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Making
Temple Excursions a Ward-Wide Event
by Clark L and Kathryn H. Kidd
Once the holidays
are over and church members start settling down to what passes for
a quietly normal life, the first thing we get to face is the dawning
of a new year. Latter-day Saints are no more exempt than anyone
else in the world from wanting to improve ourselves, and New Year’s
resolutions are a good place to start. The most common New Year's
resolution is probably to drop those extra pounds that we added
during the holidays, but we will ignore that goal and look to something
a bit more spiritual.
If there’s
one area where we as Saints are collectively in need of improvement,
that area is temple work. Ironically, it often seems that church
members who live near a temple seem to let temple work slip by them,
even as church members who have to make some sacrifice to get to
a temple often make the effort to do so. Temple work seems to be
an activity that is more likely to be accomplished if it is done
in groups, and ward activity planners are constantly on the lookout
for ways to sponsor successful temple trips.
A reader, Sue
Horrocks from the Redding II Ward in California, writes:
“In
our ward, like many others, we often have ward temple trips.
This is a day that our ward has set to encourage our ward to attend
our closest temple about three hours away. We have always
tried to encourage families to attend. This year as primary
president I thought it would be nice if we included the primary
age children, who usually get to stay with a sitter when their
parents go to the temple.
“With this idea in mind we planned our quarterly primary
activity day to take place at the temple and the neighboring stake
center. Families were encouraged to bring all their children
to the temple. The adults would do sessions, the youth would
do baptisms and the primary children would do planned activities.
These activities included physical games (remember they have been
in the car for three hours). These included making giant bubbles,
participating in a snack-making activity, walking the grounds
of the temple, and doing a watercolor painting of the temple.
“The
ward met back as a group for ice cream sundaes when everyone had
completed their tasks. Even though I did not get to do a
session inside the temple this day, I felt the spirit very strongly
in the excitement of the children being a part of our ward’s
temple trip.”
Include
the Children
Although we
are considerably closer to the temple, our ward has also had activities
that involved children in the temple-going process. The most successful
of these was an event where each primary-age child had an interview
with the bishop to receive his own “temple recommend”
before going on the temple excursion. Needless to say, this involved
a huge time commitment on the part of the bishop! After the interview,
each child was given a handmade recommend-size document, suitable
for keeping in a scrapbook, that certified he or she was qualified
to go to the temple. These “recommends” were presented
to the primary leaders by the children as they left to go to the
temple, and were returned afterwards, just as Mom and Dad’s
own temple recommends are examined before they are admitted to do
temple ordinances. Having these personal worthiness interviews with
the bishop impressed upon each child the importance of keeping oneself
worthy to visit the House of the Lord.
The children
dressed in their Sunday best to attend this activity. When they
reached the temple, they were given a tour of the grounds and also
listened to a talk from the temple president. They also went to
see age-appropriate exhibits at the visitor’s center, making
for a spiritual feast that preceded a picnic on the grounds. Attending
this activity gave the children a general idea of where their parents
were going when they went to the temple, what they did there, and
how important temple service is in God’s plan for us.
It’s easy
to say we should attend the temple, and not as simple to make the
effort to get there. The world is full of distractions, and it’s
easy to pay attention to the ones that clamor loudest for attention
– little Spencer’s soccer practice, for example –
and forget about the things that are a lot more important to our
eternal salvation. One thing that may help is to schedule temple
trips on such a regular basis that you do them automatically and
never have to make up your mind whether you’ll go to the temple
or do something else. If every Thursday is your personal temple
day, you’re going to be a lot less likely to schedule something
else for that time period. The same holds true for your ward members.
If the 5 P.M. session on the first Saturday of every month is set
aside for a ward temple excursion, you’re going to see more
ward members attending the temple than you would if temple trips
were only scheduled on a sporadic basis.
Socialization
Can Be Key
There’s
a stereotype of Mormons as being people who have refreshments at
every activity, and this stereotype exists for a reason. If the
only incentive for ward members to go to the temple at a specific
day and time was to sit next to one another in a session, they’re
likely to rationalize that it doesn’t matter when they go.
From this, it’s a quick progression to forgetting to go at
all. But if you give temple-goers an opportunity to socialize before
or after the session, they’ll be a lot less likely to skip
the organized activity. This is human nature. The socialization
with other ward members acts as a carrot on a stick to get us to
go places we should be going without the carrot. Put some chili
in the crock pot and invite people to your house after the session.
Or encourage ward members to carpool with each other so they can
visit to and from the temple – and then make arrangements
to meet at a local ice cream restaurant after the session.
Getting together
with ward members who are engaged with them in a good cause will
help your temple-going ward members bond with one another, and your
whole ward will be stronger as a result. Regular temple attendance
as a ward will probably do more to encourage a feeling of ward unity
than any other event. Sadly, we've probably all had experiences
where there was contention or divisiveness within the members of
a ward. But the feeling of eternal peace and oneness that you feel
in the temple may be the best balm to sooth those kinds of feelings,
and to start the healing process for the ward. The temple gives
us a brief glimpse of how wonderful the world can (and will) be
when we are all united in loving one another and living gospel precepts.
When you’re
organizing temple trips, try to include everyone in the ward who
may want to be included. Members without temple recommends can care
for the children of people who go, or teenagers can babysit for
service projects. Don’t forget to take some kind of treat
to the people who do childcare, to let them know they were an important
part of temple night even though they didn’t actually attend
the temple.
Kathy once taught
a Relief Society lesson that was geared to getting people out to
attend the temple. She had assumed people needed examples that would
show them how important temple work is, and how they could benefit
from it. She was surprised when a comment came up that people in
our ward would be glad to attend the temple, if only they could
form a babysitting co-op so children would be cared for. The lesson
ended up as a discussion on how such a co-op could be formed. If
people aren’t attending the temple in your ward, you may want
to find out why. Once those needs have been addressed, their temple
participation may greatly increase. But even if you only have a
few participants, those who attend the temple or help others to
do so will greatly benefit from their service.
Everything associated
with the temple reminds us of God and Jesus Christ and their love
for us. Even though the celebration of Christ’s birth is behind
us, it is not too late for us to resolve to give our Savior the
gift of our participation in the activities of the temple.
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© 2004 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved
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