Two weeks ago I got an email from my Bishop asking me if I would speak in Sacrament Meeting on July 10th about the importance/influence of temples in our lives. Of course I accepted, and while I don't particularly love speaking from the pulpit (I don't get nervous at all until the speaker just before me, and then my heart starts beating CRAZY fast and I get all jittery and anxious until I actually start speaking), I was very excited about the topic. Serving in the temple each week these past two years has increased my love for the temple beyond anything I could have previously imagined. I've always loved the temple, but now, well, "the temple has become a part of me." Anyway, for anyone who wants to read my talk, here it is.
-I'm excited to
speak about temples – I love the temple
- Joseph Smith and Elder Kent F.
Richards in the most recent conference (The Power of Godliness, April 2016
conference) said, “We [each of us and our families] need the temple more
than anything else.” (Joseph Smith quoted by Elder Richards)
- President Nelson has said,
“everything we do in the Church…is to prepare each of us to come to the temple
and [receive blessings there]” (quoted by Elder Richards)
- “More than anything else” and
“everything we do is to prepare,” why would that be?
-Because of the
blessings we receive in and from the temple. President Monson has said, “The
blessings of the temple are priceless” (Blessings of the Temple, April
2015 conference). What are those blessings?
1. Eternal families – The blessing I
have related to temples most often throughout my life is that of eternal
families, and what a great blessing that is! To be with those that we love
forever. But as I have attended the temple more often as an adult and served
there, I have found and recognized so many more blessings.
2. We learn about the Savior and
become more like Him – Everything in the temple points to Jesus Christ, if we
have a desire to learn as we attend, we can always be taught something new. How
can we not learn of Him when everything points to Him? We become more like Him
as we receive our endowment and are sanctified, then as we return again and
again, as youth and adults, we act as “saviors on Mount Zion” as we do for the
dead what they cannot do for themselves. How can we not learn of Him and become
like Him when we serve as He served us, doing for others what they cannot do,
just as He did for us what we cannot do on our own?
3. The veil is thin – Elder
Richards, “Surely, the veil is thin for us and parts completely for them in the
temple.” I can testify of the truthfulness of this. From my own experiences,
and those of family members and others, I know that those spirits are there in
the temple, and we can feel their presence and the presence of others as we serve
in the temple.
4. Our capacity increases – My
grandmother was a temple worker for 25 years and recently shared with me a few
quotes about the temple that she loves. One was from Elder David B. Haight (no
other reference). “A temple is a place in which those whom He has chosen are
endowed with power from on high. A power which enables us to use our gifts and
capabilities with greater intelligence and increased effectiveness in order to
bring to pass our Heavenly Father’s purposes in our own lives and the lives of
those we love.” Serving in the temple fortifies and builds us, and increases
our capacity, allowing us to better use the gifts He has already blessed us
with. One way is in receiving answers to prayers.
5. We receive answers to prayers –
My younger brother Joseph and his wife make temple attendance a priority and I
know he loves the temple, so I asked him his thoughts and feelings about the
importance of the temple. He responded, “Funny you should ask that, I recently
received a life changing answer to a question in the temple…but I know the only
reason I received that direction is because I was focused on spiritual things
and I was in a spiritual place. The temple is truly the Mountain of the Lord.”
The temple is a spiritual place where we are drawn closer to the Lord, and so
become better able to receive answers to prayers that He desires to give us.
6. We feel peace – President Monson
(Blessings of the Temple, April 2015 conference) said, “As we enter through the
doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the
world. Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order. There is rest
for our souls and a respite from the cares of our lives. As we attend the
temple, there can come to us a dimension of spirituality and a feeling of peace
which will transcend any other feeling which could come into the human heart.
We will grasp the true meaning of the words of the Savior when He said, ‘Peace
I leave with you, my peace I give unto you…Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid.’ Such peace can permeate any heart—hearts that are troubled,
hearts that are burdened down with grief, hearts that feel confusion, hearts
that plead for help.” I love the phrase from this quote “a dimension of
spirituality.” This past week I substituted a lot and so I had the opportunity
to spend multiple days in the temple serving as an ordinance worker. Knowing
that I would be speaking on temples, I had a prayer in my heart that as I was
in the temple throughout the week I would be aware of things that would be good
to share in my talk. I always feel peace when I am at the temple, but as I
attended so often this week, I noticed that the love and peace, that unique
spirit which fills the temple, inevitably begins to fill your heart and your
life as you attend the temple more and more. That “dimension of spirituality”
begins to enter your life. It is small and gradual, but unmistakable, receiving
that spirit of the temple, that “dimension of spirituality” in your life. And
of course there is a dimension of spirituality there, because it is the Lord’s
house. D&C 97:15-16 reads, “And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me
in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it,
that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it; Yea, and my
presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart
that shall come into it shall see God.” Of course we receive that dimension
of spirituality, because we’re entering into His glory and His presence as we
enter the temple.
