June 15
Today (Tuesday, yesterday was a holiday here) the Cebu membership of the church is all a buzz with excitement as they enthusiastically compare a multitude of notes regarding the events over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and reading about this in the attached articles.
Sunday morning I arose, pulled the blinds in our apartment to look out the window just as the Sun came up, and it seemed to me that the new light of this day was much brighter than all my prior mornings when I was out doing my daily 3 mile walk. This was a day to be remembered, a day of great promise. We arrived at the Patron House kitchen to help with breakfast at 6:00 a.m. for the Monson party. Beverly, with apron on, lovingly prepared oatmeal for Pres.’s Monson and Eyring, they never being fed as well, while the rest of us Senior Missionaries prepared breakfast burritos and papayas for the other members of the SLC group. We also worked on lunch. Bev and I then scurried across the parking lot to serve as usher, welcoming the droves of smiling/excited 9 a.m. dedication recommend holders into the Temple Complex Stake Center as we cleared their yellow tickets. We felt a pressured focus to check all recommends as they pressed on and past us, completing duty while badly needing to convey a “warm” welcome. All were in their seats by 8:30 a.m. and we joined them just before it started.
Some of the members without tickets wanted inside the building to use the CR (comfort room) and here we were faced with a dilemma. A number of elderly members showed up at the front door where we were busy checking recommends and we had to turn them away as they had been told only to come on the time shown on their ticket so that we wouldn’t have too many come to be seated. As I turned away one elderly women who came by herself from an off-island location, I immediately realized that she should be let in and with embarrassment ran and brought her back, circle the blacked out 9 a.m. and x’d out Noon. Here the heart needed to rule over the letter of the law. She did have a recommend and just needed us to grasp her situation quickly which we (I) didn’t.
A Temple still, quiet reverence filled the packed chapel and cultural hall, with all feeling the sacred presence of the Lord, a Holiness, as this Stake Center, for a few hours became an annex to the Temple as we viewed the proceedings via closed circuit TV, broadcast direct from the Celestial room. I experience once before this transformation of a chapel into a Temple annex in a dedicatory session in Houston. Pres. Eyring conducted and our ERC Manager, Stake Pres. John Balledos offered a tender opening prayer. Eyring spoke about the Cornerstone ceremony and how the Temple should be the cornerstone of our lives.
Pres. Monson and his party exited for the Cornerstone ceremony which was both interesting and entertaining. The Cornerstone Choir sang, then the Pres. proceeded to lay in mortar with a trowel along a seam of the granite exterior, with informal banter, inviting Eyring, Bishop Burton, Elder Oakes, wives, then children and other adults, and finally Gerry Avant with the Church News. I spoke to her later in the Temple in the dining room, complimented/kidded her on being the best with the mortar. I asked, if this was the first time he had asked her to do this. She replied, he often asks her to do this.
As Pres. Monson prepares to move back into the Temple for his sermon then dedicatory prayer, he stops, commends the young boy who accompanied the choir, then suddenly, he stops, sits down at the piano and plays some chop-stik type music, stops, with a big smile says: “That was terrible…” then continues along a bit, (see pix in Church News pg. 4 of 6 ). He said his piano teacher mother taught him and she said that he should never stop. He then moves on into the Temple. All of this we watched in the Stake Center big screen with smiles all around, learning of his great sense of humor and playful warmth.
Pres. and Sister Mortimer spoke, then Elder Oaks mentioned three things we can tell our non-member friends about the Temple, that we are (1) taught, (2) we make covenants, (3) that we are given a promise of blessings. In Pres. Monson’s talk, among other things, he thanked the Filipinos who served with the U.S. military in the Second World Ward, defeating the Japanese. He told all present that they should go and do the work for those Filipinos who died in this conflict.
It is rather humorous that part of what the local Sun Star newspaper reported about this event read: “Yesterday, the celebration started with the chanting of a choir. A short parade from the temple to the cornerstone on the southeast side of the temple then followed.” That sounded rather “Catholic.”
Elder and Sister Reed, over the Mission Office, were asked by the Area Presidency to prepare the meals for the Monson party and they called upon the Senior Temple Missionaries for help…we enthusiastically joined this group. Some dividends in doing this service, we enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinners on the leftovers each day. Yesterday as we gathered to do all the clean-up and putting away, we again enjoyed good company, chatter and good food. A side part of this weekend was to meet the big burly security staff from SLC in action. Sunday afternoon we fed them and chatted with them. The highest risk city for Pres. Monson is….drum roll…SLC. Monday morning, Pres. Monson and part of his party flew out on the Huntsman jet to New Zealand.
A new dawn has risen upon the island of Cebu with the arrival of this new marvelous Temple.
Cultural Celebration Article I
Cultural Celebration Article II
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