BC's Mormon Temple

Over the past year we've watched the building of the first Mormon temple in British Columbia. Non-Mormons are not allowed to enter any temple after dedication, but any new temple is always open for tours the month before. We toured the one in Langley this morning.


The first thing we noticed was most everyone else's dress. The website had said "Make sure to dress modestly", so we decided to not wear jeans to show respect. Most people, however, were dressed in suits and dresses. Oops.

I had always assumed it would look like a cathedral inside; you know, a large sanctuary with ornate architecture all around. Well, it was nothing like that. When you first walk in, there is a reception desk, like in an exclusive office building. If you have your "temple recommend," you are then allowed to go into the many rooms located behind the door behind that desk. The rooms include instruction rooms, sealing rooms (where weddings take place), reception areas, and changing rooms for baptisms for the dead, endowments and weddings. To find out why they need the changing rooms, read about the Mormon temple garment here.

No expense was spared for this building. The granite was from Brazil, shipped to China for the cutting and smoothing, and then shipped up to British Columbia. The entire outside was covered in this granite, even the doors. John noticed that the rain gutters were actually located behind the granite (inside the wall instead of outside), with ornate metal spouts visible at the bottom of the building. The floor of the bride's preparation bathroom contained a beautiful mosaic. The decor was very North American - makes sense since it's a North American religion.

In addition, there were many connections to the Old Testament. Two obvious ones were the fence surrounding the building which seemed to create a temple court of sorts (just one though, instead of an outer and an inner) and the baptismal that is round and sits on the backs of twelve oxen, which alludes to the "sea of cast metal" which held water in the temple courts outside (1 Kings 7:23-25).

Touring the temple was an interesting experience. Now we know what is inside those buildings that are forbidden to us non-Mormons.

National One Sock Day

Canada has a holiday called "National One Sock Day." Long ago, when Canada had just been founded, there was a great divide between the rich and the poor. The rich were extremely wealthy and the poor were extremely poor, so much so that they couldn't afford socks. One day a year the rich would take off one of their socks and give it to the poor. All day long both the poor and the rich would wear one sock so that it was not obvious who was rich and who was poor. Canadians today honor their forefathers by still following the practice of wearing only one sock on April 1st.

At least that was the teachers and staff's story on the first morning of April. When I explained this to my upper level students, one of the students immediately took off one of his socks but the others were skeptical or apathetic. So at the end of class, I spoke to them again, "You know, as an American I think National One Sock Day is a bit silly, but I know this is a very important day in Canada as their ancestors are honored in the act of wearing one sock. So, even though I think it's ridiculous, I am wearing only one sock. I would think about this and wear only one sock today as well. All of ESLI is actually getting together at 10:50 to take a school photo of National One Sock Day to put on the website to show we care about Canada. I recommend you think about this and take one of your socks off."

Then I had my beginner students. It was obvious they thought I was crazy and weren't even considering what I was saying. But when we left together for the photo, they saw other students with only one sock and then darted back into our classroom to take off one of their socks.

Here's the photo. It was taken before we teachers and staff yelled "April Fools!"

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Spring has sprung, and that means the tulips are blooming in Mount Vernon, Washington. We headed south on Monday and saw this:


It's pretty interesting to drive down a road and suddenly see a large pink or purple field in the distance. In the morning we were also able to see the Olympic Mountains, as seen below far above (and past) the field of daffodils.


I, of course, needed to get in amongst the flowers a little bit! Some of them smelled heavenly but most had no smell. Typical tulips.


Here are our favorites of the day - the Pink Impression tulip (above), the Pheasant Eye daffodil (below),


and a tulip named Seattle.


Aren't the colors absolutely stunning?


Call me crazy but the sight of a field after all the tulips had been cut was the prettiest I saw all day.

Easter Egg...rolls

No traditional ham & potato meal for us today; instead it was (Chinese) stir-fried pork with asparagus and homemade egg rolls. Believe it or not, egg rolls are not difficult to make.

First, you need your inner ingredients - mixed and sauted.


Next, roll the mix in an egg roll wrapper - can be homemade OR purchased at a grocery store near you.

John adds, "If you have worked at any fast food joint and thus wrapped any type of fast food, roll the egg rolls in the same way you'd wrap a fast food sandwich."

Finally, fry them in the hot oil for 2-4 minutes and voila!

For those of you who have Fry Daddies sitting in some lost closet of your house, you now have a great reason to pull them out.

Asian April

New month means new menu. We're doing Asian for April. There's no way I could give Asian cuisine a fair chance in 30 days, so you should know that "Asian" means Chinese, Japanese and Korean this month. Yeah, yeah, I know it would be better to call it "Chinese, Japanese, & Korean April," but I'm trying to go for alliteration people.