LDS Temples

What is this focus on temples? Why are we so excited about the temple being built in Kansas City, Missouri, less than 10 minutes from our house? Well, let me tell you. The temple is one of the most sacred places on earth. We make promises to our Heavenly Father in temples. These promises stand forever, and our Heavenly Father blesses us when we keep these promises. We believe that families can be together forever, beyond the grave. This means a lot to us.

A temple is different than a church building. A church building is for weekly worship and activities. A temple is for special work that is for eternity.



Here is more of what you can learn about temples through the church's page of FAQ's... temples!

On October 4th, 2008 during General Conference our prophet President Thomas S. Monson announced 2 temples to be built. One was the Payson, Utah temple. We were so excited. This is where my parents live and I thought it would be neat to see a temple be built near them. The kids could see a temple built from start to finish as we visited them. Others announced included the Kansas City, Missouri temple, Calgary, Alberta, Rome, Italy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cordoba, Argentina. We were very interested in the Rome temple and vaguely interested in the Kansas City temple for historical reason related to the history of our church, but wow, Payson!

When we visited Payson, Utah this spring we took a picture in front of the site of the temple to be built... thinking we'd take more pictures as the temple work was completed. We had learned that the Payson temple would be built less than 2 blocks from my parents home. While this is not a huge deal to some Utah members of the church, it's even closer than we'd imagined! How neat!

THEN. Tom accepted the job offer in Kansas City and we looked for homes... where? No, not close to his work. Not close to the church building. Not close to the best schools (remember, we homeschool :) best school is always right where we want it to be.). Not close to friends. Not close to family. Not close to shopping or whatever other people might look for. We figured out where the temple was going to be built and looked based on that information.

Our home in Kansas City is about 8 minutes from the Kansas City temple being built. And we are very happy about that.

Temples are very important in our lives. Right now the closest temples are in St. Louis, Missouri, about 4 hours away, and Winter Quarters, Nebraska, about 3 hours away. Also close is the Nauvoo, Illinois temple, about 5 hours away. We've lived in Pennsylvania, where the closest temple was Washington DC. We've lived in Ohio, where the closest temple was in Louisville, Kentucky or Columbus, Ohio. We've lived in Texas where the closest temple was Lubbock. Growing up we both lived in areas where the closest temple was at least a couple hours away, Tom going to Chicago and my family going to Los Angeles or San Diego. The closest we ever were to temples was in Utah and even then I don't think we were 8 minutes away.

I've decided to include our visits to the temple building sites on our family learning blog so you can share. Enjoy!