In April 2009, Elder Gary E. Stevenson gave a talk about the temple that reached me to my very core. You can find the full talk here. He said,
"You are never lost when you can see the temple. The temple will provide direction for you and your family in a world filled with chaos. It is an eternal guidepost which will help you from getting lost in the “mist of darkness.” It is the house of the Lord. It is a place where covenants are made and eternal ordinances are performed.
The First Presidency has invited 'adult members to have a current temple recommend and visit the temple more often' where time and circumstance permit... They also encouraged 'newer members and youth of the Church who are 12 years of age and older to live worthy to assist in this great work by serving as proxies for baptisms and confirmations.' Even our young children have been encouraged to visit the temple grounds and touch the temple. President Thomas S. Monson once counseled, 'As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.'”
I immediately knew that we needed to make it a priority for our entire family, not just those over 12, to visit the temples. We made a goal that before the end of the year we would visit all of our local temples in Utah to walk the grounds, read something about them and touch the temples. It made a great Sunday afternoon activity for our closest temples. As the year progressed we had other activities further out of town and made visiting the temples in those parts of the state a priority. We reached our goal and by the end of 2009 had visited every temple in Utah other than the St. George and Monticello temples.
That year set a habit in our lives of visiting temples. After that, whenever we travel, we go out of our way if necessary to see the temples in that region.
As of today, October 19, 2017, our family has visited 36 of the 81 temples in the US.
We LOVE visiting temples. We see the temple and feel it's spirit. We are truly never lost when we can see the temple!
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