The Temple

I know I need to post pictures of Tucker's birthday, but this is long overdue, and we have an announcement. We got official word yesterday that we will be doing the installation on the Brigham City Temple. I'm so excited for that because one of the first things I told Tyler when I went to Cebu was, "You HAVE to do a temple in the U.S. so the girls can get married there." I just thought it would be the neatest thing to be in the Brides' Room, getting ready for your marriage and admiring the work that your dad created.

Anyway- a couple of weeks ago I was asked to speak in church. Since Mama died, I've thought a lot about the things I wish I had. I don't wish she had written a journal, really. Sometimes it's even hard to watch videos of the times growing up when things were hard. But I do wish that I had some little record of things we did as kids, stuff Myrtle said and things like that. And I really love reading the collection of Mama's talks and lessons that Martha has compiled. That's what this blog is for me, so I'm including my talk in it's entirety. I've tried to add bits that were included in the actual giving of the talk- so it isn't just the notes that I wrote beforehand.

So feel free to skip this- it is long and sometime soon I'll post pictures of my adorable baby that's all grown up.

I think most of us know us, but for those that don’t- my name is Charlotte Huntzinger. My husband, Tyler, was a speaker in last weeks’ sacrament meeting. We have four children and this summer will mark seven years that we have been in the ward. My calling right now is as one of the Gospel Doctrine Teachers. Even as I say that, it sounds a little like some kind of joke. When my husband, who is in the Sunday School Presidency warned me that my name had been mentioned in a discussion about a new teacher, I laughed. Not only because I work with him and he knows how little time I have available to devote to studying for that type of calling, but because I just don’t seem like the typical Gospel Doctrine Teacher. But the Lord has truly blessed me in this calling. Not only has it afforded me the opportunity for a lot of learning, but the bishop gave me a very special blessing when he set me apart for this calling. He blessed me that I wouldn’t have to spend undue time in preparing for lessons. While it isn’t something I can begin on a Saturday night, I have found that my preparations have fit nicely into my daily scripture study. That has been a huge blessing. I can’t help feeling a little nostalgic as the new Primary Presidency was called last week- particularly when Sister Anderson was called to be the Primary Chorister. I had that calling for a little over four years and it is the best in the church. But I have looked at Sister Hebert and thought I had some hope. It seems that she was once a RS teacher, then a Gospel Doctrine Teacher and now she is back teaching in Primary. I hope that is the church career path I’m on.

When the bishop asked me to speak, he asked if I had anything pressing on my mind that I thought would be appropriate to talk about. I couldn’t think of something that I hadn’t already had occasion to discuss in Gospel Doctrine. But as I’ve read over the talk he gave me, I’ve realized that this is something that has been pressing on my mind. In fact, it was almost one year ago this week that I had a profound experience in the Cebu, Philippine temple that has affected the way I have felt about temples and temple worship forever. For the last year, a lot of my life has been spent on temples both at work and more importantly in worship. I’ve been more diligent in finding the time to go and it has definitely affected my life for good.

I was asked to speak on the talk given last conference by Elder Gong entitled, “Temple Mirrors of Eternity: A Testimony of Family.” It is a very short talk compared to many given in conference and discusses the blessings the temple has been for his family for generations.

He said, in speaking of the mirrors in the sealing room “Temple mirrors of eternity remind us that each human being has “divine nature and destiny”; that “sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally”; and that, growing together in love and faithfulness, we can give children roots and wings.”

I loved the Adult Session of our last Stake Conference. The bishop of the Swahili Branch was invited to speak after two members of his ward spoken. He told a story of a family, traveling to the temple dedication of an African Temple. While in route, their bus was hijacked and everything they had with them was confiscated. They continued on the journey by on foot. As a consequence, they arrived the day after the dedication of the temple and a day after the prophet left. When asked if they were disappointed, they said, “No because we have never felt so safe as we felt inside the temple.” He went on to suggest that the temple was the safest place on earth and perhaps the fact that there were so many temples in the U.S. would lead us to believe that the United States was the most dangerous place in the world to be.

