My Lord, my God... my city

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

I have a love-hate relationship with general conference. I love the all the talks and I think it's hilarious that President Monson always reads the stage directions when he conducts ("Singing by the choir"). But, as anyone who knows me and also knows some more valiant members of the church can attest, I'm not the most spiritual person in the world. Sometimes my friends at school think I must be incredibly spiritual since I actually go to church and they know I pray and read my scriptures and such. But anyone who knows my wife or some of my other friends knows that I am a complete weakling where things of the soul are concerned. So ten hours of church services tends to be a little much for me, especially since it's so spread out.

I've had incredible experiences, revelations, and epiphanies while watching conference in the past and I was sort of hoping for something kind of similar. In short, I was determined to get something out of conference. And not twenty minutes in, I did get something out of conference.

But I didn't wake up this morning expecting it to would be something so tangible.

I got all ready for conference. I update the video plug-in on my computer, I attached the speakers to my computer and sat down in front of the computer to watch. I enjoyed the opening songs and then I got ready for the good stuff as President Monson stood up. I always get a little excited every conference that there will be some kind of exciting announcement -- whether made on Saturday morning or (if it's secret Priesthood stuff) in the evening Priesthood Session. I still remember vividly when President Hinckley announced the Perpetual Education Fund and how excited that made me.

Well, this news topped it all. And I think I got the news a little early. As President Monson started to speak about dedicating some new temples, I had the distinct impression that Philadelphia would be getting a temple. I was getting excited and sitting on the very edge of my seat for the next several minutes as he talked more about the programs that church members put on and so forth. All the while, I was trying to kick against the pricks: "Well, that would be nice but we'll see." "Maybe they'll announce one in a couple years." "Is this even the way I would find out if they were going to build a temple here? Would they just say it in Conference or would there be a letter or a fireside or a meeting? Certainly there would have to be some kind of meeting. The Church loves meetings." But then, President Monson said that the Church was announcing five more temple sites and the Holy Ghost said to me, "See, I told you so. Philadelphia will be on this list." When President Monson read "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,"  I think that maybe I raised both my hands in the air and cheered. The Spirit and gratitude rushed over me. I sent a message to ShaNae letting her know since she was at a clinical assignment.

But I got out of my chair and started pacing back and forth as I poured out my heart in gratitude to the Lord. (A good indication of my level of spirituality: I tend to pace while I pray.) I thought of all the wonderful members of the church I have come to know and love and what a blessing a local temple could be to them. I thought of how much more often the Philadelphia First Ward would be able to attend the temple and the incredible work it could do. I thought about the incredible impact that a temple would have on missionary work and how many wonderful Philadelphians would come to know of the truthfulness of the gospel because the temple piqued their interest.

I thought about the amazing things that had transpired. Of course the Lord would bless Philadelphia with a temple. The Church has been growing incredibly fast. Last year and the year before, I know that our ward baptized incredible amounts of people and that many of them are active, faithful members to this day. I never cease to be blown away by the real sacrifices made by members of our ward. If anyone in the world deserves a temple, the sweet members of our ward do.

In short, I "remember[ed] of how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that" President Monson announced the construction of a temple in Philadelphia. I thought of the incredible blessings that have come into my life because of the restored gospel. I thought about the blessing of priesthood ordinances and I thought about the remarkable grace of Jesus Christ. 

Gratitude invites the Spirit in a very unique and very powerful way. I noticed after a few minutes that I hadn't really payed attention to much of conference because my mind was entirely elsewhere. Eventually I made it back to my chair and sat through the rest of conference with a huge smile on my face. I paid a lot of attention to the talks and all, but mostly I just got more and more excited. I dinked around on the internet hoping against hope for more information -- first, and foremost, where it will go.

"Please let it be accessible by public transportation," I kept thinking to myself. I want everyone to have the ability to access it easily. I want the temple to be site. Put it on the parkway. Put it on Broad Street. Put it in Old City. I kept thinking about all the possibilities.

I started thinking about what a blessing the temple would be to the city as a whole. Performing vicarious saving ordinances for the dead would mean an added measure of the Spirit on Philadelphia. The Spirit of the Lord is already so strong in this remarkable city where people are so wonderfully kind and tolerant. I started thinking about how amazing it would be to add more of the Spirit of Elijah on top of that. If you're planning on moving to Philly any time soon, you'd better come fast because I think this place just might be heaven-bound pretty soon. ;-)

Obviously, I'm exaggerating a tiny bit with the translation part of that, but I really love Philadelphia. People ask where my wife and I want to end up and I always let my wife say "back West somewhere since that's where our families are" but a part of me is always screaming, "right here!" The longer I live in Philadelphia, the more painful it gets to imagine leaving this magical city. I really would love to live here for the rest of my life. (Don't tell my wife. She's not going to read this, is she?) In my mind, the proximity to a temple was one of the greatest marks against Philadelphia as a place to live and raise a family, but soon that will be out the window.

Honey, let's come back to Philadelphia and live here forever after I finish school.

Anyone who thinks that Philadelphia is no place to make a home has been proven wrong today. If Philadelphia is good enough for God to call home, certainly it's good enough for any one of us to call home.