I Love temples!

As a child my parents were not active in the church, but made sure my sister and I attended. Growing up, I had no reference of temples or temple work. I don’t remember having any lessons in Primary or Sunday School about the temple. Just that we should go there when we grow up.

My sister, who is 5 years older than me, was going to be married in the Temple, and asked my parents to start going to church and to get a Temple recommend so they could be with her at the sealing. My Mother said she would , but my dad said no. At my sister’s wedding, my dad and I sat outside the Temple waiting for my sister, mother and brother-in-law to come out. My Dad was so sad that he couldn’t be with them.

When I got engaged, my then fiancé, Tony and I decided together that we would be married civilly so that my dad could attend our marriage. I felt it would break his heart if he couldn’t be at my wedding, and he still wasn’t ready to commit to the gospel. A year after our civil marriage, Tony and I went to the Salt Lake Temple and were sealed for time and all eternity. The moment I walked into the Temple, I felt that I was HOME. The joy I felt was overwhelming! From that moment, I have loved temples. I have felt the Lord’s presence there and felt His peace.

My father did eventually return to the church and he and my mother went to the Salt Lake temple and were sealed, my sister and I were sealed to them. Afterwards my father ‘s parents were sealed by proxy and my father was sealed to them. My father left the sealing room with tears in his eyes as he told me that he felt his parents there and he felt their joy beyond the veil. My father went on to be a Temple worker at the Salt Lake Temple.

After going to the temple to be sealed to my husband, My life has been entwined with the Temple

• My Husband and I began attending the Temple once a month.
• My Husband worked for the Church in the Family History and Temple divisions.
• We planned many of our family vacations around Temple open houses so our children could learn to love the Temple.
• My Husband became the Temple recorder At Bountiful and then Jordan River Temples.

Since the beginning, The Lord has asked his people to build temples. The prophet Isaiah saw our day and said, “it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isaiah 2:2

Why is it so important to the Lord that we build temples?

• A house of the Lord where he can come and teach us.( the Kirkland Temple provided that place for the lord and his servants to come. Elijah brought the keys of sealing families together in temples.)
• A place to receive blessings from God- endowment
• A place to give everyone a chance to receive the Lord’s blessings- work for the dead – I’ve had the great privelage to do the work for my father’s family and felt their sweet spirits with me in the temple.
• A place to commune with the Lord and receive revelation and guidance.
• A place to receive all the ordinances that will take us home to God.

Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander of the seventy has said about Temples:  Amidst the bustle of the secular world, with its certain uncertainty, there must be places that offer spiritual refuge, renewal, hope and peace. There are indeed such places. They are both holy and sacred. They are places where we meet the divine and find the Spirit of the Lord”

President Howard W. Hunter said of the Temple:“ Let us be a Temple-attending and Temple-loving people. Let us hasten to the Temple as frequently as time and means and personal circumstances allow. Let us go , not only for our Kindred dead, but let us also go for the personal blessings of temple worship, for the sanctity and the safety which are provided within those hallowed and consecrated walls.The Temple is a place of beauty; it is a place of revelation; it is a place of peace. It is the house of the Lord. It is holy unto the Lord. It should be holy unto us”

I love that he says to HASTEN to the Temple. Not just go, but hasten, or be quick to do it. Then he talks of circumstances . We all have busy lives, but we can plan to hasten to the temple.

Elder Rasband in the Oct 2020 conference said: “Temples, no matter where they are, rise above the ways of the world. Every Latter-day Saint temple in the world—all 168 of them—stand as testaments to our faith in eternal life and the joy of spending it with our families and our Heavenly Father. Attending the temple increases our understanding of the Godhead and the everlasting gospel, our commitment to live and teach truth, and our willingness to follow the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

On the outside of every temple in the Church are the fitting words “Holiness to the Lord.” The temple is the Lord’s house and a sanctuary from the world. His Spirit envelopes those who worship within those sacred walls. He sets the standards by which we enter as His guests. 

I pray we may all work toward being recommended of God and hold it in highest sacredness . That we my all hasten to the temple and receive those wonderful blessings.

–Debra Johnson – Sunridge Ward; Alta View Stake