“You Have the Temple,” Liahona, Aug. 2023.
Latter-day Saint Voices
You Have the Temple
I am thankful that I always receive strength from serving in the Lord’s temple.
Drawing of Tokyo Japan Temple by Alan Klay
I learned the gospel from the full-time missionaries and was baptized at age 17 in 1972. Three years later, as an organist, I was at the Budokan arena in Tokyo when President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) announced the construction of the Tokyo Japan Temple.
After the temple was dedicated in 1980, I commuted from Sendai to the temple every month. I would leave work Friday evenings to attend the temple the next day. My desire to attend the temple grew stronger, so I moved to Tokyo in 1981.
Soon after I married, my husband, Osamu, was called to serve as stake president. He served diligently and was involved in the construction of the temple annex. With his and our children’s help, and with the Lord’s guidance, my parents joined the Church 20 years after my baptism.
Nobuko and Osamu Maeda in 1996.
Photograph courtesy of the author
Just after their conversion, I underwent surgery for cancer in my upper jaw. On the day of my surgery, the president of the temple, where I served as an organist and an ordinance worker, fasted and prayed for me. After my surgery, I found it difficult to speak, eat, sing, and do other normal things.
“If you can’t speak,” the temple president told me, “you can still be an organist!”
That encouraged me to resume my service after I had healed. As I played the organ in the temple chapel, I was filled with the Spirit of the Lord and felt strengthened spiritually and physically. I often gave thanks and prayed silently over the words of the hymns.
Ten years after my surgery, my husband was also diagnosed with cancer. He was soon in and out of the hospital. Before he passed away, he left me with these words: “You have the temple, so you will be OK.”
The temple has always been at the center of every important decision I have made in my life of faith. As I have played the organ in the temple chapel every day, I have come to understand more deeply the Lord’s plan of redemption—especially after my husband was called beyond the veil.
I am thankful that I always receive strength from serving in the Lord’s temple. In the temple we are guided and strengthened to endure the suffering and difficulties in this life.