Moment: Visiting Temple Square
Contributed By Tove Reschke, Church News contributor
Tove Reschke, second from left, visits Temple Square with her daughter Teresa Pugmire, left, and her granddaughters Kate Pugmire, Ella Pugmire, Mariah Pugmire, and Lexi Pugmire.
I remember when I visited Temple Square for the very first time.
It was around 6:30 in the evening of Saturday, December 5, 1952. Shortly after my arrival at the nearby Greyhound bus station, a friend who was there to meet me took me to Temple Square. In the dim streetlights the temple appeared to be a large, gray, rather gloomy looking structure. From the pictures I had seen, I had imagined it being a white majestic building on top of a hill.
As we walked across the grounds towards the Tabernacle, ours were the only footprints in the newly fallen snow, with no other people in sight. We climbed a couple of wooden steps, placed by a window, so we could look inside that amazing historic building. Only one dim light near the organ gave a vague impression of a vast room with pillars along the wall.
Fast forward to 63 years later, Saturday, December 5, 2015.
Look at us now! Although 63 years older, I’m still the same person, now with a lifetime of experiences. Temple Square is still the same historic place, now fully lit up with thousands of colorful lights and crowds of people milling around, taking in the sights.
Symbolically, I—like the one dim light—was one “only light,” having just arrived from Denmark. Now I can count 91 direct descendants (children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren). In addition, I count their spouses with numerous family members, all with as many personal and ancestor histories.
I add friends and all other people who have touched and enriched my life throughout the years, each representing one of the thousands of lights on Temple Square.
I live in thanksgiving daily for all the blessings my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has offered me. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without that. My greatest gift is my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and the knowledge that it is His Church and kingdom in the world today.
