So far this year, Jonathan and I have gone to the temple once a week. Honestly, I don't know if we'll be able to keep that up for the entire year. Life has the tendency of getting in the way. I have 2 goals in regard with temples this year. First, I want to go to the two remaining Utah temples we haven't been to yet. Ogden and Brigham City, though later this year we'll have to add Payson to the list! (Sorry Monticello, you are just too far for us to realistically make it out there.) Second, each time we go to the temple I want to take at least one of our own family names. It has been such a wonderful experience being able to take my ancestors to my absolute favorite place on earth. If you haven't taken your family to the temple, do it! It is such a powerful experience and they need you to take them.
Our first temple of the year was the Salt Lake Temple. It offers a unique experience because it is a live session format and you can enjoy the original pioneer craftsmanship that went into the construction of the temple. I love how it feels like you are transported into another era.
Our second temple was Mount Timpanogos. This is the temple we are assigned to go to. I love it because there are some similarities to the Sacramento Temple which I seriously miss. The Utah temples are all beautiful, but they are also huge and I rarely know where anything is. I miss my cute little Sacramento Temple. Anyway, I was having a particularly hard day and needed to feel loved. As you may know, there are 3 different video presentations that they use in the temple. It has literally been over a year since I saw the first one. That night there was a lot of people at the temple, so we missed the 7:40 session and were instead in the 8:00 session. The session started and it was the first video. I felt so loved and that Heavenly Father notices me as an individual.
Our third temple trip was to the Provo Temple. This choice in temple happened accidentally. We had actually planned and driven the entire 15 minutes to the Mount Timpanogos Temple just for me to realize that I had forgotten my temple recommend. I got a little too focused on making sure I had our family names... We drove back home and decided to go the 7 minute drive to Provo instead. (Seriously, people in Utah complain about how long it takes to get to the temple. I have a hard time taking them seriously.) Anyway, we got to seal all of these wonderful ancestors to their parents. In the mix was a pair of brothers born in the 1680s, two brothers and a sister born in the early 1700s, two sisters born in the 1780s, and Theodore born in 1840. When I was making sure that everyone was ready to be sealed to their parents, I realized that I could have been doing the temple work for Theodore's wife as well. I try to take family members and spouses to the temple together, so I was shocked with myself when I saw that she needed to got to the temple as well. I'm not too worried though because she is in the next group of family to take to the temple!
Our fourth temple trip was an especially exciting one. It was the first time Jonathan had names from his own family! I may or may not have been the one who actually found them, but that doesn't even matter. As I've been finding our family, I feel personally responsible to make sure they get to the temple.
Last week, our schedules prevented us from going to the temple together. I enjoy going to the temple with Jonathan, but it was kind of nice to have the opportunity to be there by myself. I used to go to the temple by myself all the time before we were married. It was nice to have the time for me to just ponder about my goals and challenges. I feel so blessed that we live so close to so many temples and that I have the time to find my ancestors that need me to take them to the temple.
