Temple Bound
God's children are searching in greater numbers for answers and hoping for miracles as they look to Jesus Christ for relief. On 'Temple Bound,' hosted by Will Humphreys, explore how temples offer not just solace but also powerful tools for navigating these turbulent times through faith in Jesus Christ.
Tune in every Monday to hear Will Humphreys engage with guests who bring inspiring stories, profound teachings, and insights into accessing divine guidance through temple service.
Each episode promises to enrich your understanding and strengthen your connection to the Savior in unique and transformative ways.
Whether you're seeking answers, yearning for peace, or in need of a miracle, 'Temple Bound' is your weekly spiritual refuge, helping you anchor your soul to the Savior. Join us on this sacred journey to deepen your faith and discover the blessings of temple worship.
Temple Bound
Striving to Be Recommended to the Lord with Brett Gilliland
In this spiritually rich episode of Temple Bound, Will is joined by friend and fellow disciple Brett Gilliland to explore the profound meaning behind Elder Rasband’s October 2020 General Conference talk, “Recommended to the Lord.”
Together, they reflect on the temple recommended interview process, not just as a checklist or gateway to temple attendance, but as a sacred opportunity for introspection, personal growth, and a declaration of one’s intent and striving toward the Savior.
Topics Discussed:
- The evolving personal significance of conducting temple recommend interviews
- The inspired progression of the temple recommend questions—from testimony to striving
- “Strive” vs. “perfection”: How the Lord values intent over flawlessness
- Teaching youth the meaning behind the recommend process
- Sacred moments of feeling divine love and purity during interviews
- Integrating spiritual intent into all areas of life—even business
Brett also shares touching stories, including a powerful moment interviewing a young girl whose purity and light left him speechless, and closes the episode with a heartfelt message to his posterity about always doing everything possible to be close to the Lord—especially by making the temple a priority.
Welcome to Temple Bound Listeners. Before we begin today's episode, I want to take a second and just thank you for tuning in. Most of you are my friends, my family. I say thanks every once in a while, but what really hit me in the filming of this episode with my good friend, brett Gilland, is this idea of how we strive to do our best. We're talking about Recommended to the Lord Today by Elder Rasband. This is the second time we've gone over this talk, but it is a completely new discussion and I can't wait for you to hear this, because we focus a lot in the questions in the Temple Recommend interview process and the word that we focus on is strive.
Speaker 1:And I was literally in the filming of this episode when I thought of you and when I think of focus on is strive. And I was literally in the filming of this episode when I thought of you and when I think of you, I think of Gail, I think of of Lynn, I think of all these people I know who are listening to the show every week, and I literally had dozens of names, of pictures, of faces that are tuning in and I thought about how you're striving right now to do the best that you can. You're striving to seal your heart to the Lord in real time as you're listening to this, and you're multitasking, I'm sure, as you're going throughout your day. So I just want to pause for just a brief second and thank you. It is inspiring to me that you guys are taking the moment in your day to do what you can to bring yourself closer to the Lord.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about time today in this interview. We're going to talk about some very sacred experiences that Brett has had, and I am really grateful that I have had the privilege of meeting with Brett today. So enjoy the show. Well, brett, thanks for being on the show. So grateful that you decided to come and be a part of Temple Bound today. Why don't you introduce the talk and why you chose it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the talk that I chose. By the way, I'm really excited to be on your show in particular. Will I just have such eye opinion of you and what you're doing?
Speaker 1:That means a lot.
Speaker 2:So I'm honored that I get to be part of this in some small way. When you said I get to pick a talk, I was like there's so many, you know I want to pick a lot of them, but the one that I felt kind of drawn to for this conversation was the one by Elder Rasband in 2020, october 2020, called Recommended to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great one. Yeah, I love that. Why did you pick that talk? I mean, elder Rasband, one of the most prolific speakers we have, for sure in church leadership. But what was it about that one?
Speaker 2:Because we're going back five years. Yeah, I know it's like because that's the last one I listened to. No, I'm just kidding, that's the last one I go to conference.
Speaker 2:I go to conference. That's the last one I heard. No, here's why. Because I've actually had I got to say this differently.
