Every year the LDS church chooses a mutual theme for the whole year to help the youth of the church learn more about the gospel and become closer to Christ. The themes come from verses of scripture which also helps you to memorize them. This year's theme comes from Doctrine and Covenants 19:23 "Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me”. I love this theme because in the world there is so much sadness and destruction and we all need peace and the best way to have peace is through Christ.
My young women's leaders decided that the best way for us to "practice" the theme and find peace in Christ for ourselves was to make an effort to go to the temple more often. With the completion of the newly announced Saratoga Springs temple, there will be 18 temples in Utah. Our goal is to visit all of the temples to gain more peace in Christ. A few of them we will just take pictures at the site or the city sign because they're not done yet.
We've only visited 3 temples so far, but I will continue to write about this as we visit other temples. We took a day trip and were able to visit the Bountiful and Salt Lake temples. I'd never been to either one before so it was awesome. I especially enjoyed the Salt Lake temple because it has so much history that I've learned about since I was little.
Last week we went to the recently constructed Payson temple. I was able to go to the open house with my family last year and I loved it. The architecture and layout are so beautiful. And I loved being there with some of the young women in my ward.
I'm looking forward to visiting the rest of the Utah temples throughout the year, increasing my testimony of temple service, and gaining peace in Christ. I will write about my experiences and the things I'm learning.
Always have hope,
Colby
