How This Family Found the Temple Game with Jacki Hanks

Parenting can make it hard to inspire a passion for temple worship in our kids, but today’s guest, Jacki Hanks, shares a miraculous story that completely changed her family’s culture. What started as a competitive "game" between siblings snowballed into an outpouring of faith, resulting in her family completing over 15,000 temple ordinances in a single year!

Jacki shares the pivotal moment, a flat tire turned spiritual victory that ignited their fire for temple service. Hear how they leveraged family dynamics, technology like the Get Involved App, and a competitive spirit to co-create a sustainable, powerful, and deeply spiritual family tradition. This story is an unforgettable testament to the Spirit of Elijah and the blessings of making the temple a central part of family life.

Jacki's journey from feeling like a "loser" to seeing her entire family, friends, and community rally around a massive goal will inspire you to find the "game" that works for your family.

Key Takeaways & Discussion Points

• Finding the Game: How to create engaging, co-created experiences that make temple worship fun for your children.
• The Power of Resilience: Turning setbacks (like a flat tire) into spiritual victories, denying the adversary a win.
• Gamification & Technology: Leveraging apps like FamilySearch and the Get Involved App to make indexing and family history engaging.
• Consistency is Key: Why frequent temple attendance can become a spiritual "high" that families miss when it's absent.
• Thinking Big: Setting "impossible" goals (like 15,000 ordinances) to force exponential spiritual growth.

Travel Opportunity & Humanitarian Appeal!

Temple Bound is going to Kenya! From November 2nd through the 9th, we are partnering with a local group to help members of the church attend the temple for the very first time.

How you can join this effort:

1. Follow Us Remotely: Check out our daily podcast episodes while we're over there. Follow us on all social media platforms to track our journey and see the impact.
2. Donate: We are also raising money for crucial medical supplies, food, and shelter for a local orphanage. 
3. Come With Us: We have a limited number of seats available for those who want to join this effort of sharing good overseas! Please reach out to learn more.

Transcript

Donate, Follow, Or Travel With Us

Introducing Guest Jackie Hanks

COVID Closure Sparks A New Resolve

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Temple Bound is going to Africa, and we want you to come with us. November 2nd through the 9th, we have been asked to go to Kenya to help a local group of members of the church go to the temple for the first time. And not only are we looking to help them get to the temple, but we're helping raise money for medical supplies, food, and even some shelter for a local orphanage. So if you'd like to join us, here's how you can do that. Number one, follow us on social media. If you'd like to be a part of it remotely, you can check us out on a daily-day basis. We're doing podcast episodes while we're over there. Secondly, you can donate. We're gonna have a GoFundMe link in the show notes of these episodes over the next two months. Or you can literally come with us. We have a limited number of seats, and we'd love for you to come join us in this effort of sharing this great good with members of the church overseas. So if you'd like to learn more, please reach out and we'd love to have you. Sometimes it's one of those things that as we are trying to figure out how to develop that passion, it makes it hard for us to do that with our kids. Well, today's special guest is Jackie Hanks. She's going to share with you an unbelievable story of how a family, a very normal family that had a very normal to average experience of going to the temples, started a game that snowballed into their family doing 15,000 ordinances in one year. It's an unbelievably cool story because it never started with that kind of focus, but over time, she's going to share how the spirit of Elijah entered her home and did the unbelievable for her and her kids. They started catching fire, and then the community joined in. And before you knew it, they were achieving this wonderful goal. But more importantly, who they became in the journey is what I can't wait for you to hear and inspire you to find the game as we're going to talk about. Finding the game with our kids that they can co-create to make temple worship a part of our family culture. I can't wait for you to hear the episode. Enjoy the show. Well, Jackie, I am so grateful that you're here with us on Temple Bound. Thank you for being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, this is a fun one because your family did something that was pretty amazing. I was trying to get my cousin Jennifer to be on the show. And she just looked at me very coldly and said, There's no way I'll ever do that. And you should meet Jackie. Like it was like one breath. I'll have to thank her for that. Well, and I can't thank you enough because I get it. You know, this isn't something that everyone wants to do, but it's, I think your story is so powerful in how this love for the temple has really impacted your family. And the thing that we're going to talk about today was this one year, a few years ago, where the spirit of Elijah, combined with some real competitive spirits in your family, resulted in this outpouring of experiences within your home. So why don't you set the stage a little bit about the the challenge that occurred? Not it's not sorry, I keep calling it a challenge, but this thing that happened where you ended up seeing 15, you got your family did 15,000 ordinances in one year. So how did that even begin for you?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Well, it started mainly when COVID shut down the temples. And then I felt like I was a loser because I didn't really take my opportunities to go to the temple like I probably should have.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Oh, beforehand. So like before going before COVID hit, you're like, oh wow, now that it's gone, I really could have gone more.

