Seeking Answers: MTC Temple Walk

Psalms 17:5 - "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not."

This past Sunday, I was feeling a little lost, a nagging feeling that has yet to completely escape me. I needed some guidance. I wanted to clarify some things in mind. I wished for clarity and quiet. After much internal debate, I decided the best place I could go to continue the dialogue was the temple grounds. 

Of course, I totally forgot that Sunday is a temple walk day for all the MTC missionaries, and they were out in full force, laughing, talking, taking pictures, and even slightly flirting. I continued to read my scriptures as the wave moved around me, focusing on the words of Christ in 3 Nephi.

It soon became apparent that my appearance was a bit unusual to some of the missionaries there. For one, I was sitting by myself with nary a companion in sight. For two, I had no visible name tag, which prompted many to grant me askew looks. For three, I had a phone out. Despite all this, dressed in my suit and about the right age, I looked just like any other missionary there. Finally, one missionary decided to sit down next to me and ask me where I was serving.

I explained I'd just come back from the best mission in the world, Jamaica, last June. The missionary, proceeded to ask me many questions about Jamaica, my mission, and what it meant to be a missionary altogether. It soon turned out that we had a lot in common, and my slight, knowing smile slowly broadened as I recognized this missionary was likely going to struggle with the same kind of wrestlings with his relationship to God that I did out in the field. Upon this realization, I made sure to gently turn his attention to aspects of Preach My Gospel that neither he nor I understood at the beginning of our missions.

As I spoke and read with him, I recognized I was saying things I needed to hear, myself. Some of the questions I'd had were answered right there, in the courtyard, back behind the Provo Temple. But it wasn't the temple that had given the answers; rather, it was just a young servant of the Lord seeking for answers himself.

It was yet another experience where I recognized God's hand in guiding me to where I needed to be precisely when I needed to be there. I expressed my gratitude before driving back home and stepping out for another day.

The missionaries gather on the temple grounds.