Newly Licensed & Prepared for the Temple

I decided not to write a vacation post about our return trip home on July 24th—there wasn't much interesting about that day other than our stop in Orem at the Missionary Mall.  As I mentioned in my Salt Lake City vacation post, the last thing on our "major" list of things to purchase for Ben were slacks.  I figured I'd already donated enough of my money to Mr. Mac and I wanted to give this other store a try.  The actual store was not exactly what I expected.  I guess when I heard the word "mall," I was thinking an actual mall.  As we drove up University Parkway, I expected to pass over State Street and find the place somewhere in the University Mall area.  Instead, we found it on the right hand side of University Parkway about a half a block before reaching State Street.  If it hadn't been for the huge missionary on the top of the store, I probably would have driven right past the place.

We found quite a nice selection of missionary clothing and other items.  Our specific task was to buy Ben some slacks for those days when he isn't required to wear a suit ensemble. ☺  When it comes to finding pants for Ben, waist size isn't a problem; length is.  Going to a "big and tall" store isn't much of an option either because at those places length may not be a problem, but waist size is (apparently all "big and tall" stores seem to think that every man with long legs also has at least a 38" waist to start).  The Missionary Mall saved us the headache of trying to find Ben appropriate length—all the slacks came in oversize lengths that could then be altered to fit him (and the crowd goes wild)!  While this was an awesome thing, it also presented a new problem: how long would it take for the alterations to be made?  Thankfully, with the day being Pioneer Day (a Utah State holiday), business was light.  Our salesman went into the back and returned to tell us the seamstress could have all three slacks completed in 30 minutes (score! ☺).  Thirty minutes later, we were back on the I-15.  Ben wanted to stop at the Payson Temple, but it was closed for the holiday—we would only be able to view it from the gate—and I wanted to get home at a decent hour so we put it on hold until our return trip.

As for today, this was Ben's one and only chance (at least, that's the impression we were under) to take his physical driving test to receive his driver's license.  He and Jennifer actually attempted to do this on Tuesday of this week, but the windshield of Jennifer's car suffered from a whack by a large rock several months ago which then resulted in a crack that snaked in several directions.  With our focus on Ben's mission and the money needed to purchase his clothing and such, the windshield has not been fixed.  When the lady administering the driving test came out to go through the preliminaries with Ben, she apparently didn't notice the windshield crack until she actually sat down in the passenger's seat—instant fail.  I guess if nothing else, this was a good catalyst to get the windshield replaced. ☺  Jennifer rescheduled the driving test for today and was told that the DMV was booked solid until September 2nd (a problem since that's the day Ben's entering the MTC).  A special seminary inservice meeting this morning kept Jennifer occupied this morning, so I went with Ben to the DMV.  The results were positive!  If he had messed up on any of the preliminary section or had missed two more of the driving skills, we would have been praying for someone to cancel their driving test before we left to return to Utah.  Instead, Ben is now a licensed driver and we can check that off his missionary list.

The rest of our afternoon was spent with Alana and her parents as we drove down to the Beehive Clothing store in Upland.  They purchased temple clothes for her, and we did the same for Ben.  Next week, both Ben and Alana will be going through the temple for the first time to take out their own endowments.  This is a very exciting thing.  Because of the limited seating (the Redlands Temple is not like Los Angeles; only about 6o—roughly—people can attend a session), there are 20 reserved slots for family and ward members for Ben and the same for Alana.  I guess the remaining 20 are for anyone else who makes an appointment for that time frame.  It was fun for me to be involved with helping Ben in this process.  This is something I have looked forward to for 18 years as we have taken him and Isaac on trips to the Los Angeles temple or have watched as the Redlands Temple was built or have visited various other temples while on vacation.  He has been able to go inside the Redlands Temple and participate in baptisms and confirmations for those who have died.  Now, however, he will be able to walk past the recommend desk and turn to the right instead of the left to participate in the next temple ordinances available to him as he prepares for his mission.  I very much look forward to next week. ☺