I’ve thought a lot about that. Complacency and an easy life are possibly the most difficult things for us to overcome in our modern society. My girls will be participating with other girls from our stake in next week’s General Young Women’s Meeting. Last week I was able to sit in on one of the practice sessions for a few minutes. The chorister was leading the music when she stopped for a moment to invite Kenneth Cope to bear his testimony. When we went home, I was discussing with my girls what an awesome event that was and how great an opportunity they had. They looked at me like I was from Mars. They just have no context to understand what an amazing blessing this is.

I grew up in Louisiana. In Louisiana, there aren’t a lot of members. In fact, when I began High School, the only members of the church were myself, my brother, and my cousin. Being a member of the church defined me. I remember coming to BYU and going to my first Sacrament Meeting in a large meeting area. As I looked around, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of inadequacy. I thought, these people are all members of the church. They’re all smart (obviously, they’ve been accepted into BYU), beautiful, and probably better at keeping every commandment than I am. I didn’t feel very special. Almost just as I had that thought, another feeling overwhelmed me- and that was the feeling of the love of the Lord. I remember thinking that of all those people filling that room- He knew me. He loved me and I was special to him.

I’m telling you this because it describes a little better a feeling I had while working in the temple in Cebu. I guess I’m not a great learner. Sometimes the Lord has to tell me things multiple times for it to sink in, but anyway. One day, Tyler was working in the Baptistry and he needed for me to go upstairs and find the Head Interior Designer. I happened to be in a little bit of an angry mood. Maybe it was because I had literally spent most of every waking day during my two week “vacation” there working on the temple. Some things were going wrong and I was so frustrated. I had hoped or maybe even believed that things should go differently in the temple. That it shouldn’t be just another construction site. As I walked through the hallway, I realized that I was the only one in that part of the temple. Everyone else was at lunch. I was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of nothingness. I can’t really think of another way of describing it. The feeling I had was not unlike the feeling I had had so many years ago as a freshman in college. I was overcome by the realization that I had NO idea how big the Lord’s plan was. This wasn’t just a construction site and His purposes were much larger than I could comprehend. But no sooner did I recognize that I felt that way than I was again filled with the knowledge and understanding of my significance in the Lord’s plan. I began walking through the rooms, tears streaming down my face as I had thoughts pertaining to specific elements that Tyler had created in that temple and how he was inspired to make them just that way. I read an article in Meridian magazine about the architect of that temple. I could talk another 15 minutes just about Knut, and the amazing man he is, but this is what he said about his experience in the Cebu temple.

“My biggest moment,” said Knute, “was here in the sealing room. I came back from Manila , where I had been inspecting furniture, on a Friday evening. It was quite late, but I thought I’ll just go by the temple to make sure everything is OK. I went inside the sealing room, and as soon as I went in, I could tell the Spirit was there. It was very, very strong. As soon as I walked in, I just wanted to cry. It was the nicest feeling. I was there for about 10 or 15 minutes, crying like a little baby. It was like someone was holding a book in front of me showing me the construction, page by page, and all the ways we had been blessed and helped, and I was being told to remember these things.”

I feel so blessed that I was able to have a similar experience. I definitely felt that I was being told to recognize these things and remember them. But how do you hold on to that feeling?

Since I mentioned BYU, let me tell you something else about myself as a student. I am a horrible test taker. I was once encouraged by a teaching assistant to not even read the questions on a true/false test as I would likely get a better grade by just randomly filling in the blanks. As a result, I am a HUGE memorizer. You know those annoying people that always raise their hand and ask, “Is this going to be on the test?” I never bothered to ask that question. I always just assumed it was on the test and learned a lot of tricks to memorize most of the things taught in lectures. After I went through the temple for the first time, and realized that there was a test at the end, I treated my visits in a similar fashion. After about the third visit, I had mostly memorized that entire ceremony. I confess that between thinking about the test and later thinking about the children that I had left at home for three hours, I wasn’t getting much out of the temple.

