Mesa Temple Visit

       I had a lot of free time today, so I decided to visit the Mesa temple!  I just love love love the house of the Lord!!  As soon as I stepped on the grounds I felt peace and forgot about the cares of the world.  The love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is very strong when you are at the temple.  I prayed hard and studied the words of God out in the beautiful nature at the temple and the spirit was so strong that I could imagine Christ sitting right next too me.  You can feel his presence so strong, you expect to look around and suddenly see Jesus step out from behind a tree or come down the path towards you.  I was once told that the Lord walks the halls of his house.  I haven’t been inside of a temple for a long time but I can testify that he walks the grounds.  I feel so at home at the temple, like it is where I am meant to bei.  It feels like I am at home and I imagine I am in the garden of Eden and God is right there with me and watching over me.  I almost feel like I could talk to Jesus or Heavenly Father face to face.  

One cool thing I’ve never really thought about before was that the temple is the one place on earth that satan can’t enter.  How cool is that!!  No wonder the feeling is so different!  The veil is thinner, the spirit is stronger as you leave the world behind, and the temptations and feelings of the devil can’t reach you!  If you ever need a safe place I could think of no place better than the temple.  How amazing it is to leave behind the thoughts and feelings of the world!  I find myself being a better person while I am at the temple.  My thoughts are always focused on God and I desire to help others and I want to smile and talk to everyone (which I’m pretty nervous about usually).  Things that I find hard out in the world such as focusing on reading my scriptures and talking to strangers comes easily while on the grounds.  I don’t want to compete with people but I feel humble and I am joyful about others.  I wish it was that easy to forget the feelings of the world that I need to work on while I was out in the world.  I’m human and sometimes I get too competitive, jealous, or care too much about status.  But at the temple those things are the farthest from my mind and I’m happy just being me.  I don’t wish to be above others of show off but I feel a love towards everyone and I just want to glorify God.  This is how I always want to feel, fore the way we feel while at the temple is the way of God and how we should strive to be always.  

In the visitor’s center I had some wonderful talks with the missionaries and saw some beautiful art depicting the life of the savior.  I watched a new meet the mormons clip on a horseman.  I always knew that horses were a beautiful creation of God.  That is one thing I love about horses, their beauty and being able to be in the beautiful nature God has created while out riding, forgetting the things of the world.  But something I was taught during the clip was that how we train and work with horses is how God works with us.  Not with harsh words and restraints but with time, patience, love, encouragement, etc.  And we are to be as we desire our horses to be towards us, humble, submissive, and trusting towards the master, the one who sees what we can’t and knows best.  This not only changed my view on how I am acting towards God and how truly amazing He is as a father, but it actually changed the way I worked with Phoenix.  I had more patience and understanding towards her.  I tried to be as I know Jesus would be with me, kind, gentle, understanding, and patient.  I put my trust in her and little by little I gave her more as she proved it, just as God gives us more as we are obedient unto Him.  

I have noticed that the more I visit and study the temple and realize the specialness and closeness to heaven at it, I am finding it harder to be away.  Being at the temple, about as close as you can get with God is the best feeling in the world.  I desire to draw that close to the Lord all the time but I haven’t got there yet.  It hurts to be more separated from the Lord when you know how it feels to be so close you can physically feel him.  I am trying to do better and be better and overtime hopefully I will improve on my spiritual goals.  Changing is hard, especially when you are trying to overcome the natural man, but I know that it is possible through the Savior, Jesus Christ.