Temple.

One week ago today we had our monthly youth temple trip. (See here if you're confused) It is always really neat to go there with out youth. Even though they are 12-18 years old they know when to be respectful and reverent. There are a lot of teenagers out there who don't 'get' that but our youth are so great and they are some of the few that do 'get' it. If we had more young people (I'm SO old) like them, this world might be a little happier.

We always tell the youth the following:

“Our young people … are the nobility of heaven, a choice and chosen generation who have a divine destiny. Their spirits have been reserved to come forth in this day when the gospel is on the earth, and when the Lord needs valiant servants to carry on his great latter-day work." -Joseph Fielding Smith

I've always enjoyed this statement, I do believe it's true. This was said many years ago. I know the Eternities have a much different time scale than we do here, I think I heard one time that one day on earth is equal to 1,000 years in Heaven. Don't quote me on that though :). So the choice and chosen generation is all of us who are living now, not just the youth. It seems like a big responsibility but a great one, if we endure it well.

I also like this quote, President Spencer W. Kimball declared, “We are rearing a royal generation … who have special things to do.”

People now are faced with A LOT more destructive outlets than ever before, they really have to be steadfast and immovable and follow the commandments otherwise the little things will soon turn into big things, then bigger, and bigger....etc. It's best to just not start those habits in the first place.

I taught a YW lesson last year sometime where I used this object lesson here's the poster that goes along with it:

By the time I had wrapped the thread around one of our YW (gently) just a few times, she had a hard time getting out of it.

Anyways back to the temple. If we do the things we are supposed to do we can all go to the temple. I had an interview with the Stake President on Sunday and he said something I thought was neat. He said, the temple isn't secret, if it was, nobody would be allowed in, it's sacred, everybody and anybody who is worthy can enter the temple. I think I'm going to use that when my friends ask about why they aren't allowed inside our temples, I thought it was a good explanation.

My brother Ty gets home from his mission in Chile in less than 3 weeks!!!! Yikes that's strange in a good way. At some point after he gets home, I get to go thru the Temple for myself, not as a youth so that's really exciting. It's also helped me to be a better person and to try to be a good version of myself. I don't see why anybody wouldn't want that, why they would do anything that would keep them away from there, that would keep them from having the spirit and blessings that come from being 'good'.

Here are a couple pictures we took at the temple last week. We have one wonderful YW who isn't baptized yet but has been a 'member' her entire life. I had the great opportunity to walk around the outside of the temple with her. We talked a lot about different stuff and took lots of pictures. I know she can't wait until she is able to be baptized to be able to participate with the other youth, I believe that time will come soon and I'm so excited for her.