Temple Walk

On Saturday, Nov. 7th. The Young Women, accompanied by leaders, ventured out on a temple walk!  It was an idea spearheaded by one of our Laurels who wanted to achieve her Honor Bee.  For those of you who don't know, that's an additional achievement of 40 hrs of service that you receive after your Young Women in Recognition (Personal Progress). The goal was to walk from our church building to the Spokane Temple, a little over 16 miles.  We originally had it planned in August but the smoke from forest fires forced us to postpone. We were concerned about doing it so late in the year but the Lord was with us because we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. By late morning we had blue skies and plentiful sunshine.  

 We began bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:30am.  This is our group just starting out.  You can see the church building in the background.  We had 19 young women and 12 adults.

 There was lots of energy the whole way. The young woman behind it (Hailey) had many planned stops for bathroom breaks and water refills.  At one stop we were even brought some hot chocolate which was much needed since the early morning was a little chilly.  She even planned stops for spiritual thoughts which was kind of the whole point of the temple walk.

 Part of our route was on the Centennial trail which follows the freeway for a while.  The YW had fun getting the semi's to honk for them.

 Our group at the bridge over the Spokane river.

The last part of the walk was by far the most challenging.  There's a steep hill about a mile before you get to the temple. And of course by then we were blistered, sore and tired.  Knowing that this last push would be difficult, Hailey planned for the girls' parents and families to walk with them for the last mile.  They were all standing on a corner cheering us on and it was just the motivation we needed.  Even Matt and the kids came and I got to walk with Riley to the temple.  Of course she tripped and skinned her knee so I had to give her a piggy-back for part of the time...something I had plenty of energy to do!...

It was very rewarding to finally make it to the temple! Hopefully its something our YW will never forget.