she would like to be my Escort through the Temple.  There was much squealing of delight.  On both ends.

I set up my appointment at the Temple, and Marlee flew out to Utah to get me all ready.  She helped me buy my Garments, something I would have been completely overwhelmed with on my own what with all the different sizing and fabrics and necklines and lengths--I am exhausted just thinking about it.  Marlee also came with me out to my Gma's house where the three of us poured over patterns and sewing machines and lace until we were cross-eyed making my Temple dress.  All was going smoothly until the night before I was supposed to take that last big step.

That night, I did not sleep. At all.  I was tossing and turning, worrying about the unfinished hem of my dress and if I was going to have enough time to get it done before I went to the Temple.  I was also feverish, cold one moment, hot the next, and my throat hurt something fierce.  In short, I felt like complete and utter crap.  I just wanted to spend all day in bed, but that was not in the cards for me on Wednesday April 17, 2013.

My mom came in and checked my temperature, my fever was mild, but I was surely sick.  There were so many things running through my head that I had to do, I had to finish my dress, I had to get ready, this was my big day and I didn't even want to leave my house.  Marlee made me some breakfast and was a devoted nurse all day.  I was able to get a blessing from my neighbor Nick, and felt noticeably better after a two hour nap.  Gma came all the way down from Bountiful with my dress and her sewing machine and finished my dress.  And I finally went to the doctor's office for the moment of truth.  Did I, or didn't I?

Well, as I am sure you have ascertained from the title of this post, I did.  I had strep on one of the biggest days of my life, up until this point.  My body rebels against me.  In high school, whenever I had an AP test, I woke up with a cold.  Finals week always starts with some kind of illness.  So of course, the day I am going through the Temple, I got strep.

Despite this...minor...set back, I still made it on time to the Temple and the prayer I had been saying all day, kept running though my head as I was tired, hungry and dehydrated sitting through my temple session "please Heavenly Father, please just help me make it through this upright," and he did.  I was in His house, surrounded by friends and family who loved me and I was still walking.