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
Why We Are Building Temples (and Why it Matters to You) with Bryce Bender
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In an age of global challenges and immense human suffering, it's a fair question to ask: "Why is the Church spending so much money on temples?" On this episode of Temple Bound, Will Humphreys and his guest Bryce Bender—co-host of the Companionship Study Podcast—provide a powerful and inspired answer.
Drawing from the teachings of President Russell M. Nelson and other Church leaders, they explain why the building of temples is the ultimate act of preparing a people for the Savior’s return. Bryce, who served in Bolivia, offers a personal and moving perspective on how a new temple can transform a community. He backs up his spiritual insights with a unique, number-based approach to show the incredible scale of the Lord’s "hastening work."
Takeaways:
- A Humanitarian Effort: Will and Bryce discuss how temples are a form of humanitarian work that changes hearts and prepares a people for the Second Coming.
- The Math of the Hastening: Bryce, an engineer, breaks down the numbers to show that the announced temples will require 132,000 new temple ordinance workers, a force larger than the current missionary corps.
- Becoming "Lightning Bugs": A beautiful metaphor of leaving the temple filled with light and becoming a beacon in a darkening world.
- Holding to the Iron Rod: The temple is the most powerful tool for helping us hold fast to the iron rod (the word of God).
- Christ is the Main Character: Bryce shares how a personal revelation in the temple taught him to see Christ's creative power as a tool for transforming his own life.
This conversation addresses common criticisms and reveals a deeper truth: the power gained through temple worship is the very thing that enables us to serve and lift others. Discover how each new temple is a call to rise up and shine your light, and hear a beautiful personal story about how the creation ordinance of the temple can be a template for personal transformation.
Introduction to Temple Hastening
Speaker 1Welcome back to Temple Bound Guys. Have you ever wondered why the church is building so many temples? I mean, we all understand the big picture as to why in general, but what does it really mean when President Nelson says that we're living in a majestic moment? This episode is going to blow your mind and warm your heart, because I'm joined by a fellow podcaster, bryce Bender, the co-host of Companionship Study Podcast, a show built on the idea of eternal marriage, shared gospel study and raising a Christ-centered family. In our conversation we explore Elder Rasman's talk right before our eyes and Bryce's deep ties to Santa Cruz, bolivia, and how the temple growth is literally preparing the world for the return of Jesus Christ is a beautiful story. So with some engineer level math, bryce makes the hastening of the Lord visible and, trust me, you'll never hear temple announcement the same way again.
Speaker 1This episode is more than temple construction. It's about preparing our hearts, our homes, and becoming radiant sources of light in a darkening world. Enjoy the show. Man Bryce, I am so excited to have another podcaster in our faith on the show. Why don't you introduce yourself and set the table a little bit of who you are and what you currently do?
Speaker 2Thanks, will. Yeah, my name is Bryce. My wife Hillary and I host the Companionship Study podcast. We have three little girls from six to one year olds, so a lot of our podcasts we're sharing funny stories and anecdotes about things we're learning as parents. But it's not a parenting podcast, it's a companionship study where me and Hillary are eternal companions podcast. It's a companionship study where me and Hillary are eternal companions.
Speaker 2We're working towards this goal of an eternal family, and what we like to do since our lives sometimes are running in all different directions is we'll pick a topic that we'll both study for a couple weeks to a month, and then we'll just sit down with a microphone and share what we've learned. So ones that we've done that people have enjoyed recently were the parable of the 10 virgins. We dove into that one. We like diving into other scripture parables or talks, and sometimes I'll bring my family on or other friends on as well, and we do that as a we call it. We go on exchanges where we change companions and we kind of run with that missionary theme. Hillary and I actually served in the same mission. We met in the MTC in Provo and then both went to the Bolivia Santa Cruz mission, and today I'm going to talk a little bit about fun things that tie back to Bolivia.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that talk that you picked is so amazing because it's all about that and it's one of my favorite talks from the last number of years. So to me this is really a cool experience to share with our audience this particular talk, the setting of the main story and how you have a personal tie-in. But could you share just one last thing, because one thing you said about why you started the podcast of course it was for you and your wife to have a deeper study, because most of the time you're sharing the gospel it's to kids who are so little. But talk about that thing about producing something for your demographic, for people who maybe don't feel as seen as others.
Speaker 2Yeah. So the other thing that kind of pushed me over the edge, uh, to actually start doing this podcast and and it helps me sell it to Hillary as well was you know, we're I'm 30, 30 and Hillary's Hillary's my same age and and I'm serving in the elders quorum right now, and I feel like we talk so much about ministering, we want to minister to people, and now the elders quorum has people age 18 to 108 years old. It's been so blatantly in my face how different demographics like to be ministered to in different ways, and so my retired members of my quorum. They love the home teaching style, the once a month visit, sit down and chat. But the people closer to my age who are taking kids to soccer practice are doing this, that and the other.
Speaker 2It's hard for them to find 45 minutes for home teachers or ministering brothers to come over and share a message once a month, and so they prefer a message or a video memo or a voice memo where someone shares something from their study, and I thought if me and Hillary could just share what we're enjoying in our study, maybe people who are in our similar demographic chasing little kids around can almost kind of be ministered to by us virtually through YouTube and podcast platforms. So that's kind of our hope is that even if you're an award family, where maybe there's not a lot of people your age but you're kind of my age, you can resonate with some of the things we share as we're trying to study the gospel and continue on the covenant path.
