The Holy Temple

I am usually not much for sharing my feelings on my blog. I don't know why, but I keep thinking about the great impact the book "The Holy Temple" by Boyd K Packer had on me. I have been done with the book for about a week now and there were several things this book made me more grateful for and some things the book made me want to.

First, Jeff and I were able to go to the Temple last Friday night, as we were getting out of our car I looked up at the Temple and felt a new sense of reverence and respect for the early members of the church who sacrificed so much in order to build Temples. Each town the early saints would settle in, their first priority was to build a Temple, sometimes building a Temple came before the building of their own homes. They were not always able to build a Temple, but when they were successful in building (twice before their treck west to the Salt Lake Valley), some were blessed to be able to do their own ordinance work before the mobs would drive them out of town. Shortly after they were driven out of town the Temple was either burned or defiled greatly. No mater how many towns the mobs would drive the early saints from, no matter how many times they tried to build a Temple, their faith never wavered. How many of us can say that as trials come our way, our faith never wavers?

Second, the book makes me want to search out my ancestors, to do their ordinance work and to learn about their lives. I am very grateful to my brother-in-law, Steve for doing a lot of the genealogy work for his and Jeff's side of our family. I know he has spent a lot of his time, effort, and energy searching out their ancestors, that is a wonderful gift he has given to not only Jeff and I, and to the rest of his family (deceased, living, and yet to live).

Third, the book made me want to put together our own Books of Remembrance. So a few days after finishing the book, Jeff and I bought two scrapbooks and one day during nap I sorted through Jeff's and my belongings and found things we would want to include in our own Books of Remembrance. I found things like our birth certificates, awards from school, diplomas, marriage certificate, child birth certificates, etc. Sunday night we put all our things in chronological order and put them in our books. I did not "permanently" put our various certificates in the books yet, I want to wait a few weeks to make sure we have gathered everything we need.

If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it, and if you have not put together your own Book of Remembrance, you should.