I still love to see the temple.

I have the opportunity to teach a Relief Society lesson on temples a few times within our Stake here at BYU. It's been a real blessing to have the temple on my mind as of late. I had my best temple experience to date when I attended focused on the blessings promised us from faithful temple service.

While all this is lovely, I have some fun little tidbits to share with all you Zirkers. I started the lesson off asking the sisters to remember singing "I Love to See the Temple" in Primary, or when they first learned about the temple from friends or missionaries. I wanted them to remember how excited and enthusiastic they were about the temple at that point in their lives. Some of us lose that feeling of excitement and don't attend as much as we could, even with the temple here in Provo less than five minutes away. To remind them (and make them laugh) I shared some quotes from Primary children found in a sharing time from a few years ago about why they love the temple. Brandon & I were curious as to what our nieces & nephews might say if asked "Why do you love the temple?" So, we asked them. I won't share who said what, in order to protect the innocent (and hilarious) but it was neat for us and especially for their parents to see what they're learning:

• "The temple makes it so that we can be together as a family forever."
• "I love the temple because you get married in it to be sealed there forever and because it's Jesus and Heavenly Father's house."
• "I like the temple because we're sealed there."
• "I love the temple because it's special. Jesus lives there and we can go there."
• "I don't know, I forgot."
• "Cause Mommy & Daddy got married there. It's pretty, there's a tall thing on the top."
• "My feelings for the temple run deep. Knowing that my parents were married for time and all eternity in the House of the Lord lends me the greatest sense of peace imaginable."(Yes, there's a prodigy in the Richards line)
• Several children were napping and could not be reached for comment.

I thought these were really sweet, and parents told me it was really enlightening and reassuring to know that their children are indeed learning things from Family Home Evening and Primary. It might be fun for other parents to try...I know a few of you would get some great little nuggets of wisdom.

(This is a picture taken the day I went through the temple for the first time. A recent storm had resulted in poor Angel Moroni being struck by lightning and charred on one side. He's been fixed since.)