A step-by-step guide for every first-time temple goer

An LDS singer recently won an international singing award for the second year in a row, and she accomplished it by singing uplifting and faith-filled music and sharing her testimony. "We are so grateful . . . to be praising the Lord for the gifts we've been given," Chenille Saunders says. "Now, because of what our Savior has done for us, we will never walk alone."

Suppose you were teaching a class of Israelite youth in biblical times and posed the question: “What is a covenant?” Would they have responded that a covenant is a two-way promise? Probably not. Ancient Israel didn’t claim to be the Lord’s “two-way promise” people. They were the Lord’s covenant people and understood covenants in terms of a sacred relationship. Our modern definition of covenants as two-way promises between God and man misses the very heart of covenants. Covenants can create the most binding relationships possible.

“When you walk into this temple, you see the beauty of what can happen if you work hard and stay the course," Elder S. Gifford Nielsen said.

This week I made time to peruse one of my old church journals. Like many of you, I capture impressions and highlights during meetings and often refer back to them when my spiritual tank runs low. I love turning the pages and bumping into notes from a sacrament meeting or fireside and feeling the rush of familiarity.

Visiting teaching. In years past, these two words spoken in any Relief Society gathering a evoked a myriad of conflicting emotions. Joy. Guilt. Gratitude. Annoyance. Peace. Guilt. Excitement. Frustration. Love. Guilt. Some loved the watchcare program set forth nearly two hundred years ago. Others, not so much. And most, whether you love it or not, have carried some guilt associated with it. Because that’s what we women do. When we don’t live up to the expectations of ourselves or others, we feel guilty. But now no more. No more guilt, and as of April 1st, 2018, no more visiting teaching.

“I have daughters, so I’m not worried.” I’ve heard this rationale over and over again as I’ve talked to parents about protecting children from pornography. I only wish it were true that 50% of our children were completely immune to pornography’s pull. But in fact, studies show that up to one-third of porn viewers are female, so girls may be more vulnerable than we once thought.

Let me share one example of a divine signature that has special significance for me personally. This was a tender mercy in the fullest sense of the word tender. My father, typical of many other men from his generation, did not express emotion openly very often. In all my growing-up years, I can never remember him telling me or any of my brothers and sisters that he loved us. We knew that he did, because he was a good father. He read stories to us almost every night. He taught us to work and how to be responsible.

There is another kind of reunion with departed family members. It sometimes occurs even before we enter into the spirit world.

This is a part of a new LDS Living series where we will be highlighting the Church gospel topics essays, which provide insights into often challenging gospel topics and help Church members “seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”