{"id":2373,"date":"2018-12-15T19:45:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T05:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/delisahargrove\/?p=2373"},"modified":"2018-12-15T19:45:46","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T05:45:46","slug":"grandma-leona-walk-temple-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/delisahargrove\/2018\/12\/grandma-leona-walk-temple-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"When Grandma Leona Decided to Walk to the Temple in the Middle of Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Both of my grandmothers loved the temple and made great personal sacrifices to regularly attend.\u00a0 In their golden years, both of them served in the temple\u2014my maternal grandmother in the Provo Temple and my paternal grandmother in the Arizona\u00a0Temple.<\/p>\n

Grandma Leona Decides to Walk to the Temple in the Middle of Winter<\/h3>\n

One very dark, frozen, winter morning, Grandma Leona dressed for her 5:00 AM shift at the temple.\u00a0 She never missed a day.\u00a0 She loved her shift and felt a deep sense of purpose and loyalty to serve. At 4:30 AM, she carefully traversed the icy sidewalk to her car, opened the door, and put in the key. She repeatedly turned the key to no avail.\u00a0 Her beloved VW Rabbit\u2019s battery was dead.<\/p>\n

Undaunted, Grandma in her dress coat, dress, and stockings picked up her temple suitcase and started walking to the Provo Temple, fully committed to walk the six miles to the temple, at 4:30 AM, in the freezing weather.<\/p>\n

She walked a couple of blocks from her home to Orem Center Street. As she continued\u00a0on her determined journey, a passing car slowed and stopped. Then it slowly backed up to her. The driver was a fellow temple worker who recognized this tiny little lady as Sister Noble on his temple shift.\u00a0 He offered her a ride to the temple. Grandma worried she\u2019d inconvenienced him.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t express my thoughts as I envision my aged grandmother determined to serve the Lord on her assigned shift and willing to do whatever it took to get there (besides asking her children or grandchildren or neighbors for a ride, of course.)\u00a0 And we\u2019re all forever grateful that because of Grandma\u2019s consistent diligence, someone recognized our grandma walking alone in the dark on a frozen road towards the temple.<\/p>\n

Grandma Leona\u2019s Impactful Faith in the Temple\u2019s Physical Power<\/h3>\n

Grandma Leona made a long and tiring road trip from Orem, Utah, to Midland, Texas, and then on to Dallas, Texas, to be with me the first time I attended the temple before my mission in 1992.\u00a0 It mattered to her that I attended and she made the journey to support me. She was one of my best friends and the fact that she was there meant the world to me.<\/p>\n

I lived with Grandma Leona after my mission in 1993. I\u2019d experienced devastating health challenges and she invited me to live with her so I could have a respite while trying to conquer the rest of my degree. Because of her faith in the physical power of the temple, I covenanted with the Lord that I would attend the Provo Temple every day if He would enable me to finish school.<\/p>\n

Since I lived with her, we attended the temple together three times a week. We did a session together and then I went to school.\u00a0 She spent the day in the temple and I picked her up at the door or she found a ride home with a friend. The other days she prayed for me as I weakly left her house for the temple to keep my covenant with the Lord. By the end of that semester, I\u2019d made marked and miraculous improvement.<\/p>\n

I remember how she would always jump up to help if sisters were needed in the prayer circle. She never missed an opportunity.<\/p>\n

A silly phrase emerged from the time we drove to the temple together.\u00a0 She insisted I drive when we went.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always been an \u201cadventurous\u201d driver. She never criticized my driving, but now I wonder if she ever worried about arriving alive.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we always did arrive at the temple alive.<\/p>\n

One day, to make a left turn on a yellow light, I cut the turn slightly aggressively.\u00a0 I shouted, \u201cHold on to your pantyhose!\u201d and gunned it. She held on and laughed and laughed.\u00a0 So I said that often and she kept laughing about it. I still tell my passengers \u201cHold on to your pantyhose,\u201d but nobody laughs\u00a0like Grandma Leona did.<\/p>\n

A Pillar in the Temple to Go No More Out<\/h3>\n
\"Grandma
Leona Petersen Noble<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grandma began to feel like she\u2019d completed her life\u2019s mission and talked about dying.\u00a0 I made her pinky swear that she\u2019d be in the temple at my wedding. I was 26 when I married in 1997.\u00a0 She made the long journey back to the Dallas Temple to be with me and Anthony on that important day.\u00a0 I remember her hug.\u00a0 She was so happy for my happiness.<\/p>\n

I thanked her for keeping her promise.\u00a0 She died in 1998.<\/p>\n

I really wish I had her pinky swear to be at my children\u2019s baby blessings. She laughed when I mentioned that next milestone. But she wouldn\u2019t pinky swear. Maybe she knew that wouldn\u2019t ever happen for me and she was ready to go home\u2014home to the temple of our God to go no more out<\/p>\n

Yes, Grandma Leona loved the temple. This scripture in Revelation reminds me of her and her glorious return home to God.<\/p>\n

[She] that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and [she] shall go no more out<\/a>: and I will write upon [her] the\u00a0name\u00a0of my God, and the name of the city of my God,\u00a0which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and\u00a0I will write upon [her]<\/span>\u00a0my new name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This scripture summarizes the desire of Grandma Leona\u2019s heart. Her life embodied this desire. And because of her life, I believe this goal is possible.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both of my grandmothers loved the temple and made great personal sacrifices to regularly attend.\u00a0 In their golden years, both of them served in the temple\u2014my maternal grandmother in the Provo Temple and my paternal grandmother in the Arizona\u00a0Temple. Grandma Leona Decides to Walk to the Temple in the Middle of Winter One very dark, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3071,"featured_media":2382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,60,3,69],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-faith","tag-family-history","tag-overcoming-trials","tag-zion"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Grandma Leona Decided to Walk to the Temple in the Middle of Winter - Spiritual Truth Seeker \u2013 My Tesserae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Undaunted, Grandma in her dress coat, dress, and stockings picked up her temple suitcase and started walking to the Provo Temple, fully committed to walk the six miles to the temple, at 4:30 AM, in the freezing weather.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/delisahargrove\/2018\/12\/grandma-leona-walk-temple-winter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Grandma Leona Decided to Walk to the Temple in the Middle of Winter - 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