7. We are cleansed and forgiven –
Another quote I received from my grandmother was from President Eyring at the
St. Louis Temple Dedication. He said, “I promise you that when you come to this
house, if you will come with a meek and lowly heart and if you will come with
faith in Jesus Christ, you will have both the witness that this is the
Lord’s how and also that you are being cleansed and forgiven that you
might have hope of someday being with Him again and with our Heavenly Father and
with families sealed to be together forever in peace.” What a beautiful
blessing. None of us are prefect, we all make mistakes. And each of us at
different times feels those mistakes and failings and imperfections more than
others. But as we attend the temple, we can be cleansed and forgiven, and
receive a witness that the Lord approves of us and our lives, despite our
failures.
8. Reminded of our covenants – For
both the endowed and the unendowed, participating in the ordinances of the
temple reminded us of the covenants we have made and the blessings we have been
promised because of them. As we participate in baptisms for the dead and the
other ordinances of the temple, we hear again the words of those covenants that
we have already made ourselves. President Monson (Blessings of the Temple,
April 2015 conference) said, “My brothers and sisters, in our lives we will
have temptations; we will have trials and challenges. As we go to the temple, as
we remember the covenants we make there, we will be better able to overcome
those temptations and to bear our trials. In the temple we can find peace.” I
have a personal witness of this. My husband and I have been married for 3 ½
years now. Ever since getting married, it has been my greatest wish to have
children. When we first got married, the longer we had to wait, the harder it
became. But as we moved to St. Louis, and I have had the opportunity to serve
in the temple, and be reminded on a weekly basis of the covenants I have made,
and the blessings that the Lord has already promised me, it has become so much
easier to bear with patience. Attending the temple and being reminded of our
covenants there truly enables us to more easily bear our burdens and challenges
of life. And I know that all others can receive that help in their lives as I
have.
- We will not necessarily have a
miraculous or grand experience every time we attend the temple. We will not
always have large scale spiritual experiences that we will remember throughout
our lives, but each time we go slowly builds us, cleanses and strengthens us.
My brother Joseph said, “Going frequently puts us on a higher plane, and the
more often you go the more familiar the ceremony is and the more the Lord is
able to teach you.” Going to the temple often blesses our lives.
-Knowing the
blessings that we receive from the temple, it is easy to see why President
Monson and other prophets and apostles have said, “make whatever sacrifices
necessary to attend the temple” and “no sacrifice is too great” (The Holy
Temple – a Beacon to the World, April 2011 conference).
- There are stories of families
living apart for years to earn money to attend the temple together one time,
saints traveling for days in uncomfortable circumstances to reach the temple
(both stories in The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World) and many other great
sacrifices.
- But we don’t have to make great
sacrifices like that. We are so blessed to live so near a temple. President
Monson said (The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World, April 2011 conference),
“If you have been to the temple for yourselves and if you live within
relatively close proximity to a temple, your sacrifice could be setting aside
time in your busy lives to visit the temple regularly.”
- That is such a simple thing. It
isn’t hard to set aside a few hours out of our day to attend the temple when we
are so close, and yet we often don’t do it. Sometimes it is those most basic
and simple things which become the most difficult to do. As I read this I
thought of Alma 37:46, where Alma is teaching his son about the easiness of
following the gospel, and he says, “O my son, do not let us be slothful because
of the easiness of the way.” Let us not be “slothful” in our temple attendance
because of the easiness of our proximity.
- That applies to all of us,
regardless of our age. Elder John A. Widtsoe (quoted by Elder Richards in The
Power of Godliness, April 2016 conference) said, “The young man needs his place
in the temple even more than his father and grandfather, who are steadied by a
life of experience; the young girl just entering life, needs the spirit,
influence and direction that come from participation in the temple ordinances.”
We ALL need the temple in our lives.
-As I’ve had
the privilege to serve in the temple the past 2 years, I have gained a personal
testimony and a witness of the principles taught in Ether 12:6 and John 7:17.
Ether 12:6 says, “dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness
until after the trial of your faith,” and John 7:17, “If any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I
speak of myself.” It is in the doing, the act of serving in the temple
on a regular basis, that my faith and testimony of the temple has grown and
expanded. As other young ordinance workers have said, quoted by Elder Richards
(The Power of Godliness, April 2016 conference), “The temple has changed my
life forever,” and “the temple has become a part of me.” We must return to the
temple often, even if we don’t yet have a knowledge for ourselves of the
blessing it can be in our lives, because it is in the going, the “trial of our
faith” that we will receive a witness and a testimony.
- President Eyring continued in the
St. Louis Temple Dedication, “I testify to you that this is the House of the
Lord. I pray that today, as you come here, you can feel that this is the House
of the Lord. I promise you that if you do this, you will want to come back
again and again. Each time you come, if you come with faith in Jesus Christ
and with meekness and a humble heart, you won’t come because you are sent and
you won’t come because you are commanded. You will come because no one could
keep you away.” That is what I have been blessed to begin to feel in my
life and in my love for the temple as I have served there these 2 years. And I
know that each of you can feel that for yourselves if you will attend the
temple often.
-I would
just like to close with one last quote from Elder Richards (The Power of
Godliness, April 2016 conference), “Come to the temple. Come often. Come
with and for your family. Come, and help others to come too.”
This is my prayer, that we may all come to the temple often, and with our
families, that it may bless our lives and strengthen us. In the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