Speaker 1I love that. Well, thank you so much, bryce, for sharing that, and I'm so excited to have you on the show. The talk that you selected is Elder Raz Banz, right Before Our Eyes, and this talk was such an influential part of my like doing of Temple Bound, in part because of the movement. He's talking a lot about growth and temples in this. But let's start with why you picked it. I mean, I think I already know the answer because of your unique tie in, but why did you pick this topic for this show?
Speaker 2So there's, I'm kind of cheating because I I'm going to tie into a lot of President Nelson's recent stuff, because he's been so on this, as you've shared a lot on this podcast, and I love what you guys are doing.
Speaker 2But, as you've shared so much of his powerful quotes about why we're hastening the work with temple work, we're hastening making new temples, and I kind of went down this rabbit hole and I made this Instagram video a few months ago after doing this D-Day. At first it was for myself and then afterwards I was like I got to find a way to make this in short form so people can share it and get excited about it, because we kind of made it a joke in our family. We're like conferences coming around. I text my family group chat and we'd say, oh, how many temples do you think this time? Oh, 25, you know, 16, 12, you know. It was always double digits, though, and it's just we've gotten so used to that. But what does it mean? You know, like it almost kind of doesn't feel real yet, because there's this backlog of temples that have been announced that are still in various stages of construction, right?
Speaker 2right but we've gotten so used to it and I was like, what does this mean? So as I kind of dove into the numbers I'm an engineer, so I'm kind of number driven I kind of my mind was blown and so I'm going to weave in some of those statistics, hopefully, that I kind of pulled together in that research with Elder Rasband's talk, and then also some of the nuggets from President Nelson, who kind of is the father of the majesty of this moment right before our very eyes, phrasing you are an engineer.
Speaker 1I feel like you just told me the blueprint of the show and I've never felt more confident going into a show like what we're going to talk about. And, by the way, would you be okay if I posted some of those graphics that you shared in your preparation notes, so everyone who's listening go to the show notes. I'm going to post the graphics of all these numbers. It's, it's truly like an engineer, a celestial engineer, put these together and put them on the website, because it was mind-blowing. We hear, we hear these numbers, we go.
Speaker 1Yeah, a lot of temples are coming, but when you look at the stats there, you can like, you can just see it. Numbers don't lie. So let's go to the beginning of the talk with Elder Rasband. He's set the stage and the story, tell the story for the people who haven't heard this talk, and I would then love to hear your angle, having been a missionary in that part of the world quote from October 2024, where President Nelson said he said my dear brothers and sisters, do you see what is happening right before our eyes?
The Math Behind Temple Growth
Speaker 2I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment. The Lord is indeed hastening his work. And here's where Elder Rasman puts his own spin on it, which I love Like there's so much. I feel like I could just like shuffle the deck of recent General Conference talk cards and that's kind of what came out here. It's like everyone is building on each other and you can see how the Lord is using all of all 15 members of the of the quorum to try to head us towards the temple and ultimately preparing the world for his return again. Right, so it's so cool. So he shares that quote. Do you see what is happening right before our eyes? I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment. The Lord is indeed hastening his work. Oh, the Razban grabs that hastening his work phrase and he says, and I quote hastening is a word that matters. Remember how President Razban gave that words matter talk a couple years ago.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And so here he's telling us this is a word that matters. He gave us this whole talk, 15-minute talk about words matter and he says this one matters from a prophet. And then he says Hastening suggests moving quickly, accelerating and even urgency In the growth of the church and the plan of Christ. Hastening is happening and we are all a part of it. That's the end of the church and the plan of Christ. Hastening is happening and we are all a part of it.
Speaker 2That's the end of the quote that I'll share there. But what are your thoughts there? I mean in terms of hastening and temple work? Do you see the same thing I'm seeing, or am I going crazy?
Speaker 1I am totally seeing it. The urgency around it is something that I am dialing in more and more on, and again, I'm not kidding Bryce when I Something that I am dialing in more and more on. And again, I'm not kidding Bryce. When I saw your statistics, I was so impressed because you can see mathematically the light that's being put on the earth in real time and if you're following that line, it's an exponential curve that goes to this place of like. Where are we going? We know where that is. It's the second coming. It's a beautiful part.
Speaker 1I came out of the temple this week really clear how this is the single best time on the history of the earth to be alive. Because of this work, the hastening of the temples, the way things are being built, the light that's being presented on the earth, the way that, like the next generation, they're reforming baptismal fonts, because the next generation is so into baptizing that it's literally changing the architecture of the new temples. They're building temples with multiple baptismal fonts. This is the greatest time to be alive. It is also the great and terrible day.
Speaker 1We have these terrible, horrible, miserable things that are happening in the world Wars, rumors of wars, plagues, diseases. All those things that were forecasted are being realized now and I think we're starting to realize when we're talking about plagues and diseases, many of those were mental health issues that are being so, so prevalent these days. And what's the solution? The light of our Lord, the idea that we can go back home and be in his presence, the idea that we can be enlightened to remember that we belong, and this thing that, like, we're never going to be alone. So no, I loved that talk and Elder Rasman's talk was such an inspirational temple focus message. But it also had that missionary spin to it and I just have to ask were you in the mission field during this time? Like I don't remember when the talk stories?
