It’s Conference Once Again

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

It’s Conference Once Again, by Thomas S. Monson
President, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


Today was my first time in what will be our new ward in Wellington. It was fun to meet people I had corresponded with via email and meet many other totally new people, too! It's always interesting to see how much the same wards hundreds of miles apart are.

The first words President Monson said at the start of the last conference were about how many people were in the conference center—suggesting the growth of the church. Here's what he said:

When this building was planned, we thought we’d never fill it. Just look at it now.

In his opening remarks, President Monson announced three new temples. We're moving to a location that will soon have a new temple that was announced previously (in Ft. Lauderdale, in about two years).


The stake president, who was visiting our ward today, said something similar to these two parts of President Monson's remarks. He spoke of the blessings we enjoy because of the temples while reminiscing on how things were before the Orlando Temple was built (it's about three hours away and is presently the nearest temple). He commented on how much he admires the Lord's way of preparing things for temples; first a mission is established; after some time stakes are organized—led by leaders who hold priesthood keys; the stake president has keys necessary to prepare the faithful to enter the temple; when temples are built, temple presidents have keys authorizing the ordinances that occur there; these ordinances prepare the faithful for higher things.

I'm excited about the Ft. Lauderdale Temple. We went to the San Antonio Temple (about 90 minutes away) every month that we were in Texas (except for one month); I want to maintain our family's tradition of temple attendance and temple worship. It will be more of a challenge with Orlando being farther away, but if we can maintain the tradition, it will be that sweeter when the Ft. Lauderdale Temple is dedicated!