Touch Ten Temples

How far is heaven?

It’s not very far.

In temples of God,

It’s right where we are.

President Thomas S. Monson:

"As we touch the temple and love the temple, our lives will reflect our faith. As we go to the holy house, as we remember the covenants we make therein, we will be able to bear every trial and overcome each temptation. The temple provides purpose for our lives. It brings peace to our souls—not the peace provided by men but the peace promised by the Son of God when He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”2

As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us."

I am constantly amazed at my stupidity.  

I know that is a strange way to begin, but as I look back on this trip and how much I dragged my feet in planning it, how much I complained to the Lord in my mind and during prayers about the prompting I had received to do this activity and now I wonder why.  

I think about how I profess to believe the promises that are given to us through scriptures and modern revelation, but sometimes don't really believe them in my heart.  

OF COURSE if the Lord prompts you to do something it's going to be worthwhile. 

OF COURSE it's going to be for a reason and for the benefit of someone in your path.  Why am I always forgetting this?  

Back to the beginning:  many years ago one of my little piano students told me that her grandparents had taken her family on a Touch Ten Temples trip.  I thought it sounded like a cool idea, and put it in my mental folder to do as a family some day.  

Year after year I thought "We should do that trip," but it never came to fruition.  Every time I thought about it, I would think "I mean, you just drive all day and get in and out of the car to just go up and touch the temples?  It kinda sounds not worth the effort and expense."  So I would shove the idea away. 

Last week, there was an extremely long wait as I was sitting in the endowment session of the Ogden Temple, while my nephew was taking out his endowments for the first time.  It was about ten straight minutes of silence.  It was during that silence that a voice as clear as day impressed upon my mind:

DO THE  TEN TEMPLES ACTIVITY. 

No, it shouldn't be in all caps.  The feeling was all caps, but the voice was a faint whisper that I could have easily ignored - 

Do the ten temples activity....

Yes, it was more like that.  

And me being stupid me, immediately thought:  

"Ugh...really?  I don't want to do this!"  

I started doing the rationalizing thing in my mind that is also stupid:  "But it is so BUSY, and  I'm tired, and who will come and it's a lot of work, and not a very practical activity, and will my kids even want to do it, etc."  

Do the ten temples activity....

"I mean, is driving around and touching temples really worth all that is required to put this together?"

At some point, I remembered all of the other times in my life when I have been stupid and tried to rationalize away a prompting, and something inside me wised up and realized that it didn't matter whether I wanted to or not, I had received a direct prompting - I couldn't deny it -  and must keep my commitment to myself to follow all promptings from the Spirit. The Lord must have something in mind for someone.

I didn't expect that someone would be me.  I thought I would be helping others with this project, but to my surprise, this activity had a profound effect on me.  

First, it started with the research.  I googled "Touch the temple" and a few talks by President Monson appeared.  In one of them was a promise:

"As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us."

 I still had doubts that this activity would really be any kind of profound experience, but I do know that "Whether it be by my own voice, or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." D&C 1.  And so I trusted that if there was a promise that the temple would touch us, then it would.

And it DID.  It really did

Yesterday I experienced something really special.  Something inside me is changed.  I feel as if I have stepped through the veil into heaven and then stepped back again.  I want this feeling to stay with me forever.  I could weep every time I think about it.  

It was worth every effort and then some.  And in the end, it wasn't really that much effort.  But what was really cool, was all of the people the Lord so obviously placed in our path during the trip.  

We started off with breakfast at Kneaders in Ogden, where I gave them their passports I found here

I told them to take a moment and write about how they felt at each temple.  We would paste the pictures after the activity.
They also really got into the road trip bingo cards I gave them for the car ride (find printables here):

Ogden Temple

 Right at the start, we got stares from other temple patrons as the kids who were dressed comfortably, but not very reverently, ran through the temple grounds very loudly and up to the temple to touch it.  As I was taking this picture, I noticed the grounds worker looking at us curiously so I explained what we were doing.

"Ten temples in one day?!"  (I came to be familiar with that response)

He immediately used it as an opportunity to counsel the teens with me.

