Temple Pictures

Blogging about the Vernal Temple trip yesterday made me think of another experience I had doing that Laurel Project visiting all the temples in Utah.  Part of that goal was to document all my trips by taking pictures of the temples when we visited them.  I then compiled all the pictures into a binder.

I had an interesting experience doing the pictures for the Salt Lake Temple.  We took a ton of pictures the day I did baptisms there, both from the grounds and from a tall building across the street. I had an entire roll of film of beautiful pictures of the temple.  This was back in the days when you used film and had to take it in to be developed. Then you got your pictures a week or so later and got to see them for the first time.

I remember thinking the pictures of the Salt Lake Temple came out absolutely beautiful.  I was so excited about them.  Well, they disappeared.  I had the pictures in the envelope they came in.  They were somewhere in my room.  Then they were gone. I never did figure out where they went.  They honestly disappeared.  I moved in and out of that room a couple times since then, and they never surfaced.  I had NO idea where they went, couldn't find them anywhere, and wasn't sure what to do about the book I was making.

Fortunately, this happened with a temple that we had easy access to, since we lived close by.  Mom took me downtown and we used another roll of film and took more pictures.  When we went to pick up this second set of pictures, the lab had no idea where they were or what we were talking about.  The project seemed cursed.

I remember wondering what Satan was doing to my pictures and why he seemed so determined I wouldn't have pictures of the Salt Lake Temple in my book. I prayed so hard to get this second roll of film back so I could finish my project.  In the end, the lab found the second roll of pictures.  The roll of film had been a sample we'd gotten somewhere and they'd had to send the roll to a different lab to be developed, so it just took longer than the normal process.  In the end, I got pictures of all the temples in my book.

Sometimes we think things are cursed and that they are just doomed to fail.  However, sometimes we simply need to have patience and wait it out.  Things work out for the best as long as we are doing everything we can.  If we pray and listen for answers, they will come.  Sometimes we just have to be patient.