Have you ever been all excited about something that was supposed to happen, told everyone about it, and then run into all kinds of road blocks and obstacles that stopped you from accomplishing your dream? That seemed to be what happened to me after my bishop told me I was supposed to work at the Temple and find my husband.
I was sure excited at first. It seemed like such a simple answer to the problem I had been dealing with for over five years; where to meet a good, kind, honest, respectable man? My bishop thought it would be perfect for me to work there one night a week, but he hadn't realized just how hard that would actually be. To be a temple worker required being worthy and being recommended by your Bishop, which I was, but you also couldn't be a mom with little children at home. In our church family comes first, and I suppose the Lord wanted to make sure leaders didn't take mothers out of their home to work at the temple, but it meant I couldn't be called as an ordinance worker. I could be a volunteer, but I already did that when I had time, helping out in the office typing and answering the phones, and that was not what the bishop had in mind. He wanted me to do something where I would meet the single brothers who worked at or came to the temple.
I went back and told him I wasn't able to be an ordinance worker and he was pretty disappointed. I think he was as excited about me finding a husband at the temple as I was. He suggested I talk to our Stake President and have him see what he could do, but the Stake President said he thought I was too busy, what with being a mom and teaching school and everything. When the Bishop heard that he was really cross.
“I'm going to call and talk to the Stake President myself,” he told me frustratedly. “You are supposed to be working at the Temple! I would never have released you from being Young Women's President otherwise.”
To tell you the truth, that made me feel a lot better. I'd been telling myself it was OK, the Lord knew what he was doing by releasing me and it was for the best even if I didn't get to work at the temple, but I'd still been feeling pretty bad about it.
The following week I talked to the bishop again. “I talked to the Stake President,” he said, “but none of the openings he knows about will fit your schedule. So I want you to go to the temple and talk directly to one of the Temple Presidency. Tell them your situation, and ask them to give you a job.”
Well, that was certainly embarrassing, but I did as I was told and went to the temple the following Saturday. I felt like a fool, especially when the Temple President told me he was sorry, but he couldn't help me. “The rule is that mother's with young children aren't called to be ordinance workers,” he kindly explained.
“Yes, I know that,” I apologized. “My bishop wanted me to come and talk to you anyway, to see if there was something I could do on a volunteer basis. I already help out in the office, but he was hoping you needed me somewhere else, somewhere I'd meet more people?”
He was very nice, but the Temple President told me they didn't have any openings, and I said goodby. By this time I'd accepted the fact that I probably wasn't going to be able to work at the temple yet, anyway, but it was still hard to hear him say it. It was kind of like a door was shut in my face. But you know the old saying, 'when the Lord closes a door he opens a window'. I just hoped it would open soon.
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