Work to Do

©Darrell Wyatt

I have a temple 3.63 miles from my front door.  I know, because I just mapped it.  According to the map, it would take me 12 minutes to get from my house to the Logan Temple.  In fact, if I were to travel around 8 hours in any direction, I could have the pick of 24 temples.  Eight hours!  Twenty-four temples!  I've heard stories of people who sell everything they have and travel for days, just to be able to attend the temple one time.  I have two dozen temples within a reasonable driving distance, and I haven't been there in a very long time.

In an earlier blog, I talked about the Providence Stake goals for 2009 (the gospel basics).  This year's goals look like this:

Our stake boundaries are small.  If I calculated it right, the home in our stake furthest from the temple has just over five miles to travel.  Yet, the stake presidency felt the need to make going to the temple a top priority for the year 2010.  There must be many people who, like me, have for one reason or another let their recommends lapse.  After all, if we were all regularly attending the temple, there would be no reason for the push.


Isaiah foretold of the building of temples in the last days:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob...

And people are coming from all nations.  Right now, there are over 150 temples, including the ones just announced or under construction.  There are temples on all but one continent.  That is incredible to me.  

I remember watching General Conference in 1998, when President Hinckley made this announcement:

As I have previously indicated, in recent months we have traveled far out among the membership of the Church. I have been with many who have very little of this world's goods. But they have in their hearts a great burning faith concerning this latter-day work. They love the Church. They love the gospel. They love the Lord and want to do His will. They are paying their tithing, modest as it is. They make tremendous sacrifices to visit the temples. They travel for days at a time in cheap buses and on old boats. They save their money and do without to make it all possible.

They need nearby temples--small, beautiful, serviceable temples.

Accordingly, I take this opportunity to announce to the entire Church a program to construct some 30 smaller temples immediately. They will be in Europe, in Asia, in Australia and Fiji, in Mexico and Central and South America and Africa, as well as in the United States and Canada. They will have all the necessary facilities to provide the ordinances of the Lord's house.

Goosebumps.  At the time that he said this, there were 51 operating temples and 17 under construction, with these 30 smaller temples bringing the total number to 98.  Then he said, "I think we had better add 2 more to make it an even 100 by the end of this century."  I remember thinking that this was almost an unreachable goal.  The Church was almost 170 years old, and only 51 temples had been built.  President Hinckley wanted to double that amount in just two years!  Here we are, 12 years after his talk, and exactly 100 more temples have been built or announced since then.  What a testimony to me of the greatness of having a living prophet on this earth.  He knew, without a doubt, that this almost impossible undertaking would be possible.  He knew that all nations needed to be able to attend the temple.  And knew that this would make it much easier for them to do so.  I can only imagine the excitement of those in other countries who were watching conference or who read his words later in church magazines.  I bet the feeling of gratitude was overwhelming.  The Lord had remembered them!  He knew of their desire to perform temple ordinances and to move the gospel forward.  He knew them.

Oh how I have taken my close proximity to the temple for granted.  Life is busy.  There's always tomorrow, right?  But there isn't always tomorrow.  There are people waiting for these ordinances to be done for them, and I can only imagine their frustration with people like me who keep putting it off.

I think I'll make an appointment to meet with the Bishop this Sunday.  I have work to do!

Click here to read what I read today: Chapter 12

Click here to read what I read today: Chapter 13

Click here to read what I read today: Chapter 14