Speaker 2happened. No, so this talk was actually this past conference. This Elder Rasman talk was this past conference.
Speaker 1Right, I didn't know if it was a past story when you were there, or was it oh?
Speaker 2yeah, yeah, so thank you. So again, like I talked about that analogy of like all the quorum of the 12, you know, if you just get all of them in the first presidency and you kind of like shuffle all their stuff together, they're so building on top of one another. One of them is just a month ago or two months ago, elder Anderson went to visit the construction site of the Bolivia Santa Cruz temple and, as I mentioned before me and my wife Hillary, we served our missions in Bolivia, santa Cruz mission. So that was our city, we were there walking those cobblestone streets.
Speaker 2It was the best. And so we got so excited when President Nelson announced that temple in 2020. Fast forward to 2025. They've got the outside mostly done. They're putting the spires on and then they're going to work on the inside Right, so I assume it's probably going to be ready to end the next year, if I were guessing. And that's so exciting.
Speaker 2And then it's even cooler that Elder Anderson went to visit the grounds and he made this little video and it went on church news and a couple other places, social media and whatnot. But in that video Elder Anderson says he's standing there with two stake presidents and this temple will serve 11 stakes in the greater Santa Cruz area. He says to them President Nelson, through the Lord's revelation, is bringing these temples so much closer to us. The Lord is doing that to prepare a people who can receive him at the second coming. And obviously President Nelson has said this in his general conference talks, right, like the reason for these temples is to prepare a people to receive the Lord, the Lord. But here we are. Elder Anderson is reaffirming that when he goes to see the actual temple construction and check in on how it's going.
Speaker 2I just think it's so powerful that I need to get out of that mindset. This was kind of my call to repentance as I was doing all this math. It's fun to guess, like oh, how many temples you guys mom, dad, you know ask my brother and sister what do you think? We kind of like guess, kind of like a mission call opening, where do you think someone's going to go, how many temples are they going to announce? I'm sure other people play that game, but what does it mean? There's so much to it and it much to it and it's really preparing a people and I think there's a couple ways that the temple prepares the people and maybe we can riff on this, you and I.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'd love to hear this please you know.
Speaker 2One of them obviously is is the priesthood power that comes to individuals when we receive the, the ordinances of the temple right, temple, temple, industry, endowment sealing for ourselves right. There's so much power, literal priesthood power, that comes with that right. But also there's a huge amount of connection in heavenly aid that comes when we do that work for our ancestors, aid that comes when we do that work for our ancestors. I really believe that there's. There's like a link that gets put between me and great, great, great great great grandfather when I get baptized for him.
Speaker 2You know, I think he's almost like part of my, even more part of my team than he was before, right, because he's got that, he's received that ordinance and I did the work to seek it out, right, so there's additional power there. But everyone is saying, you know, president Nelson, elder Anderson, elder Rasband, they're all saying that this is for the purpose of preparing a people to receive the Savior in his second coming. Yeah, and so what do you think like? What other ways have you seen that the temple kind of like can bring power or prepare a people for that?
Speaker 1I love that question and because a lot of times, Bryce, I need there's criticism that often comes up as to why the church is spending so much money on temples and we can say prepare a people, and for a lot of people that makes sense and that's good. But for a lot of critics and not even critics, I'm going to say, people who are just in question, so I think critics have this judgment to it. It's like, you know, everyone's welcome to their opinion, but there's this idea of like there's so much pain and suffering, there's so many people who are in dire straits, why would this church spend so much of its money and resources on building temples? I mean, we know it's not going to people, it's going to these temples. A lot of it's going to the leaders of the church. I mean it's not like there's one person who's capitalizing all this income but it's being reinvested in the temples. And what's really cool is that Sister I'm going to get this right because I have it here Sister Sharon Eubank, who's the Director of Humanitarian Services for the church. She answers this question and I think will help set this discussion up a little bit more powerfully for us in understanding why this is so vital as far as temples being a humanitarian effort, she says.
Speaker 1I am occasionally asked why doesn't the church spend more money on humanitarian work? Why doesn't it stop building these expensive temples and focus its resources on relieving the poor? This is a legitimate question for the Church of Jesus Christ, but is it money that solves society's ills? I love that question. The world has poured $2 trillion into addressing chronic issues in Africa. Why isn't the situation better? Because money isn't the real issue. Lasting progress comes through trusted relationships, and we know that temples are all about relationships, right Bryce, Infrastructure, reducing corruption and the ability of people to work together. Money doesn't necessarily create those things. They must be developed alongside the resources and, frankly, it's much harder work. So I will never discount the one thing the church does that lifts entire communities is rapid development. It's one of those things that she says.
Speaker 1What the temple does. When we are serving and growing in temples, it is humanitarian work, because we are changing the hearts of the people, which is the greatest thing we can do is bring them closer to the Savior. So, in terms of like this whole thing that you're, you know how temples are preparing a people. It comes back to that word, power that you mentioned. And power is what is power?