The Flat Tire Turning Point

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yeah. Yeah. And I hope it opens again because this is really incredible. And so I started working in the temple and loved it, but didn't participate in the ordinances. And so then um, when it opened back up, I was like, all right, game on. We've got to get our work done. There's so much work to be done and make up for lost time. So we just started doing it. Anytime we could find an appointment, we just went and we took my whole big van, as many people that could fit in. We would just load it up, sometimes, you know, unseat belted, but as many as we could fit into the vehicle that we could to be able to make it to the temple appointments. And then it started out with one night. Um, my sister had called and was like, Hey, there's three spots. Can your kids come? And I was like, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

So this was just like a normal temple like invitation. Yeah. You already had this desire to go. And so this opened up, and you're like, Yeah, let's go. Yeah, yeah.

Four Temples In One Day

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Yeah, no problem. I've got it. There's an appointment. Yeah, let's fill those spots. Let's get this temple of work going. And so we went in and to do it. That night we started looking up some names and we found them and we found more. And I was like, oh my goodness, we can do more appointments. Let's see if we can find some. And I just happened to find an appointment at the Gilbert Temple that morning. And so I was like, guys, what do you think? And the kids were like, Yeah, let's do it. And so we got up that morning really early. I think our appointment was the six o'clock one, which is really early for our family. And so um, we got up early, we went to the head to the temple, and I ended up having a flat tire. I got a notification that my tire was going flat, and I was like, Here we go, yeah. We can't do this and make it to my sister's appointment because she'd be mad at me if I was late to it. And so I was like, Oh, okay, guys, we can't do it. So I called Ty. I was like, hun, our tire's flat. We're not gonna be able to make the appointments.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

And now for context, your husband is a uh doctor? Yeah, he's a doctor. Okay, so he's he's getting ready to go to work. Yeah, and so you get this flat tire again. You know, you were already started working at the temple, so this passion was starting to accrue after COVID, and then you're this was a moment that really pivoted things for you because you started finding names, and then this flat tire isn't interesting, by the way. Yeah, how there's always something that prevents us from wanting to go. Yeah, why absolutely yeah, he tried to get in the way.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

So we get home, and I was just super deflated, but I was like, at least we still get to go to the temple, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

So then we head to go walk inside. I'm like, guys, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Well, what happened with the flat tire?

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Well, so I get home, my husband throws me his keys to his car, and he's like, I'll figure out my patients. Oh, I see. Like, you just get to the temple. Satan's not gonna win today.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

So he was late to work as a doctor because he knew how important it was for your family. He was like, I'll figure it out. Wow, that's pretty powerful.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

So, yeah, so we took his car and then we felt energized. We were all powered, we're like, Yes, we're gonna win. Satan's not winning today, let's go. And so we went to the temple, and it was just super powerful because you know, we won. We got to the temple. And so we got there and it was amazing. And then afterwards, we're like sitting at the Mesa Temple. We got there on time. My sister told me a time and I was there on time a little bit early because I didn't want to be late. But she told me where are you at? And she's like, I I thought you'd be late. So I said to temple early, and I was like, I have a sister like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Sarah, I love you. Anyway, keep going.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

So I was like, Oh, okay, well, maybe we could just sit and find some names. And my son's like, Hey, what if I were to tell you that um there's a temple appointment over in Phoenix? And I'm like, What? And I'm like, Yeah, let's go. What do you guys think? And they're like, Yeah, let's go. And we're like, okay, we'll tell Satan we're gonna win today. And so we set up that appointment and we then went to take a picture because I started doing pictures every time we'd go to the temple, we'd do a selfie.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Finding Names Becomes A Game

SPEAKER_02 7:22

As my way to kind of document my life, and because then I'm not a great journaler, but um, I can take a selfie. And so um we just did our selfie, and I was telling my sister, I'm like, yeah, listen to my morning. This is what happened. Yeah, I'm not only here, but I also had this. So my sister's like, oh my gosh, that's so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

And so then fast forward, I said, Oh, and I have an appointment in Phoenix. I don't know if your son wants to join us, but there's a spot if you want.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

So, how did that Phoenix appointment show up? First of all, let me lean backtrack a little bit. So, was that experience extra special? Or I mean I'm putting words in your mouth, but I'm imagining it was extra special because of the sacrifice of the flat tire and all the extra effort. Because I would have given up. Yeah, I would have been like, hey, that counts. In your case, it was like your husband's like, nope, I'm not gonna work late, and then you work there. So I'm guessing that you were blessed and had a different uh level of experience being there that day.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Yeah, I don't like to lose. And I felt like I was gonna lose that morning. And then when my husband threw me the keys and he's like, Don't let Satan win, I'm like, Yeah, he's not winning. I'm not gonna win. It's like no.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Let's go. And so we went to the temple, we went to do the baptisms in Gilbert, and we were like, that was amazing. And our hair is already wet, like, let's just keep going.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

So, did you schedule the uh Phoenix temple appointments after that?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Yeah, so while we were in line or while we were in our car waiting for the Mesa temple appointment, the mice is.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah. So then at that point we were talking about how we won, and my son was like, Hey, what if I were to tell you that this temple appointment in Phoenix opened up? And I was like, Let's go. So we went to the Phoenix Temple appointment, and because of our experience that morning, my sister encouraged her son to come. He's like, You should come.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

And so then he came with us, and then on the way back, there was an appointment to go to the Gilbert Temple. And I was like, I know that you think we're crazy, Josh, but if you want to come with us, we're also gonna go to the Gilbert Temple again.

