to become like him

in my mission prep class my teacher encouraged us to make two or three goals that will make us better missionaries and better people, so i thought ya sure why not, this should be easy... ya it wasnt that easy... it took me two weeks, a farewell, and a long lonely night to finally come up with two goals that i thought were actually worthwhile and i am pretty stinking excited about them not gonna lie!

the first i think i will keep to myself for now but the second one is what i really wanna talk about. my second goal that i came up with is to go to the temple every single week while a good friend of mine, jordan, is out on his mission. and i dont just want to go to the same temple every single week but i wanna go to each and every single temple in utah at least once. that shouldnt be too hard right? after all i do have two years and there are only thirteen temples in utah. :) and i use the term 'only' very loosely because i sit here in utah so fortunate to have thirteen temples around me and there are people in other countries that dont even have one. because of this i have decided that just going to one isnt going to be enough and i need to go to all of them at least once to really appreciate exactly what it is that i have been blessed with.

also if i go out of state for any reason in the next two years i am going to try to visit the temple in that area as well if at all possible. one that i really look forward to going to is the mesa arizona temple. i am looking forward to this one because my sisters and i go out to arizona to visit my grandparents (who are not members of the church) every summer and never once have i even considered going to the temple out there but that is going to change. i have decided that with this goal it means that i am going to stand up and ask my grandparents if i can go and show them how big a part of my life the gospel is and how much it means to me. i am going to be an example not only to people that i dont know but also to my own family who i love and care about so much. and if i love them and care so much for them why wouldnt i be willing to share the joy that the gospel has brought into my life with them? it is something i have never done but that is about to change. i am going to be a better person and i am going to stand up for what i believe in when it matters most.

so anyway back to the point there are thirteen temples in utah in case you didnt know and i am going to go and do work in them all in the next two years. and just in case you didnt know which ones they are here is a list so now you can know. :D

• provo
• logan
• ogden
• bountiful
• salt lake
• oquirrh mountain
• jordan river
• draper
• mt. timpanogos
• vernal
• manti
• monticello
• st. george

and there are also three more that have been announced and they are:

• provo 'tabernacle' 
• payson
• brigham city

so if you are wanting to go the temple shoot me a text or email and let me know because i will be going every week and would love your company :) and for those of you who are not currently temple worthy i highly recommend that you do everything in your power to become temple worthy. the temple is such an amazing place with so much power for good. i know that it has blessed my life in more ways than you can possibly imagine and it can do the same for you. there truly is no greater gift in this life than being able to go into the Lord's house and feel His spirit there in a little piece of heaven here on earth. 

i found a few quotes for this post and i really like them all and couldnt pick just one so here are a few...

"I urge our people everywhere, with all of the persuasiveness of which I am capable, to live worthy to hold a temple recommend, to secure one and regard it as a precious asset, and to make a greater effort to go to the House of the Lord and partake of the spirit and the blessings to be had therein."

—Gordon B. Hinckley

 

"Let us truly be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people….Let us make the temple, with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience."

—Howard W. Hunter

 

"I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the house of the Lord, you will be blessed; life will be better for you."

—Gordon B. Hinckley