July 30, 2015
The majority of our missionaries arrive to us having already
gone through the temple. The temple is a
special place to LDS people. We call it
getting your “endowment” when you go for the first time to the temple. Endowment means “a gift.” The temple is a gift to us because of
opportunity it gives LDS members to worship in a quiet, beautiful place. We also make additional promises to our
Heavenly Father when we attend. These are
promises of deeper commitment and service.
We feel we receive promises from our Heavenly Father of increased
strength and blessings.
We recently received an Elder from Puerto Rico. He had not had the opportunity to attend the
temple and that privilege is given to each missionary. We live a short distance from the Mexico City
temple which is currently closed for renovations. Our next closest temple is Vera Cruz which is
a five hour drive due east – until you reach the Gulf of Mexico. Literally, the Vera Cruz temple is a 2 minute walk to
the gulf.
The drive was beautiful.
We often felt like we were driving through the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was green and lush as we drove over two mountain
ranges. We had never seen this part of
Mexico and all of us were surprised by the beauty and open spaces.
In the temple, we wear white clothing. As we arrived at the temple early in the
morning, we were warmly greeted. The
temple was already full at 7:30 AM. Four
buses had arrived during the night – all from Mexico City. Faithful saints had filled those buses and
driven all night long to attend the temple.
As I walked into the worship room I was overcome with the beauty of
these saints. Their red eyes did not
dampen the sweet spirit they shared.
They were so beautiful with their black hair and white clothing. What a peaceful, wonderful spirit filled the
temple that day as we all worshiped together.
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