As We Meet Together Again

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

As We Meet Together Again, by Thomas S. Monson
President, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


In preparation for a Sunday School lesson I recently taught on "enlarg[ing] the place of thy tent" (link), I prepared a video showing Church growth as a function of temples (similar to on the Church made showing the same by stakes, link). It's amazing to see the dots appear on a map of the world, corresponding to when each temple was dedicated. You really can see the growth (exponential?) of the church through temples.

At the start of this conference, President Monson commented on recent temple dedicatations (Gila Valley, Arizona; Vancouver, British Columbia; Cebu City in the Philippines; and Kyiv, Ukraine) and announced five new temples (Lisbon, Portugal; Indianapolis, Indiana; Urdaneta, Philppines; Hartford, Connecticut; and Tijuana, Mexico)! Isn't it exciting?

The ordinances performed in our temples are vital to our salvation and to the salvation of our deceased loved ones. May we continue faithful in attending the temples, which are being built closer and closer to our members.

In order to justify the many temples that are in operation and continue to be built and dedicated, we all need to prepare to go, and invite our friends to prepare, too! This latter item, sharing the gospel, is something that President Monson says is "a matter close to my heart and which deserves our serious attention." After reminding of the usual charge for young people to prepare to serve full-time missions, his attention and words were turned to the adults: "we need many, many more senior couples." He must have been serious, because the First Presidency message of the Jan 2011 Ensign was an extension of this theme (link).

To those of you who are not yet to the season of life when you might serve a couples mission, I urge you to prepare now for the day when you and your spouse might do so.

As a child I remember listening to a song that said, "Grandma and Grandpa are going away on a mission!" The whole song was about how excited the grandchildren were that their grandparents were going to serve the Lord, just like they (the children) were preparing to do. My wife and I may think that we're young—what with a new baby and all—but we'll be grandparents soon enough! We've long spoke of how exciting it will be to serve together... someday!

I want to prepare to serve the Lord in that someday by serving Him today (and tomorrow, too). This preparation includes going to the temples, and inviting others to go with us.

Won't you come to the temple with me?