Best Thing I Did All Week

I was super blessed to have the opportunity to go to the temple last week with my lovely companion and our good friend Mary. I love the temple so much. Whenever I go there, I leave feeling ten times better. It calms me down, helps me put things in perspective, and helps me be able to bear the trials of everyday life.

So much joy in the temple!

The temple is a sacred place where we make covenants--binding promises--with Heavenly Father. I've recently come to understand just how important it is to make those covenants. Not so God can hold us to a higher standard of judgment (although that does happen), but so that we can yoke ourselves to the Savior. (For those of you who don't know what a yoke is, refer to this article.)

When we make covenants with God, we become connected to Christ, side by side, so He can help us pull our load. The yoke of our covenants puts the weight evenly across our shoulders and His. Essentially, it cuts the weight we have to pull in half, so long as we pull in unison with Him--by keeping those covenants we've made. 

"Making and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to and with the Lord Jesus Christ. In essence, the Savior is beckoning us to rely upon and pull together with Him, even though our best efforts are not equal to and cannot be compared with His. As we trust in and pull our load with Him during the journey of mortality, truly His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

"...Consider the example in the Book of Mormon as Amulon persecuted Alma and his people. The voice of the Lord came to these disciples in their afflictions: “Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage” (Mosiah 24:13).

"Note the centrality of covenants to the promise of deliverance. Covenants received and honored with integrity and ordinances performed by proper priesthood authority are necessary to receive all of the blessings made available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. For in the ordinances of the priesthood, the power of godliness is manifest unto men and women in the flesh, including the blessings of the Atonement (see D&C 84:20–21)."
("Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease," Elder Bednar)

Going to the temple makes me feel so much better because it reminds me of the covenants I have made. It reminds me that I'm not alone, that I need never be alone, and that I always have someone to help me pull my
load. There is no better place than the temple to be reminded of these things. 

By far the best thing I did all week.

If any of you have questions about the temple, what we do there, or how to go, just ask me or your local missionaries. :)