Culture, rain, and temples

After months of preparation and countless hours of practice, more than 13,000 youth from the 27 stakes of the Payson, Utah temple district joined together to put on an inspiring cultural celebration this evening. I was excited to have the opportunity to watch my younger brother participate as a member of the brass band.

We were all maybe just a little too excited to get into the stadium. This is about 15 minutes after the gates opened., and nearly 2 hours before the performance was scheduled to begin. Essentially every seat in the west stands was taken.

As we all then began the nearly two-hour wait for the performance to start however, we started to feel some raindrops. And then some more. And then some hail. And pretty soon, we were soaked. But collecting hailstones was nonetheless entertaining.

This picture doesn't quite capture it, but we were just a little bit wet.

After a while of sitting out in the downpour, we were told the performance had been suspended until further notice. And were it not for the lightning, I hear rumor that the performance would have gone on. So maybe it's actually a really good thing there was lightning, because the otherwise the carefully planned dances would have turned into synchronized swimming routines.

After thousands of prayers, the performance was able to start just an hour late. And we were all just maybe a little bit excited. Especially 13,000 individuals I could mention. 

After a very excited welcoming of President Eyring and other general authorities, we watched a video presentation about the temple district. I'm pretty sure that is the only time I will hear my native Spanish Fork referred to as a "thriving metropolis." 

The performances by the youth were stellar. I laughed and was moved as I watched these young men and women sing and dance their joy for the new temple. There were maypoles and hula hoops, baseball bats and cowboy hats, George Washington and Captain Moroni. And more gratitude, excitement, and joy than can be quantified.

Young men dressed as the stripling warriors declare that, "No! The youth of Zion shall not falter."

The evening culminated with the youth creating a giant rainbow in the stands, hearkening back to the Lord's promise to Noah that when his posterity, "shall embrace the truth and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy" (JST Genesis 9:21-25). Truly many of Noah's descendants have come to know the truth. The earth is expanding in the knowledge of the Lord, and 13,000 youth bearing testimony of God was a stirring reminder of that.

And as if the celebration couldn't get any better than that, as the tens of thousands of us were exiting the stadium what song do they happen to play over the loudspeakers? Nothing other than "Glorious Unfolding," the song that has become something of a theme for my life, a reminder that things are going to work out. (If you don't know it, you should probably go listen to it right now. I'll wait.) I doubt a single one of those exiting spectators was half as excited as I was to hear that song. And that almost made it even more powerful--sometimes God reaches out to remind one of His children that things are going to be okay by playing a song over loudspeakers that thousands of people here. 

And tomorrow the beautiful Payson temple will be dedicated to our God. It will become a holy place; a place where the heavens will touch the earth and where eternal ordinances can be performed. Families will be sealed. Individuals will draw closer to God. The power of God will be manifest. I know that temples truly are the sacred houses of the Lord. And I am incredibly grateful and excited that the Payson temple will tomorrow join the ranks of God's holy houses upon the earth.