What Keeps You From Attending the Temple More Often?

Families are stronger when individuals make and keep covenants. One important way to keep covenants is to do those things that renew covenants. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renew their baptismal covenants by attending sacrament meeting and partaking of the sacrament. We renew our temple covenants by going back to the temple and being proxies so that other people can receive the ordinances. Yet, there are people who do not attend sacrament meetings often or attend the temple frequently.

I was recently in a fifth Sunday meeting in Salt Lake City, and an interesting question was asked. It was something like this, “what keeps you from attending the temple more often?” I raised my hand and said the reason is convenience. There are numerous temples within an hour from the homes of the people in that ward –Bountiful, Brigham City, Draper, Jordan River, Layton, Mount Timpanogos, Ogden, Oquirrh Mountain, Orem, Payson, Provo City Center, Salt Lake, Sarasota Springs, and Taylorsville. There are more temples located within two hours, and even more temples being constructed in the area.

The fact that there are so many temples located in such close proximity could make temple seem less pressing. People may think, “I can go tomorrow” or “I can go next week.” The situation is not the same in any other area of the world. Consider the following:

·         There is only one temple in Alaska.

·         The temple was dedicated in January 1999. Previous to its dedication, the temple for Alaska was located in Seattle and required airline travel or a week in an automobile.

·         My airline travel took me home to Salt Lake City, and I always made at least one day available for temple service. My father and I would leave home early in the morning and return in time for dinner. During those hours, we did as many endowment sessions as we could fit. It was normal temple service for my father, but I tried to soak up as much temple as I could – enough to last until the next year when I traveled home.

·         The Anchorage Alaska Temple was dedicated in January 1999 and remodeled several years later.

·         This temple is closed for two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall with no other temples available in Alaska.

·         The temple is open Tuesday through Saturday with two sessions per day available at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. per day except Saturday. On Saturday there are three sessions – 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. This makes a total of eleven sessions available per week.

·         There are currently even more restrictions on attendance because a second temple is being constructed on the site. This limits the area available for parking, which limits the number of people who can attend each session.

·         My temple day is Friday at 10:00 a.m. To make sure that I get an appointment for that time, I must make my appointment by Sunday. There have been weeks when I could not attend the temple because all the appointments were gone. In addition, I can have only one endowment session scheduled at a time.

·         To obtain the appointment that I want, I must plan my temple service a week in advance.

Thus, my comment about convenience. When there are numerous temples in the area and many sessions available, people may not have to be so diligent and have to plan their temple attendance so far in advance.

With a temple so close to my home, I feel an obligation to attend often. I feel certain that this feeling comes from being without a temple for so many years and having such limitations at the current time. People who have never been without a temple may not feel the same obligation unless they are caught up in family history.

I encourage you to examine your life to determine why you are not more regular in temple attendance. I also encourage you to gain the understanding that temple attendance helps us to keep our covenants with God.