temple walk

one morning i got this crazy idea.
it came to me while doing my hair.

i was re-watching sister elaine dalton's YW general broadcast talk from april. she spoke of john rowe moyle who was a stoncutter on the salt lake temple. he carved the words, 'holiness to the Lord' on the east side of the building. what makes him even more noteworthy is that he didn't live in salt lake during the 20 something years he worked on the temple. his family had a farm 20 miles away and he would walk each monday morning to the temple and walk home each friday night. as if that wasn't enough, during his tenure at the temple, a farm accident happened where he had to amputate his leg at the knee. once he was strong enough, he fashioned himself a new leg and continued his journey. such amazing drive.
some YW in the alpine stake in utah decided to take that same walk to the temple. they walked from the bountiful temple to the salt lake temple.

while struggling with my cowlick and listening to that story, i thought, why don't my yw do that? why can't they be as committed to the temple as he was? i wondered how far it is to the sd temple?

one crazy idea+a trusting bishop+an enthusiastic YW presidency=our temple walk

on august 13th, we walked 18.6 miles from our church building to the sd temple. we met at 4:30am and finished about 1pm. we had aid stations along the way, as well as motivating signs and ward members to cheer us on. i arranged to have sister olsen, the temple matron, meet us in the foyer and talk with us about our journey. she is a wonderful person (as is her husband) and it was the capstone of our trip.

my girls were fantastic. amazing. stupendous. i was worried about complaining along the way. i need not be. they never complained. toward the end i could see the pain on their faces, but they kept going. they had their mind fixed firmly on the temple and no one was going to stop them. i love them.
starting at 4:30 am!
encouragement along the way.
signs and quotes helped to keep us going.
finally, the end!

it was a wonderful experience and they're still talking to me, so score!