I started and ended March at the temple on the first and last days of the month, and I was there another two times in the middle. Two of the times were for my shifts as a temple worker, one was for a ward temple night, and the last one, on the last day of the month, was for my own visit there for a much-needed respite from a turbulent week/month/year/several years (I had finally gotten divorced earlier that week). Truly, the temple punctuates my life in all of the best ways amidst both the lulls and the storms of life.
There was snow on the ground on March 1st.
I'm usually only at the temple in the evenings for ward trips, and I'll always appreciate the symbolic contrast of the light of the temple in the darkness of night.
Note the mostly melted snow. It was only a week after the first picture. That's March for you!
This was on March 31st, the last day before the temple closed for most of April for maintenance work. As you can see, the work had already gotten started in the front. I think they were replacing the spire, among other things.
Tomorrow the temple re-opens, and I've made an appointment to go next week. I've missed my "home away from home" this month, where I feel closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus more than anywhere else on earth. I've written on here before about how the temple and my temple covenants have blessed my life, especially with the difficulties of a brutal divorce process and all that goes along with that over the last few years. Now that that particular trial is over, my attendance and participation at the temple will in no way decrease. This is now an established "holy habit" and "righteous routine" in my life. I will continue to need the strength, power, and divine guidance it gives me no matter what is (or isn't) happening in my life.
President Nelson said this at last fall's General Conference:
I believe that really special things are happening and are going to happen at the temples of the Lord all around the world as we prepare for His imminent return to the earth and His reign here thereafter. I'm excited for that, and I'll be ready and prepared for it.