Speaker 2:I was a brand new counselor in a bishopric about a year and a half ago. Oh yeah, and you're just overwhelmed with here's all the stuff you got to do. And one of the things on my duties list was Temple Recommend interviews. I'm like, okay, yeah, we got to fit those in, especially around the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2:All the youth now advance at the same time and it's like so many interviews, so many, right. So it's just like task, task, duty, duty, activity, right, it's all like I got to do this, yeah, and it went from being a task to being something that felt more like a sacred privilege to sit there and have a temple recommend interview and it really touched me. It touches me still and, and so I thought about this opportunity. I thought, you know, if we could bring a little attention to the step before you get to the temple, that temple bound thing that I love about your podcast. I just want to draw attention to the sacred nature of the interview itself and what it represents for the person being interviewed and maybe provide some perspective what it's like for me to be an interviewer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love how you share that too, because when we think about this thing, about being our hearts sealed to our families and to the Lord and having that connection there, I think sometimes we forget that all the preliminary steps that go into this process is part of that sealing. So there's something sacred and beneficial about just having the temple interview and being able to discuss those topics that are so powerful, because oftentimes we think about just the power of going to the temple, being temple bound per se, right, but this idea of getting recommended, that is such a cool element of that. So what shifted for you? You started as a counselor that understood it as a task, obviously, of the many responsibilities that you have on your plate, but what was it that kind of made that start to become a holy experience for you?
Speaker 2:So actually, would you mind if we go to the talk first, Always, I will just tease on that, okay, because we'll get back to it. I definitely want to get back to that Love that let's go. So in the talk. The whole talk is set up by a story that Elder Rasband tells about his father-in-law. His name is Blaine Twitchell and he says Blaine Twitchell was nearing the end of his mortal journey and Blaine was like, oh, the bishop had come and visited Blaine.
Speaker 2:And so Elder Rasband and his wife, blaine's daughter, come to visit him. They see the bishop leaving. They're like, oh, how nice that the bishop came to see you. Isn't that wonderful that he's ministering that way. And Blaine Twitchell says, oh, it's more than that. I had him here to do a temple recommend interview because I want to be recommended to the Lord when I go, right, like he's preparing to go and he's like I want to go recommended and I thought that's such a great way to look at what that process can represent. It's like I want to ready myself to go to the temple, I want to ready myself to be in the Lord's presence, and so I love that. Elder Rasband started with that story with his father-in-law.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it separates the temple recommend out as a product of its own. Like, when we go and we have the interview, we feel like sometimes it's a task that needs to be accomplished in order to go do the main thing. But the main thing is to live our lives so that we can be recommended, and so the recommend interview is such an opportunity for us to really draw that in and experience the beginning of receiving these wonderful blessings.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So in the talk Elder Rasband says temples, no matter where they are, rise above the ways of the world and I think that this going recommended process, this going to the interview, is a way for us to show that we are trying to rise above the ways of the world and how we're living, to prepare to go to that place that is above the world.
Speaker 1:And trying is kind of the key word in what you just said Trying to rise above the ways of the world. But when you said that, I had this image of the Washington Temple, San Diego, Certain temples come to mind how they rise above and they stand symbolically in the air of being above the world in such a beautiful way. But it's more of a metaphor for us to do the same spiritually. But the key word you said was trying and again, I think this is such an important element of what we're going to talk about today because being recommended to the Lord immediately. A lot of people incorrectly think of having a temple recommend as being better than or being perfected to or something like that, and that's not what he talks about in this talk and it's definitely not been your experience as a counselor.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. Not one of the people sitting across from me is there to claim their perfection, right To say we are perfect, to say we are perfect. Nor am I, as the one interviewing, state their own readiness, their own striving to be ready to go to the house of the Lord. It's just a beautiful experience.
Speaker 1:I remember being on that side of it as an interviewee and being just kind of like aware of how these questions really allowed me to reflect, in a way, around what I'm doing and what matters, and when you're little, you're a little bit nervous around it. But I think you hit upon this key concept that we covered in an episode with Skylar Bell when we reviewed the talk uh, worthiness isn't flawlessness, like to me, I think that's a key element of this journey. As you recognize, no one's, no one's in a none of us are clean enough. Like as one of my favorite stake presidents used to say, he'd go into a room of people and just go, hello, sinners. And everyone would just laugh, yeah, but I used to.
