Andrew didn't come with our family this year, he had already gone on group dates to the pageant 3 times that week, he had enough.
It was really cold! The wind was blowing hard and it was supposed to rain.
Some of the kids friends that were in the pageant this year.
Melissa Porter and Sister Porter with Mikel
Dan Durney played a Roman Solider this year.
Another tradition that we have is attending the Easter Pageant at the Temple. Every year that I have ever gone to the Temple to see the pageant, (and I have been going since I was a little girl)there have been protesters on the sidewalk around the temple. This year was no exception. It seems however that they are getting louder, more aggressive and vulgar every year. It was a great lesson for our children. As we walked toward the Temple grounds, on the corner of Pioneer Park, a protester shoved an anti-Mormon flyer in Thomas' face. Thomas asked what he should do with the flyer. We told him to be kind, hand the flyer back to the man and say no thank you. The man then began lecturing us, in a not so loving tone. He scared my kids. As we walked across the street it was kind of frightening because the protesters seemed so full of hate. They were yelling awful things at us. Again our children were scared, so Lee and I told them to not listen to the protesters. We will all stick together, watch for each other, don't let anyone fall behind and we will make it through to the Temple grounds where we will be safe. As we walked further into the Temple grounds we began to feel safe and peaceful. The kids all commented on the peace that they felt, they said they felt safer as they walked further onto the temple grounds. After the pageant was over, we dreaded going back to our car. We didn't want to loose the peaceful feeling we had. This was a wonderful teaching opportunity for Lee and I to teach our children of eternal families. That we need to stick together in order to make it through this life. We don't want even one of us, to not be with our family in the Celestial Kingdom. We get to use this experience as an example to teach them about prayer, scripture study, and being obedient to the laws and ordinances of the gospel so that we can stay close to our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father can comfort and guide us through scary, hard times, much like getting through those scary protesters. It was a great example of wanting peace in our lives and what we have to do to have that peace. I guess the protesters were a blessing to our family. I'll bet they would love to know that, huh?
