Temple Open House

Well it's been a bitter-sweet week - saying goodbye to lots of wonderful people! Like my district!

This week ended with a fantastic activity all about the temple! (For those of you who are wondering what could be so special about a building, keep reading.) Everyone got to go on a tour through the church, learning about temples.

This is a temple. It's bigger that a church or chapel. In the temple we make covenants with God that allow us to be with our families for ever. In the temple, we learn more about God's plan of happiness and more about our Savior Jesus Christ.

In the same way the a high school diploma is necessary to enter the university, there are steps we take to prepare to enter the temple. So in the activity, we all got to learn step-by-step what one does to prepare.

These steps are simple things: have faith in Jesus Christ, read the scriptures, pray, be baptized, keep the commandments.... We can hop from one step to the next, toward the temple.

Why is the temple such a worthy goal? There are a hundred reasons! One of my favorites is simply the feeling that's there. My favorite room is the Celestial Room; it's a place to ponder and feel the Spirit. So for our activity, we made a little replica of a celestial room so that everyone can get a taste of what it feels like to be in the temple.

Raquel and Alberto Arias testified to everyone about the power of the temple. They dressed in white because, in the temple, everyone wears white to represent purity.

I was grateful for the peaceful spirit that we felt in this activity. And it was so fun to spend time with my friends here in El Paso!

We ended the activity with food and "temple games" like building sugar cube temples!

Lots of wonderful people here in El Paso!

Oh how I'm going to miss them all!

I'm excited to see Sister Hendricks continue to do incredible things here in the Transmountain Ward. She's the best!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve the Lord here in the El Paso. I have learned so much about our Heavenly Father and His love for us. I am grateful that I get to continue to serve Him and learn more about His love throughout my life.