Speaker 1:And if you asked him how he was doing, he would say, uh, better than I deserve. He'd always answer that way until finally I asked him I'm like, why do you answer that? And he goes. Because all of us, if we're being honest, without the Savior would be. The only thing we deserve is hell. He goes, it's all we deserve. But the Savior opened that door for us. Because of him, because he was opening that door, we are so much better than we deserve and I don't mean that, from a place of like, we're not inherently worthy or or lovable. It's just this thing that, like going to action our decisions, like the idea that, like we have the choice to go out there and do the best we can and be so, so imperfect and yet still be worthy to go to the temple still have a place, a place in the temple, still be welcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the interview itself is incredible and we can get into that some more, but I do want to share another phrase from this talk, or another sentence. Your temple recommend reflects a deep spiritual intent that you are striving to live the laws of the Lord and love what he loves. Love what he loves, that's quite a big standard, but also to strive to live the laws of the Lord. So what I? I mean I love all the questions. There's not one I don't like in the interview, but one of the words that I love absolutely more than many of the other ones is the word strive.
Speaker 2:The question doesn't say are you morally clean? Do you strive for moral cleanliness in your thoughts and behavior? Is the question Do you strive? And the one around honesty is do you strive to be honest in all that you do? Those words remind us that we don't have to be perfect. The Lord is perfect. He's the one that helps us in all the ways that I'm sure you've covered on this podcast, in many ways. But we are striving and we are there in that seat answering these questions because we want to continue to commit, to striving and go to his house. So that's a beautiful concept for me that we're striving.
Speaker 1:It really hit me hard emotionally when you said that, because you know the biggest blessing I've received, brett, as I started this podcast and this is tender for me to share. But is this awareness of how proud the Lord is of me for what I'm trying to do? Like I think there's always been this battle in my head around perfection and look, it's just me trying to be my best and all these things. But it's at the end of the day, when we really get to the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's acceptance of who we are. And so strive, yeah, I strive. Sometimes I strive better than others. But the Savior's atonement doesn't just cover from my experience of this podcast, it doesn't just cover those times that we didn't strive very much or we strived a lot, it covers everything in the middle. And just if I just feel this constant, like every time, I feel the spirit's like no, I'm really proud of you. You're doing just fine, you know. Um, you said something about how these temple interview questions were inspired.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, talk to me about that some more, because that really hit me hard when you said that they are absolutely inspired and they start out in basically an invitation for the person answering the question to bear a testimony of core values, truths of the restored gospel right. So it starts out do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the eternal father, his son, jesus Christ and the Holy ghost?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so that very foundational testimony block.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Are you there? Yes, right, do you have a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ and of his role as your savior and redeemer? As I understand it, it used to say as the savior and redeemer. Now it says do you have a testimony of his role as your savior and redeemer? These initial questions start out asking about your testimony, your faith, your belief, and then it starts moving into do you sustain the leaders of the church, and then it starts moving into are you striving, are you living the standards that the Lord has for those who want to be in his house? And so that inspired progression of questions is just amazing to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I never thought of it that way. It starts in this foundational piece of do you hope it's true? That's where it begins. Do you have a hope? Hope it's true. Like, do you hope like that's where that's where it begins. Like you have a hope that it's true? Or and that cover faith is such a large range, right? Yeah so we learned in alma 32. It starts with that hope all the way, like partaking of the fruit and calling others to it. So it's like are you? Are you on that spectrum?
Speaker 2:yeah that faith in and a testimony of. I mean testimony is is there's a spectrum on that, like you said, but the Godhead, jesus Christ as your savior, the restoration of the church, right, like it's, all those foundational things, and then, and then, yeah, do you sustain those that are in charge of it here on the earth? The Lord's in charge of it, but those who are, who are doing his will, and then are you living these standards? So it's a cool progression. I think it's very inspired.
Speaker 1:So if someone was coming to a Temple interview for the first time let's say it's someone like an older teenager or a younger adult what would you say to them about how to think about the recommend process and the interviews?
