My best night ever in the temple

The last three Saturdays the temple has been filled to overflowing. It has been wonderful, but I have felt sort of bad that I was never able to be in the temple to feel the spirit and witness the strength of the sisters because of our assignment to work with the children and the adults that aren't/can't enter the temple. On Friday afternoon we had a very large group come from up in the mountains. The sisters all had their hair tied up on their heads--they looked magnificent. At the last minute, I was assigned to be the follower for the session. As more sisters kept coming--many from here in town, the brethren had to keep adding folding chairs. Eventually we had 52 sisters, 9 brothers and 4 sister temple workers. The room was truly filled beyond capacity (we only have seating for 40 generally). But more importantly, the room was filled with the Spirit. It was palpable. When the film started, I looked out over there sisters and the tears started flowing. I couldn't stop crying as I thought of the rejoicing of Lehi and Sariah. It was almost like they were there, being overjoyed at seeing the faithfulness and strong testimonies of their righteous daughters. One of the sisters right in front of my knees (that is how close the chairs were) looked like a young Lamanite princess. And on the row behind her was a matronly, beautiful woman who glowed with the spirit and looked like she could have been a model for a Book of Mormon painting. It was so incredible that it is beyond words. The 30-40 women who had come in from the mountains struggled with Spanish and it was thrilling to be able to guide them with love, understanding and short phrases to help them when they needed it. Then I had a short break and was asked to help with another session where we had 37 sisters and 9 brothers. Most of this group were from the city and are frequent and faithful temple attenders. Those were the two largest groups I have been with--and it happened on an evening shift! So I was able to participate--Heavenly Father had heard the prayer of my heart. I will never forget it.