Lubbock Mini Trip

One of the things we are getting used to here in Texas is being further away from the center of Mormondom (Utah). Our temple district is Lubbock, a little less than two hours south of Amarillo. While we are super fortunate to have a temple this close (actually even closer than St. George, our Page temple), it is a mini-temple which has some differences. When we first got the temple schedule, I did a sort of double-take as I read it. There are very limited times when you can attend, like seriously two sessions a day. Sometimes you can only go in the morning, or only go in the evening. Saturday is the only day with times throughout the day.

Since Corbin had his 12th birthday this summer, we have been wanting to take him to the temple to do baptisms. This is something we got to do with Drake in the South Jordan temple. We even took some of our own family names to work on which was a cool experience. So, shortly after we got here, I called the temple in Lubbock to see what their procedures were in the baptistery. I swear if the lady hadn't answered the phone with a greeting of ,"Lubbock temple," I would have thought I had the wrong number. When I explained to her that we wanted to come in with our son to do baptisms, she got very flustered and almost panicky sounding. Apparently, this is not a frequently asked question. She even went so far as to ask me to hold a moment while she got one of the temple presidency on the line! Then I kinda had a panicky moment. I didn't want to be all pushy overzealous lady. The temple presidency has things to do.

When the man got on the phone, he was of course very gracious and told me that sure I could come do that. I would just have to bring SIX men with me who could officiate and baptize! He wasn't being facetious at all. I thanked him, and ended the call as quickly as I could.

And so we have had to wait until the ward had a scheduled trip for all of the youth to go. It happened to be last weekend. Theo and I volunteered to drive, and we accompanied 9 of the youth (including our two older sons) from our ward along with a group of leaders to Lubbock. Bowen and Rex conveniently had a Cub Scout day camp at the same time, so they were all squared away.

We drove down in the mid-afternoon, and upon arriving got the kids started. As I went with the ladies and young women into the dressing room, the temple people gave us a card with instructions for ward leaders that are assisting. One of the items was explicit in that they only required a maximum of two women to help. Since there were already two of the young women leaders there to help the girls, I went and did some other work on my own. We all met up in the lobby as we finished and then gathered outside.

Corbin was gracious enough to let me snap a quick photo of him with Theo outside the temple. I wanted to go for the family group shot, but I was overruled. Our drive home was uneventful, and we were able to pick up Bowen and Rex from the scout camp on our way. When they got in the car, it was so funny how subdued they were. They had played really hard, and were totally worn out. My favorite kind of day!

I hope we will be able to make another trip to the temple soon with our boys, maybe over Christmas break. I love the feelings we have there as we serve. I think the boys felt it too. I asked Corbin what he thought about it, and in his casual pre-teen way he told me it was pretty cool. He had that grin. It melts me. I am so grateful for a great husband and my awesome boys!