St. Paul Minnesota Temple

Temple #103

St. Paul Minnesota Temple

September 26, 2018

    We finally made it to the St. Paul Minnesota Temple, a random temple that we had no idea how or when we would get to it. St. Paul isn’t close to us in any way, or to anything else, but we found a way to get there and justify going.

    To back up a little, my parents are serving a MLS mission in Springfield Missouri serving the people there. They left while we were in Mexico and so we hadn’t seen them for about 9 months. We wanted to go see them and it was an excuse to travel, but we had already done all the temples nearby them so we were a little sad about that. We knew it was worth it just to visit my parents but we wanted to make more out of the trip.

     That is when St. Paul came into the picture. It’s about nine hours away from my parents and yet it’s the closest temple to them that we hadn’t been to. We joked about driving there but it was too far, and renting a car was too much. So while looking at flights to Springfield to visit my parents I looked at having a layover in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

    After searching for flights for a while, looking at different options, airports and dates, I found the cheapest and best option that had a layover in St. Paul. I was excited and so we made sure the dates worked with my parents and we booked the flights.

    We first flew from Salt Lake City to Denver, and then from Denver to the twin cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We got there around six o’clock and went and got our rental car. It was a quick thirty minute drive to the temple and we made it there just at sunset. We wanted to get there before it got too dark so we could get a picture. We hurry and got our pictures as the sun was setting.

    The St. Paul temple is a small temple built in 2000 and so is identical to many of the ones built in the United States at the same time. The lighting was pretty as the sun was setting and it was getting dark making for a pretty picture. We were afraid fall would have hit already but we were lucky and the leaves were still green and there were lots of flowers.

    We went in and just did sealings which we always love to do. It was just us and one other couple there. After doing sealings for a while for couples, sons and daughters, the couple with us there explained why they were there.

    They were there to do the work for the husbands great great grandparents and their family and the couple was so excited to do it. They were so grateful that we were there because they said if we weren’t there they wouldn’t have been able to do the names and they had been waiting a while to go to the temple because their lives are so busy. We then realized we were meant to have done sealings, not initiatories or an an endowment but sealings right at that time.

    We know that the Lord has his hand in our lives so much because of instances like this. There’s too many coincidences in life for them to be coincidences.

    We also learned a neat thing during that sealing session that children who die before eight years old don’t need any work done in the temple except for being sealed to their family. Children who die before they’re eight are saved in the kingdom of God and so don’t need those ordinances done. It’s an amazing and comforting thought to think about.

    After the temple we grabbed a quick dinner and went to our hotel and slept. We woke up around five the next morning and headed to the airport. From there we flew to Kansas City where we met my parents. It was really good to see them and we had a lot of fun. We did the Kansas City Temple for our third time and also went to Liberty Jail and to Independence. We then went down to their area in Springfield and had a fun few days seeing their area and meeting so many kind people who adored them.

    Although we did a lot of fun things with my parents some of the highlights were meeting other members and hearing how much they loved my parents and all the good they did for them. It was a great way to see what difference my parents were making and it was amazing. They were truly called there for a reason and we got to see just a hint of that reason.

    So although our trip was to go see my parents we were still able to do a temple. It was out of the way and added a few hundred dollars to the trip but it was totally worth it for the temple and to see my parents.