Ward Temple Night

A few months after Austin had been called as the Bishop, the Bishopric decided to try something new for ward temple night.


For several weeks, they announced a special ward temple session the first Wednesday in February. We met in the chapel of the temple, and the temple president spoke to us for about 15 minutes. Then we had our very own Leavitt Ward temple session. There were 93 people from our ward in the session. We had to bring in extra chairs for people to sit in the aisles so we could all fit.

Austin's counselor, Logan Zemp, is the Cardston Temple recorder, and he said that we broke a temple record. That is the most members a ward temple night has ever had in one session.

That started a new tradition of ward temple night for Leavitt Ward. We have our own session the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30. (The regular sessions are at 6 pm & 7 pm). We don't have the special session in January (the temple is closed for cleaning), or July & August.  First Ward was the first ones in our stake to try it, and then we tried it and now several other wards have also started having their own 6:30 session since that time.

It has been an awesome experience to be in the temple together with just our ward. The normal attendance each month has been from 50 to 70.

It has been meaningful to watch people who haven't been to the temple for years to come to ward temple night. Bishop David McMurray has had many health challenges and walks with a walker, and he hadn't been to the temple for years. He became a regular attender of ward temple night until he fell again and broke his hip.

One week I invited Vicki Romeril to come to ward temple night. She is my visiting teacher, and she suffered a stroke and can't walk without help. She said she would come, so her husband, Nolan, took her to the distribution center and they both bought new temple clothes. She came to the temple in her wheelchair already dressed in her white dress. I sat next to her and helped her put on her symbolic temple clothing. It was a group effort by our ward to move her in her wheelchair from one room to the next.

Cari Pilling attended ward temple night when she had a miscarriage the week before. Barb Baker came to the temple and she had also been in the hospital just a few days before.  Blessings come when it is a sacrifice to attend the temple.

There is power in attending the temple together as a ward.