In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, temples have special significance, members who make themselves eligible, participate in sacred eternal ordinances for the living and the dead, the latter by proxy by those who attend. The focus is on our Savior Jesus Christ and His teachings, the inscription on the entrance reads, "Holiness to the Lord". There are 144 operating temples throughout the world, chapels are for Sunday worship and other activities to which all are invited and anyone may become eligible to attend the temple. (www. lds.org/church/temples)
We were called as temple workers to the Chicago Temple in 2008, it includes a large area, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan. Driving took about three to four hours each way depending on traffic and construction, and that seemed to be going on for the two years we served. The temple is north in Glenview, and to save time we got an I-Pass for the toll roads. Peak hour has heavy traffic so we tried to avoid those times and as our shift was 1pm, we left about 9 am. We would wait to leave about 7pm to avoid peak hour traffic and most times got home about 10.30-11 pm. So it was a long day for us, even though we only did one day every week.
We also would try and go at least once a month besides, we had worked in the Mesa Temple, which being 10 minutes away was not so stressful. The Houston Temple was about three hours each way but we only worked there a few months until we got a new calling. Each Temple is autonomous and has a different way of doing some things while following the official guidelines and procedures, but it was a fairly easy adjustment.
One time coming home from a session in Chicago about seven in the evening, I was driving and thankfully peak hour had subsided. Construction was going on and we were squeezed to the far right narrow lane by the wall. Two other lanes were to the left of us, the car behind us was about two cars length, the car besides us about one cars length. The only pull over areas were about every mile or two, so any car problems that happened resulted in an accident unless you were by one. We were doing about 50-55mph, the others 65-70 in a 45 mph area because of construction. The cars would blatantly break the speed limit as the police would have to be where they could pull you over and in the two years we drove back and forth we hardly saw any police cars.
In the distance I could see something grey ahead, I knew we were going too fast to stop, the car behind would have barreled into us as there was no pull over in sight, it was early evening and hard to see anyway. So praying, I just drove over this gray thing, I thought a blanket of some kind. Wood, wire and kapok flew everywhere! It must have been a mattress, possibly a box springs. Our little Honda kept on going, it didn't seem as though we had flat, something was flapping up front, we weren't sure about what happened to the cars behind us! I pulled over the next chance we had and squeezed out of the driver's side, it was taking was like taking your life in your hands at that, as the cars were so close, whizzing by. All we could see was kapok underneath and a rubber grommet flapping on the right front, no flat tire. We called the Highway number and reported it, so on we went home no further problems, and thanked the Lord for the protection, I had that feeling that we had had help. The next day we took the car down to have it aligned, not only did it not need it but they just put the grommet back in place, pulled out more kapok stuck to the underneath, and sent us on our way! What a miracle!
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