The Gila Valley Temple!

We feel so blessed to have a temple so close to us now. We are also so thankful for the opportunity that our little girls had to go inside for the tour and attend the cornerstone ceremony.

Our family took the tour of the Temple 3 times. The first time we went with some friends and Dani was navigating the whole time with her "map" (the brochure that had pictures of all of the rooms). When we would move to the next room she would say "OK, now we only have these rooms left" as she would point to  all of the room that we hadn't been in yet. We got to the Celestial room and as we were leaving she pointed to one more room and said "OK, now we only have this room left" I said "no Dani that was the last room" because I thought that it was. Sure enough, we still hadn't been to the sealing room! What a smarty!

I asked the girls what their favorite part of the Temple was and they both said "the cookies" and then Dani said that she liked the room with the beautiful light. (the Celestial room)

We went to the cornerstone ceremony. We were standing where President Monson was walking in to the temple.

HisPresident Monson's daughter Ann was with him. Her husband pointed Abby out to her and she came over and started talking to her. She is a member of the General Young Women's Presidency.

Then she asked my niece Leah how old she was and she had just turned 12 - 2 days before that! She told her that the most important thing that a Young Woman can do is to always be happy and to gain her Own testimony. What a neat experience for Leah to have!

Then President Monson came. He was so sweet and payed so much attention to the children. He grabbed Abby's hand and kept holding it for about a minute and he said "what a pretty little girl."

This is a picture from where we were standing for the dedication. There were a ton of people there so it was hard to see. Dani and Sophie went up to sit with Grandma and Papa Welker because they were up closer. President Monson started calling children up to help put mortar in the cornerstone and he picked the little girl with the yellow bow. Then he started saying "oh don't be shy, you can bring your mommy up with you" We knew that that must be Sophie. So Grandma and Dani went up with her as her support group. President Monson made sure that Dani or "the little girl in pink" got to put some in as well. When people ask Dani what she did at the temple she says "I helped President Monson."

There they are by the cornerstone.

Abby is our little singer. Here are the words that she sings;
"I love to see the tempo, we going dere some day, to holy feel the spirit, to listen and say prayers." She busts out with this song at least twice a day without fail!