"I Admonish You to Go Often"

"To you who are worthy and able to attend the temple, I would admonish you to go often. The temple is a place where we can find peace. There we receive a renewed dedication to the gospel and a strengthened resolve to keep the commandments." 

- President Thomas S. Monson 

I'm not always one for New Year's resolutions, but as the year draws to a close, it's natural to reflect on the accomplishments and happenings of this year and years' past.

At the end of 2012, I made a New Year's resolution to attend the temple once a week, every week, for an entire year. I did well for the first little while, until four months in when it was geographically impossible for me to attend a temple in a seven-day span, so I went an additional time the next week to make up for it.

By the time 2013 came to a close, with the exception of that one week in April, I had successfully attended the temple once a week every week for the entire year.

This week, I had the opportunity to attend the temple for the last time in 2017. That temple trip marked 5 years of consistent temple attendance - once a week, every week, since January of 2013.

And I don't anticipate I'll stop there.

What started out as a seemingly simple New Years resolution has turned into a lifestyle that has blessed me in ways I couldn't have imagined it would when I started. I've listed here a bunch of the things I've learned from five years of consistent temple attendance.

You always know where your temple recommend is.

There's never this frantic-search-for-your-recommend-when-its-time-to-use-it business. (#relatable)

You get used to going by yourself.

It's way harder to get people to come with you to the temple with you than you think it should be.

The temple workers get to know you.

If you go at the same time for a couple of months in a row, the temple workers start to get to know you, which is delightful. Half of my friends are happy old people (aka temple workers), and I love it.

The temple workers will try to set you up on dates.

This happens all the time.

You might come away from some of those setups with new friends.

But keep in mind that, as romantic as it sounds to meet someone in the temple and fall in love and live happily ever after... the only thing you know about a person that you met in the temple is that they're temple worthy (maybe). It's highly unlikely that you'll have much else in common, and more unlikely that you'll be romantically compatible. 

You keep your recommend current.

The last time I renewed my temple recommend, the bishopric member looked at the expiration date, which was in two weeks from the time of our meeting, and asked, "why are you renewing your recommend so soon...? No one renews their temple recommend until after it's expired!" 

You think about your temple recommend more often.

Like, way more often. And you frequently consider how closely your actions are aligning with your temple worthiness. Which is cool.

The Lord wants you to come and serve in the temple.

He knows you're not perfect. You don't have to be perfect to go to the temple. One of Satan's favorite lies to keep us from attending the temple is to convince us that we're not worthy enough to enter the house of the Lord because we're not perfect. Don't heed that lie. If you are trying your best to live worthy of a temple recommend, and you feel like you could comfortably stand in the presence of God considering the imperfections that you have, He wants you to come to the temple.

You'll feel peace.

That peaceful feeling that you feel in the temple starts to follow you outside the temple, and you eventually realize that you're living with this peace in your life that you had previously only felt when you were in the temple. 

Attending the temple is not about time; it's about priority.

Not having enough time to attend the temple isn't a valid excuse if you live within 20 minutes of a temple. I attended every week as a full time college student on an academic scholarship, working two part-time jobs, and training my horse for competition. The fact is, if you decide to attend the temple regularly, you can make time to do it. 

The ordinances are pretty cool.

This one pretty much speaks for itself.

You'll be reminded of the covenants that you made.

It's nice to be reminded of the covenants that I made in the temple so that I can be sure I'm living up to them. You can't know whether or not you're living up to your covenants if you don't remember what the covenants are.

You can talk about way more things outside the temple than you probably think.

Think of it like this: in the temple, we make covenants by way of ordinances. The covenants are like a contract that lists both what you and the Lord are expected to do, and the blessings that you can receive if you fulfill your end of the contract (God will always fulfill His end: "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." D&C 82:10).

The ordinances are the signatures at the bottom of that contract, binding you both to the terms listed therein.

The covenants that we make in the temple are sacred -- not secret. Meaning that in some circumstances outside the temple, these can be discussed. On the other hand, we are explicitly told in the endowment that the ordinances (the "signature" that binds you to the covenants you make in the temple) are sacred and are not to be discussed beyond the walls of the temple.

Attending the temple regularly, you gain a better understanding of what is and is not appropriate to share outside the temple, and in what circumstances those conversations can take place. This information is helpful when talking to members of the church that are getting ready to attend the temple themselves for the first time, to help solidify gospel understanding, or to dispel inaccuracies about LDS doctrine and practices.

You'll gain a testimony of temple work and temple attendance.

Testimony works such that if you do something that you've been commanded to do, even if you don't understand why or don't want to, you'll develop a testimony of the commandment with time. I didn't have a testimony of temple work five years ago (in fact, I didn't even WANT to go every week). I do now.

"You are never lost when you can see the temple."

Or, "if you can see the temple, you're on the right track." (This I learned from the road trip I took by myself to visit and attend all of the temples in Utah in three days.) If you keep the temple in your sight, and focus your energy on making it there, you can be confident that your life is going in a good direction. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/sacred-homes-sacred-temples?lang=eng)

The blessings that you'll see in your life from attending the temple are evident and abundant, but not what you think they'll be.

I thought when I started attending regularly that God would bless me with someone to be sealed to. Instead, I now have a much better understanding of the sealing ordinance, and I know what's expected of me when I make that covenant for myself. I've had to make some life adjustments before I felt ready to participate in that ordinance, but I feel much more prepared now. 

Consistency in and of itself holds you accountable for attending regularly.

Once you have several months worth of regular attendance under your belt, you're pretty motivated to keep up on your schedule as to not ruin your streak. You start making sure you plan your schedule around being able to attend the temple. 

...And while it feels like a sacrifice at first, after a couple of months it doesn't feel that way anymore.

The only time it feels somewhat like a sacrifice is when you "don't feel like going today," but you know you have to to keep your regular attendance up, so you go in and do some initatories really quickly and then go on your way.

There is A LOT of work to do.

Going every week for five years, I've only done the work for somewhere around 1,300 people. There are millions and millions of people that need work done for them.

Temple work is real work.

It might seem somewhat obscure or abstract, but participating in proxy work for the dead can make a real and significant difference to souls that have passed beyond the veil of mortality. In a similar way that we all need Jesus Christ as our intermediary with God the Father in order to achieve our personal salvation and eternal exaltation, when we perform saving temple ordinances for those that have passed on, who desire and are ready to receive them, we act as their intermediary to salvation and eternal exaltation. And that's a pretty big deal.

Elder John H. Groberg, in his book entitled Refuge and Reality, he says this: "You are not leaving the temple and going back into the real world, you are leaving the real world (the temple) and going back into the unreal (temporary) world. Only that which lasts forever is real. That which is done in the temple lasts forever; therefore, the temple is the real world. Most of what we experience ‘out here’ such as sickness, wealth, poverty, fame, etc., lasts only for a short period of time, so it is not the real world.”

We are asked to attend the temple regularly for a reason.

While I still don't really understand all of the ordinances or the ritualistic way in which we perform those ordinances, or why the Lord has asked us to accept such a significant responsibility regarding the salvation of those who have passed on, I do know that temple work is good work. And that attending the temple every week encourages me to live worthily. So, like Adam says when the angel appears to him after being cast out of the Garden of Eden and asks why he is offering sacrifices to the Lord, I say, "I know not, save the Lord commanded me" (Moses 5:6). And that's good enough for me.