\u201cFirst Temple in Portugal Opens to the Public\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The temple here in St. George has long held special significance for me. \u00a0Not, unfortunately, because of any particular family associations; the family members that I had in the area were either not especially \u201cchurchy\u201d or altogether indifferent to the Church. \u00a0My brother \u2014 strictly speaking, my ten-years-older half brother, my only sibling \u2014 was brought up from California before I was born and was baptized by an uncle in the temple baptistry back in the day when they evidently still did such things. \u00a0(The Los Angeles California Temple was not quite finished at that time; my father wasn\u2019t a member and my mother was little more than nominally so.) \u00a0My maternal grandparents were married in the temple, but, from what I know of my grandfather \u2014 which is very little; he died before I was born and nobody felt inclined to tell me much about him \u2014 the ordinance doesn\u2019t seem to have \u201ctaken.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, the temple came to mean something to me for quite different reasons: \u00a0In my early teens, when we would visit relatives here (often on the way to see other maternal relatives further north), the St. George Utah Temple came to fascinate me. \u00a0Somehow, as I looked at it, illuminated brilliantly white against the clear desert night sky, I sensed the initial glimmerings of a testimony. \u00a0Or maybe something even vaguer than that. \u00a0A yearning, perhaps. \u00a0A sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/i>, of something lost but still dimly remembered. \u00a0A warm memory, without specifics. \u00a0At any rate, something spoke to me through it. \u00a0And I\u2019ve never forgotten that. \u00a0I\u2019ve always been grateful for it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from St. George, Utah<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 It\u2019s a balmy and very still evening here in St. George. \u00a0As I sit typing on our balcony, I\u2019m looking across an illuminated pool and a number of palm trees at a clearly visible full moon. \u00a0Frankly, it reminds me of evenings in the Middle East. \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Here are some resources […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>