All the youth in this town have been so excited.

We're just talking, calling people, telling them our exciting news that we're getting a temple here. My family has pictures of the temple in every room in my house to remind us of our goal.

The temple is the closest we can get to God. It represents what heaven will be like for us. Through it I can be married to a young lady for time and all eternity and be able to return to our Heavenly Father.

Being able to put together a celebration just makes everyone more excited and want to participate.

Even two weeks ago, I was a little bit nervous about how well it was going to come together. But this is the first time I ever got to see everybody do the dances and they did it really well. Oh, prayer. They're doing the cultural celebration because this is how we're celebrating the temple-- to give thanks. We all dress up and get to perform in front of the prophet and it's going to be really exciting. In the celebration, we're showing some things about the people from this area. Our stake extends all the way to the border of Mexico. And so we're getting to do a couple of Latin dances and that's so much fun. They're really hard and there's a lot of spinning in it. Once we saw everybody coming together, that was when we realized that this thing is actually real and that the temple is actually going to be here.

Just seeing that finally come together is really a neat experience.

I was right in front of the prophet. He was smiling at me. I was just so happy to be there. And then he took my flag and just started waving it.

[UNINTELLIGIBLE] I was lifted up. And even though I couldn't turn around and see the visual of the temple, knowing that I was a part of the building of the temple for our youth, it was really cool.

This morning, the dedication was so spiritual. And everyone was there so early and wanted to be there. And then as we were doing the Hosanna Shout with everybody there, you could just feel the Spirit so strongly.

It's finally here. Who knows, maybe next week they could go do baptisms for the dead. We're helping our ancestors and others do ordinances that are as special to us in our salvation. Families are forever through the temple.

The temple continues to be part of our valley after this cultural celebration. This is just the beginning. We thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings this temple and all temples bring into our lives. It shines as a beacon of righteousness to all who will follow its [UNINTELLIGIBLE].