St. George Temple

 

A former Stake President of mine gave parents the advice to have in each child's room a picture of Christ, a picture of themselves, and a picture of the temple.  So I had a stack of temple photos and RJ picked 3 and they're taped on his wall next to his bed.  I told him that temple is Grandma's temple in St. George and for the weeks prior to our visit we'd talk about going to see the temple when we visited.

At first he thought my mom owned it when I said it was hers, but we explained temples are the House of the Lord and she just gets to visit this one because she lives close.  So we were explaining it was Jesus house and took him into the visitor's center to see the huge Christus statue.

He loved it and kept telling us about the prints in his hands and feet and how the mean guys killed him but he came alive again.  We kept trying to show him the other art depicting Christ's life, but he kept running back to the statue of Christ so we spent most of our time here.

It was funny as we were walking in, the older missionary guy at the desk had darker hair and RJ said: "The prophet? Thomas S. Monson?"  The guy thought he was just yelling out the fact and said: "Yes you're right the prophet is Thomas S. Monson." He didn't understand that RJ thought he was the prophet.  As we were leaving I was telling him to go ahead, out the door (which is by the desk) and he asked: "Go see Thomas S. Monson again?"  

The front of the St. George temple has two big staircases to doors no longer in use.  He climbed all the stairs so he could  touch the temple.

We walked around the back and he told my mom: "come sit on the temple with me," in front of the door to the baptistry. 

It's been so exciting the last few weeks, it's as if all the sudden his brain can begin to understand who Christ is, or at least that He's important and he's eager to learn more.  There's a little 20 minute video from mormon.org we first showed him for Easter depicting events from Christ's life.  RJ watches it all the time and says he wants to watch the "show about Jesus....the one where He talks."  It surprises me how often he watches it, and how it holds his attention each time. 

The first scene is Christ calming the water so his cloak is white and wet against his head and RJ asked: "Jesus wears a hoodie like me?" I thought that was pretty cute.

It's just fun to be able to teach and see the child-like faith in your own kids.