Family Competition And Tracking

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Why? So why let me ask you, first of all, your kids are homeschooled, so you have some flexibility here, which is why this was a little bit possible. But what was it after? So I get why you went to the Phoenix Temple. You know, you're trying to get to a temple, things aren't looking good because the car, so your son's looking at appointments so you schedule it, but then you're like, hey, let's just keep it. So what inspired this third temple?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Like the fourth experience of the temple?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

What was it that like where you're like, no, I I want to keep going?

SPEAKER_02 9:38

We were just gonna go back to where it started of yeah, say not only did you not win, but you really didn't win because we hit them multiple times. And then we also repeated back the one you tried to kick us out of that morning.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Interesting. And the and what's really powerful to me is that your kids are like driving some of this.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah, you know what? It actually I have incredible kids. I want to be them when I grow up. Seriously. They take after their dad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Oh, I'm sure there's a lot of Jackie in there. But it's so cool to think about how like this one setback was an opportunity that turned into there. We had a guest named Dennis Deaton who was on the show, and he has this great book, Look Into Christ and Every Thought. And in it, he talks about this concept of like when the adversary gets in our head or puts a roadblock up, that that's an opportunity for us to go above and beyond the way that your family did. And what that does is it really invokes blessings and puts that negative influence at bay. So that competitive nature that you have really served you and your family, as your family, are your boys also competitive in that way?

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Slightly, tremendously.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Okay, there we go. Yeah, so that happened. So you go through that, and so you ended up going to four temples that day. Three?

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah, so we went to four. We went to Gilbert twice, Mesa, and Phoenix.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

What time are you guys done?

SPEAKER_02 10:55

When that was um, we were done about 5:30. Don't worry, we got food along the way. We make it fun. After every temple trip, you get to go get food. There's always a treat involved.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yeah, so this is a powerful thing. Your family goes through that. And for I know you were telling me before we hit record that this was a pivotal moment for your family. There was something about that day that really shifted for you guys. You guys had been growing in little by little, precept upon precept, around this passion of going to the temple, but something really like unlocked for you guys that day. What was that?

SPEAKER_02 11:25

I think it was just winning against Satan.

unknown 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Because he tried. Why was he trying? Because it's so amazing. The temple's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

That's wonderful. And and you guys had, I'm guessing, some really spiritual experiences just going through that journey that day.

unknown 11:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

It was incredible. I mean, to spend that much time in the house of God is the coolest, especially with your kids. Yeah. Where they could do other things, right?

From Numbers To Lasting Spiritual Change

SPEAKER_00 11:50

And most and and it's very normal for them to not want to go to the temple in that way. So it's such a a miracle that you know you have such great kids for sure, and that they were wanting to keep going and having that experience. I think that's truly that feeling of Elijah that starts to turn our hearts and gets us excited. And what's so cool about your story, Jackie, is that that excitement that wasn't the end. Like that could have been our little show, and thank you for tuning in. But what really happened on the back end of that was that a fire was kindled that day that turned into this experience of you guys doing 15,000 names. So, how walk the audience through a little bit of how it went from this amazing transformative day in your family into this the seemingly impossible task of doing that many ordinances in a year.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah, so originally it was hard for us to find names. We didn't know what we were doing. We were just like figuring it out and we didn't know what we were doing. Sure. And so my sister's son was like, Oh, let me show you how to find your descendants. This is how I find in family tree, I guess. Yeah, so in family tree, I'll show you how after. It's incredible. And you just go and you find it and you click the button, descendants, and then it's ancestors that are aunts, cousins, um, distant cousins.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Is it descendants with tasks? Is that the thing?

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Um no, that's different one. I'll have to look at that.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

I can't remember, but it's finding your descendants through that dot dot dot in the corner of your phone.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Uh-huh. Totally.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah. So anyway, you click on that and it helps you find the green temples that we could never find. And then it became the game, and so we started finding the game. And my kids finding the game.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

What a powerful like concept, Jackie, to think about how we can approach temple worship with our kids, finding the game. And and that's really neat because it started on an app, which they're all like super geared for because they're raised on that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

They're incredible.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

And so you um did you like how do they get into the app? Like, how do they start getting into that? Because I think a lot of parents would be like, How did you get them interested in the app?

SPEAKER_02 13:52

So my nephew showed them how to find the temples, the green temples, but then it started to be like what they would do. I would catch them doing temple work and because then we could take our names to the temple. And then it started to be where we could see the ordinances completed button and seeing how it was growing. I was like, oh my gosh, guys, look at how many ordinances we've got completed. This is amazing.

