Working at the temple open house is crazy, long and sometimes weird but oh my sooo fun!
Every day is different. Our Sister Training Leader now drives a big white van which holds the sisters in the zone and the sisters from Sugar City. We all try hard to drive each other crazy for about a half hour or so until we get to Idaho Falls. We then work at the open house from the afternoon till evening and sleep in apartments in Idaho Falls for the night. When we wake up we get ready for our devotional at 7:30 and go back to work at 8. We pretty much have only a few proselyting hours after that back in Rexburg.
The Sister Missionaries in the Idaho Falls mission and the Pocatello mission get to help out a lot. First, there's the video room that explains what temples are and why they are so special. We have a recitation with instructions for the tourists before showing the video (which I mess up every single time at). We don't take the visitors inside the temple because they have ushers to do that, but after they go through the temple they can go to the camera tent, where you pose behind a photo of the temple. The missionaries have a little too much fun with that department. Then after that they end the tour on the temple grounds, which includes the visitor's center.
I was an alternate once, who basically takes the place of sisters when they need a break. Now whenever I'm at the temple I start out in the second video room, take a lunch break, and then work at the reception center (visitor's center).
So the first day was really slow. It was a practice to see what we could handle, and it was also the start of the vip tours. Most of the people were just worried about missing rides, so they didn't really talk to us that much. There were many people there from different walks of life, and it's still that way. The younger people were more fun to talk to because they asked questions.
On Easter Sunday Elder Wilson of the Seventy took all of us through the temple. It was so beautiful, and very unique. You can find photos on lds.org, and you should!!! It began to be constructed while world war 2 was going on. The Saints had to have faith that they would have a temple even when the future was uncertain. The baptistry, the instruction room and the celestial rooms all have murals on the walls.
Sealing Room (one of them, and the largest)
A companionship from the mission helped to put this together (I hope with help) in the Celestial room.
I asked if any of the shapes had any symbolic meaning, and they said they were only for decoration. :) Lots of squares...
The next week went pretty similar to the Friday before, except we had a treat! A couple and their family that we just finished teaching the lessons to came for a tour! It was heartfelt, and we were so happy to see how they had progressed in so little time.
The public tours started on April 22nd, thank goodness. We thought it was going to be crazy busy, but it was all handled very well. There have been a some amazing people that I have seen from Henry's Fork and Ucon stop over! 
This hasn't been easy, like my whole mission has been like. But it's so worth it. If you ever get the chance to take someone to something like this, DO IT!!!! The spirit is so strong, and even if minds don't change they can definitely feel the love radiate from the building. It is the house of the Lord. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!!
~Sister Brinkerhoff
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