Editor’s Note: Now that so many temples across the world are reopening, we encourage you to share your testimonies and pictures with the hashtag #JustGoToTheTemple. We’d love to see social media flooded with such a powerful and positive message.

Our most profound insights and experiences often occur in temples, because the temple is an intersection of earth and heaven. In these holy places, we’re sometimes allowed to feel heavenly presence.  Now that many of them are finally re-opening, let’s GO to the temple to be in the company of God, family, and angels…

“Just Go to the Temple!”

Yvonne Swinson shared a powerful temple experience that included her departed father.  She wrote,

“In 2005, my father’s lymphoma took a dramatic turn for the worse.  We were convinced his time was brief.  He looked terrible because of the effects of his illness.  I remember quietly saying to him,

‘Dad, after you die will you please come back just once?  I just want to see you healthy one more time.’

He thoughtfully responded,

‘Just go to the temple, that’s where I’ll be!’  

 “Shortly after he died, I attended the Washington DC temple.  When I came to the veil, I strongly felt my father right there.  I could feel his hand on my shoulder, and he spoke to me through the words of the temple ceremony.  I was amazed at how clearly and beautifully my concern from a year earlier was answered in that precious moment in the temple.” [1]

In that glorious experience, Yvonne’s father kept a precious appointment with her in the temple.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong  taught,

“As we honor our covenants, we may sometimes feel we are in the company of angels. And we will be – those we love and who bless us on this side of the veil and those who love and bless us from the other side of the veil.”[2]

How often do we “meet” someone in the temple?  Heaven sometimes orchestrates these spiritual experiences to bless us IF we are willing to go there…

Appointment with an Angel

A good friend shared a time when she kept an appointment with an angel at the temple.  She wrote,

“Several years ago, I had a poignant experience.  At that time I lived only 15 minutes away from a temple and loved it! One morning, I had a clear message suddenly come to my mind,

‘Go to the temple for the 11:00 AM session.’  

“It was already about 10:15, and I knew it would be tight timewise, but I threw on dress clothes and dashed to my car. 

“As I was approaching the temple I prayed,

‘If I’m supposed to make the 11:00 session, please open up a spot in the front two rows for parking or I won’t make it’ (By now it was nearly 10:50. Usually I’d have to drive around 5-10 minutes to get a good spot, but on this day the 2nd row right near the front of the temple was suddenly vacated as I drove in, and I took it.  I raced inside, changed into temple clothes and barely made it to the 11:00 session I had been invited to attend.

“During the session I felt something unique and special; a heightened level of the spirit.  After it was over I was sitting on a sofa and pondering in the Celestial room. A radiant looking older gentleman came, sat right next to me, and began to talk quietly.  He told me many spiritual and special things that I can’t share, but his personal words buoyed up my spirit and filled me with wonder and peace.

I realized that by obeying the spirit of the Lord that morning, I had kept an orchestrated appointment with an angel. I had made the big effort to go to the temple that day and was so glad I did.” [3]

When we spiritually prepare, and make the effort to go, we can often be the recipient of great experience in the temple…

“They Are Here!”

Through a series of sacrifices and miracles, Jan and Peter Emery from Australia, made a never to be forgotten trip to the Salt Lake Temple to do over 100 family names. Of this wonderful event Jan wrote,

“What an amazing moment! Walking to the Temple and walking inside I found it hard to comprehend that here we were in the Salt Lake Temple! A moment I had never imagined. This experience was the most Spiritual ever as we walked along the long passage under the Temple to the baptismal area.

“We were handed our clothes for the baptisms and as soon as I was given my clothes it was like my soul entered a different dimension and I cried and cried.  I could not stop as I felt the Spirits of my family.  They were there!

As I was about to enter the font, the worker in the font said to me, ‘They are here. You can feel them can’t you?’ I, still sobbing quietly said, ‘Yes I can!’” [4]

Family relationships are so intimate and beautiful. Death doesn’t change our feelings.  If anything, it enhances them. The temple is a place for those connections to be heightened.

Poignant Spiritual Communication

Kristi Alexander shared a breathtaking experience that happened in the temple after she felt strongly prompted to go to there.  She wrote,

“My father-in-law had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 52. He had been suffering from a lot of health problems as well as mental health issues. Both my husband and I worked for him and depended on his business to support our little growing family. We were all devastated to say the least, at his passing. So much that we even questioned if he had taken his own life. My husband, his mother and his siblings were suffering so much emotionally.

“About two weeks after his death I was called to be Relief Society President in our ward.  I accepted and immediately felt the need to go to the temple. In the celestial room I began praying…

“Within minutes, my awareness all around me faded, including my vision. I was swept away into a spiritual realization that my father-in-law, now deceased, was standing in front of me. I remember crying, (sobbing is more like it). And I heard his voice tell me,

‘Awe, don’t cry.’

“He proceeded to comfort me, to thank me for being a good wife to his son. He told me distinctively that he did not take his own life. He also told me to tell his wife, (my mother in law) to not forget his work. He had done a lot of temple work for his ancestors. It was his greatest joy and passion!

“He then told me he had to go with my husband’s grandfather who was also deceased. I sensed him nearby even though I had never met him as he died before we were married. The awareness of this spiritual communication then came to a close and all of the sudden I found myself being asked if I was okay by a temple worker. She handed me tissues. I guess you could say I was somewhat in shock of what had just transpired. But I was so very grateful!!

“It was a testament that our loved ones are indeed beyond the veil but very close to us! I felt my father-in-law’s love for his family. I felt his concern for me and my husband. Sharing this experience with my mother-in-law and my husband was so amazing.

“It has been 18 years since this happened and I still turn to it for strength.”

Kristi was blessed.  She kept a very important appointment at the temple. [5]

What if she hadn’t gone?  She would never know what she had missed.

Elder Henry B. Eyring said,

“I know that temples of the Lord are holy places. My purpose today in speaking of temples is to increase your desire and mine to be worthy and ready for the increased opportunities for temple experiences that are coming for us…

“If you or I should go to the temple insufficiently pure, we would not be able to see, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual teaching about the Savior that we can receive in the temple.

“It is in the temple that we can receive the assurance of loving family connections that will continue after death and last for eternity.”[6]

Feeling God’s Presence 

When we do what it takes to attune with the spirit before attending the temple, we will feel the presence of God there.  It is His house. We may or may not sense ancestors or angels there, but when we are worthy and spiritually acclimated, at the very LEAST, we will feel peace!  Who doesn’t need more peace in their lives? 

So let’s make an appointment, GO to the temple and there we can meet family, angels and the peaceful presence of the Lord!  Who will be waiting for you? #JustGoToTheTemple!

I would love to hear your personal stories.  You can CONTACT me at an********@ho*****.com

[1] Yvonne Swinson, personal correspondence.  Story used with permission.

[2] Gerrit W. Gong, “Covenant Belonging,” October Conference 2019.

[3] Name withheld, personal correspondence.  Story used with permission.

[4] Jan and Peter Emery, personal correspondence.  Story used with permission.

[5] Kristi Alexander, personal correspondence.  Story used with permission.

[6] Henry B. Eyring, “I Love to See the Temple,” April Conference, 2021.