Cornerstone Ceremony

Michelle had the opportunity to participate in the Cornerstone Ceremony Choir for the Fort Lauderdale Temple dedication.  (There are six stakes in our temple district. One stake was assigned to each of the three dedicatory services - providing the 20-person choir to sing in the celestial room - and the other three combined to provide the 60-person outside choir.) Last Friday we drove down to Davie together, and discovered that the cornerstone itself was already in place.

March 2014, then May 2014

We were there to practice, and I decided I needed a couple of pictures beforehand. As beautiful as the building is, I think the human is prettier!

We drove down together again early Sunday morning, this time with Dad, but we left the camera in the car, so no pictures from us. Here's the picture from Mormon Newsroom.

The choir sang, President Uchtdorf applied the mortar, a few other individuals did as well, and then the choir sang again. Short, simple, and sweet, and a wonderful start to the dedicatory service. We hope Michelle enjoyed the experience; I know we enjoyed watching her (even if it was on the television monitors inside the temple).

Here's the link to news footage of the cornerstone ceremony. We're grateful it was a beautiful, gorgeous day for them, with none of the "liquid sunshine, or maybe tears of gratitude and joy from heaven" that we had the day before.

Our friends had the opportunity to help!

Special bonus:
I googled "Fort Lauderdale Temple cornerstone" images and came across a blogpost by Sister Lewis. The last Saturday of the open house, there was a mission conference in the afternoon.  Since our welcome tents were staffed by missionaries, some sisters from the neighboring mission were asked to come over and help so our missionaries could attend the conference. (Fort Myers Stake is part of our temple district, but not part of our mission.) Here's the account of one of our "substitutes." Have a tissue handy.