Welcome.

The gospel teaches us to prize people. My current employment is more fully providing me with opportunities to cherish human souls.

Each night as I provide paid custodial services in my local temple, I am witness to willing hearted volunteers who, after having toiled for their daily maintenance, forgo more than two hours of nighttime sleep for what they regard as a sweet privilege.

When the clock ticks 9:30 pm, here they come.

The temple doors open, and in walk rank and file members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are men and women who love the Lord, who feel it no sacrifice at all to serve Him in a unique way.

Before they are divided up to assist with temple cleaning tasks, they are gathered in the chapel, and upon invitation, one of them volunteers to be voice for our collective prayer for the evening. Every time I am moved – sometimes to tears – by their words. All of them pray with deep sincerity, with gratitude for the power of their covenants and for the temple in our midst, for the privilege to step across the threshold, for the sacred honor of offering self in service. I am astounded by their faithfulness, touched by their night time offering, and inspired to the depths of my soul by the fact that they come and come and come again.

And then when they follow me to the area over which I preside and await instructions, they are smiling and willing. “Whatever you need done,” they say to me. They scrub grout with toothbrushes and are happy to do it. They bend on knee and polish brass. They work feverishly, diligently, mindfully, purposefully – stepping back to inspect their work, to make sure every smudge is wiped away, every blemish gone.

Those who come are aged ones with crippled gaits, pregnant women with stretched wombs, mothers of sleeping children, fathers who are serving as bishops, and young single adults whose testimonies are vibrant and strong. Also in the throng are steady and diligent church leaders to include temple sealers themselves.

As I release them for the evening, sometimes I cannot hold back my tears, and my voice is shaky and my eyes moist as I tell them I noticed their detailed diligence. They look back at me with smiles and tears of their own, and as we say goodbye, we are heart-knit together. I love them, these my brothers and sisters who come to the Lord’s house to provide service to Him.

Unto all the world: Here they come. And there I am so blessed.