Speaker 2:I'm glad you're asking this because I've never thought about it, so I'm going to think about it right now. I would say to them something along the lines of what we've just discussed. I would say, hey, this isn't. In fact, there's a quote in the talk about how this isn't a checklist or a ticket or a hall pass to get into the temple, a checklist or a ticket or a hall pass to get into the temple. This is a review for yourself to know am I doing the things that the Lord is asking me to do?
Speaker 2:Am I striving to do the things the Lord is asking me to do to be able to enter his holy house and continue on a covenant path, and I would want it to be very non-threatening and help them understand I'm not here to judge you. I just get to be a witness to you answering questions.
Speaker 1:Right, they're not answering to.
Speaker 2:Brett, yeah, they're not answering to me, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, you're holding a space is to hold a space of love for someone to be able to have an out loud conversation since we're in this moral frame and we have human bodies to be able to express themselves openly and not talk to a wall, but talk to another person who believes and does all they can to follow Jesus Christ, to be able to serve as a connecting point between them and the Savior as they can have that space and just share their honest feelings about it, right?
Speaker 2:Right, and at the end of it, how good does it feel, especially in a world where you already discussed like we sort of beat up ourselves sometimes for being imperfect, right, there's all these things that we're not.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But thankfully, because of the Savior, we can just be striving right. We can try. You referred to it on the positive side of it, which you're so good at, but a lot of us go around thinking about the things that we're not, where we're falling short. And in this interview, at the end of this interview, by simply answering yes or no to a series of inspired questions, you can feel good about being recommended to the Lord, like, maybe I'm not all these things that I think I should be, but I am able to say yes, I consider myself worthy to enter the Lord's house and participate in temple ordinances. How cool is that? That's a nice moment for me to go. I sat across from an authorized representative of the Lord doing his best to do that calling and I was able to declare to that person that I'm trying to do the things that allow me to be in the Lord's house. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the thing, the other word that you really highlighted in this process was intent, you know. So there was strive.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And then the intent piece of his talk. This goes back to the talk itself where he talks about the intent piece. Could you go into that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, you commit. Let's see your temple recommend reflects a deep spiritual intent that you are striving to live the laws of the Lord and love what he loves. An intent what are the thoughts and desires of your heart right? The Lord doesn't look on man the way that man does. The Lord looketh upon the heart Right and that intention is back to the desire and that spectrum. We're all on different places in our faith and testimony, but where it starts is this desire to follow Jesus Christ, this desire to be his, to try to align my life the best that I can to what he's asked me to do and be. Anyway, it's. It's that intent is, is a core part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's that's like. I think for me that is something I'm going to use when I talk to my kids about helping them prepare for the temple is. I don't think I've ever even talked to them about the temple recommend process and they go through it so young.
Speaker 1:What an incredible opportunity to frame it before they even start, at the age of 12, to sit down with our kids and say look, this interview isn't a checklist, like you said, brett. What it is is an open opportunity for you to take inventory and to really ask questions, because I don't know if you get people in the interview process who don't answer those questions in the affirmative, like when it comes to testimony. Maybe they don't know if they have a testimony, maybe they're not sure if one of the things that they've done in their personal world needs to be cleaned up and they don't know how to answer that question. You know we had Curtis Keller talking about an experience where he felt like he didn't know if he was in a place where he needed to confess something to a church leader. So he just took the advantage to clean his closet, as he says, and the church leader said no, you didn't.
Speaker 1:The church leader never said no, you didn't need to bring this. The church leader said I'm so glad you brought it because, regardless of like, there's no degree of like. Well, this definitely it's like. No, it's about how we reconcile things with the Savior and just having the space to be able to talk about it. So that intent thing is such a big deal for me, cause it's like do you want, do you want to, to like be obedient.
Speaker 2:You know it's not saying are you perfect?
