Temples to dot my life!

It all started a long time ago, when I was just a child and my parents worried about how to raise there kids in a good way. Coming from an LDS family (commonly known as Mormon) my parents made a decision. Just like King Mosiah, a prophet in the Book of Mormon, they asked us to turn ourselves towards the temple. Temples are places of learning, where we can go to our Heavenly Father and ask for his help with our problems or just go to feel His spirit. They're incredibly beautiful and full of inspiration. So, what better option for my parents than to point their children to the temple? 

Jordan River Temple

South Jordan, Utah

As a child, my parents gave each of us pictures of a temple. They decorated our rooms for many years, but were eventually lost or just set aside. But that didn't stop us. By this point we were old enough to enter the temple and do baptisms for our ancestors. Our parents obviously stressed that, in line with them pointing us to the temples. I can remember days where my father would take off work just so he could drive the youth of our congregation down to Oklahoma City to attend the temple. When we went on road trips we would make a point to stop at temples if they were nearby, including Denver, CO; Nauvoo, IL; Reno, NV; St. Louis, MO; and Albuquerque, NM. This brought about a new game in the family: the temple game. Game rules are super simple, whoever has attended and done work in the most temples is in first place and it goes down from there. Dad will probably be in the lead for many many years to come. He has those extra years, ya know. Meanwhile, us kids are battling it out for a second to Dad. 

This was my motivation for a while to go to new temples. It certainly made it a thrill when I had the opportunity to go through the temple in Copenhagen, Denmark.  But I was still a ways behind. When I came out to Utah for school my dad made it a point to go to some of the temples out here to "up my list" so to say. The void quickly set in. If that was my only reason for going, then why was I going? Was there any point really? No, to be honest it sucked out all the joys of the temple. 

But don't give up hope there, I had already begun to think differently about attending temples. While on my mission I met a man who had lived in America and I think was in the military as well. He had a giant map in his garage with push pins in every city he had been to; and let me tell you, his map was packed!! Around that time I began to think of all the temples that "dot the Earth". What if my new challenge was not to go to more temples than my brothers and sisters, but instead just to attend the many various temples? What if I had a giant map, and on it I had a picture of every temple that I had attended? I latched onto this idea, and after that day I have pushed myself to attend different temples just as a personal goal. Something just for me. 

This year I have set the goal to attend all of the temples in Utah. As of today, when I attended Jordan River, I am officially half way to that goal. My lifetime goal is quite a bit bigger. I have a goal to attend every LDS temple. I know, it sounds absurd and it's a massive goal being as there are dozens of temples outside of America and more being built all the time. But it's what I want, I want the temple to dot my life!