"Stories on the Sabbath" - Temple Rocks

Today is the Dedication of the Brigham City Temple.  Temples have always been an integral part of God's plan for us.  In Genesis 28:10-19 is the story of “Jacob’s ladder” that reached up to heaven.  Jacob named the place "Bethel", which means “House of God”.  Today that name refers to the latter day "Temples or The House of God. "

Elder Marion G. Romney stated, “Temples are to us all what Bethel was to Jacob” (Ensign, May, 1971, 16).  In preparation for a return to Bethel, Jacob asked his family to make specific preparations. “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:” (Genesis 35:2).  They were to be temporally and spiritually prepared to go to that sacred place just as we have responsibilities to properly prepare for our own temple attendance.

There are 138 operating temples, 15 under construction and 13 announced.  For a map of each of these temples click here.  The following is a true story that happened to a young women when the Las Vegas Nevada Temple was under construction.

                                                                  "TEMPLE ROCKS"

        When Emily was 12 years old, the Las Vegas Temple was in the process of being built and so her Young Women's class decided to go visit the temple site.  The week before they went, they had a lesson on the importance of keeping themselves clean and pure in order to be married in the Lord's temple.  Their teacher had challenged each of them to take time to pray and set their own private goals.
        When they arrived at the temple site, the teacher told them to look around until they found just the right  rock.  Once they found their rock, they took it with them and painted it white.  Then in gold ink they wrote on their special rock, their private goals that they had prayed about.  Emily wrote on her rock: "I want to marry a return mission in the temple some day."

        The teacher made a white satin bag and put all the rocks together in one bag.  The teacher knew one of the architects of the temple and gave him the satin bag with instructions to put it in one of the walls.  A few years later after the temple was finished, the architect called her and told her that he had placed the bag of rocks in a wall in the "Celestial Room."  They had been placed there while the temple was being built.  The teacher then called her girls and told them where they had been placed.
         When Emily was 19, she met and fell in a love with a young man who was 21.  He  had not been on a mission, but just before they met he had decided that he wanted to serve a mission.  However, the more they dated and began falling in love, the decision to go on a mission became very hard.  Emily knew that if she asked him not to go, that he wouldn't go.  Part of her wanted to do that.  She knew she had the power within her to persuade him either way.
         One night when she was saying her prayers, she remembered the little white rocks in the temple.  She remembered that she had written that she wanted to "marry a return missionary in the temple" and felt that this was an answer to her prayers.  Emily encouraged him in every way to serve a mission and they prepared together.  He went on a mission and served faithfully.  When he came home, they were still in love and  were married in the Las Vegas Temple, just as she had written on the little white rocks, nine years earlier. 
         Emily  never ever regretted that decision.  Not very long after they were married, Emily was called to be Young Women's president in her ward.  She could now personally testify to her girls the importance of each of them setting goals, and tell them about her experience with the "temple rocks" which helped her be able to make and keep sacred covenants in the Lord's temple.
                                       
                                                  --Told to Michele Garvin By Linda Covey - Emily's mother