The words of the Primary song “I Love to See the Temple” could be heard frequently coming from Taylor Moberg, a member of the Moses Lake Washington Stake. Specifically the lines of the second verse:
I’ll go inside someday.
I’ll cov’nant with my Father;
I’ll promise to obey.”
From a young age, Taylor dreamed of entering the temple. But because she has Down syndrome, the path to making those sacred covenants was not always clear.
When she was 13 years old, someone from her young women’s class asked who wanted to perform baptisms for the dead at the temple. Taylor’s hand shot into the air. There was just one problem — she had not yet been baptized.
She wasted no time. Soon afterward, her older brother baptized her. Her mother, Leslie Moberg, said it was a sacred experience for their family and believes Taylor was especially prepared to make that covenant.
“She really understood more about what she was doing versus what she would not have understood at age 8,” said Leslie Moberg.
After her baptism, Taylor continued to grow spiritually.
“I figured after [her baptism] she would continue on that covenant path,” Leslie Moberg said. “But we did not know when that would come.”
Years later, Taylor received her temple endowment and soon afterward began serving in the Columbia River Washington Temple. At first, her name tag simply identified her as a “volunteer.”
Leslie Moberg still remembers the day that changed.
“It was like she had won the Academy Award,” Leslie Moberg said. “She was so excited. It gave her a belonging — that she had a name and she belonged there.”
Taylor found her place of belonging in the house of the Lord. She works multiple times each week performing different ordinances or even just greeting people as they come into the building.
Taylor provides the spirit to every ordinance and in any room. She now works alongside both her parents at the Moses Lake Washington Temple.
“To spend a day with these amazing special spirits like Taylor’s in the temple is an experience I wish everyone could have,” Leslie Moberg said. “They can bring you even closer to the spirit that is found in the temple and to the important work that goes on in the house of the Lord.”
For Leslie Moberg and her husband, serving alongside Taylor has become more than simply accompanying their daughter to the temple. It has given them a front-row seat to watch Taylor find a place where she feels loved, valued and needed.
Her parents and other temple workers have witnessed Taylor grow in confidence and share that love with others.
“Taylor has blessed so many lives by those who associate and serve with her,” said Leslie Moberg. “She loves unconditionally and brings so much joy to our temple shifts and the patrons who come to the temple. Taylor has softened and changed everyone in our family.”
Sydnee Bailey Kirkham, a returned missionary who served in the Moberg’s ward, saw Taylor’s love for temple service firsthand. Kirkham said Taylor’s service has never been about what she could receive from the experience but about what she could give to others.
“I don’t think Taylor’s ever done it for herself,” Kirkham said. “She did not necessarily need it, but she works in the temple to help other people. … She is always so pure and happy.”
Each week, Taylor walks through the temple doors, no longer singing about “someday,” but living the words she has sung since she was a child.
