CHRISTINA TAYLOR/ Scroll photo

Dedicating apartment brings Spirit

Girls learn what they can do to get past bad experiences

Keli Glade GLA05002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

You’re asleep in your dark bedroom. You hear someone say your name, but nobody’s there. You start falling back asleep, but a searing feelings of panic and fear creep over you.

You see a shadow move near your closet. You have to get up; something’s wrong. You get the overwhelming feeling to turn on all the lights in your apartment. You turn on the lights and check all the windows and doors.

Everything’s fine. A little shaken, you go back to your waiting bed and turn on peaceful music to calm yourself down.

This isn’t a scene from a M. Night Shyamalan movie. It happened to Megan Pyle, a sophomore from Brownsville, Ore., during the 2005 Fall Semester.

The day after her frightening ordeal, Pyle shared it with her roommate.

The girls immediately decided something wasn’t right, and they agreed they wanted their apartment dedicated.

They remembered their homes were dedicated, and their university bishop, Darryl Harris, had recommended it for their apartments also.

Every semester Harris encourages the members of the BYU-Idaho 27th Ward to dedicate their apartments.

Harris has always taken dedications to heart. He was the president of the Korea Seoul Mission from 1997 to 2000.

As mission president, Harris would always request that his missionaries dedicate their apartments every time a new occupant moved in.

The next day, Pyle’s roommates asked two of their close guy friends to say a priesthood blessing over their apartment.

After the blessing, the girls were reminded to do everything they could to keep the Spirit in their home and to do nothing to detract from it.

“After the blessing I felt comforted and at peace,” said Keera Ricks, one of Pyle’s roommates and a sophomore from Iona, Idaho. “I knew Heavenly Father would protect us, and I could feel his presence in our apartment.”

Pyle felt she could sleep the next night without worrying.

A dedication may not have to be a priesthood ordinance. Harris said girls can dedicate their own apartments. It is simply the act of kneeling down together and saying a prayer asking Heavenly Father to dedicate the apartment as a safe haven from worldly influences. Doing this brought Pyle and her roommates closer together.

Holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood may also offer a blessing of dedication.

“[After the blessing] we tried even harder to get in roommate prayer and scripture study before we went to bed,” Pyle said.

Dedicating an apartment can bring a spirit that affects all who reside there.

“I noticed a change in the attitudes of my other roommates as well,” Ricks said. “We all just had a reassurance of Heavenly Father’s love for us.”