How Temples Prepare People
Speaker 1You know, my this isn't like an official definition, but one definition I heard that I love is the power that a person has is their ability to influence other people to act. And so when I go receive power in the priesthood, that power is to influence and serve others. And what's the actions I'm influencing them to take? The gospel of Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, faith, all those things. So that's the change that occurs, because if our hearts are able to draw closer to God, he draws closer to us and that's where his spirit can fill, and then we are then sufficient, you know, because we're never enough, as we heard from Michelle, but it's one of those things where we're sufficient for his grace to come and to help prepare our hearts for him, and it all boils down to that relationship. So, yeah, I think it's. I love that idea of priesthood power being one of those concepts. What about you? How else do you think the temple helps prepare people for the second coming?
Speaker 2I think something that really opened my eyes when I was doing this um was again getting into the numbers, I thought, cause I was was me and hillary.
Speaker 2Right after we were married we're still students in byu idaho tennis school in rexburg and we got to be temple ordinance workers in the rexburg temple and that was a really cool experience to do that together. But at the time we were, you know, as poor, as poor can be, and I was a tutor, uh, in the evenings after my school work, you know monday through friday, and then we were in the evenings after my schoolwork, you know Monday through Friday, and then we were in the temple all day Saturday, and then Sunday was the Sabbath, and then we redid it all over again, you know. So we had like no time, but the best part about working in the temple together was just seeing how many other people are sacrificing. It felt like a big sacrifice for us. But then you look around, there's temple workers up and down everywhere you go and they're all making the same sacrifice of time to be there. But they do it because they recognize the light it brings into their own life, right.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2So I started thinking how many temple workers does it take to run a temple?
Speaker 1Oh, are you going to go into your numbers on this, because I think you have to share that Right. Go into your numbers on this, because I think you have to share that right okay, yeah, go into, go into that whole thing, that was mind-blowing so.
Speaker 2So I started thinking about it and and I actually had this number verified um, I was listening to a leading saints podcast where he had kurt frankham interviewed a temple president in in florida and he basically said, to run the temple that he was working with, they needed around 750, to like 1300 ordinance workers for it to work.
Speaker 2And I was thinking, just for my little temple here in Brigham City where we live now, each shift there's about three shifts, there's three shifts a day and there's about 40 ordinance workers per shift, right, and then there's six or sorry, then there's five days that it's operating. So you got 120 times five. That's like on the light end, without you know any extra right, but if you go to some of these bigger temples Brigham City is one of the smaller temples, right, you go to some of these bigger temples I kind of guess we're averaging about 750 ordinance workers on average to make a temple work. So, if you think about it, president Nelson has announced a majority of the temples. He's announced 200 of the temples that have been announced in the history of the church Of the 367, he's announced 200 of them right, and so that's 52% of all temples were in the last seven years. So there's this huge hastening going back to the Rathbent huge hastening that's happening.
Speaker 1I'm going to share a screen while you're talking, because you pulled the graphs up. So for people who are watching this on YouTube or watching a video, we're going to pull up that graph right now so you can see that.
Speaker 2Perfect. So you can see, you know, everyone thinks of I mean at least I. You know, everyone who's been in the church the last 20, 30 years thinks President Nelson like temple builder. Or President Hinckley, excuse me, president Hinckley was the temple builder, you know. And yeah, he's got a big chunk of the pie chart there 20%. But and then President Monson definitely did a lot of temples as well in his time as president of the church. But President Nelson's only been at it for seven years and boom, that's 200 temples. That's an insane amount of temples that have been announced. And if you scroll down just a hair we'll see the next chart.
Speaker 2This one shows of the. So this is just number of temples announced by President Nelson here. So the red ones are the ones that and this is by region. So the region on the left is United States and then going to the right is other regions, you know, europe, asia, etc. But all the red ones are the ones that are announced and the white ones are the ones that have been dedicated. So of his 207—excuse me, of his 200 temples the President Nelson is responsible for, responsible blessing us for. Thank you Heavenly.
Speaker 2Father for inspiring him to ramp up the construction at this time, and for all the prophets who had set the foundation for the church to be up the construction at this time, and for all the prophets who had set the foundation for the church to be ready for this at this time. Right, it's obviously not one person, but because of this huge hastening that the Lord's doing right now through the prophet, only 12% of those 200 have been dedicated. So those are those tiny little white bars in the chart.
Speaker 1If you guys are so people who are able to see this. What I want you to see in your minds is this bar graph with these long red lines and these tiny little white short lines next to them. So it's funny because we think that there's a lot of church temples on the church. What we have actually in function today is a very small percentage of the total that have been announced the announced. When you look at the graph, you realize the hastening that you talked about, because it's so we're hurrying so much that we have it looks like, conservatively 10 times more in development than we actually have in function at this point.
Speaker 2Exactly, and that's for the numbs of the 200 President Nelson has announced. Obviously there's the heritage ones that we've had since before that that are operating and phenomenal, but these are like the hastening ones. I feel like as a membership, we understand the hastening because we come together every six months and we hear 18 more, 16 more 22 more and we're like wow, that's so fun, that's cool, I love it, I love it just as much as the next guy.
Speaker 222 more. I'm like wow, that's so fun, that's cool, I love it, I love it just as much as the next guy. But I think where the rubber hits the road is when they put the Moroni on top or they finish it, and it's dedicated in Santa Cruz, bolivia, and now they need 750 Bolivians to come work as ordinance workers and to give six hours a week, you know, in the temple helping the thing function. Do you think that will help prepare a people to receive the Savior if, effectively, we're calling more ordinance workers?
