FYI:
For Your Info

by Lisa M. Grover
Editorial Associate

Church members spend a lot of time thinking about and getting ready to go to the temple. The youth in the Church are encouraged to participate in baptisms for the dead and to make the temple an important goal. But what if you don’t live close enough to a temple to get there very often? Can you still prepare to do temple work? Of course!

Here are some suggestions:

• Always live worthy to hold a temple recommend. If you have questions about what that means, talk with your parents and with your bishop or branch president.

• Keep a picture of the temple in your bedroom or in your locker at school or both!

• Complete your family history group sheet.

• Read and learn about the temples—don’t be afraid to ask your parents or your leaders questions!

• Save some of the money you earn to help your family attend the temple.

• Get to know your way around your local family history library.

• Find out about the history of the temple closest to you. If the temple nearest you is new, maybe you could write to some of the people who were involved in the planning and building of the temple to find out more about it.

• Read about the dedications of temples throughout the Church.

• Make a list of the reasons temples are important and then place the list in your journal or scriptures to remind you of the reasons you would like to attend.

• Were your parents married in the temple? If so, ask them what they remember most about the day they were sealed.

• Remember that sometimes a trip to the temple will involve a sacrifice of time or money. Try to remember that sometimes you have to give up certain things to gain good experiences.

• Make a decision now to be worthy to attend the temple to receive your endowments and be married there. Write your goal on a piece of paper and put it in a prominent place as a reminder to choose the right.

• Always be respectful and reverent when you’re discussing the temple and what goes on there.

• Study the scriptures to find similarities between Old Testament temples and modern-day temples. Think about the reasons temples exist today.

Elaine Jennings, a Laurel in the Worthington Ward, Crawley England Stake, is excited about missionary work. While attending an international student conference in Italy (where this picture was taken) Elaine shared her standards and beliefs with the girls she roomed with at the conference.

Elaine also knows that the temple is a powerful missionary tool. She recently invited five of her school teachers to tour the London Temple prior to its rededication. Of the four who attended, one asked to meet with the missionaries.

Although none of those teachers has joined the Church, Elaine knows that what she did was important.

“I did what I could,” says Elaine. “I invited them to feel the Spirit, but it’s up to them to make the choice and act on it.”

“One day in my religious instruction class at school (in South Africa, where I live, students study the Bible daily) we were allowed to study the scriptures on our own. I decided to do a home-study seminary assignment. As I was doing it, my teacher came past my desk and asked me what I was doing. I explained to her what it was, and then told her about the seminary program. I told her that my seminary classmates and I met with our teacher once a week and then studied the rest of the days on our own.

“She returned to her desk, but a few minutes later she called me over to her desk. She asked me if I would be willing to give one of the lessons in the seminary book to my class. I said I would be happy to do it.

“Now I have the opportunity to not only teach my teacher but my classmates as well. I have a very strong testimony of seminary and the things it teaches me. I hope and pray that for the next two years that I have left in seminary, I will become even stronger in the gospel and have more opportunities to teach others about it.”—Lucille Kruger, Carletonville, South Africa

Keeping a personal history is a fun and easy way to do genealogy work. Young Women in the Castro Valley Second Ward, San Leandro California Stake, found a fun and creative way to get started. Each Young Woman created a time capsule by decorating a new paint can. Then she filled the can with important information and items like newspaper clippings and other memorabilia. Then the cans were sealed.

The Young Women will meet again during Christmas of the year 2001 to open their time capsules and share their memories with each other.

It’s history in the making.

Youth in the Harlingen Texas Stake know where they’re from—Mexico, Chile, Ireland, Denmark, and Fiji—and they know it even though most of them haven’t even seen those places.

Since the Young Men and Young Women know how important it is to do genealogy so that temple work can be completed for their ancestors, they spent one of their youth conferences learning how to enter names on the Personal Ancestral File and entering information for name extraction.

It’s a great idea—no matter where you come from.

Part of being worthy to enter the temple is obeying the Word of Wisdom. Seth Robinson, a teacher from Reno, Nevada, decided to share the benefits of the Word of Wisdom as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Seth—at left with fellow Scouts Greg Handlon and Caleb Sumrall—set up a display on the dangers of tobacco in a busy shopping mall near his home. He then talked specifically to teenagers walking through the mall, answering questions and distributing information.

“Meeting with the general public made me aware that many people think the use of tobacco will not harm them,” says Seth, who spent a lot of time telling people that nothing could be farther from the truth. “I think this project was a success.”

How much do you know about the temples of the Church? Test your knowledge here:

1. Which temple was completed first?

2. Where was the first temple outside the United States?

3. How many temples are in China?

4. Which temple in Utah was the first in use?

5. What happened to the Nauvoo Temple?

6. How many temples are in Europe?

7. How many temples are in Utah?

8. How long was the Salt Lake Temple under construction?

9. Are there any temples in Africa?

10. How many temples are currently under construction or have been announced (as of September 1996)?

Answers

1. Kirtland, Ohio.

2. Cardston, Alberta, Canada in 1923. The Hawaii Temple was dedicated in 1918, while Hawaii was a U.S. territory.

3. Technically, there are no temples in China. However, there is one in Hong Kong, which will be reunited with China on June 30, 1997.

4. St. George.

5. It was burned.

6. Five: London, England; Zollikofen, Switzerland; Freiberg, Germany; Frankfurt, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden.

7. Nine: Logan, Ogden, Bountiful, Salt Lake, Jordan River, Mt. Timpanogos, Provo, Manti, St. George.

8. Forty years.

9. Yes, there is one temple in Johannesburg, South Africa.

10. Fourteen: St. Louis, Missouri; Vernal, Utah; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Bogota, Colombia; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Madrid, Spain; Preston, England; Boston, Massachusetts; White Plains, New York; Nashville, Tennessee; Monterrey, Mexico; Cochabamba, Bolivia; Recife, Brazil; and Billings, Montana.

“All of our efforts in proclaiming the gospel, perfecting the Saints, and redeeming the dead lead to the holy temple. This is because the temple ordinances are absolutely crucial; we cannot return to God’s presence without them.”—President Howard W. Hunter (Ensign, Nov. 1994, 1)

* The site for the St. George Temple was swampy, but Brigham Young insisted that it be built there because the spot had been dedicated by ancient Book of Mormon prophets. An old cannon was used to drive rocks into the soggy ground.

* The Mesa Arizona Temple was the first to present the endowment and other temple ordinances in a foreign language (Spanish) in 1945.—Encyclopedia of Mormonism 4:1452