Indexing On The Go With Get Involved

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Because it shows the total ordinances completed, and so that metric was a little bit of a driver for a competitive family.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Well, mainly their mom, but yeah, their dad isn't as quite competitive. Bless his heart. I love them. Bless his heart.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, but that number, but it's still very validating to see completion of work. And so they were into the app, they started seeing the completed ordinances. One thing that we talked about before we hit record as well is that your your family goes back. You have relatives in the Doctrine and Covenants. So there wasn't a lot of like low-hanging fruit in the green temple. So that when they started seeing the descendants, it opened up all these doors for you guys. So it sounds like you guys started getting really into just finding people who needed ordinances, and that started the next level of this experience for you is that you started finding people and reserving names, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Yeah, so we started seeing that oh my goodness, our work isn't done, and it should be done because you know, ancestors, you know, my husband's grandfathers, Hebrew C. Kimball, and you know, it's incredible. And why do we not have our work done? And you know, it's just crazy to see that you can find these green temples that work to not be done after looking for so long and not finding them. And so then it started being that to seeing it growing. And then my husband was like, we should do a challenge. How about, you know, we'll just go hit another temple, you know, whatever temple you want in America. Let's find a temple. And, you know, whoever has the number by the end of May, the highest will get to pick which temple they go to. And so then we were like, okay, girls versus boys. And then my daughter, bless her heart, she's a little like her mom. She's like, well, this we have it in the bag. Let's just pick our temple now.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

You and I are are killers. Let's go destroy the boys. And for just the audience perspective, so at the time you had two kids on a mission, and so you have three, five children, and so you have two boys at home and a daughter, and uh you two daughters and a boy at home. Oh, I got it reversed. So two daughters and a boy, but one of them's super competitive, and you guys were just gonna just okay. So you decided, well, that's gonna be unequally weighted.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Yeah. So I'm like, all right, I'll take the boys, I'll take dad, and I'll take Brig, and we will we'll destroy you girls. And so, you know, my other my daughter, she's like her mom, and she's highly competitive, and she's like, game on. So we went and got these little boxes at the dollar store, and we printed names, and she had her box, I had my box, and so my son and my husband were finding names and putting them in our box so we knew we were ready to go. If we had a moment to hop in the temple or there was an appointment, we were not gonna let our names hold us back. So, like our temple names we found was thick. It was glorious.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Wow.

Hitting 10,000 Then Aiming Higher

SPEAKER_02 16:59

And so we were always ready in case someone had an appointment and we were ready to go. So then my kids would fill the car and we'd go do it, and they would encourage their friends to come so that then they could get their numbers up. Get their numbers up.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yeah. You know, it's I think that I want to pause for a second and just highlight what's beautiful about what your family did is that it understood your particular family culture and how it was the temple worship and attendance was tied into that in a cool way. You said it just a few minutes ago. Find you found the game. So finding the game, your husband clearly saw that and and knew how to pour a little gasoline on that and just say, let's find a temple, let's do teams. And this may not work for every family. That exact concept may not be what would work for other people. And other people who aren't competitive, you know, if they're not listening to what's really what we're talking about here, might even feel disconnected from it because they're not competitive. The point of the story is how beautifully you guys were committed to finding, you know, your family in the temple in the way that serves your family. And I just wonder, like for the Humphreys, my family, what does that game look like for us? What does it look like for uh the mellows who is the reason we're sitting here talking? Like all the game is gonna be different for everyone else. In your case, you're you're you're demonstrating this beautiful example of what's possible when we are able to combine a love for the savior in the temple with our families, because that's what the temples are all about, are all about families. And so you you get these names, and so they're bringing their friends, they're starting to like collaborate and bring their friends in. And you said this earlier, it started as a competition. So as it started to evolve, what was it like as you guys started more going more and more for your family?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

It then became if you didn't go, you could feel the loss.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

You could feel that you didn't feel the spirit, and you would almost get on a spiritual high because that became your normal spirit you had with you. And then when you didn't go so frequently, you could tell. And I would have my son be like, Hey, I missed the appointment this morning. I had to work. Can you come hit the temple with me tonight? After he had come with me that morning, I'm like, absolutely, because he wanted to get the spirit back while he was going to work.

December Push And Community Help

SPEAKER_00 19:14

You know, for people who are new to the temple or haven't gone in a while, or people who just don't maybe not share that that experience yet. I just want to remind what's beautiful about what you said is something that President Nelson said. It was like, if we don't have a feeling to go to the temple, but to go more, not less. And I think that was a your son just demonstrated why. But when you go consistently and more frequently, there is an objective observable experience that is missing when it's not there. And so that how how wonderful was that for you as a mom to see that with your kids?

