I invited quite a few people to come to church, and even posted an open invitatio on my Facebook page. Last night I was pretty bummed that not one person I invited one was coming. This morning my dear friend Kelly called to say that she and her adorable 6 month old baby girl Raynee were coming. I was SO HAPPY! Kelly and her husband attended the Air Force Ball and were up until the wee hours of the morning, so I really didn't think she would be able to make it.
Kelly and baby Raynee came to our house before church for a quick lunch of Cafe Rio-esque chcicken tacos, and after church Mike made us some delicious waffles for dinner, topped with raspberries and bananas and I cooked some bacon. Little Raynee loved her mashed banana, then she tried her first graham cracker and loved it. Very messy! We love Kelly and baby Raynee is practically a celebrity in the ward.
Below are some personal experiences and quotes that I shared in my talk.
Personal Experiences
Why do we go to the Temple?
I was driving my car with Jasper and one of his friends in the back seat. I reminded Jasper that Mike and I were going to the Temple that night. Jasper’s friend asked why we go to the Temple. Jasper quickly answered, “Because we have a lot of family members who never got baptized on earth. You take the cards with their names on them to the Temple. Pink is for girls and blue cards are for boys. Then at the Temple you get baptized for them. We can go to the Temple to do baptisms the year after we turn eleventeen…when we are 12.” (Gotta love Jasper's counting system with made up numbers like "eleventeen".)
We show Jasper the blue and pink family file cards that have the names of our ancestors on them. We explain how the card shows the person’s name, who their mommy and daddy are, where they were born and where they died.
Monthly Temple Trips with Jasper:
I used to take Jasper to the Temple once a year or so, and this spring Jasper asked if we could go once a month. I was surprised by his request, but I figured we would just cut out one other outing to the park or a museum and go to the Temple instead.
Now once a month we dress in our Sunday best once a month and go to the Las Vegas Temple. We usually go out to lunch afterwards on our little date. We walk around the entire Temple and check out the fountain and the flowers. We go inside and look at all of the pictures of Jesus Christ and talk about them. We sit down with a copy of "The Friend" magazine.
We sit in each of the courtyards and talk about Jesus Christ, and being good and why people come to the Temple. We watch and talk about the Young Men and Young Women walk to the door that heads downstairs to the baptistry. We watch and talk about the mom's and dad'swho show their Temple Recommends at the front desk and enter to the Temple to do other sacred ordinances.
This year we went to the Temple for Jasper's 4th Birthday with our dear friends the Wilson's who live across the world in Quatar. We talked about how blessed we are to live so close to a Temple. Some of my most special and sacred talks with Jasper have happened at the Temple. I am so grateful for this little tradition that we have.
Anniversary Tradition:
Every year for our anniversary Mike and I attend a Temple. We do a few endowment sessions, perform iniatory ordinances and do sealings for our family members that we have done ordinance work for during the year.
It's not as snazzy as a cruise or a trip to Jamica. It does help us remember the promises that we made to each other and to the Lord when we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple ten years ago.
Quotes about the Temple
In April 1995 General Conference Elder J. Ballard Washburn gave a talk titled “The Temple is a Family Affair.” He reminded us that, “We go to the temple to make covenants, but we go home to keep the covenants that we have made. The home is the testing ground. The home is the place where we learn to be more Christlike. The home is the place where we learn to overcome selfishness and give ourselves in service to others."
In April 1991 General Conference Presidet Gordon B. Hinckley said that, "God is the designer of the family. He intended that the greatest of happiness, the most satisfying aspects of life, the deepest joys should come in our associations together and our concerns one for another as fathers and mothers and children."
"I believe the youth are not only willing and able to do genealogical research, but they are a good means of giving life to the whole program" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 163).
In the April 1993 General Conference President Boyd K. Packer told us to, “Say the word temple. Say it quietly and reverently. Say it over and over again. Temple. Temple. Temple. Add the word holy. Holy Temple. Say it as though it were capitalized, no matter where it appears in the sentence. “Temple. One other word is equal in importance to a Latter-day Saint. Home. Put the words holy temple and home together, and you have described the house of the Lord!”
In his April 2009 General Conference Talk “Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples” Elder Gary Stevenson said, “Understanding the eternal nature of the temple will draw you to your family; understanding the eternal nature of the family will draw you to the temple.” Elder Stevenson then promised, “You are never lost when you can see the temple. The temple will provide direction for you and your family in a world filled with chaos. It is an eternal guidepost which will help you from getting lost in the “mist of darkness.” It is the house of the Lord. It is a place where covenants are made and eternal ordinances are performed.”
While I was on my mission President Howard W. Hunter said, "Truly, the Lord desires that His people be a temple motivated people. It would be the deepest desire of my heart to have every member of the Church be temple worthy. I would hope that every adult member would be worthy of – and carry – a current temple recommend, even if proximity to a temple does not allow immediate or frequent use of it. Let us be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. Let us hasten to the temple as frequently as time and means and personal circumstances allow." (Ensign, Nov. 1994)
“Regardless of the place or time period, temples are the most sacred place on earth-a place where earth and heaven meet and where we feel close to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. (Source LDS.org)
President Monson, April 2011 General Conference, “In my own family, some of our most sacred and treasured experiences have occurred when we have joined together in the temple to perform sealing ordinances for our deceased ancestors.
To you parents of young children, may I share with you some sage advice from President Spencer W. Kimball. He said: “It would be a fine thing if … parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so their children from the time they are infants could look at the picture every day until it becomes a part of their lives. When they reach the age that they need to make the very important decision concerning going to the temple, it will have already been made.”
Elder Bednar April 2009 General Conference, “"As we stand in the waters of baptism, we look to the temple. As we partake of the sacrament, we look to the temple. We pledge to always remember the Savior and to keep His commandments as preparation to participate in the sacred ordinances of the temple and receive the highest blessings available through the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, in the ordinances of the holy temple we more completely and fully take upon us the name of Jesus Christ."
Quotes are by President Thomas S. Monson from the Oct. 2010 Ensign.
The temple lifts us, exalts us, stands as a beacon for all to see, and points us toward celestial glory.
The late Elder Matthew Cowley, who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, once recounted the Saturday afternoon experience of a grandfather as hand in hand he took his small granddaughter on a birthday visit—not to the zoo or to the movies but to the temple grounds. With permission of the groundskeeper, the two walked to the large doors of the temple. He suggested that she place her hand on the sturdy wall and then on the massive door. Tenderly he then said to her, “Remember that this day you touched the temple. One day you will go inside.” His gift to the little one was not candy or ice cream but an experience far more significant and everlasting—an appreciation of the house of the Lord. She had touched the temple, and the temple had touched her.
This is the marvelous blessing that awaits those who come to the temple. May each of us live worthy lives, with clean hands and pure hearts, so that the temple may touch our lives and our families.
How far is heaven? I testify that in the holy temples it is not far at all—for it is in these sacred places that heaven and earth meet and our Heavenly Father gives His children His greatest blessings.
As we touch the temple and love the temple, our lives will reflect our faith. As we go to the holy house, as we remember the covenants we make therein, we will be able to bear every trial and overcome each temptation.
The Lord has indicated that the greatest work we parents can do is performed in our homes, and our homes can be heaven, particularly when our marriages are sealed in the house of God.”
