One of my Favorite Days of the Year

    I have been looking forward to this day for a month.  It is the shortest day of the year and now the days start getting longer.  Yeah.  I took this picture off the weather page I check every day.Note the Sunrise time and sunset time. It is 6 pm here now and we feel like we should be going to bed.  If you figure it out it is 7  hours of daylight - if it isn't cloudy and rainy.  Then it seems less.

However, in the temple it is always light and today was an especially lovely day.  We had quite a few patrons who chose to spend their last Saturday before Christmas coming to the temple which gladdened our hearts and theirs.  We had an especially sweet experience in the baptistery. A young unendowed single sister who is working on her master's degree in Scotland and comes from the Washington DC area come in and  asked if she could do baptisms.  She is alll alone and traveling on her Christmas break to Denmark and then on to Prague.  We were able to put some temple workers and priesthood holders together and she was baptized for 15 family names someone had left to be done. I was so touched with the willingness of everyone to work for just one person.  But then I thought of the 15 on the other side who were receiving such a great Christmas Present from this side of the veil.  It was a very sweet experience for everyone involved.  The brother who did the baptizing had to come off a session because he didn't feel well.  He rested  for a half hour and asked if he could do the baptisms.  So he was able to participate in temple service on a second chance.