SPEAKER_02 19:47

It was incredible. But it so I like to relate it because my friends all thought I was this is abnormal for our family. I was not the normal person who would just dive in and not be busy and have plenty of time to just devote everything. But when it started happening and you could see the transformation in ourselves and in our family, there became less agitation, less frustration. Instead of finding them playing games or doing things that were like, come on, come come jump in. Instead, they were the ones saying, Hey, let's jump in. And then our whole family and our whole household just kind of shifted.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

You know what's interesting. I did um, I have a professional podcast and I was talking to uh members of the church who own a business and we were talking about uh company culture. And I said, When do you know you have a strong company culture? And the answer was when we decide to, when they, the employees, want to create their own connecting experience, whether it's like a after-work party or like a pickleball thing. And so you just highlighted that again is that when the spirit of Elijah is present in our home and the spirit of our Lord is there, it's it's magnetic and it draws them to each other, to where I saw what you what you said was them motivatedly wanting to be a part of or even organize these experiences that weren't isolation-based like video games or so. You saw that shift in your home. How wonderful.

Temple Road Trip And Familiar Peace

SPEAKER_02 21:12

It was incredible. And so while we would be watching a movie, I'd be looking at their phone, and then my daughter, who's highly competitive, would be looking names, and I'm like, oh, I gotta look up my names. And so it then became what we did, and it was it became the fun part of our days. And there's an app called Get Involved. Oh. Have you played on that game? I've never seen it. It's not really a game, but I call it a game. It's basically indexing that's easy. I'll show you when we get done.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Get involved. The app is called Get Involved.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, it's a church app. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

So just so you know, I've never talked to someone who's been excited about indexing until today. This has been a very special. So tell me how this app has made how you've had this is amazing. I want to get excited about it. It's not a good thing. Let me just show you.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

I will show you. It is incredible. I actually show everyone whenever I go to like lunches. Like, have you done the get involved app? So this get involved app is just this app.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Here I'm gonna treat the camera so that people can see. Is it that little blue tree that looks like that looks just like the um the family tree app? Yeah. So it's blue. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

So you just click on that, and then now you can verify places because there were so many quick name reviews that now you can verify places.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

And you're logged into your account so it's all connected to your people.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah. Well, no, so it's indexing. Have you ever done indexing?

SPEAKER_00 22:33

I honestly don't I I don't I have a podcast called button, I don't really understand what indexing is.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

It's part of it. It's the whole package. Okay. It's so awesome. And so what I loved about this is the new app version is this button right here called contributions.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

It looks so simple.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

It really is kind of amazing. So you can see this is this year starting in May through October. You can tell when I was on a trip and I sat in the car. We were having a competition to see who could get to the highest.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Yeah, and what she's showing for those of you who can't see who are listening to this is that she has the number, it tracks the number of things that she's indexed. And in August, there's 1,294. Um, yeah. So you were sitting in a car, just look for. So it's kind of like this great way. It's you again, you found the game in something called indexing.

Making Temples A Family Tradition

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah. So what I love about indexing is you can do it while you're in line, and you hit get started, and then it will review names, and then it will pull up all the different indexing that you could do. So you no longer have to sit in front of your computer and wait until you pull it up. And this is a bad example because it's they've now advanced me to the harder ones to do because I've done so many, and so some of them are hard. So it populates the words of what it thinks it is because AI is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Okay, so that actually is way better than this the little indexing I've tried before. It actually makes it facilitates it to be super easy.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Yeah. And then you can edit it, you can say you're unsure, you can match it. So, Farmington, yes, we'll hit match. And then, okay, let's say I'm in line and I it's time for me to go and I did one name. That's okay. I'm gonna hit done, and then it tells me congratulations, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

It's just like a video game. Yeah, it just a little trophy that just popped up. And when she hit this and she you you touched the phone like three times, and you just indexed in the phone.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

And it still tells me thank you. So, what I loved about this app is this contribution button, although it tells me all of my ordinances that I've done and found and collected, it goes to this button called temple. So this one says 142. Because of my indexing, it's then quantified my time. And because of my indexing, it's let these number 142. Did I say? I'm blind. Yeah, 142 people were able to get be found to be able to get their temple work done. And 746 names were able to be connected for people to family names in 24 countries.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

So that the beauty of this app is that it shows you all the metrics. I think there's something about I think it was President Monson, what we guess measures and improves, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Yeah.

Celebrating Milestones And Ongoing Impact

SPEAKER_00 25:17

So your this app helps you measure your efforts and it makes the effort low, but it also gamifies it. You know, in in other contexts, not in religious contexts, gamification is one of the most powerful ways to engage people and be passionate about it. There was um a YouTuber named Mark Rober, who's a member of the church. Have you heard of him? He he was giving a talk once that reminded me of the power of gamification. He says he on a screen, he showed him a puzzle and there was four buttons, and he said, you know, this is a uh a pattern recognition game, and you have to hit in this random order almost, you have to determine the random order. It will, you know, and it looked horrible. And then he overlaid it with what it was, and it was Super Mario Brothers the video game. And he goes, Now when you gamify it, that same puzzle becomes intensely more engaging. And that's what I find technology is doing here, and what we're really kind of talking about from your family's experience is this thing called gamification. So you started indexing on your phone, your kids are indexing, you're tracking it all, you're measuring it, you have rewards, but then it involves it evolved into this cultural thing in your family where you just were so passionate about it. So, how did it go from that to hitting 10,000? Was that the marker?

