Temple - Family

In 1979 I dedicated a small chapel in San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala.
It is a modest chapel and the most part of the members in the branch are very humble people with very little in the way of material blessings. My impresion of the experience there centered on a tiny woman, the mother of the branch president. Before the meeting she came forward. She did not come up to my shoulder. She had lost most of her teeth and she appeared to be very old. She was radiant!. She looked different from most of the others. As she came to shake hands she embrace me and the first words she spoke was:

Yo he ido al Templo - I have been to the Temple!. She pointed to the branch president and said: "This is my son. He also has been to the temple". I cannot imagine their financial sacrifice in getting to the Temple. A trip of many days and many nights taken rickety busses, with no air conditioning, no comforts or conveniences. But what did it matter?. They were going to the Temple!.

8 days and nights across the Andes from Santiago, Chile, through Argentina to Brazil. I was told how impressed some of the temple officials were with the spiritual dedication of these humble people. They were greately impressed because many of the visitors apparentely were determined to fast the entire time they were in the Temple. And then one day we learned that it was not entirely a matter of devotion. They had so meager a budget to get them to the Temple and return that, apart from their bus tickets, they had very little money and they could not eat on those days simply because they could not afford it.