By James:
For those of you who are not of our faith, you must already know that Whitney and I are here to supervise the construction of the LDS Temple in Trujillo. A Temple in our faith is the culmination of our worship of the Savior and of our Heavenly Father. Temples are only open during the week and members go there to commune with our Heavenly Father on a more personal basis than we experience on Sundays in our chapels. I use the word "personal" because in the temple it is quiet, reverent and individual. In the temple one ponders and worships individually. It is a wonderful place. Please visit www.mormon.org for more information about temples.
ANYWAY: because the temple is such a special place, it is unfortunate that there are not more temples around the world. Members of the church currently may have to travel long distances and save for many years to attend the temple and may not be able to return to the temple as often as they would like. Just to give you an idea, a trip to the Lima Temple costs around $25 USD for travel and food. No lodging because you travel all night, go to the temple the next day, then travel all night to get home. There are many members of the church here that don't have $25 extra dollars to go and can't ever save that much either. So when a temple is announced in a new area, the members are very excited. Which brings me to my experience:
Last week, an elderly gentleman came by the house to talk to me about building some bookshelves and file cabinets (just as cheap to get them made as to buy cheap metal things!). He asked if I was the "ingeniero" that was here for the temple (ingeniero is engineer, I'm not an engineer, but they don't have a name for a construction manager, so hence, I'm the ingeniero). When someone brings up the temple it's apparent that they are members of the church. I was excited to talk about the temple and responded by saying that I was indeed the ingeniero for the temple and asked if he had seen what the temple was going to look like. He said that he had seen pictures of it. We have a large (3'x4') framed computer image of the temple in our entry and I motioned behind him so that he could look at it. He glanced at it, paused and then reverently walked toward it.
He was a small man, maybe 5'3" and slight of build, in his mid 60's. He had traditional latin features and was well dressed with a polo type shirt tucked in, slacks, and polished leather dress shoes. He also wore very distinguished looking glasses. As he approached the picture, he slowed. There was an immediate feeling that came into the room of awe and reverence. But the feeling wasn't coming from him, it was around us both as we approached the picture of what would someday be the temple he would attend. He stared at the picture for what seemed like minutes, but was only about 7 seconds; totally silent. He turned to me and looked up into my eyes and through his glasses, I could see tears starting to form. He couldn't speak, and neither could I. I noticed that I to had tears forming and a lump in my throat.
I had witnessed the love that this man had for the Lord and for the House of the Lord. This humble man had taught me the importance of why I'm here, or in better words the importance of the work that is here in which I will participate. I finally said to him "I feel the same way." He gazed at the temple once more and then turned back to the office, took a deep breath, blinked a few times to rid the tears, and said "bien" -good. We finished what he had come for and he left, but I will never forget the feeling that came over us both as we stared at a computer generated image of a building. I will always remember that the building, the temple is the representation of that feeling I felt; it is the physical manifestation of our love toward God and His son Jesus Christ. It is because of the love and testimony these people have that the temple is being built here. What a wonderful opportunity in which to be involved.
