God is in the rain

The busy life continues and it’s a fascinating ride. I find that I’m tired at the end of each day but not exhausted. I feel as if I’m fulfilling things and really living life. And that’s a good feeling.

As far as the church calling goes, I got out of Wednesday night branch presidency meeting this week but spent the time doing church stuff anyway. My friend Brent and I are home teaching companions and we are assigned to six different households; so we got a start on that.

Then I spent part of Saturday helping with baptisms for the dead for the first time in about six years — and my first time in the St. George Temple. The baptistery here is much bigger than the one in the tiny Spokane Temple where I last did baptisms for the dead.

And I was one of the lucky Utah Latter-day Saints that got to skip church today and participate in the dedication of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple via video transmission in my stake center. I had never been to a temple dedication before so that was a neat experience. And my mild migraine finally faded toward the end of the 90-minute session.

Work has been busy but going well. Things just seemed to flow this week. I wrote more stories than usual on top of extra editing duties because my coworker is still on maternity leave and I still ended up with enough hours to get started on a few things for next week. My favorite parts of work this week was interviewing the three lead actors for the local production of “Aida” at the Tuacahn Amphitheater, which I wrote about in my work blog. I returned to Tuacahn on Friday evening for a dress rehearsal of “Aida” and brought my friend Jana along with me. She was also nice enough to “help me out” with a food review at the lovely Riverwalk Grill in St. George, where I tried a seafood bisque for the first time.

I had all sorts of big plans for Saturday but I crashed instead. Mostly I spent the day shopping. Yep, shopping. For nearly five hours. First stop was the farmers market at Ancestor Square in St. George where I picked up some pears and something for my mom. I also bought some mangoes and sticky rice from Benja’s, a tasty Thai restaurant at Ancestor Square, for breakfast. Next it was off to the factory outlets, Old Navy and Target where I came away with five shirts, one pair of jeans, two pairs of shoes, six pairs of socks and a fedora for only about $150. Not bad.

After the temple experience, the best part of Saturday was the rain. It doesn’t rain nearly enough here in the desert. And this summer seems like it has been even drier than usual. And when it does rain in the desert it smells so good. It rained a little before I went to the temple and it was raining when we got out and went to Iceberg for milkshakes. So when I got home and it was still lightly raining I decided to go for a nighttime walk in the rain. I changed out of my suit and into shorts and flip-flops and set out to walk around my neighborhood, something I haven’t done in the four years I’ve lived here.

The cool raindrops felt so good after the heat of summer. It had been more than 100 degrees earlier that day but the storm cooled it down about 30 degrees. In many ways it was just as spiritual as my experience in the temple earlier that day. I’ve always felt a strong spiritual tie to nature. And that night it truly felt as if God was in the rain.