Speaker 1:It's like, do you have an intent? And then it's also I don't think there's anyone, at least for me, who isn't in that interview going yeah, I, I am worthy, but there's so much more I could do. Right, Like it's a beautiful recognition, not an invalidation, but a beautiful recognition that there's no end to this journey, because none of us are ever going to get to the Savior's level in this life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you brought up something about parents and thinking about kids that are preparing and it made me think of something that often happens with me, with the younger kids who are moving in. That might be of use to some parents. So maybe a quick little side. It's kind of fun actually. I'm going through these questions, and one that often hangs up some of these pure kids is do you obey the law of chastity? Well, I know for a fact, sitting across from the ones that I'm talking about, that they're living the law of chastity right. They have zero problems with it, but they're like I'm not sure right, because they don't actually know what that means, and sometimes they're like can you remind me what that is? And so I guess I just invite parents out there to help. The questions are available on the church website. They're available publicly in the church handbook Sure.
Speaker 2:So you can go there, read through the questions with your children, help them make sure not to tell them this is what the answer should be when you go through the interview, but to help them understand what they're being asked the purpose of the question. The purpose of the question, yeah, even definition of some of the words.
Speaker 1:Yeah, highlighting chastity again Again, I think there's something about the discussion that is individualized because we take for granted how our kids are going to church.
Speaker 1:If we're going to church with our families, how every Sunday we used to assume things were getting distilled, we're even doing home church Like. For me it's been interesting having my second son on a mission, because he has really gone all in on his mission and that's been such a cool thing to be able to witness and he's like, hey, did you know? And he'll point some things out in the church. I'm like, yeah, buddy, we, we I thought we covered that like a dozen times or you know what I mean but like we should never take for granted those elements because you know, again, we don't. We just don't know what their experience is in this world, and so for us to take the opportunities we can to create light whenever we can is our greatest purpose. How much light can we provide? How much knowledge can we provide them? So I like that you say that, because I didn't know that you were getting kids who were coming in saying like you know what is chastity? To the main one.
Speaker 2:Chastity is the main one. Uh, the other one they know what, they know what it means, but they don't. They feel like they're not living it. And that is uh. Oddly enough, are you a full time pair. And so here I have an 11 year old or a 12 year old saying no, I'm not. Oh, tell me more about that. Well, I don't make any money.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you haven't paid tithing? Okay, let me talk about that.
Speaker 2:So if you made $10, what would tithing be on the $10? Oh, $1. Like they know the math. Okay. So if you were to earn the $10 next week mowing somebody's lawn, would you pay a dollar in tithing? Oh yeah, I would. Okay, you're a full. You're a full tithe payer. Back to that desire, that intent.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And and they just, they just think well, I don't earn money and so I don't pay tithing, so I'm not a full tithe payer. That's what they think.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, it's such a good point. Listeners, as you're going through this, just like maybe checking with our kids having a family lesson on the temple, interview questions and reviewing them, just going, what questions do you have about these questions? Right, highlighting words like strive, highlighting the essence of the whole purpose of being recommended to the Lord. What a beautiful opportunity. Just to break down the very first step of going to the temple. I don't even know if that's really the first step, I would say in the process of going to the temple. That could be argued. But that first step of like getting that recommend, how special it is, how wonderful it is, how it serves as a reminder of how special and loved you are, that there's no wrong answers. There's no wrong answers, there's no wrong answers, there's just intent. Ah, love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. One more, so I teased this a little bit earlier. So, in the process of doing these recommends, something that surprised me and took it from being a task, a responsibility, a duty to being something that I now hold as a very sacred privilege to conduct these interviews is that more than once I've sat across from one of our ward members in one of these interviews and I have felt things that didn't come from me. One of those things is a feeling of love, like the Lord's love for them. Right, and I'm like whoa, I feel overpowered by this, but I feel this love.
Speaker 2:But the other thing that I felt that has been surprising is and it's hard to put into words for me, but it's almost a tangible, palpable feeling of power coming from them that through these questions I get insight into their virtue, their personal purity. You can feel that, I can feel that from them, and one time in particular, a 12-year-old girl just about knocked my socks off with the amount of light and purity and goodness that was just coming off of her and I was like whoa, I was overcome, I couldn't, I couldn't proceed in the interview for a moment. I had to compose myself, like she. She could see that I was noticeably affected just by her being her and that wouldn't have happened. I I that's not the first time I've talked to this girl, right, yeah, but in this setting, where I got to be in that spot talking about these sacred questions, I felt her goodness in such a way that overpowered me. It was incredible.
