This is from a talk I gave in Sacrament meeting in 2015 in Solomon Ward, Mesa South Stake.
There is a special place
I enter in
To help bring celestial life
To all women and men
The place is beautiful,
Divine and sacred
While there I am being
Spiritually fed
I knew I would go there since
I was a small child
To be ready we must be
Humble, meek and mild
Repentant and worthy
With a prayerful mind
Answers to questions,
Personal revelations to find
I have gratitude for the blessings
To able to enter therein
To feel close to our Father
While in there the veil is thin
February 7, 2010
As a child the Temple meant to me that when my mom and dad went to the temple they would be gone for-ev-er! I realized as an adult that they probably went to Matta’s after doing an endowment session together. I am thankful for being raised in a home where my parents not just could, but they would go to the temple. That is a powerful example of not just my parents going to the temple; it is also a great example of love. They would spend time together partaking of spiritual, emotional and physical blessings, by going to the temple and then a date afterwards.
The temple means so much to me. I have had many wonderful experiences there and thoughts and feelings about temple work and all the many blessings of temple attendance.
Boyd K. Packer said: “The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all of our affairs” I think that is a pretty impressive promise; to be blessed in all things.
He also states: “Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people.”
On a Sunday when I was 11 years old I had a wonderful lesson in my Merry Miss Class by Nancy Norris about temple covenants and the sealing power and I came home from church and exclaimed to my mom, “Mom, I’m going to be married in the temple someday!” She replied to me, “Always stick with that goal.”
Less than a decade later I was sealed in the temple to the father of my sweet daughters and my daughter I had previously was brought in and sealed to him and I. Together we were blessed with 4 more girls who were all born in the covenant. What a precious blessing to have five beautiful, amazing and talented daughters sealed to us.
At age 13 I was able to do baptisms for the dead for the 1st time. The young women were each given 45 names and one girl wasn’t able to do her names so another girl took them. I was glad since I thought 90 names would be tough. I had no idea that the 45 names I was given would go by so fast and the whole process was utterly amazing. I wished I had volunteered for those extra names. It is so amazing to think about the fact that by proxy 45 women who had previously died could have the baptism ordinance done for them.
When I was just two months shy of my 20th birthday on May 11, 1996 I was able to receive my endowments in the Mesa, Arizona Temple.
On LDS.org you can read: One ordinance we receive in the temple is the endowment. The word endowment means “gift” or “bestowal.” As part of this ordinance, we are taught about the purpose of life, the mission and Atonement of Jesus Christ, and Heavenly Father’s plan for His children.
Back to my temple experience; I love to think about that time in my life and thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ for making it possible for me to be worthy to receive a recommend. In preparation of attending the temple I worked hard to be spiritually ready. I increased my scripture study and prayer. I attended temple preparation classes taught by Wanda and Wilbur Woolf. Two of the sweetest people I've ever met.
It was sweet to have the Holy Ghost pretty strong in my life. I had some great experiences. One was I was able to write a poem about the Savior. I felt the spirit so strong that day and the words just came to me as if it was previously written in the preexistence. I had already written a couple poems about Jesus Christ, but this one is the best. Still today the words are so powerful that I am taken back that the words came from me. I owe a lot to the Holy Ghost for helping me write it for I love the Savior. When I think of temples I think of Him! By my efforts of humility and repentance and being converted to Christ I desired to enter the temple to make the covenants with the Lord, and to do the work to be worthy and prepared.
More from Elder Packer: “With great effort we urge every soul to qualify and prepare for the temple experience. Those who have been to the temple have been taught an ideal: Someday every living soul and every soul who has ever lived shall have the opportunity to hear the gospel and to accept or reject what the temple offers.
The ordinances and ceremonies of the temple are simple. They are beautiful. They are sacred. They are kept confidential lest they be given to those who are unprepared. Curiosity is not a preparation. Deep interest itself is not a preparation. Preparation for the ordinances includes preliminary steps: faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation, worthiness, a maturity and dignity worthy of one who comes invited as a guest into the house of the Lord.”
President Gordon B. Hinckley said: "I make you a promise that if you will go to the House of the Lord, you will be blessed, life will be better for you... partake of all of the marvelous blessings that are yours to be received there. Now is the time to get your lives in order that you may be worthy to go to the House of the Lord. Get a temple recommend. Get it now. If every man and woman... would make that resolution and go to work to be worthy of a temple recommend, your lives would be blessed, your homes would be blessed, you would feel the spirit of the Lord in your homes."
I want to share a couple of experiences of why the temple means so much to me…
Years ago when my children were quite younger it was hard for this one particular school year for me to attend the temple, at least during the day when my daughters were at school and I was a stay at home mom. One day I felt the need to attend the temple. It was really strong. Yet I was afraid to go. At the time I had two children seeing an urologist and one daughter seeing a neurologist and she with her asthma was sick a lot. There was other issues as well with my children that I won’t include. I had to many times drive to the elementary school to pick up the girls or assist in other ways. It was not too much of a burden since I love my girls so much and the school was super close. I had to keep my phone on me and be ready all the time. This day that I wanted to do an endowment session I had to exercise my faith and I prayed several times that my kids would be fine. Even though I was hesitant to go and afraid I would get a missed call and a message from the school nurse, I remembered hearing many times that our families are blessed when we go to the temple. So I went. I had a great temple experience that day and guess what. No one called me while I was gone on my cell phone or home phone.
Another is about the comfort and blessings to others when we attend the temple. A few years ago my friend Becky lost her son. I was so sad for her and kept praying for her. As a mother I could only imagine the agony she was feeling. The next day I woke up and knew that I must go to the temple and put her name on the prayer roll. I had a lot of plans that day, yet I knew this was more important than anything else. Via face book I leaned that several other friends of hers went to various temples in other cities and states to also add her name to the prayer roll in the temple they attended. It was so neat to contemplate how so much temple work was done in behalf of my friend. Three sweet blessings took place;
First it blessed those who did the work, second it blessed those deceased individuals that had their work performed for them and third it blessed those whose names were entered on sheets of papers to have prayers said for them.
I love the temples and thankful to be born in this day and age when we have so many temples. As the primary song says,” Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Father’s plan.” I have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I know that because of the Atonement and the fact that I can repent of my sins I can be worthy to enter His Holy Temples. I know that Heavenly Father loves all His children. He keeps His promises. If I live faithfully to the Ordinances of the gospel then I can achieve Exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom. I have a testimony of the power of the Holy Ghost. Through that power we can gain knowledge and understanding that we can’t get on our own. I pray that those members of the church that are of age can work on the preparation to someday enter the temple. If you have that goal in mind, then think positive and seek for the highest within you.
I have felt my dad at the temple many times. When my brothers went through.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
