Temple Trip!

A while ago, some friends and I took a trip around Utah, visiting all of the temples. My mom (who was our driver) posted about it here. I'll let her fill in the details, but would like to share some spiritual things that were shared or felt.

Multiple times people expressed that they felt the presence of those we were doing the work for or that of their family.

At the Bountiful Temple we had to wait for around 3 hours for all the other mutual groups. Even after us there were many more people waiting to do ordinances. Even though they were rushing through people, the young man doing the confirmation prayers for us emphasized each prayer differently as if he was doing it for the actual person, rather than doing it proxy. At the time I wondered why he didn't hurry up, but as I was changing I realized that he was able to make the temple ordinances special and feel the peace even when everything else was crazy around him. Other girls with us also commented on it. It was amazing.

Finally, we noticed that there was a profound peace to be felt just on the temple grounds. At the St. George temple we weren't able to go in because they were renovating their baptismal font, so we just relaxed around the grounds. Even though we were occasionally goofy and crazy we mostly just chatted and wandered, visualizing our weddings and talking about the different temples.

I received a stronger testimony of the power that temples have and of the work that happens in them.
Now, in New York, we are an hour and a half away from the closest temple. While this isn't a terrible distance, it's much different from being 15-30 min.s away from two :). I've made it a goal to visit the temple once a week, and to accept the LDS Church's Temple Challenge, which is approximately 1300 names, and I've already done 642!! Almost half way there and a few more months to go :S (I started late, that's my excuse).
The work that happens in temples is the work of God. You can grow so much closer to Him in the temples or even just on the temple grounds. I challenge anyone who reads this to visit an LDS temple sometime this month if it's possible. Even if you can't go inside, just take a moment on the grounds to "be still and know that I am God." He will bring you peace.
Amen.