I have realized, the longer I spend on my mission, the importance of the temple. We were sitting with Diego in the family history center this week and as we found his grandpa, printed the paper, and told him that next week he was going to be baptized for his grandpa, tears filled his eyes. His grandpa was one of his best friends and he past away a couple years ago. He has told us endless stories of his grandpa and how much it changed his life when he passed away.. and now he is going to be baptized for him!
Sometimes I feel a little guilty when my own selfish desire is what is pushing me to go to the temple.. I miss it! Sometimes my own desire to go seems to take control of the importance of getting members to the temple. I am glad, though, that in this mission, we have the rule that we are able to go to the temple with our recent converts if it is within six weeks of their baptism and if they have a name. They understand that we, as missionaries, really want to go! And in return we get to have an experience of a lifetime and be able to provide an even bigger one for our recent converts. And then we have an experience like this one with Diego. It throws me right back into perspective.
There is a simple formula that we have learned about conversion.
conversion=temple
Diana's number one spark about the church was the temple. With the ward temple trip coming up and her (as an 11 yr old girl) seeing a picture of the temple, she wanted to go! Two weeks ago was her first day at church, and she told us she wanted to go to the temple. Well, we had to inform her that she needed to be baptized first, and then she quickly replied if she could get baptized in the next week so that she could go to the temple. Unfortunately, we can't. But what we can do IS... you can get baptized and then we can again. And then you can go WHENEVER you want for the rest of your life.
Two weeks full of teaching and she was baptized. The temple is the place. There's a reason we are so attracted to it. Not just because it looks like a beautiful castle but because it is the house of God.
The temple is the place.
Temple=Conversion.
Conversion=Onward and Upward.
Hermana Schwendiman
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| Diego with his grandfather's name for the temple! |
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| Happy Diego |
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| Diana before her baptism |
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