The meaning and power of the temple

When a temple was announced for Los Angeles, President David O. McKay traveled to the area.  A young student named Truman Madsen was in the audience:

“President McKay asked for a million dollars from the local saints, and had pledge cards before the meeting was over for that amount, plus. Then he spoke about the temple. I’ll spare you the details except for the core statement that I have cherished, and which bent, as it were, the twig in me, which has grown and grown ever since.

“He said, ‘Brothers and sisters, I believe there are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. Seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the eternal presence. If our young people could only glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives.’ I resolved that day, because of what happened in my heart, always to raise my voice in testifying of the temple and never in criticizing it, to carry out as best I could my dream of finding a queen who would share with me the total conviction that the temple is ours, made for us and prepared for us, and that out of that could come a family who would love the Lord Jesus Christ as nothing else in the universe.”

Truman G. Madsen, “Foundations of Temple Worship” (BYU-Idaho Devotional Address, October 2004)