Speaker 1Just the ordinance worker alone on that, bryce, is such a powerful thought Because I can see hundreds of people being called to support the function, the day-to-day functions of a temple and then all day long they're soaking in that spirit and then they are being brought up in terms of light and knowledge and then they go home and they share and take that light back with them.
Speaker 1So it's so fun to think about the temples. It's almost like this mine of truth and knowledge and light and when people are there they soak it in and when they go back they radiate it out into all of those communities. And with this ever darkening world, with the adversaries increasing attack, to have more of this light, not just in the physical temple itself but people coming from the temple and bringing that light to their home temples, is absolutely preparing the world, because you can see it graphically. You can see it graphically and then you can imagine all these temple ordinance workers and then you have everyone else who goes and gets their own ordinances and makes their own covenants going back. But just the ordinance workers alone is a fun thought of how that is literally spreading light across the world.
Speaker 2Your comment about light, of people going to the temple soaking up this light and then going out and sharing it, reminds me we were in Nauvoo a few weeks ago with our family and I said we got young girls One of our favorite parts of being being in Nauvoo this shows how West Coast we are is we went down to the river at night and just watched the lightning bugs.
Speaker 2You know light up and it was so cool to see that and so I can. You know, I have in my mind this, these lightning bugs as us when we leave the temple with light we're just kind of blast these beams of light and everywhere we go we're just kind of lighting up the night sky. It was so dark down by the river there in Nauvoo but there was so much lightning bugs that it kind of just felt like you were enveloped in light, Even though it felt dark. Everywhere you looked there was a little beam here or there and you knew that they were all around you, even though you couldn't see the bugs or feel the bugs. They were just all about in that field.
Speaker 1That's pretty cool of the bugs they were just all about in that field. That's pretty cool. I almost wonder if, when we're in sunbeams and we learn Jesus wants me as a sunbeam, maybe part of our spiritual advancement is recognizing that that isn't a metaphor, maybe that song is literal. Maybe Jesus wants me to be a sunbeam of actual truth and knowledge, that when I come back from the temple of actual truth and knowledge, that when I come back from the temple, I can radiate his love for others. And it's not seen with the temporal eye, it's seen with the spiritual eyes, felt with our spiritual hearts. And, of course, when we are radiating that love, the person who gets blessed the most is the person who's radiating it. And what a cool concept of how that prepares the hearts for the sun, the brightest source of all truth and knowledge, who's going to come. And you know we've learned this a lot in the scriptures, bryce, about how you know people who aren't ready will not withstand his presence. They will not be able to tolerate it or want to be in his presence. And so when people are always wondering like, well, what's this next life like when we get the judgment seat? It's not going to be, oh. And so when people are always wondering like, well, what's this next life like when we get the judgment seat? It's not going to be. Oh, you didn't make it. We are going to want to go where we feel comfortable and this is what the apostles have said.
Temple Ordinance Workers Spreading Light
Speaker 1I think it was Bednar who said you're going to want to go to be with people who make you feel peaceful and complete and truly, if we're not able to tolerate the presence of our Savior, we may love him but we may not be able to tolerate that presence. So every time we go, there's light and knowledge. But I also believe there's a spiritual refinement that happens that our spirit actually starts to change, literally as we bask in that type of spiritual light and in the Holy Ghost. So when he comes again, we can we can tolerate his presence, but in the meanwhile we're those lightning bugs. We are the literal sunbeams of our Savior's love for the world. For me it's not like I think that makes me better than it makes me more um more careful about the decisions I make, because where there's greater light and knowledge, there's greater responsibility given, as well as we read this last week in DNC Exactly yeah, so tell me about your thoughts on this.
Speaker 1We talked about how. Is there any other thoughts you have regarding how the temple prepares people for the second coming? Do you have any other thoughts on how that works?
Speaker 2I want to continue on that metaphor just a little bit. So you know, if we need 750 ordinance workers in Bolivia, in Santa Cruz, right and next year, whenever they finish that temple, and how amazing that's going to be for the members of the stakes there to rise to that challenge, well then you multiply that 750 by the 176 temples that are still to be completed that are announced, but in various stages of construction.
Speaker 2And that gives you the calling of 132,000 new temple ordinance workers. And that sounds like a big number. But how big of a number is it? Well, total proselyting missionaries is around 74,000, 75,000. So it's more than our missionary force right now. We have like in the chamber ready to go. They're like in the back of the slingshot. President Nelson and the Lord are saying we need this many people Once we dedicate all these temples. We know they're going to rise to the occasion and we're going to have that many more lightning bugs, or those lightning bugs are going to shine a little bit brighter.
Speaker 1Right, because right they're going to the source of light and and they're, and they're emitting more light because they're, they've risen to the occasion I like that analogy better, because you don't need to go to a temple to carry the light of jesus with us and there's people not of our faith who have that light that shines so brightly because of their agency and how they choose. But, to your point, the temple is the source, because it's the closest place on earth where we can feel Jesus, who is the ultimate source. So as we go we can shine brighter. I love that.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly, it just amplifies the light you already have, right. And so to think about 132,000 people. That's more than the number of missionaries and that's even more than all of the church. Education system students, including Pathways, byu, idaho,000 ordinance worker students right that the Lord's calling to officiate ordinances, priesthood ordinances. They're going to be set apart by someone with keys to administer saving ordinances, and can you just imagine what that means for hastening of light in the world?
