Christmas Lights at the Visitors' Center

I previously posted about the many volunteers that worked on the outside, here are some volunteers that work so hard on the nativity display inside. There are over 100 nativities from countries around the world. They are beautiful. They add a great spirit to the center. 

Finished product

A photographer come to take some pictures at night with the lights.  

It's easy to make all these Sisters look good!

The wisemen in front of the VC, sure to attract attention! 

Richard took the rest of the pictures and they are beautiful. There is a magical feeling walking through the lights.

This star has 10,000 lights. I reported more previously, oops.

The nativity

There are over 100,000 lights in the palm trees.

New display this year of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the animals

Borrowed this picture, it is so beautiful with the sunset, we see this all the time, aren't we so lucky! 

Richard captured these three sisters right before their shift. They are all smiles and ready to start the night teaching and testifying of Jesus Christ. Their testimonies show in their faces! Sister Smith (left) Sister Finau and Sister Weedman.

A few facts about Christmas Lights in Mesa:

This is the 34th year of Temple Lights
All work is done by volunteers (over 1,500 - members and others)
They start putting up in the lights Oct 1st
Almost 1 mile of draped lights around walk ways
Over 1 million visitors a year
They actually work on this project year round

Sisters visit with the visitors outside and invite them in, answer questions and gather referrals. We have a short rotation inside through several exhibits to facilitate the large number of guests. They can hear the Christus presentation, view the nativity exhibit, watch a 5 minute movie of Luke II or the Nativity, go through Gods Plan for the Family, and see the Jerusalem temple diorama and pictures of Christ. Sisters are stationed at each exhibit to invite them in and testify and gather referrals. We have the sisters paired up with one english sister and one spanish sister. We show the exhibits in both languages.

The Lord is truly hastening his work, we feel it here! Richard and I both talked to sisters just today that wanted the missionaries to come and teach them. We did some teaching over the phone and it was wonderful.

We love being missionaries!