Happy Birthday to Paige! I was trying to decide what to write about our cute birthday girl and decided that since I’m always quoting things I read and like, I could reprint my favorite blog post from Paige’s Pizazz (tales from her BYU London Study Abroad experiences). I love the following post as Paige shares a testimony building moment:
“It was such a neat experience to go to the London Temple today after spending some time at the Hindu temple in Southall yesterday. I felt a nice meditative contemplative spirit at the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha temple (maybe how Julia Roberts felt for those those of you who have seen Eat Pray Love).
But today at our temple I had one of the best spiritual experiences I think I have ever had in a temple. It was a small temple and the workers were excited to have such a large group come in to do work for them. At the Provo temple a big group of students is very common but at the London temple, you could tell this was a big ordeal (in a good way) for them to have us...
...What struck me most at the temple was not what was said, but the spirit that was felt. As a group of us girls sat in the room waiting to do baptisms and confirmations, we took the opportunity to sing hymns.
Although my voice is not up to par with many of the musically gifted we have in our group, it didn’t matter at all. The temple workers came in and said we sounded like angels and someone even thought we were a CD. The spirit was just so strong, words can’t even do justice to it.
As we sang “I Stand All Amazed,” (one of my all time favorite hymns), I felt touched thinking about the life of Christ and his infinite atonement and sacrifice for us.
I also loved singing “Lead Kindly Light” and in it two phrases hit me. The first was “the night is dark and I am far from home, lead thou me on” and the second, “I love to choose and see my path; but now, lead though me on.”
I know there are a lot of time I wish I could choose my path in this life and at times I feel alone - but I know Christ is and will always be there for me if I put my faith and trust in Him.
The gospel is amazing and as we closed our temple trip singing “The Spirit of God” all together as a big BYU group, I felt the chills and that “burning in my bosom” that I know this gospel is true and I am lucky to have been born at this time with it in my life. There really is no greater gift and I know I am here on this London Study Abroad to have experiences like the one I had today. So, in conclusion, it is just comforting to know that no matter where I go, the peace temples bring will always be there for me.” -Paige Knudsen
