Temple Service

It is mid-July already!  We have been home from our mission for three weeks now.  Our days are occupied with home maintenance and gardening, and we find the preoccupations of daily life crowding out meditation on spiritual themes.  While they are fresh in our minds we’d like to share some of our impressions of our mission and the temple. (And in future posts we want to share our great travels in Spain during two weeks following the end of our mission.)

While serving in the temple we were at our best -- a little more patient, a little more loving, a little more understanding, and a little more focused on serving others.  There was a refining process from spending eight hours a day five days a week in the House of the Lord; some books and entertainment that seemed fun and diverting before our mission now seemed jarring and out of place, and we learned to avoid them.

While living in temple housing we would see the temple out of the window while waiting for the elevator,

and pass it on our way to the grocery store, the bus stop, the subway, the park.

It was a constant reminder of the purpose of life here on earth, and a beacon lighting the way to the life to come.  When returning from an outing we passed the temple fountains,

a sculpture of a young family,

and an olive tree

—all symbols of life lived well.

Arriving just as light was beginning to show in the east, being greeted by Greg when he was serving at the front desk, and seeing Temple Square lighted to celebrate Christmas are favorite memories.

While in the temple neither of us ever saw a vision or heard a voice, but we often saw evidence that God cares about the work that goes on in His temples.  We would often find ourselves smiling for no reason other than sheer joy.  When we began a day of temple service as coordinators we would often lack the number of workers necessary to cover the ordinances scheduled, but by the end of a day filled with minor miracles and tender mercies the work would somehow have all been done.  In the course of our assignments we would sometimes have time to ponder, and would realize that often without noticing it some gospel question we had been carrying in our minds had been answered and we had come to understand gospel concepts more deeply.  We learned to feel joy, and trust in the Lord.  Now our challenge is to carry those feelings with us out into the world at large.