Temples: A Pearl of Great Price

What a wonderful blessing it is to see temples being built at an increasing rate all over the world (see page 12). We rejoice with members of the Church as new temples are dedicated in their areas.

We hope all people will treasure the temple and not fall prey to a mistake described by President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015), President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In his parable of the pearl and the box, he related that a craftsman made a beautiful box to display a pearl of great price. When people came to see the pearl, however, they admired the box instead. (See “The Cloven Tongues of Fire,” Ensign, May 2000, 7; Liahona, July 2000, 7.)

Of course, the pearl of great price within the temple includes the ordinances, covenants, and promised blessings we can receive only in the temple. As Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles teaches in this issue: “Everything that is learned and all that is done in latter-day temples emphasize Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and His role as our Savior. The covenants received and the ordinances performed in temples are essential to the sanctifying of our hearts and for the ultimate exaltation of God’s sons and daughters” (page 6).

As you read Elder Bednar’s article and the testimonies of members following it (page 8), we invite you to remember the covenants you have made in the temple. If it has been a while since you attended the temple, we invite you to return and again feel the joy and peace found in the house of the Lord. If you have not yet been to the temple, we invite you to prepare yourself to be “endowed with power from on high” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32).

Elder Kevin R. Duncan

Of the Seventy

Executive Director of the Temple Department