Visiting Teaching Message for July 2009

Qualify for and Partake of Temple Worship
Ensign, July 2009

Teach these scriptures and quotations or, if needed, another principle that will bless the sisters you visit. Bear testimony of the doctrine. Invite those you visit to share what they have felt and learned.

How Can I Prepare for Temple Worship?

Silvia H. Allred, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency: "The temple is the house of the Lord. He directs the conditions under which it may be used, the ordinances that should be administered, and the standards that qualify us to enter. … Personal worthiness is an essential requirement to enjoy the blessings of the temple. We prepare by obeying the commandments and seeking to do God's will" ("Holy Temples, Sacred Covenants," Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2008, 113).

Elder David B. Haight (1906–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "We who would attend the temple must be living in a manner which helps us be worthy to enter and fully partake. … We examine our worthiness to enter the temple in … interviews with priesthood leaders. Our signature, with theirs, on our temple recommend testifies of our worthiness to enter the temple" ("Come to the House of the Lord," Ensign, May 1992, 15).

What Are the Blessings of Qualifying for and Partaking of Temple Worship?

D&C 110:7: "I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house."
President Howard W. Hunter (1907–95): "Let us hasten to the temple as frequently as time and means and personal circumstances allow. Let us go not only for our kindred dead, but let us also go for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and safety which is provided within those hallowed and consecrated walls. The temple is a place of beauty, it is a place of revelation, it is a place of peace" ("The Great Symbol of Our Membership, " Tambuli, Nov. 1994, 6; Ensign, Oct. 1994, 5).

D&C 38:32: "I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high" (see also D&C 95:8).

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "The temple endowment blessings are as essential for each of us as was our baptism. For this reason we are to prepare ourselves that we may be clean to enter into the temple of God. Temple work is an opportunity to perform our personal endowments and covenants for the living and also perform these same ordinances for the redemption for the dead. It is for this reason we are instructed in the scriptures to build temples and prepare our lives to be worthy to partake of the sacred temple ordinances and covenants. …"
""The primary purpose of the temple is to provide the ordinances necessary for our exaltation in the celestial kingdom. Temple ordinances guide us to our Savior and give us the blessings that come to us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" ("Temple Blessings," in Brigham Young University 2005-2006 Speeches [2006], 1, 4).

President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008): "Every man or woman who goes to the temple in a spirit of sincerity and faith leaves the house of the Lord a better man or woman. There is need for constant improvement in all of our lives. There is need occasionally to leave the noise and the tumult of the world and step within the walls of a sacred house of God, there to feel His spirit in an environment of holiness and peace" ("Of Missions, Temples, and Stewardship," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 53).