Speaker 1:It makes me aware of the way you say that and that experience, how, when we're in that sacred space of reconciling in sorts of determining our recommendation to the Lord, how it's really about again, another opportunity for the Lord to show us how much he loves us. It's more about validation of our journey versus a checklist, and it's this idea that in that sacred space you're able to feel that tells me that must be another point in which heaven and earth meet, tells me that must be another point in which heaven and earth meet.
Speaker 1:You know, we feel that so directly in the temples of the Lord. But his temples aren't just those wonderful buildings that are, you know, coming every six months by the dozens. It's our homes, it's our bodies, and just in these moments where heaven and earth come together, it's because we're talking about connecting our souls to the Savior. So that purity is something I'll never forget as I next go to my next Temple Recommend interview as a participant. I'm never going to forget that element of it. So what would you, as you think about the talk? Was there anything else that stood out to you that really highlights this idea of what we're talking about today?
Speaker 2:distract us from spiritual growth, setting aside those things which sidetrack our precious mortality, rising above contentious behavior and seeking time to be holy. Now to bring us to April of 2025, right, this is October 2020. Sure, April of 2025.
Speaker 1:We just barely had conference weekend as you and I were recording.
Speaker 2:This just happened. Last week was April of 2025 and Elder Rasband's talk.
Speaker 2:In his talk he admonished, encouraged, invited us to give equal time to the Lord.
Speaker 2:And this, going back to this talk from you know, four and a half years ago, almost five years ago, when he says seeking time to be holy, he, he and others of our prophets are saying we're dirty in the world all day, every day, it's pounding us and so when we put off our shoes at the door of the temple, like Moses was asked to do at the burning bush right, take off thy shoes for what you're about to do.
Speaker 2:You're going to be on sacred ground here, putting off the world symbolically so that we can enter in with this desire of letting go worldly desires or pleasures, anything that distracts us from our spiritual growth, setting aside those things which sidetrack our precious mortality. How can we give equal time to the Lord, our precious mortality? How can we give equal time to the Lord? We give lots of time to lots of endeavors, and I'm not trying to put any shame to that. Right, if I did a time inventory of all the things I did in the day, what I did for my mortal responsibilities, right, the journey is way more than what I do for my spiritual well-being.
Speaker 1:Just on paper.
Speaker 2:On paper, yeah.
Speaker 1:You went through a time audit and you went 15 minutes and you calculated was this for the Lord or for the world?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All day. It's almost especially as we're working and trying to provide for families like it's. It's. It feels very worldly in that in that sense it feels very worldly?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's. There's a lot of noble things we're involved in and I should probably calculate that differently in some ways. But if I have free time, am I playing a game? Am I studying the word of the Lord and I'm not advocating for studying all the time but here we have prophets saying get to the temple, give the Lord more time. There's clear signals to us that we can. We can do more of that. But putting off our shoes, aligning our intent, getting away from distractions, those are, those are the messages that I keep hearing.
Speaker 1:Yes, and one thing I want to share that was very inspired to say right now as you were talking, brett um, is that the idea that, in going back to intent and striving I think I know because I know you, so it's interesting. I think I know because I know you, so it's interesting People who are listening don't know how we know each other and I do my intros at the beginning, so that's something that's already happened. But just to reiterate what I've already said is that you and I know each other as good, close friends and as business colleagues. We actually met in a business networking organization where we were put together at random which I don't believe in random and we have been able to really connect on a deep professional and personal level. And what I would say about you in particular and I'm not trying to embarrass you here, I just like you, I feel your intent in that workspace, and I think this is part of what Elder Rasband was talking about in this most recent conference is that the Lord and the atonement can transform anything as long as our heart because that's what he wants is our heart. So you bring that love for the Savior and that intent into these business discussions, mixed with atheists, with a whole number of different faiths we have some Jewish friends in that group that love of the Savior comes, and so, even though it might be marked on a time audit as a worldly endeavor, the Savior, because of your intent and this is where I think it's metaphorical for this, this, this topic, is evident Like the spirit is there. You love, you serve, and so I think that's kind of elder Rasman's point is more or less. I think there's literal time spent, like we. It's so important to calendar templing, a huge on that. We've got to calendar the thing and keep to it as our most important appointment.
