This weekend was our Ward Conference. The events associated with the conference includes a special meeting in the Idaho Falls Temple along with a temple endowment session. Nina is an ordinance worker at the Temple and this Saturday was one of her four Saturday afternoons that she also works. There are thirteen shifts at the Temple, but not one for Saturday afternoon. Each of the other shifts works four Saturdays during the year to make up for that shift.

So, I went up with her and spent much of the afternoon in the Temple as well. Her shift started at noon and ended at 7 p.m.

The are are two new film presentations at the Temples. While the dialog hasn’t changed, the new film presentations are designed to help patrons think about the covenants and obligations in a different light. They are both very successful in that regard. Both of them put a bit more emphasis on the fall of Adam and the need for a savior Jesus Christ.

Today I was looking through some of the books still to be listed on Amazon (see my post on being a Used Book Salesman). One of the books is titled “Yankee Doodles” and is a collection of American poetry. In there I ran across this poem which interestingly also reflected my thoughts on Adam and the Garden of Eden:

The Old Adam

All night rain fell,
All night unwound a heavy glistening skein.
Two slept well
Beneath thick leafage curtained by the rain.

All night wind blew unending,
All night pursued the same despairing themes–
Triumphal music blending
With Love’s triumphant dreams.

All night the forest crept
With stealthy life and little lanterned eyes;
All night rain wept,
A wild wind roared, and deep in Paradise,
Flame-sentineled, high-walled,
The corpse-cold serpent crawled.

Two slept. Toward morning
Eve murmured, Adam woke
And comfortingly spoke,
Then — open-eyed —
Recalled it all — the Warning,
The strange Beguiling,
The Word defied,
The Exile that ensued….

And so lay smiling,
His heart held breathless with Beatitude.
— William Rose Benét