This is a guest post by Daniel Ortner.
This is the second part of my story touching on how the temple has helped me through trials and challenges in my life.
As with the first post, I hope that those reading this post will contribute to future posts by sharing those stories and experiences. For those who have been comforted in a time of crisis or received personal revelation in a moment of need, I hope that your stories will inspire and help others. For those who struggled with the temple at first, I hope you will share stories of how you eventually came to find peace and meaning in the ordinances of the temple and that your words will be a balm in Gilead for those in pain.
If you would like to share a story, please e-mail it to me at dortner1@gmail.com, or continue to post in the comments.
After my conversion in front of the Boston Temple, I faced a great amount of family opposition as a result of my conversion and my desire to be baptized. Because of the opposition of my father in particular, I waited ten long months before his heart was finally softened in regard to my decision to be baptized. In that time, the temple again stood as anchor to my soul. When I felt down, I would often drive to the temple and read scriptures in front of it. I deeply longed to enter into the temple and to be able to perform the sacred ordinances on behalf of my mother who had died when I was 18.
As a studied abroad in London, I was also able to visit the London Temple grounds several times and loved the incredible peace that I experienced there.
After my baptism, my attachment to the temple only intensified. The weekend after my baptism, I went to the New York temple and performed baptisms for the dead. As I entered the temple and stood in the font, the spirit again strongly testified to me that I was in the House of Lord. Each time I went to the temple, I felt transformed, and empowered to overcome trials and challenges.
Soon, I faced the challenge of deciding whether I should serve a mission. I knew that I would face strong family opposition if I decided to go. As I struggled, I spent many hours in the baptistry and on temple grounds praying. Three experiences at the temple stand out.
First, in the coldest months of winter, I had a job going door to door fundraising for non-profit organizations. As part of that job, we were working in the Belmont area. I knew the temple was nearby, but for the first couple of days did not see it. Finally, on one of the days, I walked up a small hill and in the distance saw the temple. The Angel Moroni seemed to me such an incredible beacon of light and hope that pierced through the cold New England weather.
Second, during a particularly dark and difficult period for me, we had a stake conference in the chapel by the Boston Temple. Stephen Wood, the Boston Temple President, gave an incredible talk where he talked about the story of Peter walking on Water and emphasized that all of us must face moments in our life when we must walk in darkness and beyond our comfort zone. His talk made a deep impression of me and I felt that I should try talking to him, but could not get to him during the conference. The next day, I felt strongly that I should go the temple grounds. As I walked around, I felt prompted to walk on a path that I usually did not walk on. As I did so, I ran into President Wood. I spoke to him and expressed my appreciation for his remarks. As I told him about my conversion and my dilemma, he invited me to his house and gave me a priesthood blessing to help me make the right decision.
Finally, as the deadline for me to decide whether to put my papers in fast approached, I was still deeply conflicted. One morning, I felt inspired to fast and to go visit the temple grounds. I went early in the morning as the sun was just rising. As I looked at the sun rising above the temple, I felt a feeling like fire fill my bosom. I knew that heavenly father would take care of me if I chose to serve and that serving was the thing I could do that would do the most good.
I am so grateful for the power of the temple in helping me to overcome trials and receive reassurance in times of need.
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Beautiful post. The Temple is my anchor too.
I grew up in Cache Valley. The Logan Temple sits on outer edge of one of the “benches” at the foot of the mountains that ring the small valley.
I delivered newspapers from a very young age with my father from the bed of a truck, then on a bicycle, and then at sixteen I took on a car route. Early morning newspapers were kind of a family business.
The temple is visible from almost anywhere in the south valley. And in the early morning, lights shining on the walls from the ground, and from the roof to the spires, created a beacon.
Once the fog lay dense in the valley right to the base of the spires so that from my vantage coming down the slope toward the temple the spires were all that was visible in the early morning light.
Another time the moon was full and sat between the spires at the horizon.
There are many other such experiences I had but even from outside the temple was my friend.
Thank you again for this topic Daniel. One of the blessings of temple attendance that I’ve experienced is a better appreciation of others.
For example, one of the sweetest times I’ve had in the temple was attending a Laurel/Priest temple trip as a youth leader. As I was sitting with the youth while they waited for their turns to do baptisms, I was struck by their goodness. The Priests and Laurels were sitting together, in their white clothes, and were reverently interacting. Nothing particular happened on this temple trip, but I felt such a strong feeling of love and appreciation for these youth.
Also, as we’ve had a temple open in our city in the last couple of years, it’s been a blessing to see so many temple workers that I know. One Saturday morning, I was doing initiatory work for my grandfather’s Norwegian family. Two different sisters from my ward were serving in initiatory that morning. Again, difficult to put into words what I felt, but my heart felt more open to how blessed I am to have good women as my mentors.
Finally, I remember one particular time that my husband and I attended an endowment session when we were feeling the responsibilities of parenting more keenly than usual. As I looked over at my good husband as he was making covenants to the Lord, I felt such gratitude for the responsibility he willingly assumes as the patriarch of our family. Motherhood can be daunting in a world where fathers don’t always live up to their responsibilities. I’m so thankful for covenants that protect me as a mother and for the good men who honor them.
I feel God’s love in the temple and this helps enlarge my heart and to better love and appreciate the people around me.