Speaker 1Yes, and it's so interesting there's oftentimes there's a pattern of heaven right, there's. Everything is patterns, and sometimes we get the pattern wrong when we're raising our kids in the gospel Because, for example, what we're talking about here is how this pattern of light being introduced to the world is overcoming darkness, preparing the hearts for the second coming In our own worlds, our families. A lot of times, especially with young men, we think about this thing called missions and we make that like the ultimate goal and what we're talking about with temples and light and priesthood. It really reminded me of this President or elder which had really reminded me of this president or elder. It was elder Bednar in 2017, gave us really amazing talk, called, called to the work, and in it he talks about this pattern and and you know, the preparation of our hearts for the second coming kind of ties into this. He talks about how there's three interrelated words that define a pattern of preparation and progression. It's priesthood, temple and, for men in particular, missions. So sometimes, as parents, friends and church members, we focus extensively upon missionary preparation for young men, that we neglect to degree the other vital steps along the covenant pathway that we must be fulfilled before beginning full-time missionary service. And the reason I bring this up is because, you know, priesthood, temple, then mission, so, like when we're talking about just our individual progressions, you know, we have to realize that personal worthiness is where it all begins and this is something he talks about later in this talk. But then it's priesthood.
Speaker 1The power of the priesthood is the power of God, right, and what is God? We read in luke god is love. So priesthood power is the power of love, the literal power and authority of love. And so, at the end of the day, when we talk about preparing our hearts and for the people to be, you know, protected and to to get ready for tolerating and being with the savior, what we're really talking about is promoting love across the world, allowing greater degrees of love, god's love, in our heart. And it's through the priesthood power that we go into the temple and make those special covenants that become more of a relationship than a checkbox, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1So I think, ultimately, what the temples do more than anything is they allow us, as individuals on the earth, to develop that relationship with our Savior, a real relationship, so that we are able to call him our friend. And if we're friends of the Savior, which is the ultimate calling. Then we can go out and be friends to others and be his representatives in a way that spreads love or the priesthood power across the world. So it's amazing when we think about temples as a physical manifestation of love, because that's where priesthood ordinances take place and that, to me, is probably the coolest thought about how temples prepare the hearts of people for the second coming. Tell me more about this talk. Was there anything else in it that spoke to you? Is there anything else on this topic that we haven't covered that you'd like to talk about?
Speaker 2So I'm going to on the topic and this isn't from Elder Rasman's talk, but President Nelson shared this, and I know you've talked about this in the podcast, but I have a spin on it, or maybe a little different way I looked at it recently.
Speaker 2This is President Nelson's super powerful promise from last year. My dear brothers and sisters, here is my promise. Nothing will help you hold fast to the iron rod than worshiping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world's mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the lord jesus christ and his atonement or help you understand god's magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain, and nothing will open the heavens more Nothing. So what you were saying earlier about maybe some people who were curious why are we spending so many resources making these temples? This is why it's to soothe your spirit during times of pain, to open the heavens and to really bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement. What I thought was really interesting, though, is he opens the quote, opens the promise, excuse me, with.
Speaker 2Nothing will help you more hold fast to the iron rod than worshiping in the temple and when I think of the iron rod, I think iron rod is the word of God Right of the iron rod, I think iron rod is the word of.
Speaker 2God right. And when I think of the word of God I usually think of you know, the scriptures paper right, like sitting down reading my scriptures, right. So I need to hold on to that and you have to do it every day. But it's interesting, he says, holding fast to the iron rod. Nothing can help us do that more than go into the temple. So, in other words, the iron rod is the word of God. What's taught in the temple is the word of God and it's the most potent version, according to my interpretation of the quote.
Speaker 1It's powerful. And you know because, kind of to your point, I love how you identified, after you read that quote, how that answers the question why are we building so many temples and how we hold fast to that word of God? Because it's, it's by the word of God that we live. It's, you know, word words are the words matter, right, and what we've learned before is that our language is the foundation of creation. So the words of our father are the foundation of creation for a life that is everything we would ever want. As a matter of fact.
Speaker 1Another quote I love from President Nelson on temples. The temple is a place of peace and power, and spending time there will literally change a person's life. So when we think about why are we building those temples again? And well, it's all about changing people's lives through the word of God, to help them become like the savior, to be able to find love, all those different things. These are all great quotes, by the way, because I think there was those 15 promises from President Nelson. It was published by the church news back in December and when we think about those promises and how that prepares the people, it also gives us answers to questions like why are we investing in this? Well, it's going to open the heavens is one of the promises the Lord will bring the needed miracles we need. Well, in the poorer of countries, we need more miracles. It allows the Lord to teach us one of the promises that we receive our highest spiritual treasures, highest spiritual treasures. You know, it's just a crazy cool concept to think about how we are again so blessed to live in the latter days and experience these changes.
Speaker 1You know, I do have a question for you, more on a personal level, bryce how has the temple impacted your family at your stage? I will tell you authentically. When I was at your stage, I was not an avid temple goer. The fact that you've got a podcast, the fact that you're here with all of this stuff that we're talking about, is so impressive to me because in your world, when I was your age, I was keeping the plates from hitting the ground as I was spinning them as quickly as I could. I know you're still spinning plates, but how has the temple impacted you and how do you leverage that for miracles and support?
