Yesterday, I had the blessing and privilege of going to the Orlando temple with the youth of my home stake. The project for the youth of the stake this year was to do some genealogy work and find a name that has not had their temple work done. The big sha-bang of a finale was this temple trip, during which the youth who had been working on their genealogy would be able to take those names that they found to the temple and start the temple work for their ancestor.
It was an early start to a morning. I woke up at the unholy hour of 4:15am to leave at 5:15am. We got to the stake center across the street from the temple around 7:45am, which is impeccable timing considering Orlando's crazy traffic at every hour of the day.*
There, at the stake center, the temple president gave a talk about symbols of the temple. After that, we broke off in to three groups. One went to the temple to do baptisms, one stayed behind to play games related to family history and other church-related things, and the third did a temple grounds tour of sorts.
It was a long day, but it was amazing nonetheless. As awesome as the Provo temple is, the Orlando temple will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the first temple I ever set foot in. It is the temple where I have received so many answers to so many prayers. It is my temple.
For those of you not familiar with the Mormon jargon, temples are sacred places where worthy members of the church, twelve years and older, enter to do work for those who have passed away.** Work, meaning saving ordinances, such as baptism. We do not actually go grave-digging and baptize corpses. That's just nasty. We believe in the scripture: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. We stand in place of those who have passed away, since they no longer have the physical capacity to receive those saving ordinances themselves. Those who passed away without the gospel deserve the chance to know it and have the opportunity to live eternally with their Heavenly Father, their Savior, and their family, and it is such a blessing to be able to help them on that road to eternal joy.
I love the gospel so much. It is a gospel of joy, peace, and strength. It is a gospel of hope.
*Seriously, though. Once, I was on my way back to Jacksonville at 3am, and I was still stuck in traffic for an hour.
**It is also a place for living worthy members to make sacred covenants and receive sacred ordinances that can only be performed in the temple.
It was an early start to a morning. I woke up at the unholy hour of 4:15am to leave at 5:15am. We got to the stake center across the street from the temple around 7:45am, which is impeccable timing considering Orlando's crazy traffic at every hour of the day.*
There, at the stake center, the temple president gave a talk about symbols of the temple. After that, we broke off in to three groups. One went to the temple to do baptisms, one stayed behind to play games related to family history and other church-related things, and the third did a temple grounds tour of sorts.It was a long day, but it was amazing nonetheless. As awesome as the Provo temple is, the Orlando temple will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the first temple I ever set foot in. It is the temple where I have received so many answers to so many prayers. It is my temple.
For those of you not familiar with the Mormon jargon, temples are sacred places where worthy members of the church, twelve years and older, enter to do work for those who have passed away.** Work, meaning saving ordinances, such as baptism. We do not actually go grave-digging and baptize corpses. That's just nasty. We believe in the scripture: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. We stand in place of those who have passed away, since they no longer have the physical capacity to receive those saving ordinances themselves. Those who passed away without the gospel deserve the chance to know it and have the opportunity to live eternally with their Heavenly Father, their Savior, and their family, and it is such a blessing to be able to help them on that road to eternal joy.
I love the gospel so much. It is a gospel of joy, peace, and strength. It is a gospel of hope.
*Seriously, though. Once, I was on my way back to Jacksonville at 3am, and I was still stuck in traffic for an hour.
**It is also a place for living worthy members to make sacred covenants and receive sacred ordinances that can only be performed in the temple.
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