Terry looks absolutely handsome to me in a suit and white shirt or mechanic coveralls. He is my honey for sure!!! All decked out this afternoon in his navy suit. Sigh.
Today we headed over to the Temple as we both felt the need for that blessing that comes simply by going into the Temple. There is a feeling of peacefulness and hope. Inner calm just saturates bone deep. Sort of like coming indoors from freezing blizzardy snowy wintry air, being chilled to the bone and drawn to the warmth of the wood burning stove. Feeling that heat saturation just makes you melt, with feeling good. That describes the relaxation that comes to me in the Temple.
There was a curiosity in me about Temples. I wondered if there was any benefit, any personal blessing, that came to someone when they went to the Temple and were proxy for the ordinances of those long departed. I puzzled over... was I some sort of a selfish sinner, for wondering if I might feel/receive something beyond just feeling good, for helping someone out? I had a bit of unshared embarrassment within, with my - is that all there is?- attitude.
I had progressed to the point that my mantra was If/Then. If I learned a blessing was to be had by some act of obedience on my part, Then I was eager to claim that blessing through obedience. I took Doctrine&Covenants 130:20-21 to heart. It was Gospel truth to me as was Doctrine&Covenants 132:5
This wondering sent me on a search in the mid-70's or maybe even earlier. Alaska didn't have a Temple. We could go to any one. Seattle wasn't built yet. Nor was Boise. Alaskans, at least most of us, claimed Salt Lake as our Temple. My parents lived in Boise so that was where I traveled to, when helping them with health challenges. I very seldom got to go to the Temple.
Nonetheless I wanted to know how to get the most out of those rare occasions when I did get to go. The technology of today wasn't even in existence but I read a lot. I kept on the lookout for something that would expand my enjoyment and blessing of those times I did attend a Temple.
At last!!! I found what I was looking for!! President Ezra Taft Benson- now that is a reliable source for sure!!!!
In the peace of these lovely temples, sometimes we find solutions to the serious problems of life. Under the influence of the Spirit, sometimes pure knowledge flows to us there. Temples are places of personal revelation. When I have been weighed down by a problem or difficulty, I have gone to the House of the Lord with a prayer in my heart for answers. These answers have come in clear and unmistakable ways. ---President Ezra Taft Benson 1984
To this day I check all Conference talks for those specific personal blessings and have compiled several. I used to read them on the way to the Seattle Temple. Here is another favorite one that I found from 1921!
I believe that the busy person on the farm, in the shop, in the office, or in the household, who has his worries and troubles, can solve his problems better and more quickly in the House of the Lord than anywhere else. If he will leave his problems behind, and in the temple work for himself and for his dead, he will confer a mighty blessing upon those who have gone before, and quite as large a blessing will come to him, for at the most unexpected moment, in or out of the temple will come to him, as a revelation, the solutions of the problems that vex his life. That is the gift that come to those who enter the temple properly, because it is a place where revelations may be expected. I bear you my personal testimony that this is so. ---Elder John A. Widtsoe 1921
What a terrific day it was!! I already feel so much better and the prayer that I requested for help, hasn't even arrived yet!! It will happen. I know that for sure!
So come to the Temple- come and claim your blessings. It is a sacred work. ---Boyd K. Packer
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