Speaker 1:And the adversary would say, yeah, but you only go once, every once in a while, and you know what You're, so selfish You're, you're all about like working out, and and maybe if you're a man who's working in a family position or a woman working in a family position, it's like you're just about the money. You know it's like, well, no, I'm, I'm serving as I grow. My work for me is my ministry, you know what I mean. I try to keep that throughout the world so that we can give our time to the Lord in that way. But it's only through the atonement that that can happen, and even then it's imperfect, right. Even then it's like I definitely was, you know, doing more of this than I could have given to the Lord.
Speaker 1:So, again, it's not about perfection. It's going back to that talk. It's not uh, worthiness, is not, um, flawlessness, right, and it's recognizing that we can transform anything we're doing to serve the Savior if the intent is there, like you were saying. So, yeah, I just want to thank you because, as you've gone into those environments, brett, you're serving. I see you serve through love and through the Savior. You may not use the name Jesus Christ all the time in those contexts because it probably wouldn't be the most serving to them, but you are serving as the Savior would serve in those same situations and I love that.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate the compliments. You can't see yourself in those situations, so it's nice, it's inspired me honestly to be really direct, like in those moments.
Speaker 1:that's what's helped me shift my intent in those moments, because those are worldly endeavors on their own and on paper, but we can transform those as we serve love and bear testimony of the Savior in all things right.
Speaker 2:Well, I like that you're highlighting. The Lord can transform those moments Absolutely 100% and we can be part of the experience. But, yeah, I just love the idea of being recommended to the Lord. I want to live my life in a way that people can see that I'm trying, I'm striving to be recommended to the Lord, that my intent is towards that, that my, my aim and my focus is is temple bound and, um, yeah, I've just really enjoyed the process and was surprised by how much I would enjoy doing these temple recommend interviews Like it's. I love it. Like you know, there's there's a bishop and there's two counselors. We all of us can do them at the word level and anytime one of the clerks was like, hey, so-and-so needs to recommend anybody available. I'm like I can do that. What about counting donations? Yeah, I'll do that. But it's one of the things like this is so spiritually uplifting for me to sit across and have someone else feel that they're recommended to the Lord. Like it's just so fun.
Speaker 1:It's cool. I think, as a side note, it's kind of a cool example too that when we do willingly and openly serve the Lord, the greatest blessing is we get to be a conduit of his love and that becomes one of the great peace givers, you know, sealers of our hearts. And so that's why when people look on the outside and they look at church callings and stuff, it's like man, that's insane what you guys do. And there's times when we're in it where it feels insane. I'm like man. There's so many things I could be doing. But when we willfully give that time to the Lord and then put that intention in how we become a conduit of that love and that gives us peace across, then we become the ones who are the most blessed. Yeah, so yeah, brett, thank you so much for being on the show today. You know I one of the things I ask at the end of these is if your descendants this is a family history record for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What would you want your kids, grandkids? You just became a grandfather for the second time.
Speaker 2:Well, I just found out we will be a grandfather for the second time. Sorry, no, it's good. No, it's really good. Yeah, well, the baby's alive, right, the baby's still in there, still growing, but, yeah, our daughter's expecting and that'll be our second grand baby. I don't know. The Lord wants you to be, and here on the earth, the place to be, to be closest to the Lord physically, I get that. You can be close to the Lord anywhere, but if there's a place that's designated for closeness to the Lord, it's the temple. Do everything you can to get there. Find a way, and if your life is not in order, it's okay. Take steps to get it in order so that you can be there with him. He'll help you. He loves you. I love you. Thank you for letting me say that to my posterity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very touching. It's my favorite part of the podcast because I just think every time someone answers those questions, I just think about how this is a record. This is a record of itself that's going to go out there and it will serve your generations, because I want them to know how I know you which is one of the best human beings I know and how, every time that we interact, I feel like I want to be closer to the Savior because I can feel your love. So thank you, brett, for being on the show. I sure appreciate it.
Speaker 2:It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me Will.
Speaker 1:Thanks again for listening to today's episode of Temple Bound. If you enjoyed today's show, make sure to join us over on Instagram at Temple Bound Podcast to receive additional information as well as previews of our upcoming episodes. See you over there, thank you.