Making Christ the Main Character
Speaker 2Yeah, it's amazing how much more because it seems crazy, right, like somehow the Lord can increase our capacity when we put in first. And I'm not saying I'm any more close to being good at putting in first, but every so often I'll remember to do something in the right order and even though it doesn't seem like there's time in the calendar, there's time in the day to do those things, the most important things get done, and I think that's miraculous. Can I share a little personal teaching to me, and this might just be nothing more than personal?
Speaker 2So take it with what it is. But not that long ago I went into the temple. I was doing an endowment. Into the temple was doing an endowment.
Speaker 2And I was wondering how I can make Jesus more like the main character of my life. Sometimes it's so easy to have the main character of your life be anything but the Savior. You know it could be work or it could be, you know, could be your children. It could be other things, right, that demand a lot of time. And and it could be your children, it could be other things that demand a lot of time, and it could be a sports team that you like or whatever, and those are all wonderful things and they all demand our time. But how can I make Jesus the middle, the main character, and then everything else can be a supporting actor I love?
Speaker 1that. I love that.
Speaker 2And as I brought that question to the temple, I'm going to read a little bit from my journal here.
Speaker 1Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2I came up, I made these bullet points. After Afterwards I thought, as the creation was being presented in the endowment, right, and we understand the creation story, learned it in primary, and we might harp on it more than maybe other religions do so much. And so there's something there, right, there's something there. So I was wondering. I went in there and I said how can I make Christ the main character in my story and what will he do if I do that? And as I was thinking about that, boom, the endowment starts with Christ creating the earth. Okay, interesting.
Speaker 2And I thought could he use those same creation powers to transform me, to change my life? So let's think about what he did. In order Day one, he separated light from darkness. So when, to me, my personal revelation was when I make him the main character of my life, he will bless me with the gift of increased discernment between truth and air, light and darkness. So, like cool I, I never thought about that more than just a cute scripture story of how the earth was created, right, but now he can use the power that he used to create the earth, that same priesthood power.
Speaker 2He can separate light and darkness and help me have more discernment. On the second day, he organized heaven and earth. One way we can make him the main character of our life is by unifying ourselves with his church, which is the way he has organized heaven, or Zion on earth. On the third day, he divided the land from the waters. When we build our lives upon Christ's firm foundation, nothing can make us fall. Think of a Helaman 512, where the wise man built this house upon a rock song right.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And the fourth day he created the sun and the moon and the stars. And in Moses 2, 17 says Christ set the moon and the sun and the moon and the stars. And in moses 2, 17 says christ set the moon and the sun and the stars and the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. So when we make christ the main character of our life, he can um increase our light and joy. He's the creator of light and joy. So Christ's light can be as constant as the sun rising every single day if we keep him as the main character, keep him as the center.
Speaker 2And then I was going through and I sat and I was sitting through and I was going through this endowment and I was like wow, this is crazy. What else is here? If he's my main character, how can he use this power to create in my life? Right, the fifth day, he created the fish in the sea and the birds in the air. And when we make him the main character of our life, oh sorry. He says he created the fish in the sea and the birds of the air and commanded them to multiply in their sphere. And I got stuck on that word multiply. I think it's maybe one of the words that matters, according to Elder Rathbun.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Right. Christ has the power to multiply, and so if we make him the main character of our life, he can multiply our joy, multiply our successes, multiply opportunities, multiply our character, multiply intelligence opportunities. Christ is a multiplier. We know he multiplied loaves and fishes.
Speaker 1I was thinking that before you said that. I was thinking about how he multiplied this limited supply temporally to feed thousands.
Speaker 2Yeah, and then, on the sixth day of all this is my favorite one he created all manner of animals upon the earth. And then God came and helped in creating man and woman and gave them dominion over every living thing, and gave them dominion over every living thing. And so when we make God, the Father and Jesus Christ, the main character of our life, the center, the pillar, they can give us dominion, just like he gave dominion to Adam and Eve over every living thing in the garden. They can give us dominion to overcome the natural world.
Speaker 1Anything in our world.
Speaker 2Exactly, dominion over our own thoughts, words, actions. So, when we have increased, when we desire to make him the main character and I've been trying to do this in my prayer and just in my study now, as I've been thinking about making Jesus the main character, you know what can I do today to make him the main character? Because I want to invite this creation power in and so to answer your, you know, really long-winded way of me sharing this nugget, this moment when the creation story to me went from being a retelling of scripture in the endowment, to becoming.
Speaker 2Hey, let me teach you what I can do, if you let me in.
Speaker 1So it's such a beautiful way of describing. I'm glad you went on that, because could there be something more temple related than going through the creation? I love how you were able to adapt that in your environment. You know, like in all scriptures and to our learning. Right, you were listening to the word of God, but you applied it to your environment and trusted that he can multiply. That perspective alone must have given you space in a way that I was missing at that age, because I think there's some truth. I don't want to make it seem like I'm that much older, by the way, but it's like. But you don't say I'm at a totally different stage in my family and that was such a rough time and I wish, I wish I'd had that perspective then how does that serve you? How does that knowledge benefited you as a parent, with you know?
Speaker 2as an engineer and young family.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think in the days of Moses, you know, they were instructed to collect manna every day, and and they knew how to collect the mana after the first couple times of doing it, I'm sure.
