July 26, 2005

The Royal Oak chapel was dedicated on Sunday (July 24th). It was an enjoyable meeting -- members of the Royal Oak and Crowfoot wards were invited. The speakers were: Bishop Wayne Jones, Bishop John Gibb, Lynne Miller (Stake Relief Society President), President Lynn Rosenvall (Cardston Alberta Temple President), President Howard Heninger, and the dedicatory prayer was offered by President Richard Melchin.

Keith Wood conducted a stake choir, which performed several pieces -- most noteably, "The Spirit of God" which is perhaps my favorite hymn. It is such a powerfull hymn -- I sometimes so overcome by it that I am not able to sing. The choir was outstanding; the music was terrific, the talks were excellent, and the dedicatory prayer was inspirational. It really was a historic event.

It's very impressive to observe how eloquent President Melchin was during the dedicatory prayer -- he's normally a very good speaker, but this was different. I know that he spent considerable time pondering what could be said during the dedicatory prayer, but the prayer is not in any way prepared beforehand, in fact -- he doesn't use, or even make any written notes of any kind. I'm sure he spent substantial effort contemplating whether he could pronouce that a temple would one day be dedicated on this site. He's been instrumental in ensuring that the church retain the excess land, and that the city have the land zoned for two buildings. On more than one occasion church administrators have tried to sell the excess land, as I'm told it's church policy not to bank excess land. The original plot of land was 20 acres, and was acquired almost 30 years ago for the purpose of retaining land for what is hoped to become a temple site. Of course over the years a temple has not been built, and a couple of years ago when substantial development of the area was underway, the church sold 10 acres of the land. Rick told us on Sunday evening, that at one point more of the land was to be sold (leaving only enough to support a single chaple), but he insisted that the land not be kept. The matter was taken to President Faust, who said something like, "you'd better listen to the Stake President", and ever since the land has been kept, and there has been no further discussion of selling the land.

During the dedicatory prayer President Melchin petitioned that because of the faithfullness of the local Saints, the land one day receive a temple. I've always thought that this will come to pass.

The building is substantially complete, with only a few minor items inside the building remain outstanding. None of the exterior landscaping is complete.

The air conditioning was not operational on the day of the dedication, but fortunatley the temperature outside was cool and rainy. We opened all the outside doors, and let the cool air circulate through the chapel.

Both Gracie and Matt weren't feeling well, and Erin debated keeping them home. I'm glad she didn't. She did however end up taking the kids home just before the dedicatory prayer was offered. Gracie was complaing of an upset stomach, and kept saying she was going to vomit. Last time she said that at church, she threw-up all over me. -- so Erin didn't make her sit through the last 30 minutes. Matt behaved quite well (wich isn't normally the case during a one hour sacrament meeting, let alone a two hour meeting).

It was a nice day. All of the Melchins were in town (except Cade and Keri) -- and we had dinner over at Erin's parente place afterward.