Temple Worship Brings Miracles

 

Our Beautiful Temple

 How we love our beautiful Red Cliffs Utah temple!

important Work

It is such important, eternal work we do in the holy temples.

 

A Sweet Marriage\ Sealing

Ken has had the opportunity to perform several marriage/ sealings, including four from our ward.  He married this precious couple this month.

I wanted to post about it because of the connections we have with them and their family.

• Ken's father and the bride's great-grandfather served in a stake presidency together many years ago.

• The bride's grandmother and Ken went to high school together in Hurricane.  She and their family moved into our ward a few years after we did  We raised our families together..
•  So the bride's mom grew up in this ward.  She was an impressive, sweet girl.  She grew up and went on a mission speaking ASL.  She came home, married, and lived out of state while they had their children.
• Later, she and her family moved here and bought a home in this ward, so the bride grew up here, too. 
• The bride was one of my Mia Maids.  
• Ken and the bride's father served in an elders quorum presidency together and we have been close.
• The groom is our stake president's son. 
• The groom's father worked for Ken years ago.

Ken did a beautiful job in the sealing.  It was a very special experience.  There was such a strong spirit there.  We love these people.

  Sometimes family extends beyond blood relatives.

A Sweet Temple Experience

One evening, when we were serving our Tuesday shift at the temple, I noticed a name on the reservation sheet that was very unusual.  They didn't come in at the time for which they were signed up but were about 45 minutes late.  I actually started one session, and they came just as I was taking the next.  But it was too full to accommodate them in that one, so I asked them to wait for the next.  That gave us an opportunity to visit.  It was a man from India with his mother who was visiting for the holidays.  I asked him to tell me his conversion story.  His mother spoke no English.  He told me the most fascinating, faith promoting story.  I will tell it as best I can remember it:

When he was a teenager, his mother became interested in Christianity.  She joined a church and he would go with her.  The preacher was a charismatic man who preached with conviction.  Sometimes after late activities or meetings, this teenager would stay at the preacher's home.  He would overhear the preacher talking and laughing with friends.  He was disappointed that the preacher preached one thing but talked and lived another way.  He soon quit attending.

Later, when he was a young adult, he started attending another Christian church.  He believed in Jesus Christ.  His daily routine took him by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints building.  He was drawn to it.  It said on the sign "Visitors Welcome."  But he knew it as an English-speaking church, and he didn't speak English then (his English as he told the story was impeccable) so he didn't ever go there.  He worked at a local grocery store.  One morning, two Elders came in.  They were obviously looking for something, so he asked if he could be of assistance.  He took them to the desired item.  In return, they gave him a pass along card that had five questions on in:

Where did I come from?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

Is there really a God?

And I don't remember the other one.

He looked  at the card and asked,"Do you know the answers to these questions?"  "Yes, we do." the Elders answered.  He couldn't believe it and asked again, "You know the answers?"   Yes!"  He couldn't believe it.  He just couldn't believe it.  Since he was a small boy, he would look up into the night sky and wonder about the answers to those very questions.  He had asked both Christian pastors, but neither knew the answers.

He was so excited to learn the answers and set an appointment with the Elders.  He soon began learning about the gospel from the Elders.  While he was learning, he went to the pastor of the church he was attending and asked him the questions again and told him he was meeting with the Elders.  The pastor couldn't answer the question, but told him to stay away from the Elders, telling him they were evil.  But he didn't obey and was soon baptized.  

He paused here to look me in the eyes and say to me,"I am so very grateful for you people from Utah who send your children on missions.  Two elders from Utah gave me the gospel."

He then went on to have his brothers, his cousins, and many friends learn from the Elders.  Soon his mother became interested, and she too was eventually baptized.  He was out to convert India!  He then served a mission as did his brother and cousins.  Can you even imagine the multitude converted from that one little pass along card?

That's about when I had to leave and do my work, so I didn't get to ask him more questions.  But I did learn that he lives in this area now and his mother came from India to stay with him for about a month and he was bringing her to the temple as often as he could while she was here.

As I left the room, I took his mother's hands (she was a beautiful woman with a ruby in her forehead) and told her what an honor it was to meet her and have her in the temple.

This was such a sweet experience that I had to share it here.