SPEAKER_02 26:37

So no, so in May, it was I think May 15th is our deadline that we said, okay, by May 15th, because that's when school was gonna be done with my kids' school, right? Like, okay, when you're done with school, you're done with this, and we'll see where we're at. And we were at about 10,000 names.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

And so you didn't set that as an initial marker, you were just going and it's not.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Yeah, it was just whoever, however many we could get by that May 15th point. And because it tracks also on your your find a name, your uh tree.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yes.

Missionary Outcomes And The Why

SPEAKER_02 27:10

It also tells you how many ordinances you've got completed. And so, and it stops at 3,000, which they should fix that for someone who's highly competitive.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

It's really you can tell they never thought someone's gonna go beyond the 3,000, so let's not worry about it. They just apparently don't know Jackie.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Well, yeah, so we just tallied up our three. So once I hit my 3,000, it was actually we had gone back to Nauvoo again that during that summer period later, and we had realized that it tops out. So I probably did beat my daughter, Olivia. I won. But um, it tops out at 3,000. And so we were finding them on everyone's. And so in May, we added them up. My daughter, she technically unofficially, she did win, so we let her win. She wanted to go to the temple in California. We let her, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

So any temple in the United States, and she picks California.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Yeah, because she wanted to go to the San Diego temple.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

That's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

It's pretty beautiful, and so we went there and it was amazing. Um, they beat me by like, I think it was 50 or 60. It wasn't by a lot. But it was like, okay, so now we're almost to 10,000 and it's May. What do we have now between now and December? Let's let's just hit fifth 15,000. Like we've already hit this number. Why don't we just carry it all the way? Let's just do 15. There's no way we can keep going at that pace of going to, you know, three to five temples a day does not work for longevity, but for that little challenge, it did.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Yeah.

Favorite Temples And Family Roots

SPEAKER_02 28:46

And it kind of gave you like a reboot, right? Kind of in a gaming thing, it kind of reboots your system and priorities.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

And you're and you're in a situation with homeschooling your kids where you were playing to your strengths with your flexibility of time and the stages of life your kids were in. And the fact, I think the coolest thing is that you know, we should always act when we have motivation, right? Like if the mo motivation's fleeting. Yeah. So when our kids' motivation is aligned with something that brings them closer to Christ, I love that you guys went all in. And it looks like this thing that is so like insurmountable because it really isn't sustainable long term, because we don't usually have those kind of periods of time where those stars align. So that was powerful that you guys like poured gasoline on that fire. And so you're like, okay, we can't do 10,000, but let's do five five thousand. So what was that like hitting that last 5,000 for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 29:33

So it was stressful because toward the end it was a December, and everyone knows December is just so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Well, my husband decided that we were gonna help throw Bethlehem for my ward party in my backyard, and I was like, Oh, we are we are super close to our 15,000. I just don't know that we're gonna make it. And I was just like, Oh, I hope we can do it. And my sister, uh she was over and she was looking at my Bethlehem in my backyard. When I say Bethlehem, we had scaffolding, we like built a temple. We went all out like we did in the temple challenge. But my sister was over there and she was talking to me and she's like, wait, you can't give up. I've been I've been following you. Like you can't, like you have to. I'll help take some of your names. And so she started sending them to her kids, and some of her kids were doing them. And so during the week of Bethlehem final setup, I was just so grateful that they were also helping us and sending us their selfie pictures with their names completed that I thought it was so sweet that they took their December month to fulfill my wish. And so I was like, all right, we're gonna get back into it. And so we finished um that we so we didn't finish 15, we finished 15,273. Yeah. But it was more than just finishing ordinances, it was finishing people that are on our family tree that was special.

Think Big, Co‑Create The Family Game

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Right. I I think um, you know, we talk about the numbers of things. Numbers are just measurements. It's you know, people don't play in the Super Bowl because they care about the number. The number is just a representation of the effort. And I think the fact that you guys had that number as a way to gamify and motivate, but at the end of the day, the greater impact was the other side of the veil, this side of the veil, all those things.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Yeah, and it was so amazing gathering the kids to come join us at first. It was to boost our numbers and to, you know, kind of create it, make it fun so that the kids had their friends to come with us.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

But then it started to be where their friends were like, Hey, do you have any appointments this week? We want to come. And then it became kind of the thing that we all did. Yeah. And it connected us. We invited cousins and aunts and uncles. And, you know, there was special, tender moments that just you just can't say, just because they're just so tender.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

And just special moments in the temple that you just are so grateful for, that you just know you're not alone.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah, yes. And you know, um, one of the many many reasons I'm grateful that you're doing this show is that your family will have this recorded, you know, and and will have this to reflect on. And um, you know, I I just think these spiritual experiences, your kids will never not have those memories. They will always have that time that you guys went big and went all in, and they got to experience the spirit at that level. And they'll never no one can ever take that away from him, from them. No one can the Sat Satan, nobody. They will never forget those tender moments that will be with them for the rest of their existence. So how cool is that?

