There is subject matter in this post that I have not revealed before, not because I was hiding it, but because it wasn't relevant to my topics. However, for this topic, it is indeed VERY relevant and I appreciate your kind words.
On Saturday, my oldest son, Cephas, will turn twelve. We are members of the LDS church, which means that this is a monumental birthday for him. When a young man turns twelve, he is ordained with the Aaronic Priesthood and is able to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. It's an incredible gift that he will receive. However, usually boys will turn twelve, have their interview with the Bishop (the head of our group, kind of like a pastor in other religions) and will then be sustained by the congregation as a member of the Aaronic Priesthood, after which he will be ordained and will receive the Priesthood. At that point, they are free to go to the temple and participate in ordinances there. Well, Cephas just so happens to be turning twelve on the exact day of our ward's youth temple trip. He had his interview last Sunday with the Bishop and then in Sacrament Meeting, he was sustained by our ward and so this Saturday, he will be ordained as a Deacon and actually receive the Aaronic Priesthood at that time. Five minutes later, he will leave and be on his way to the temple. It is such a cool way to spend his twelfth birthday and I am so excited for him!
A great friend of mine, who also happens to be my co-teacher in our Nursery class as well as one of the women that I visit teach each month, offered to stay back from the trip and babysit the other kids so that I could go and be with Cephas for his first experience at the temple. As much as I would love to go and be a part of all that, it's not going to happen, because I don't have my temple recommend.
A temple recommend is something that you need in order to be able to enter temple. For youth 12-17, that happens after a meeting with the Bishop. When you are an adult (age 18), you need to have an adult recommend, which I believe happens after an interview with first your ward Bishop, then the Stake President. There isn't time for me to get a temple recommend for myself, so I will sit this one out. But I will be taking those steps towards receiving my temple recommend so that maybe on the next trip, I can be there as well.
I do have a meeting set up with the Bishop for later today about getting my recommend as well as receiving my Patriarchal Blessing, which is an inspired prayer given by your Stake Patriarch. I don't really know a whole lot about it, but I am anxious to receive mine. Quite nervous, but excited nonetheless.
I kind of went off on a tangent there and I apologize for that. That's just the way my mind works.
So on Saturday, Cephas will have to be up super early in the morning so that he can get ready to go and be at the church by 6:45, so that he can be ordained by the time that they are planning to leave, which is 7:00. Reality is that they probably won't leave until closer to 7:30, but 7:00 is the planned time for departure so we will be there at 6:45.
