Come to the House of the Lord

Church was wonderful yesterday. Being the fifth Sunday, the sacrament meeting was dedicated to missionary work. Our two full-time missionaries spoke and did a wonderful job. But for me, the best part was hearing from a fairly new member named Bob. He is from Thailand and joined the church about a year and a half ago and on Saturday, he went through the temple for the first time. They asked him to bear testimony of his experience there and it touched my heart so deeply that I had to share my thoughts. He explained that in the year and a half since his baptism, he had been to the temple three times. His first time was a visit to the visitor's center where he first saw the temple. He said from the moment he saw it he knew he wanted to go there someday. His second trip was to do baptisms for the dead, another experience that only deepened his desire to receive his endowments. His third trip was one with his son. He brought his son to the grounds to clean. But I am sure this wasn't his only purpose. I am sure he wanted to teach his son how important and sacrad the temple was. He wanted his son to know how important it was to be worthy of it one day. Bob went on to say that on Saturday, his dream came true. When he said that, tears filled my eyes as I thought about my own temple experience. I remember going through for my own endowment and feeling like I had made it! I had done my very best to stay worthy so I could enter the temple. I remember how often I went that first year. Living in Logan, I had the opportunity to go every week. It was a time in my life I will always treasure as the temple was such an intregal part of my life. Over the years, that excitement has wavered and weaned a bit. Not because I don't still find it to be a sacrad, wonderful place of worship, but because I have let things get in the way! But yesterday, I was reminded of what a blessing, privelege and honor it is to have a temple so close and to know that I can go whenever I want! I want to feel like Bob does, that every time I get to go, it is a dream come true. We have two wonderful events coming up in our family where we will get to enter the House of the Lord together, as a whole family. We will literally see each other standing together and maybe, we'll get a taste of what eternity will be like! I hope we will all go often to the temple this summer to prepare our hearts for these sacrad events. I hope we will continue to go often for the rest of our lives, wherever we are, so we can remember the eternal things we are working towards.