SPEAKER_02 32:41

It was pretty amazing. So during that period of time following it, we ended up going to Utah and finishing a challenge because they were doing the Traplane Tabernacle up in Utah. Have you been to that one?

SPEAKER_01 32:53

No.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Oh goodness, it's so cool. It's so cool. I was trying to go to it prior to COVID and it shut down. But so we went to that and we because you had to have an appointment to go into the temple still at that point. And so I had my sister, other another sister, help me. Okay, we're gonna go to Utah to go to the Traving Tabernacle, but while we're there, let's hit all the temples.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Interesting.

Appointments, Ownership, And Consistency

SPEAKER_02 33:14

So that we can hit all the temples that are open while we're there. And I don't know how that works to make the appointments match with while we're driving up. And so she is a magical miracle. We said a prayer, and it worked. And so we hit all the way from Gilbert, Mesa, Vegas, all the way up Cedar City, all the temples that were open, every single temple were open. And sometimes we could just do two people being baptized, sometimes all of us got to be baptized, but we got to go to the all the temples, and it was incredible to just know that it doesn't matter which temple you go to, it's still the same feeling, it's still the same spirit, and the familiarity of the spirit became the constant for my kids. And it didn't matter which temple they were in, they were comfortable and they felt peace, and they wanted to keep going to all the temples just to see how different they were, but to see how similar they were.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

There is something really neat about seeing different temples. Um, you know, we we started a tradition in our family when we traveled that we are if we're near a temple, we want to go to that temple, and it's it really wasn't initially received well. And to be honest, I was like, why did I decide that we're doing this on a vacation day? And um, but that was years ago, and now we do it. And I wish I could say that when I say, hey guys, we're going to the temple when we go to California, or we were at the Tokyo Temple a year just about a year ago, um, that that was different. I think the more exotic the location, the family tends to get more excited about temples because it is very different.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

In terms of like the language and the architecture always matches the culture. So it's very different when it's outside the United States. But once you're in, it's the same. But you know, when we were at the California Beach a couple weeks ago, and I'm like, we're going to the Newport Temple. Yeah, I mean, it's not like every time everyone's like excited, but and I said this driving home from the temple uh just a few weeks ago. I'm like, but aren't you glad we went? And everyone, I pointed out like, look how we're all joking and laughing and feeling connected, like we didn't feel this morning or we haven't felt in a long time. And and and my my family recognized that and said, Yeah, it's it's palpable. And that's the that's the minimum, you know. So I think what's really inspiring in this again is to help making temple worship part of our cult, our family's culture and traditions.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

And isn't it all about family anyway?

Jackie’s Closing Testimony And Listener CTA

SPEAKER_02 35:37

It is. It's so cool. We did it when we went to California on our last few trips we've gone, we've always hit the temple too. Because we started making it our everything. Like wherever we go, we take our temple. Which temple are we gonna hit? Multiple temples? How many times? Where can we fit it in? And we had gone to Disneyland one day and went to the Newport Temple the next, and the LA Temple the next, and then whatever. Um, I think we went to Redlands next. And it was interesting because even though as fun as Disneyland can be, and those churros and that strap raspberry macaron, I mean, it is pretty simple thing.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

That raspberry raspberry macaron's a thing.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

It really is a thing, but the longevity of the temple was just so much better. I mean, I do love Disneyland, but that temple experience is just incredible to spend there with your babies. It's it's why wouldn't you want to do that after doing it so much?

SPEAKER_00 36:34

All right. So how so you go through this amazing experience, you accomplish it. Um, did you celebrate it with the family? Like when you hit that number at 15,000? Was there any sort of ceremony or dinner or like I don't know what you do to celebrate something like that? But like what did you guys do?

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Um, we just we just went to the temples. I think that's what we did. We went to Utah. I think that's what we did for the celebration. I think that was to go to a unique trip. Like, hey, let's let's go celebrate and go hit another one up in Utah. And we went all the way up to Logan, Utah, from just coming way down just to go to the temple in Logan. It was incredible. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Now, this was 2022 or 2023.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

So it's just before my son went on his mission. So in 2022 we started it, and then 2023 we did the temple um up in Utah. Is that what you're asking?

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yeah. So since that time frame, how has that experienced influenced your kids' uh temple worship? Or how do you how have you seen that?