"Pick your favorite temple, and set it in stone in your mind that you will not settle for anything less than taking your sweetheart there someday."

His name was Luis and he proceeded to tell us a story about how he joined the church when he was 28.  He had been dating a girl for 7 years when he visited the L.A. temple and made a goal that he wanted to get married there someday.  He decided to go on a mission.  By the time he got home, he was 30 and was ready to marry this girl whom he had loved for so long but she would not marry him in the temple.  He thought, "I'm 30 years old with no prospects.  There's probably a good chance I will not have the opportunity to marry again.  But if I can't marry this girl in the temple, but more specifically in the L.A. temple then I have to end it."  It was really sad and hard, but he just KNEW he had to get married in the Los Angeles temple.  

Four months later he met the girl that would become his wife.  She had just put in her papers to go on a mission.  She told him, "If you meet someone while I am gone, don't miss the opportunity to get married because of me," but he ended up waiting for her to return and guess what....

They were married in the L.A. temple. 

The day he was at the L.A. temple, he was offered a job as a groundskeeper there, and that is how he eventually came to work his way to the position at the Ogden Temple.  

And be there at the doors, on the exact day, at the exact moment we went to touch the temple.  I still don't know which one of us needed that story, or what difference it will make in our lives, but I know that we were meant to cross paths and hear his story.  

You can immediately feel a difference inside when you are on the temple grounds.  It feels so good.  It's PEACE beyond understanding.  Even the kids could feel it.  The boys took a moment to soak it in:

#2 Bountiful Temple

I printed out a Bountiful Temple Scavenger Hunt found here.  

Next, Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square.

I had to use the bathroom, so I ran ahead to the Visitor's Center and while I was waiting for them to arrive, I got to talking with the sister missionaries there.  

After the kids arrived, I got to share my story about how when I was 11 our family traveled out west from VA. and visited temple square.  I filled out one of those cards in my hand, which asks for your address if you want to know more.  Sister missionaries visited me and left me a Book of Mormon with a picture of a family and their testimony pasted in it. I always kept it on my shelf and had a feeling that it was special. 

Years later, I began dating a member of the LDS church and started going to youth events with him.  One of the really cool youth leaders was Brother Dewey and all of the youth loved him.  Needing a father figure in my life, I connected with him as well.  

I finally figured out that the Book of Mormon I had on my shelf was associated with their church, so I dug it out and guess whose testimony it was on the inside of my book?

Brother Dewey.  He was older and had more kids but it was him.  And I thought, "Well now I have to read it if Brother Dewey endorsed it!"

I was so glad I had the opportunity to tell the kids my story and bear my testimony.  Here are our future missionaries at the visitor center:

 

On to the Jordan River Temple

Then seven minutes down the road to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  

 

We were all surprised at how close they really were, and it really hit home how lucky we are to be able to visit 10 temples in one day when many saints save their whole lives to travel to a temple one time.  I shared how when I went to college at Virginia Tech, we had to drive 3 1/2 hours from Blacksburg to the Washington D.C. temple.  They were like....whoa!

 Draper Temple

We took the back mountain pass to the Mount Timpanogos temple and it was BEAUTIFUL!

Provo temple had BEAUTIFUL flowers!

Provo City Center Temple

The kids were excited to find another Christus statue there.

And here we are holding up ten fingers because we made it to Payson, temple #10!

We didn't realize what was happening to us as we were going from temple to temple, but at the very last, I spoke with one of the kids and we both confirmed that we felt different inside.  I challenged the kids to write a letter to their future selves, deciding now that they would take their sweetheart to the temple and reminding themselves that they could feel a difference after today.

President Monson was right, touching the temple DID touch us!  

It was really a simple activity with big spiritual effects.  And also super fun!  

It was a huge reminder that when you receive a prompting - DO IT!   The promises are true. This experience was a huge testimony boost of the power of the temple.  Even just spending time on the temple grounds has the power to bring you closer to Christ.  

This is HIS church.  I know it is true.