Returned Missionary Temple Seminar

 Dear Family,

READER ALERT: Long email and shameless plug for temple attendance.

In the last conference President Nelson said, "we are doing all within our power, under the direction of the Lord, to make the temple blessings more accessible to members of the Church." As Jenni pointed out to me, this is not a feel good statement, this is truly what the brethren are doing. And our experience in Bangkok was a perfect example of this. Thousands of dollars spent to help 38 missionaries do 6-7 ordinances each. This is the power of the temple to build and point lives in the right direction.

As you know, I've been working with helping returned missionary return to the temple my entire mission. Most recently I've been planning a temple seminar for recently returned missionaries who live in a countries where there is no temple. This was one of the Asia Area Presidency's attempts to be responsive to this focus that has been coming from the brethren. We finally had our first seminar the last week of April and it was a great success.  It also was so intense that it's taken me 10 days get it down in this journal/letter.  The problem is that every time I sit down and open my computer to download pictures, I find myself watching a K-Drama instead! I'm going to say that this is partly because the experience was both exhausting and intense and has taken some processing time (read here that I'm just lazy) but today I am determined and committed to finish this letter. 

After returning from Bangkok, I was asked to give a presentation to the Area Presidency, so I'm going to steal some of the slides I used, starting with a quick look at the stated purpose of this Seminar.

This look at all the different countries represented is a window
into just how diverse and rich this group was. 

Group picture. 

Elder Teh and his wife Grace, in the center, were our guest speakers for our opening day. This picture is a treasure for me because for so many weeks these young adults have been names on paper and passports, but now they are people who Dad and I love and who have taught us what it looks like to be a disciple.

WEDNSEDAY 

Missionaries from India began arriving Wednesday morning at 4:30 a.m. There were 18 of them, 14 of which, due to COVID and politics served their entire missions never having the opportunity to receive their endowments. Wednesday afternoon after they had taken naps to recover from their all-night flights, we all gathered for this picture as we prepared to enter the temple so these 14 could be endowed, with their 4 friends to share the experience. 

Dad and I were the designated escorts, which required nothing of us but love. At the end of the session we waited till all of them had entered the celestial room before we going ourselves. I don't think Dad or I will ever forget the beauty of seeing the celestial room full of these 18 splendid people. They weren't huddled in conversation or congratulations, but they had all found separate quiet places to sit alone, and they were sitting with bowed heads in worship and prayer. Their white clothing, the celestial room light, with their beautiful dark hair and golden skin was stunning. We sat quietly like this for many minutes while they sat lost in their own thoughts in this sacred space. 

I believe this experience will permanently change how I view my time spent in the celestial room. 

The Seminar Agenda

This is what workshops looked like, this one was on goal setting and life planning

I'm pretty sure that there were 10's of 1000's of pictures taken on the temple grounds. Between every event it was a major job to round the missionaries up from all over the temple property. They took pictures of every angle of the temple, every door, every window and tree. But this was by far the most popular spot. It just made me so happy.

Catered dinner Tuesday night with Elder and Sister Teh 

The River Cruise was one of the highlights of the weekend. By the time we loaded the bus to go to the river we had all spent enough hours together in classes, eating meals, and at the temple, that everyone was becoming good friends. Country alliances were breaking down and everyone was feeling comfortable together. At this table you have Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand

After the dinner the missionaries took over the dance floor. The live music was great and the singer loved them. The dancing was so fun, it was loud, rowdy, and full of laughter and cheering. AND some of these guys could really dance which is always a plus. Just know that I'm resisting the urge to download 10 more pictures and videos here!
Dad questioned my judgement showing this picture to the area presidency, and sure enough they laughed and asked me if I'd taken the missionaries to a Rave!! I assured them that this was just  a rousing version of YMCA.

These two Japanese girls were trying to join the dancing fun, but were a bit confused at this group of kids their age that were dressed in white shirts, ties and modest dresses. These two RM's from Indonesia just scooped them up and answered all their questions about the church and made fast friends with them. I think that once a missionary, always a missionary!

 Each day we ate these Thai boxed lunches.  On our ending survey the food was the low point of the weekend, and Dad and I would pretty much agree!  Cheap Thai food is not that great.  The good news for me is that this is a pretty easy problem to solve for the next seminar.

These two sisters were a bonus for us. Sister Seng and Sister Chin are second generation Cambodians from Siem Reap and Battambang. We knew both of their families and had their older siblings in our mission. These girls were tweens when we were there and now they are returned missionaries.
 It was a sweet reunion.

Funny story, On the last day, this girl on the left watched in horror as her temple recommend tumbled out of her hand and slid through the tiles you can see her standing on.  It disappeared through that tiny crack into the drainage system.  She was so relieved when I reassured her that the temple had her recommend on file and she wouldn't have to miss the day.



