Presidency 1st Sunday Lesson -- Temple Attendance

Elder Bednar shared the following experience in the April 2009 General Conference:

Shortly after I was called to serve as a stake president in 1987, I talked with a good friend who recently had been released as a stake president. During our conversation I asked him what he would teach me about becoming an effective stake president. His answer to my question had a profound impact upon my subsequent service and ministry.My friend indicated he had been called to serve as a temple worker soon after his release. He then said: “I wish I had been a temple worker before I was a stake president. If I had served in the temple before my call to serve as a stake president, I would have been a very different stake president.”

I was intrigued by his answer and asked him to explain further. He responded: “I believe I was a good stake president. The programs in our stake ran well, and our statistics were above average. But serving in the temple has expanded my vision. If I were called today to serve as a stake president, my primary focus would be on worthiness to receive and honor temple covenants. I would strive to make temple preparation the center of all that we did. I would do a better job of shepherding the Saints to the house of the Lord.”

That brief conversation with my friend helped me as a stake president to teach relentlessly about and testify of the eternal importance of temple ordinances, temple covenants, and temple worship. The deepest desire of our presidency was for every member of the stake to receive the blessings of the temple, to be worthy of and to use frequently a temple recommend.

Sisters, it is of eternal importance to attend the temple regularly.

In Relief Society, we had a discussion of the following questions. Whether or not you were there, take some time to answer these questions for yourself.

1. Why do Latter-day Saints go to the temple?

2. What inhibits you personally from going to the temple? If you do go regularly, what may be lacking in your personal temple worship?

3. How can you overcome these obstacles (from question 2)?

President Monson talked about going to the temple in his most recent conference address:

"If you have been to the temple for yourselves and if you live within relatively close proximity to a temple, your sacrifice could be setting aside the time in your busy lives to visit the temple regularly."

Here's a challenge: If you haven’t been going regularly, go. Go with your husband, grab another sister or go by yourself. Do initiatories, sealings or an endowment session. Choose one of your obstacles and overcome it. If you have been going regularly, continue to do so. Try to get more out of the experience. As you strive to attend the temple regularly, the Lord will bless you and your family.