As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to build temples around the world, youth of the Church are consistently filling the temple baptistries.
“It’s interesting to see around the Church the enthusiasm or desire that young people have to be in the temple,” said President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency, at the dedication of the Yorba Linda California Temple on Sunday, June 7.
In a new Church News video titled “How the Temple Empowers Youth,” President Christofferson and young men and young women in the Yorba Linda California Temple district speak about the influence of the house of the Lord in their lives and throughout the world.
Crissa Winger, a 16-year-old young woman who attended the temple dedication, said the temple is a place of peace and rest for her.
“I easily get caught up in being busy with life and easily get tired with how busy it is,” she said. “And just whenever I go to the temple, it’s a place kind of to like reset my mind, and go back to that place of peace and love that I feel.”
Maddison White, 18, who also attended the dedication, said she feels peace in the temple unlike anywhere else in the world.
“I just feel like I’m doing the Lord’s work, and I feel like He’s proud of me for it,” she said.
Of the dedication of this new house of the Lord, President Christofferson said: “We’re really coming before the Lord and saying ‘Please accept our offering, this is the best we have. We know it does not approach the grandeur of heaven, but please accept it and put Thy name here.’”
Miles Lai, also 18, said this temple will be really special for him because it’s where he’ll be able to take the next steps of the covenant path.
“But more so than that, I think it’s going to be really cool to see how it affects my siblings, my brother and sister who are younger than me, and who will have a temple close by during high school and kind of as they’re growing up.”