A Competition Between Two Cards

 Ken has two cards in his wallet that he uses most frequently.  He always puts the one he just used in front of the other.  He recently confided that his goal is to have the temple recommend in front of the credit card most often.  

The temple recommend wins most weeks!

A Special Weekend in Idaho

 On the weekend of August 15t-17th, we traveled to Idaho Falls to attend the temple as Nathan and Brielle received their endowments in the Rexburg, Idaho temple.  It was such a sweet blessing to be there with them.  These are our two oldest grandchildren.

Nathan and Brielle

Jared, Kristen, Nathan, Brielle, Carolyn Mackrory, Mitch Mackrory, Me and Ken

After a delicious rib dinner prepared by Kristen and Jared, we attended a community children's theater production of Moana.  Audrey and Samuel starred in it.

After the play we came home to find Lisi crocheting.  She was chain stitching and had created quite a long rope.  Carolyn, her other grandma had taught her how.  Samuel went to get his impressive crochet kit to start a chain of his own.

The next morning we went to a 9:00am church, then to Kristen and Jared's for a delicious breakfast before we hit the road for home. You can see Lisi's chain is growing.

Their special breakfast is eggs benedict.  Yum!

This is their beautiful new home.

It was such a privilege to be there.  Thank you Mackrorys.

A Special Sealers Meeting with Elder Whiting

 Once during every temple presidency's three-year term, a general authority comes to do a temple review.  Ours was held recently.  Elder Scott D Whiting came to do ours.  As part of the review, the sealers and spouses were invited to a special meeting.  It was such a beautiful meeting-so inspirational.  They blocked off those times in sealings so that all sealers could attend.  We felt so blessed to be there.

Red Cliffs Utah Temple

1555 South Red Cliffs Temple Lane

St. George, Utah 84790

31 July 2025

Dear Brethren:

As part of our upcoming Temple Review, we invite you and your wife to attend a

meeting for Temple Sealers, with Elder Scott D. Whiting, General Authority Seventy,

and his wife, Sister Jeri O. Whiting, next Friday, August 8th, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. in the

Red Cliffs Utah Temple.

Please meet in the Brothers’ Training Room in the lower level of the temple by

11:20 a.m., dressed in Sunday attire. The meeting will conclude by 12:30 pm.

We hope you will be able to join us for this special meeting for instruction and

counsel from Elder Whiting.

Warmest regards,

Red Cliffs Utah Temple Presidency

Elder Whiting was the area authority 70 in Japan when we served our mission there.  We met him when he came to an all-mission conference.  We were so inspired by his address then and again at this meeting.  He gave such inspired counsel to the sealers.  

The day before, as he toured the temple with the temple presidency, he came into the sealing room where Ken had just finished a sealing session and visited.  Ken reminded him that we had met him in Japan and they spoke a little Japanese together.  That also was a sweet surprise.

Everyone was uplifted by Elder Whiting's visit.

Two of the Sweetest Days of our Lives

 Last year, Dave and Bonnie attended temple open houses in St. George, Red Cliffs, and Manti, Utah. They both were baptized and attended church as children but had not been to church since becoming adults.  They were touched by what they saw and felt.  Soon thereafter our elders quorum president was inspired to visit them.  They said they wanted to come back to church.  We were blessed to be assigned as their ministers.  What a joy it has been to be in their home and take this journey with them.  On July 16th they went through the temple for the first time.  We were blessed to be their escorts.  Then the next evening, they were sealed by Ken in our temple.  Those truly were two of the sweetest days of our lives.  We have come to love this dear couple.

July 16th after the endowment

Open the gates

Even the sunset seemed to be celebrating this glorious day.

We have an amazing ward.  It seemed the whole ward came to both events.  Many from Bonnie and Dave's work also came.  It was such a glorious, sweet time when they emerged into the celestial room.  Ward members and friends gathered around and hugged and congratulated them.  We feel sure that is what heaven will be like.  We had tears as we watched.

The next night, after the sealing.  We all cheered as they emerged from the temple.

This is Bonnie's oldest brother Dee .  It was so sweet to have him there.

The happy couple

Afterward, we had a reception for them at the church.

So many from the ward and from work came to celebrate.

As we walked out of the reception, I felt that the heavens opened with light.