The Vernal Temple

Yesterday, I was reminded of an experience my mom and I had while I was in high school.  This was back before they revamped the Young Womanhood Medallion- Personal Progress program.  For one of my Laurel Projects (a service project to take at least 20 hours), I decided to do Baptisms for the Dead in every temple in Utah.  (A much smaller number back then than it is now...) 

They had just completed the Vernal Temple in the few months before I made this goal, so it was the newest temple in Utah at the time.  Vernal was a several hour drive from Magna, UT, where I grew up.  My mom and I made plans to go to Vernal one day in order to do the baptisms.  We didn't call the temple ahead of time to schedule our visit, as at the time, none of the other temples in UT had required us to do that.  (I think nowadays you have to schedule most visits, but I could be wrong.)

We drove three hours or so to Vernal.  On the way, we stopped in Heber City.  My mom wanted to show me the Heber Creeper, as I'd never seen it. (It's a train, if you haven't heard of it.)  As we left Heber City, I remember asking my mom if we were on the correct road.  She laughed, and said a line we have come to quote often in our family:  "There's only one road out of Heber."

We realized we were on the wrong road when we saw a sign telling us how close we were to Provo- a city NOT on the way to Vernal. :)

Anyway, this turned out to be the best thing possible.  The Vernal temple was MUCH smaller than the others we'd been to, and had a smaller staff.  As a result, you had to make appointments for the baptistry or it wasn't staffed.  However, because of our mishap coming out of Heber City, we hit the temple just in time for them to squeeze me into the end of a small youth group that was going through.

Had we not made the wrong turn at the beginning, I'd have missed my chance to do the baptisms.

Sometimes the Lord looks out for us, even before we know we need it.