21-Day Temple Challenge
***If you are unfamiliar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you can read about our beliefs about Family History HERE and Temples HERE***
Our ward recently issued a challenge for all the ward members to choose a 21 day period, before the end of the year, to focus on the temple and family history work. The challenge is based upon a talk given by Sister Wendy Nelson at BYU women's conference in 2016 (read it HERE, it is long but so good!). This challenge seemed especially relevant to me because it was originally given to mothers with young children.
"Sisters, my suggestion to a group of overtaxed, exhausted young mothers may seem counterintuitive, and the results highly improbable. It may even seem cruel to ask a woman who feels as though she’s barely surviving to make a sacrifice of time to the Lord. But these young mothers proved that it works. It works for women who have made covenants with God. Why? Because when covenant women keep their covenants, they have greater access to the power of God. The power of God flows into them, and that power, His power, generates a decrease in stress, an increase in energy, more and clearer revelation for their lives, renewed focus, courage to make needed changes, an increase in patience, and more time for what matters. That’s what these young mothers taught me as they kept their covenant of sacrifice."
So for the challenge I took the advice of one sister in my ward and I bought a big calendar and planned out what I would do to focus on the temple each day. I didn't stick to my plan exactly but it was good to have that structure and ideas in place.
The first day of the challenge I read the talk above and went to the temple for an endowment session. It was definitely a sacrifice for me because I had never left Israel for so long before. Still I knew he would be fine for a few hours with Leland because he takes a bottle easily. The other things we did included taking the girls to the temple grounds one Sunday afternoon, having a family home evening about family history work and one about temple sealings, and visiting the family history center at temple square. Leland and I were also able to do temple sealings for some family names that I had found. Another day I taught Leland indexing and the majority of the days I tried to work on family history after the kids were in bed. (That was a sacrifice since that is my only kid free time each day and I usually read or watch shows with Leland.) Even though I really only know the basics of family history I was able to find 13 names to take to the temple so far. That is a feat for me because in the past I have spent hours and found nothing. There were a few days I wasn't able to do anything and I think that is okay because overall I did dedicate way more time and thought to temple work during this 21 day period than any other time in my life.
So excited to be on "Dada's Train"
I was dying laughing at these pictures with their faces in them. I had to lift them up and it took forever to take the picture ha.
Leland has always made fun of my name for meaning "snub nose" this just gave him more ammunition lol.
P.S. You should all watch this video because I just love President Nelson and it is an amazing story :)
Our ward recently issued a challenge for all the ward members to choose a 21 day period, before the end of the year, to focus on the temple and family history work. The challenge is based upon a talk given by Sister Wendy Nelson at BYU women's conference in 2016 (read it HERE, it is long but so good!). This challenge seemed especially relevant to me because it was originally given to mothers with young children.
"Sisters, my suggestion to a group of overtaxed, exhausted young mothers may seem counterintuitive, and the results highly improbable. It may even seem cruel to ask a woman who feels as though she’s barely surviving to make a sacrifice of time to the Lord. But these young mothers proved that it works. It works for women who have made covenants with God. Why? Because when covenant women keep their covenants, they have greater access to the power of God. The power of God flows into them, and that power, His power, generates a decrease in stress, an increase in energy, more and clearer revelation for their lives, renewed focus, courage to make needed changes, an increase in patience, and more time for what matters. That’s what these young mothers taught me as they kept their covenant of sacrifice."
So for the challenge I took the advice of one sister in my ward and I bought a big calendar and planned out what I would do to focus on the temple each day. I didn't stick to my plan exactly but it was good to have that structure and ideas in place.
The first day of the challenge I read the talk above and went to the temple for an endowment session. It was definitely a sacrifice for me because I had never left Israel for so long before. Still I knew he would be fine for a few hours with Leland because he takes a bottle easily. The other things we did included taking the girls to the temple grounds one Sunday afternoon, having a family home evening about family history work and one about temple sealings, and visiting the family history center at temple square. Leland and I were also able to do temple sealings for some family names that I had found. Another day I taught Leland indexing and the majority of the days I tried to work on family history after the kids were in bed. (That was a sacrifice since that is my only kid free time each day and I usually read or watch shows with Leland.) Even though I really only know the basics of family history I was able to find 13 names to take to the temple so far. That is a feat for me because in the past I have spent hours and found nothing. There were a few days I wasn't able to do anything and I think that is okay because overall I did dedicate way more time and thought to temple work during this 21 day period than any other time in my life.
Family selfies are hard lol
Our family tree we made for family home evening.
We rode the train to temple square ( the car was in the shop) then did all the interactive activities at the family history library. We weren't able to stay very long but they had a nice kids center that the girls loved. We had fun there and also found out the fun fact that Leland and I are 5th cousins. 😂
I was dying laughing at these pictures with their faces in them. I had to lift them up and it took forever to take the picture ha.
They had a nice nursing room there for me and Israel.
They have a green screen where you can take pictures in front of various backgrounds. Esther choose the Hawaii Temple because she loved the water in front.
Leland has always made fun of my name for meaning "snub nose" this just gave him more ammunition lol.
I also spent some of the days of the challenge reading stories from family history. I enjoyed those and always feel more committed to the gospel after reading stories of the pioneers.
So now that the challenge is over, I am grateful I did it. My life did not go perfectly or easily during it, I probably should have read the talk a few more times to remind myself what it
was all about. But I did find myself able to cope with hard situations better. I felt prompted to implement a morning routine with the girls that includes reading a scripture story together and a time set apart for my personal scripture study. That alone has made our days so much smoother. I also felt more ready and able to accept another foster placement when the right one comes along, as I wrote about a few posts ago. As I mentioned family history went so much better for me than it usually does, so I feel that was another blessing that came from the challenge. Most of all I was so grateful to attend the temple, I always find such peace and comfort when I go there. Anyways, I just wanted to document my experience and share it here in case anyone else wanted to do the challenge. 💗P.S. You should all watch this video because I just love President Nelson and it is an amazing story :)
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