Temples

"It is my privilege this morning to announce two additional temples, which in coming months and years will be built in the following locations: Cedar City, Utah, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brothers and sisters, temple building continues unabated." Thomas S. Monson, Welcome to Conference, General Conference, Apr. 2013

"More importantly, it is priesthood authority in the Church that provides for sacred ordinances and covenants that bind families together and qualify each of us to return to God the Father and Jesus Christ in the celestial kingdom. These ordinances bring peace because they are covenants with the Lord.

Temples are where many of these sacred ordinances occur and are also a source of peaceful refuge from the world." Quentin L. Cook, Personal Peace: The Reward of Righteousness, General Conference, Apr. 2013

"In the temples, members of the Church who make themselves eligible can participate in the most exalted of the redeeming ordinances that have been revealed to mankind. There, in a sacred ceremony, an individual may be washed and anointed and instructed and endowed and sealed. And when we have received these blessings for ourselves, we may officiate for those who have died without having had the same opportunity. In the temples sacred ordinances are performed for the living and for the dead alike." Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple, Ensign Feb. 1995

"The temple is a great school. It is a house of learning. In the temples the atmosphere is maintained so that it is ideal for instruction on matters that are deeply spiritual." Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple, Ensign Feb. 1995

"As has been said, much of the teaching relating to the deeper spiritual things in the Church, particularly in the temple, is symbolic. We use the word keys in a symbolic way. Here the keys of priesthood authority represent the limits of the power extended from beyond the veil to mortal man to act in the name of God upon the earth. The words seal and keys and priesthood are closely linked together." Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple, Ensign Feb. 1995

"To enter the temple is a tremendous blessing. But first we must be worthy. We should not be rushed. We cannot cut corners of preparation and risk the breaking of covenants we were not prepared to make. That would be worse than not making them at all." Russell M. Nelson, Personal Preparation for Temple Blessings, Liahona, July 2001

"I have learned that temple blessings are most meaningful when death takes a loved one away from the family circle. To know that the pain of separation is only temporary provides peace that passes ordinary understanding. 38 Death cannot sever families sealed in the temple. They understand death as a necessary part of God’s great plan of happiness." Russell M. Nelson, Personal Preparation for Temple Blessings, Liahona, July 2001

"No matter what citizenship or race, whether male or female, no matter what occupation, no matter your education, regardless of the generation in which one lives, life is a homeward journey for all of us, back to the presence of God in his celestial kingdom.

Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality." Boyd K. Packer, Covenants, Ensign May 1987

"There is nothing that has come or will come into your family as important as the sealing blessings. There is nothing more important than honoring the marriage and family covenants you have made or will make in the temples of God." Henry B. Eyring, Families under Covenant, General Conference, Apr. 2012

"Worthiness to hold a temple recommend gives us the strength to keep our temple covenants. How do we personally gain that strength? We strive to obtain a testimony of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the reality of the Atonement, and the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We sustain our leaders, treat our families with kindness, stand as a witness of the Lord’s true Church, attend our Church meetings, honor our covenants, fulfill parental obligations, and live a virtuous life. You may say that sounds like just being a faithful Latter-day Saint! You are right." Robert D. Hales, Coming to Ourselves: The Sacrament, the Temple, and Sacrifice in Service, General Conference, Apr. 2012

Temples mean a lot to me, as I have very early memories of the Temple. My parents were married in the Temple after I was born, and so I had the opportunity as a child to enter the temple with them to be sealed to them. Those memories have grown somewhat hazy over time, but I still remember the peace and beauty of the moment. I could never understate it's centrality or sacredness, and I intend to maintain my worthiness to enter it and receive the blessings promised to those who do.