I don't think I will ever be published in the Ensign! I'll just blog about it instead!

A few months ago I volunteered to clean the Bountiful temple. I had never cleaned the temple since I has been endowed (although I have been endowed for 6 years). When the roll was passed around in Relief Society along with the sign up sheet to clean the temple I was a bit hesitant because cleaning was from 9:30-midnight. I had to work the next day at 7:30. Although it was not uncommon for me to stay up until midnight and then be at work by 7:30 I may or may not have signed up for selfish reasons. I have heard in the past about people having really neat experiences while cleaning the temple. Although it is terrible to admit, that may have been my motivation to sign up. One of my friends signed up with me and so we would go together.


When that night rolled around I have to admit that I was tired and not in the best mood to go clean. I was going to ask if I could leave early because I had to be at work early the next morning. But then I decided I was not going to speak up because I didn't want to be "that person". I changed into my "cleaning suit" which is one of those baptism suits that was way too small for me, along with my tube socks and white cloth shoes. I could not really move my arms up and down because the suit was so tight. I was going to ask for a bigger size, but decided that I did not want to complain and just went along with it.

I received my first assignment to dust all of the picture and frames off in the hallway, cafeteria, and surrounding offices. I was told to "Be careful because all of the picture frames are made out of real gold." As I took my swifer duster around in the basement halls of the temple, I made sure that I was careful reaching around all the picture frames dusting them off. As I was winding around the halway and into some offices I tired my best to not be snoopy. I went into the temple engineer's office. He had sticky notes on and around his computer that I was trying not to read. He had a picture hanging on the wall to be dusted off that said something to the effect of "You have the privlidge of working in the house of the Lord. Don't let a Telestial attitude affect the Celestial" It said something like that. I guess I should not have put that in quotes because I know I'm a little off on the exact wording, but you get the point. I had to laugh at what the picture said and thought it was something good for me to read.

After I was done dusting all of the pictures, I helped my friend dust the walls. I have never really dusted a wall before. I have swiped cobwebs off a wall before, but I don't think it counts as the same thing. So I spent most of the rest of the night dusting off the walls and rubbing oil on some of the crown molding in the cafeteria.

As the night went on my attitude was sill kind of the same in a blah state. I did not really understand why I had to dust off the walls when there was no dust or anything on them but I just did it anyway. I saw one lady whose job was to literally dust off every single leaf on a fake tree that was in the hallway. She was smiling, but I couldn't help to think to myself, "I'm glad I don't have that job!"

We worked until about 11:57 pm. When all was said and done, let's just say I was ready to be done! As we were all walking back in our misfitted jumpsuits in a single file line back to the locker room I had to laugh about the thought that came into my mind. **Side note** (This thought/what I am about to type next is not meant to be offensive in any way, shape, or form. Therefore, if you have a tender heart or are easily offended I advise you to just skip to the next paragraph.) I thought "This is kind of concentration camp-ish." I'm sure I am the first person in the history of the world to think this after cleaning the temple, but I have to admit it made me laugh. I then see this group of girls coming to form into the line with us back to the locker room. They were coming from some other hallway and had HUGE smiles on their faces. I just thought to myself, "They probably vacuumed the celestial room." That night I went home with a smile on my face because of the comparison that I had made and it just made me laugh.

So now fast forward to yesterday. . .

My roommate told me about this amazing article in the July Ensign and told me maybe one day I can have a change of heart or a better way of thinking by not comparing cleaning the temple to a concentration camp. (which I still think is funny)

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/07/unspotted-from-the-world?lang=eng

I really enjoyed this article and thought to myself while reading it, My temple cleaning experience will NEVER be published in the Ensign, and that's ok!

**Side note**I had other thoughts in conjunction with this article that actually had to do with the point of the article but I will let you think about this article in conjunction to your life.