We are a temple going people.  With so many temples being made available to us, we, as sisters, can carry on a great work, the work of salvation.

Aren’t we continually surprised to know there is a temple in a certain location?  It’s hard to keep up with all of them (128+).  And in case you missed it:  a temple will be built near the Vatican, in Rome.  Also, did you hear about the temple going up in the Kansas City area?  Isn’t that awfully close to Independence?

Sis. Allred’s talk, on the temple, is a reminder to us all.  If you don’t have a recommend, live well enough to be worthy of one.  If you can get to a temple, go often.  If you are still too far away to go regularly, join the rest of us and do family history work.  If you have a computer, volunteer to do extraction on-line.  There is something all of us can be doing that ultimately links us to the temple.

Why are temples so important to our religion?  Sis Allred, said at our recent Relief Society meeting, “The Lord has always asked His people to build temples. The Lord commanded Moses: “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.  The portable tabernacle they built served as the central place of Israel’s worship during their pilgrimage to the promised land. Its pattern and structure were revealed by the Lord to Moses. It was to be the Lord’s holy house.  Later, King Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem using the finest building materials available.  During His earthly ministry, the Lord regarded the temple as a sacred place and taught reverence for it.  The Nephites also built temples to the Lord in the Americas. They were gathered around the temple when Christ appeared to them after His Resurrection.  Soon after the Church was restored in this dispensation, the Lord commanded the Saints to build a temple: “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.  In response, the Saints built the Kirtland Temple at considerable sacrifice. In this holy temple, important priesthood keys were restored and the Savior Himself appeared.”

We are doing what has always been done.  We are participating in what was always intended to be available to us.  The temple holds the purpose of life, the plan of our salvation, and the goals of eternity within its walls.

Sis. Allred goes on to say, “The initiatory ordinances provide us with specific immediate and future blessings.  The endowment embodies sacred covenants. It includes receiving instruction, power from on high, and the promise of blessings on condition of our faithfulness to the covenants we make.  President Brigham Young defined the endowment the following way:  ‘Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father . . . and gain your eternal exaltation.’  The sealing ordinances, such as temple marriage, bind families eternally.  The covenants we make with the associated ordinances we receive in the temple become our credentials for admission into God’s presence.”

As we all  know, at the time of baptism, we covenant to keep the commandments of the Lord.  He has commanded us to live worthily in order to continue making the covenants He has made available.  The blessings in store for us are made evident in the lives we lead as we continue on our singular journey.  Aren’t we happier when we choose the right?  Aren’t we protected when we avoid evil?  Aren’t we blessed when we follow the prophet?  It is Jesus Christ whose name we take upon ourselves.  It is His holy temple we enter, in similitude of His Heavenly Home, in preparation to gather there with all our loved ones.