House of the Lord

This is the Manti Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I love this temple.

  

I wish I had been able to get some photos of it lit and glowing at night.  That light was a beacon; after a long trip you could see it glowing in the distance from a few towns (and quite a few miles) away - a warm and comforting signal that home was near.

I could see the temple from my childhood bedroom window. In the summer months I would push my bed under the open window and listen to the rehearsals of the Manti Mormon Miracle Pageant.  As I got older I would listen from the back sets while waiting for my turn in the rehearsal. It's been a long time, and I've gotten pretty rusty, but I can still recite most of the pageant script by heart.

(For a great read about the Pageant read this - it's from 1978, so the statistics have changed, but it's still true to the spirit of the event.)

As much as I love sitting and looking at the temple, I love even more sitting and pondering within it's walls.  It was a long journey to get there, but for the last two years I have been blessed with many opportunities to find the spiritual peace and soulful comfort waiting inside. I can no longer see the Manti Temple from my window, but I have been able to enter it a few times while visiting, and I loved every minute.

 I now live only 5 miles from the Boston Temple - I can't see it from my bedroom window, but it was the first temple I was privileged to enter, and one that I need to make an effort to visit more often.

Temples are more than stone and mortar. They are filled with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. They are sanctified by sacrifice and service.

In this sacred sanctuary we will find peace; we will be renewed and fortified.

-President Thomas S. Monson