Temples

Our Wedding Day, Bountiful, Utah Temple

Palmyra, New York Temple

Washington DC Temple

Fort Collins, Colorado Temple

One distinctive feature of my church is our temples.  We have temples all across the world, from Paris, New York City, Hong Kong, Mexico City, and beyond. In total, there are 155 Mormon temples around the world, with 27 more in the process of being built. Chances are, you’ve either seen or heard of a Mormon temple at some point. 

So why do we have temples? What is their purpose?

In the Bible, it explains how temples were built to worship God. We view temples in the same way today. We build temples to worship God, and to be close to Him. Inside the temple, members make promises to God to keep His commandments.  In return, we believe we receive great blessings from God.

 We view a temple as God’s literal house, where we can go to feel His love and receive guidance from Him. We also get married in the temple because we view marriage as a very sacred and important promise that we make to both God and our spouse. 

Because we view the temple as such a sacred, holy place, there are certain criteria members have to meet to be able to enter inside. These include things like having a testimony of Jesus Christ, keeping commandments such as abstaining from sex until you are married and keeping what’s called the “word of wisdom” (https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/word-of-wisdom) (which is why Mormons don’t drink alcohol or do drugs).

To learn more about Mormon Temples, you can go here: https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/temples

I love the temple. I believe with all my heart that it’s God’s house. I believe with all my heart that He desires all of His children be able to enter there and receive amazing blessings. 

Not only can I witness that these amazing blessings are real and wonderful, but I can also witness that I have received some of the most sacred and needed guidance in my life while inside the walls of the temple.  Many of these experiences are too close to my heart to share, but I do want to tell you about one that changed the course of my life. 

I was just starting college and I was bogged down with confusion and uncertainty. The question I was constantly asking myself was: what career should I pursue? To some, this may not be as stressful of a decision, but for me, it was one of the most difficult. I had so many different passions and interests that I would have loved to make a career out of. How could I narrow it down to just one? What career would lead to a job that I could realistically make a living off of? Should I just pursue the career that would give me the most enjoyment and that I felt the most passionate about? And what about my hope of one day getting married and being able to raise my children at home– how would my career fit into all of that? 

I took a class at college called “career exploration” which took me through a series of personality tests to determine what jobs I’d be best suited for. Along with “author” and “hiking guide”, “NURSE” kept on popping up as a good fit. NURSE?  I’d never seriously considered nursing as a career in the past, partly because I didn’t believe I’d be able to get into the competitive nursing program at my school.  But “hey”, I thought, “why not look into it?”

So, I started to investigate nursing as a career path. I did a lot of studying and asked a lot of questions. Over several months, I got a lot of feedback, and threw all the information I had learned around in my brain.  And it’s at that point that I was terribly confused. I had a LOT of doubts, fears, and further questions. I NEEDED to know if nursing was the right path to pursue.  And I hoped that God would help me find out…

During this time, I decided to attend the temple. I knew that the temple was a place to receive answers to prayers so before I went, I prayed that God would give me an answer and help me to know if I should pursue nursing as a career. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical that an answer so specific would be answered, but I sure hoped that it would. 

I ended up going with some members of my mom’s congregation, since I was visiting home at the time. I didn’t know any of the people I went with beforehand. 

At one point inside the temple, I was sitting quietly and pondering my question, wondering how or if it would be answered. As I was doing this, the woman sitting next to me, who I had gone with that day, turned to me and asked,  “So, what are you studying in school?” “Well, I’m thinking about nursing,” I told her. “OH!” She exclaimed excitedly, “I’m a nurse!” 

For the next several minutes, this dear lady explained all the reasons why she absolutely loved nursing. Not only that, but without knowing, she answered the specific questions and concerns which I’d had  about nursing, word for word. I knew with certainty that God had answered me. 

After that experience, I pursued nursing with full-force and witnessed many doors of opportunity open right up for me in miraculous ways which ultimately allowed me to become a nurse. Almost 10 years later, I am so grateful for the experiences nursing has given me, and especially grateful for that answered prayer that came in the sacred walls of the temple.