This past summer I was training for a triathlon and started attending a yoga class. After a particularly difficult session, as we lay on our mats, eyes closed, the instructor said, “Relax and meditate. This is what we have worked the whole session to achieve.” Suddenly, the thought popped into my head, “That’s just like the temple!”

Sister Sylvia Allred of the General Relief Society Presidency has said, “ When we go to the temple, we clear our minds and hearts of thoughts and feelings which may not be in harmony with the sacred experiences of the temple. “
I feel like, all of the time spent in the first part of the temple is to clear our minds and prepare us for the opportunity to receive inspiration and revelation from the Lord.

Now, instead of using the beginning time memorizing and hurrying back into the dressing room after a session, I try to focus on emptying my mind so I can listen to the Lord when I get to the Celestial Room. I’ve been amazed at the difference.
So that’s a little something that I’ve learned about getting more out of the temple this year, but now I’m working on keeping that “always remember this” with me every day.

Russel M. Nelson once said, “Inscribed on each temple are the words “holiness to the Lord.” That statement designates both the temple and its purposes as holy. Those who enter the temple are also to bear the attribute of holiness. As temples are prepared for the people, the people need to prepare themselves for the temple.”

James E. Faust said, “Maintaining our spiritual strength is … a daily challenge. The greatest source of that spiritual strength comes … from our temples.”
So they kind of work together. We need to prepare ourselves for the temple and become more holy and as we go to the temple more often, we can increase our spiritual strength.

Elder Nelson said: If our water supply is of questionable quality, we filter the water. Similarly, divine covenants shield us from harm. When we choose to deny ourselves of all ungodliness, we lose nothing of value and gain glory known only to those who obtain eternal life. Keeping a temple covenant is not constraining but enabling. It elevates us beyond limits of our own perspective and power. It is like the difference between plodding through a muddy field and soaring through the skies in a supersonic jet. Keeping a covenant with God is both protective and enabling.
Don’t you love that? It elevates us beyond the limits of our own perspective and power. And I’m sure I’ve got my son Oliver’s attention by mentioning soaring through the skies in a supersonic jet.

This is actually where I planned on ending my talk, but now I’ve felt, that since I spoke about things going wrong in the temple, I also need to tell about things going right. Before we went to Cebu, we had to special order a piece of equipment to complete the project. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive until the day before we had to ship our supplies to the Philippines. It was vital that we have it, but we had never used it before and had no time to learn. We took an employee that we hoped knew how to use it, but we weren’t sure.

The day after Tyler and his crew arrived to Cebu, they were walking to the temple site from the hotel. They passed a building that had a small sticker in the window that said something about B.Y.U. on it. They decided to go in to find out more about the people inside. Inside they met a man who ran a successful print shop. Amazingly enough, he owned a piece of equipment identical to the one that we had sent over and also had another in a larger size. This man was instrumental in our completion of the the temple. Not only did he have the equipment necessary, and know how to use it, he was able to help us hire the local workers we needed to help us. You have to be in the Philippines to understand just how difficult it is to run a successful business there, but he was. It was as if the Lord, years ago, knew that we would need this man’s help and had placed him in a position to help us. I went to this shop, I never saw the B.Y.U. sticker and Tyler never saw it again either. It was truly a miracle.

I know that as I’ve gained a better understanding of the temple this year- my perspective has been broadened. I have a better understanding of the gospel and a better ability to accept and love others. I have more patience with my family and more appreciation for them. For those of you who don’t know them- I’ve got amazing kids. They came here that way and Tyler and I are doing our best not to mess them up. I have a fantastic husband who is incredibly supportive of me.

I apologize, bishop, for not speaking more on the talk given to me. I just needed that talk as a reminder of the things that I’ve learned this year. The power of the temple is real. As I’ve accused my girls of being too complacent of the opportunities they’ve received- I hope I can do better as I think about temples. What a privilege and an honor our family has had to be involved with work on temples. But more importantly- what a privilege and an honor each one of us has to visit the temple any time we’d like. I pray that we will be more diligent in becoming holy enough to enter those sacred doors and humble enough to receive whatever the Lord will share with us while we are there. In the name of Jesus Christ.