The House of the Lord

For the past few weeks my wife and I have been working very hard to get people to join us in an excursion to the Mexico City Temple, which is opening after two years of renovations. We invited investigators, less actives, and newly baptized people. Many of whom we’ve had trouble getting to commit to more simple things like coming to Church.

Something that perhaps you should know about me. I am very passionate about the temple. I believe it to truly be the House of the Lord as were the temples of antiquity, a place with a beautiful peace and spirit. For this reason, I called and I visited and I visited, trying to excite these people whom I have come to love very dearly to join me and my wife.

On Tuesday the day finally arrived. Everyone came, well, everyone except for one. The bishop had rented two small buses, one for me and my wife and the people we had invited and the other for other members of the ward. Both buses were full. On the trip my love for the Mexican people grew. Even though many did not know each other, they had a wonderful time together, talking and laughing and sharing food.

The temple was well organized, with guides everywhere, who did a wonderful job of helping those that were with me to understand what a sacred place the temple was. We saw movies about the eternal nature of families that moved us to tears and we stood around altars where I could easily imagine each of the families that had come with us kneeling in the not too distant future. The culmination of the visit was our time in the celestial room. The guide said nothing. We all stood in complete silence for a couple of minutes and the Spirit of the temple worked its wonders. Everyone afterwards said that was the part that had touched them the most.

As we left the temple there was one more wonder and surprise in store for us. In the final gathering area there was an incredible life size picture of Jesus Christ standing in a jungle area with two teary eyed young girls clinging to his robes. It was so life like that it looked like a photograph. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Even now as I write this there are tears in my eyes thinking about it.