Drop by Drop

Look what Valerie captured in this tiny, spectacular droplet of water last week.

Look closer. 

"Attendance at sacrament meetings adds oil to our lamps, drop by drop over the years.  Fasting, family prayer, home teaching, control of bodily appetites, preaching the gospel, studying the scriptures--each act of dedication and obedience is a drop added to our store.  Deeds of kindness, payment of offerings and tithes, chaste thoughts and actions, marriage in the covenant for eternity--these, too, contribute importantly to the oil with which we can at midnight refuel our exhausted lamps."

President Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 256

I'm grateful for the perspective of seeing temple attendance in a different way.  Each time we go, we are blessed and spiritually filled, drop by drop.  

Drops of obedience every day, prepares us to attend the temple.  

The time is quickly coming when the Kansas City Temple will be open.  Are we ready?  Let us fill our vessels by following the counsel of our prophets.  

Families Can Be Together Forever

I have a family here on earth.
They are so good to me.
I want to share my life with them
Through all eternity.

Fam'lies Can Be Together Forever,
through Heavenly Father's plan.

I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord, has shown me how I can.

While I am in my early years,
I'll prepare most carefully.

So I can marry in God's temple

for eternity.

Fam'lies Can Be Together Forever

Through Heavenly Father's plan.

I always want to be with my own family.
And the Lord has shown me how I can.
The Lord, has shown me how I can.

The Lord has shown us how we can be with our families forever, in his Holy House.
The Kansas City Temple will bless the lives of generations.

Photos of the Curtis and Campbell families, taken by Valerie Anderson at the Kansas City Temple.
Families Can Be Together Forever, Text: Ruth M. Gardner, Music: Vanja Y. Watkins, LDS Hymnal, pg. 300

The construction gate was open when Val went to photograph the temple a couple of days ago.

At the dedication of the Manti Temple, President Lorenzo Snow said,
"May this holy temple be to them as one of the gates of heaven, opening into the straight and narrow path that leads to endless lives and eternal dominion." 
(Manti Temple dedication, 21 May 1888)

Go here to read an address given by President Thomas S. Monson on January 14, 2001 to the students at BYU-I about the three gates that only we can open.  "History swings on small hinges-and so will your life."

"Enter ye in at the strait gate:  for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

"Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Matt. 7:12-14

In these pictures, storm clouds are brewing in the distance.  With all of the distractions and temptations of the world swirling around us, may we be extra vigilant to stay the course and have our goal be to enter in the gates of the holy temples.

Prepare now, to enter in the narrow gate of worthiness to be allowed in the Kansas City Temple when the doors are open.  Let's not be among the "few there be that find it".

Rise, Ye Saints, and Temples Enter

Rise, Ye Saints, and Temples Enter
Text:  Jean L. Kaberry (1918-1997; LDS)
Music:  Robert P. Manookin (1918-1997); LDS)
Tune name:  Marie (to honor the composer's daughter)

Rise ye Saints, and temples enter;
Seek the path that leads ahead.

Seal in ever lasting circles
All our loved ones, quick and dead.

Learn the plan of exaltation;
With His sacred laws comply

Live to earn in binding cov'nant
Blessings of our God most high.

Elohim thou great designer,
Wilt thou heaven's powr's bestow,

As thy faithful sons and daughters
Serve in temples here below.

"The New Zealand Temple was the 'temple home' of the author and composer of this hymn at the time it was written.  Robert Manookin said:  "While my wife and I were serving a mission in the New Zealand Temple, the temple president, William Roberts, organized a special sacrament meeting program among the temple missionaries to try to spur understanding and interest in temple work among the members of the Church.  He asked that I write music for the occasion.  I then approached Sister Jean L. Kaberry, a typist and secretary in the temple, to write a poem that could be set to music. 'Rise, Ye Saints, and Temples Enter' was the result.  The temple missionaries were then organized into a small choir that sang the hymn for the sacrament meeting program."
Our Latter-Day Hymns, The Stories and the Messages, by Karen Lynn Davidson

Let's heed the admonition to Rise, Ye Saints and Temples Enter where we seal our loved ones, learn the plan of exaltation, enter into sacred covenants and receive blessings.

All photos taken by Valerie Anderson August 26 & 28, 2011.