Temple Trials

A funny thing happened this weekend.  Well, it wasn't so funny when it happened, but isn't that usually how things go?

When Jeff and I got married, we decided we would try to attend the temple often.  For us, even in these first few years, "often" hasn't always meant the same thing.  I feel I/we could have done a better job of getting ourselves to the temple more frequently, especially because we were so close to so many.  However, while I wished we had gone more - I think that's a sentiment many Latter-day Saints feel - and looking back I think we did ok.  Kind of ironic that now with plenty of time to visit the temple, and the nearest temple is almost 3 hours away.

I guess it's time to get to that funny story.

So Jeff and I had decided a couple weeks ago we would visit the Orlando Temple on Saturday.  We had it all planned out and were even going to spend the rest of the day looking around at houses and apartments since we'll be moving down there next summer.  We would even be able to sleep in a little and still make the trip worth it.

Well - we woke up a little later than we had planned, but we weren't too worried about it.  I mean, we had all morning to get to Orlando.  We had hoped to leave around 9am, but it was about 9:45-10 o'clock before we were ready to walk out the door.  Jeff was finishing up some cereal and I went back to our bedroom to grab my purse so we could leave.  I decided I would hurry and make the bed before leaving, but as I started to grab the sheets, I noticed Russell on the bed, and next to Russell was a GIANT pool of kitty pee.

Yup - our litter trained cat, for whatever reason, decided to relieve himself on top of our comforter instead of his potty.

Like I said, wasn't funny then, but kinda funny now.

So despite having washed our comforter only a week earlier, Jeff and I had to strip everything off the bed, head to the laundromat, and use those enormous commercial washers that eat up quarters to clean our bedding.  As we were headed to the laundromat in our Sunday best, Jeff asked when the temple closed, and remembering I wasn't in Utah, got online and realized the temple closed at 3:30.

Yikes.

It was already after 10, and by the time we finished getting everything washed and dried, it would be closer to noon before we left.  We'd maybe make it to the temple in time for the last session...and then it would be almost too late to do much else before having to drive another 3 hours home.  Ugh.  Rescheduling our temple excursion to next weekend was looking more and more reasonable.

In frustration I asked Jeff, "Why did this happen THIS morning?  Of all mornings?"  And Jeff responded without hesitation, "Well, cause we planned to go to the temple."  He then shared about how on his mission the worst days would be when they would have a baptism planned.  He said one morning - the morning of a baptism - he and his companion woke up and the ENTIRE city didn't have water.  (That's Paraguay for ya).  Jeff said he and his companion had to bribe the fire station to fill up the font with nasty green fire truck water.  He said they had this huge fire truck hose snaked through the church into the font filling it up.

My cat pee didn't seem quite as bad after that story.  And unfortunately for Satan/karma/the universe/bad luck, or whatever else you want to call it, when I realize something is trying to hold me up, I simply become all the more driven to get it done.  We were able to get our bedding clean, make it to the temple, and even had plenty of time to look around Lake Nona in Orlando at apartments and housing.  And it was definitely worth it.  The peace and encouragement the temple leaves me with makes everything worth it.

But lesson learned, Mr. Russell doesn't get to jump up on the bed anymore.  Sorry kitty.

(For more info on temples, missions, and the LDS faith, check out lds.org.  Picture of Orlando Temple from here)