The Blessings of Temple Attendance

This past weekend I had Stake Conference were the topic focused on was the Temple. I gleaned so many insights I thought I would share some. We can gain some of the greatest blessings by regular temple attendance.

My Stake President talked about 3 things in particular. 1-We need to understand the temple. 2-Understand the sacrifices and be willing to make them. 3-Be worthy of and hold a current temple recommend. He was a Mission President in Africa prior to his calling as our Stake President and shared pictures and thoughts from the saints in Nigeria. I cannot believe the sacrifices the people of that country made to get to the temple!!! It truly makes me grateful that I can attend weekly and only drive 10-15 minutes to get there. I especially loved a talk that our Stake President shared by Julie Beck in a CES fireside in March of 2008. Here is a link to it: http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,538-1-4430-1,00.html

My favorite part of her talk is this story-

"A much-told family story illustrates the importance of a temple recommend. When one of my sisters was a young single adult, she danced one night with a man whom she thought she would like to know better. When she returned home she told my mother about him. My mother was skeptical and said there was no possible way to know if a man was good just by dancing with him.

My sister replied, “He has a temple recommend, so he must be pretty good.”

Mother asked, “How do you know he has a recommend? Did you ask as you were dancing, ‘So, do you have a recommend?’”

My sister laughed and said, “No, but he said something about having plans to go to the temple tomorrow with a mission companion, and he must have a recommend to do that.”

Deliberately, my mother asked, “Why is it so important to know that?”

My sister answered, “Well, if I know a man has a recommend, I know he keeps the Word of Wisdom, I know he pays his tithing, I know he attends his meetings, I know he honors his priesthood, I know he sustains the leaders of the Church, and I know he has a testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I want to start with a recommend as the basis for any relationship and go from there. When I know a man has a recommend, there are a lot of questions I don’t have to ask.”

We also had the privilege to hear from the Hawaii Laie Temple President and his wife while they are on leave here in Utah. The most insightful thing I gained from the Temple President was when he talked about the purpose of Moses leading the children of Israel into the wilderness. The reason Moses brought the children of Israel into the wilderness was to bring them back into the presence of God. Essentially God wanted the children of Israel to meet him on Mt. Sinai (the temple), but the children of Israel were too lazy and idolatrous and sent Moses to do their errand. Other people cannot do our errand, we must prepare OURSELVES to meet God and that preparation is done by going to the temple!