Speaker 2I'm sure they knew the routine, where to go, how to get it, maybe even they found their favorite way to eat it. I've learned how to collect mana, but I haven't I'm not full all the time but I learned how to collect the manna and I think that's the most powerful thing for me, I think, is realizing I can receive personal revelation when I go to the temple and sincerely seek it not every time, sometimes I go and I just feel good. But I can receive personal revelation when I open up the scriptures to know how to help my family with the ever evolving changes that each of my girls are going through. Right, they grow like so much from day to day at this young age and and sometimes they hit you with questions that you're not ready for. But I've no, I know how to collect the manna and so I think that's maybe my answer to your question is I know that there is answers there if I sincerely seek them, and I know that I've found them enough times to trust the whole answer.
Speaker 1Yeah, I am. So many times I get asked, as a member of the church, for my friends who aren't members how are you adding that much time into church work and service and it's not that at time. It's not that it's easy all the time. But I think about the multiplier thing that you said and I think that's what you were talking about with manna is that we go? That's why we're wanting, we want to go frequently to the temple. Is that we go to get the next portion, the next degree of help, support, light, knowledge, whatever. That is peace that we're looking for.
Speaker 1But in the end, those inch by inches turn into yards when we are committed and faithful and consistent. And consistency looks like inconsistency, if you know what I mean. Like a consistency never looks like a straight line. It looks like up, down, up, down, up, down, up down, but it's, it's the, it's the effort. And then with that consistency, comes this multiplying effect.
Speaker 1And it's funny because I've had to restart my world professionally um a big time in 2018.
Speaker 1I sold the first company, I started another one and there was definitely struggles on the second one, but this time around, because I was thinking the way that you are now, I was more committed to the temple and the gospel of Jesus Christ being.
The Power of Consistency and Manna
Speaker 1I wouldn't say I made him the main stage character just because, but I tried harder, right Like I was trying hard to make him the main character in my life using your language, hard to make him the main character in my life using your language. And this second half has been exponentially to use the word multiplied it's been multiples easier. Not that it's easy, but multiples more peaceful and fun. Not that it's been completely peaceful and or fun all the time. And I love that analogy of how, when we go to the temple, we're talking about the preparation of the second coming, but we're also talking about just living today. It's yes, and we're getting ready for this big second coming and we're still grinding at times through trials and tribulation, we're suffering through loss and in those moments, in real time, since the Savior's not here yet, we can go get manna and get that next portion of whatever it is that we're looking for today.
Speaker 2Yeah, totally seek Jesus and we seek his light. Oh, he's so excited to give that to us, no matter where we've been. I think of the parable of the prodigal son and how it might have been easy for the wayward son, after spending all his inheritance and sin and riotous living, it might have been easy for him to think he's not going to take me back Like I screwed it up royally. You know, I thought I could handle it on my own. I thought I was so wise, I thought I could take this and invest it and be okay. No, he blew it and had nowhere else to go. Be okay no, he blew it and had nowhere else to go.
Speaker 2And so, even if we're that far, I know that if we just turn to him, if we turn to Jesus Christ, turn to the Savior and say what would it look like to try and make you more the main character in my life? He's unoffended. He's like the Father who sees him when he's yet a great way off and runs. I know he'll run to us. That has been taught time and time again in the scriptures, in the words of Jesus Christ and his parables, that he'll run to us. He'll be there in our time of need, he'll comfort us.
Speaker 2I think sometimes we don't give him enough credit in thinking that, yeah, he'll come up. He'll come show up just like the manna. Every single day we can go out and collect it. And I just know that's true. I've experienced it enough to know that it's like a law. You know scientifically, there's certain things that happen every time you put the effort in right, and sometimes the effort is a little different each time, right. But I've tried it enough times, I've experimented upon the word enough times that the seed has grown each time I water it a little bit.
Speaker 1I love that. Bryce, thank you so much for being on the show. I don't usually do this with my guests, but I have just been so impressed with you. I want to thank you for taking this so seriously and raising your young family with this in mind. You're going to be so much more blessed and I can't wait to see how that continues to grow in your world. So thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 2Thanks for having me. It's been great. I appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun chatting with you, will, and I love all that you're doing with all your episodes. I love that when I found your podcast, you already had a bunch of backlog so I could catch up, and I'm still going through and catching up, but it's so fun to hear how much power the temple brings others and and how there's been an increased focus on of the savior leading the leaders of his church to lead us to the temple. Right, I agree, so we can find it so fun.
Speaker 1I'm glad that you say that, because one thing you and I said at the beginning of this was the reason we started our podcasts was there was a selfish reason for it and it was our desire to serve our own lives. Uh, it was what we were needing and uh, so please anyone who's listening, go check out his podcast. It is uh, it is called the companionship study podcast. How can they find it?
Speaker 2You can find it on YouTube companionship study, Um. Or if you look on Instagram, same, I think it's companionshipstudypod on Instagram. We do a bunch of little short clips on there and then companionshipstudycom has all the links.
Speaker 1I love it. So everyone listen. And if you have adult children around Bryce's age, my goodness, I mean talk about an important demographic to support that. We all have been in those stages Not all you know, but most of us have been in those stages and it's a challenging one. So, bryce, thank you so much again for being on the show and for all of you who are listening, thank you so much for tuning into Temple Bound. I am so grateful that you guys have spent a minute of your day with me and Bryce as we continue to work together as one family to come back to Christ. And until next time, 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.
