My wife and I recently moved to Wilmington, DE. This has been an exciting time to move here in light of the coming dedication of the Philadelphia temple. It’s been wonderful to be able to be part of the open house and to serve as a volunteer and take a tour through the temple. It is a gorgeous temple and I cannot imagine it being in a better location. I am excited to be able to attend the temple after it is dedicated this Sunday.

Because of all of the excitement, we’ve had a lot of lessons about the temple and the blessings therein. Elder Cooks recent talk See Yourself in the Temple has become a staple. In particular, one portion of this talk is quickly becoming iconic:

“It is our great desire that members of the Church will live to be worthy of a temple recommend. Please don’t see the temple as some distant and perhaps unachievable goal. Working with their bishop, most members can achieve all righteous requirements in a relatively short period of time if they have a determination to qualify and fully repent of transgressions. This includes being willing to forgive ourselves and not focus on our imperfections or sins as disqualifying us from ever entering a sacred temple.”

I love this emphasis. It is so easy to become downtrodden with the impact of sin. It is easy to believe that we can never qualify for blessings. But the Lord will help consecrate our diligent efforts. And he will help us to prepare emotionally, temporally, and spiritually to enter into the temple. If we ask him to help us, he will. He wants all to partake of the incredible blessings of the temple.