Attending the Temple

It has been several months since Chrise and I were last able to attend the temple. The Mexico City Temple had been closed for renovations for two years. It just opened. It felt so wonderful to be there inside the temple walls and doing an endowment session. We went there with a group of missionaries that are going home this coming Wednesday, our beloved mission president and his wife, and our dear friends the Alvarados. All I could think of was that I am here in Mexico attending a temple. There were no temples in Mexico when I served here more than forty years ago. It was really like a dream come true. The session was full. Having been a temple worker for more than three years, I couldn’t help but note some of the small procedural differences between this temple and our temple in Sacramento, but what a feeling to be there with all those people from Mexico.

That experience left be with a renewed determination to help more people attend the temple. I think temple attendance will be critical for the people of Mexico to realize their great, prophetic potential. I know that the temple is central for us returning to our Father in Heaven, not just for obvious reason of the ordinances and covenants we receive, but also from the strength and power that comes from being within those walls. As I look back over the years of my life, the temple has been paramount for me and my wife. Whenever we have needed help with a desperate problem or had a great need, there we have found what we have searched for. I believe that is one of the reasons that our Father in Heaven has placed such a high priority on temple building. There are five in my former mission today. Forty-two years ago there were none.