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Yeah, so my uh son that at the time was being our baptizer, so we always had my kids call it we don't have to have a random baptizer, it's their favorite thing to know who's gonna be baptizing them. So definite perk to have your own personal baptizer, and so it was his our favorite. He then became an elder, so he was preparing to go on his mission, so then he also came with being a baptizer and a confirmer, so that was a double, like we knew exactly who it was gonna be for my girl's sake, to him being able to go on his mission. And while he was on his mission, he was teaching the people how to do indexing and how to do family search. And his favorite moment was when he got to take the family that he baptized to go do a temple for their family, and so it was incredible because it became the why. Because that's why we're here, right? Yeah to bring both sides of the veil and to gather Israel.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Wow. Jackie, I can't thank you enough. Um, I don't want this to end, actually, but I feel like that's such a powerful point. Let me ask you a couple more questions because I just don't want to let you go yet. Um, favorite temple.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Oh, do you really have a favorite temple? I mean, they're just I do.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

I sure do. But what yeah, if you had to pick like a top three.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Well, so Mesa Temple, just because of the history of it, my family.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

You're like a millionth generation member.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

I'm as Arizona Desert Rat as they come, and it's just there's so much history for our family. My grandpa helped pour the concrete there in the Mesa Temple. He drove down from Pine to do the concrete of the Mesa Temple. And my my grandparents had a house down the street from it. So for us, the Mesa Temple's huge, super history. But the Gilbert Temple, we were opening clinics in Vegas, and so every time we come back, we'd see the progress of the Gilbert Temple being built. So the Gilbert Temple is kind of my kids, like their growing up years of watching the temple being built. And you know, we watched the statue of Morona being put on the temple top, and it was just super intense and so special and super hot that day, but still so memorable. And so, I mean, I love those two temples, but I also really love the pace in Utah Temple's incredible because it's similar to my Gilbert Temple.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

And I really love the St. George Temple because that was the first temple dedicated. But I mean, how do you pick? I really loved the Nauvoo Temple because that was incredible too.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yeah, and that's a different story for a different podcast because we were talking before we hit record about how that really kicked everything off for you and and what a special journey that is. And I think it's just really good for the audience to know that like this took time for you. This wasn't this wasn't like you were going to the temple aggressively from being a little girl. It was this thing that came and went, and then this finally things opened up for you, and and then as you caught the spirit, your whole family caught fire and then the community, and now and now we're there. So just to remember, audience members, that as you're listening to this, is that wherever we are in that journey, it's it's okay. This is just an example of what can can happen and and how our families can be blessed for it. I think one of the cool things that I've learned from today's discussion, too, Jackie, is the idea of thinking big. You know, the temple itself is all about us thinking bigger eternally, celestially, think celestial. That's that's literally what we do in the temple. And so, you know, there's all these books coming out. Benjamin Hardy is a member of the church who wrote a book called The Science, Science of Scaling. It's all business. But the idea from research is that in order to grow a company to be of of significance, you don't grow linearly, you grow, it's actually easier to grow exponentially by setting a target that's so big that it seems impossible to hit. So it forces us to change how we operate and and how we function. And so the same could be true about our goals when it comes to becoming like our our Hellmy Father. I think there's a real inspiration here of like, what could my family do as a game? As long as they're bought in. I think that's the key thing here. Your kids were bought in. I think without that, this thing wouldn't have worked. So if as long as they're helping co-create and they're excited and we can find a way to make it happen, maybe the big big goal is is like once a month, you know, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. It's the direction and the progression.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

I know there's a lot of people who love and hate the appointments, but you never miss a doctor's appointment, right? Or a dentist appointment. And so I see the theory behind it, but I found that when my kids were helping set the appointments, then they helped attend the appointments. And where if I was like, Okay, this is what we're gonna do, then it became my thing, where I was like, Okay, guys, see who can find appointment, because at that point you could only do one appointment per login.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

And so I'd be like, hey, I'm I'm booked. What's your appointments? And so we got a desk calendar and they were the ones filling them in. And so it became them. So fight figuring out what works for your family, but setting the appointments to make sure you don't miss them.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

And I love that. President Nelson even says to schedule a regular appointment, whatever that is for us, but keep it. Schedule the appointment and keep it. All right, well, Jackie, thank you so much for being on the show. It's been wonderful. Um, as always, at the end of the episode, I'd like to turn the time over to you. You're this is one part, you know, inspiring members across the world in real time, but it's another part, a legacy piece for your kids, your grandkids, your great-grandkids. What would you want them to know about the temple?

SPEAKER_02 43:00

It is my solace. It's my joy. I love the temple. I didn't take advantage of it like I should have my whole life, but I'm super thankful that I changed because it is my joy, and that's where I find my savior.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Thank you for sharing your joy with all of us today, Jackie. Thanks so much for being with us. You're welcome. Thank you for listening to today's episode. We want to hear from you. What additional show ideas would you like to hear about? What questions do you have in your heart that we can help answer? Please leave those in the show notes of today's episode or over on Instagram. Thank you for your cooperation and helping make this show the best it can be. Until next time.