The subtext of every young adult activity is the hope of romance. Tere were several obvious romances that seemed to be in the works, but this is our favorite.   This elder called me Cupid for putting the seminar together because he was able to reunite with a sister he had met on his mission.  Dad found him sitting in the lobby on Saturday and as only Dad can do, he burrowed into whether this RM had found any romance.  He confessed that he was so happy to be together with this sister, and informed Dad that, during a night excursion to the market he had held her hand and that they had had several opportunities to visit. He then showed Dad his phone with a text proposal he had just sent. A text!!!  He went with the text-a-proposal route! We were dying!  We watched them eat lunch together and Dad shamelessly took multiple pictures of them.  I have no idea what will happen in the end with these two, but you can bet that the Area Presidency was thrilled with this story!!

When is was all over on Saturday afternoon we loaded them all up in hired vans to get them back to the airport so they could be home for their Sunday meetings.
A van full Malaysians, Vietnamese, Indonesians

                                               Saying goodbye to our Indian friends.

By the time everyone boarded the shuttles for the airport there were hugs, address exchanges and smiles. This beautiful sister from a remote little city in Indonesia is probably our sister who struggled the most with English, but she was all smiles and hugs and smiling waves as her airport shuttle pulled away. The language barrier didn't get in the way of her ability to have a rich experience. She had Dad so wrapped around her little finger that he literally chased the shuttle through the garage to get this picture!

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I know I've made you wade through a lot already but let me tell you a few stories about what really matters, the people and the temple. The whole purpose of this event was to give these returned missionaries an experience with the temple, knowing full well that for some of them it could be many years before they return, or before they have a temple in their own country. As the days have gone by I have realized that the most meaningful part of the experience for me was that I unexpectedly found myself acting as a temple coach through the weekend. Although each of them were seasoned missionaries and committed disciples who had taught countless lessons about the temple and eternal families, they had very little personal experience with the temple itself. Questions like, what ordinances require temple robes? Or where is the baptistry? Why did I do initiatory at the beginning of my endowment yesterday, but today I do initiatory work after an endowment session? Can I have my grandparents sealed even though I haven't done the endowment yet?  How long can I stay in the celestial room?  The questions just kept coming.  

Let's start with the celestial room question. I already told you about the Indians and our live endowment, but here's a little more background. In order to accommodate such a large group, we had to carefully orchestrate the temple schedule so that everyone got a turn to do each ordinance. The participants were divided two main groups and then several smaller groups depending on the ordinance they were going to do.  Every day they started their temple tine with an endowment session and then moved into either a baptism session, an initiatory session or a sealing session.  So, the first day, about 30 minutes after an endowment session had ended, I walked into the women's locker room to check on how things were going in initiatory. I was met by several frustrated temple workers saying that the young women that were supposed to come to initiatory had not showed up. I too was a little confused, but quickly discovered that they were simply were still in the celestial room. They were just so happy to be there that they didn't want to leave, and they didn't understand that workers were waiting for them for the next ordinance. That's hard to be annoyed with, but it meant that the next day as we prepared for our temple time, I had to instruct them not to pray so long, and I'm pretty sure I've never said that sentence before!  But even after coaching them, I still found myself the second day, in the celestial room, gently approaching them. Thier heads were bowed so I would rub their back a little, and whisper that as soon as they were ready, they needed to move to their next ordinance. I've already said it in this letter, but I have learned something about worshiping in the celestial room after being with this group, and it won't be easily forgotten.

This sweet sister from India approached me the first day saying that she really wanted to do the temple work for her grandparents this weekend. She asked me if it was possible, and I really wasn't sure, each missionary was essentially tied to the predetermined temple schedule set up by the temple. I told her I wasn't sure, but said we'd look at her schedule to see if her access to ordinances would get it done. As we went through her daily appointments it turned out that the first day she was scheduled in the baptistry, the second day in initiatory, and the third day in a sealing session. As that all became apparent she just looked at me with wide eyes of gratitude. She felt so seen and loved by her Heavenly Father.

Then she asked this question. "I don't know what to do," she said, "Family Search says it won't print the sealing card. It says my grandmother was too young when she got married." I asked her how old her grandma was, and she told me her grandmother was 5. Yes, 5! I had heard that these kinds of marriages happened in India long ago, and here I was, trying to reconcile this with Family Search.  We went and found the Thailand Family Search Director who was also bewildered but promised to find an answer. The answer? Just delete the wedding date and the computer will print the card.

Saturday afternoon she couldn't stop smiling as she gave me a big hug saying, "I did it! My grandparents are sealed."

This beautiful sister from Indonesia approached me on Thursday as she got ready for an endowment session. She was a bit concerned because she wanted to do the endowment for the mother of one of her best friends. She kind of understood that the initiatory needed to be done first, but she had no idea how to make that happen.  With only one option available, I put my arm around her and took her up to the initiatory room and proceeded to struggle with my non-existent Thai, and the temple workers limited English, to explain our situation and talk them into doing an extra ordnance for this sister. We finally got things figured out and the work was completed. When I met this sister after the session, she said that she was so grateful to have been able to do this work for her friend and that she felt her friend's mother with her during the session. Then she unexpectedly put her arm around me and said, "I felt her saying thank you; and she wants me to tell you thank you also."  

These stories and so many more moments like them that weekend, are all short and undramatic standing by themselves, but collectively they will make the entire 18 months of my mission worth it.

Please go to the temple. There are blessings waiting for you there.

We love you,

Grandma and Pampa/Mom and Dad