“Our prophet is urging you to spend more time in holy places,” Jeremiah Cochran an administrator in the Human Resource Office at BYU-Idaho said in his devotional address to students at BYU-Idaho.
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, he said he wrestled for weeks with trying to figure out what to say to the students at devotional. One morning he was reading from The Book of Mormon and the thought came to him - temples!
He chose the topic, “Endowed with Knowledge and Power.” He said these two things are available through temple worship.
“It’s the house of the Lord, and it’s a place of learning,” Cochran said in his interview with BYU-Idaho Radio. “It’s a place to learn of higher things in life of things of eternity. Exposing ourselves to the knowledge that’s available in the temple, the spirit that is there will only enlighten our minds with respect to our chosen occupations and how we can contribute professionally, (and) how we can contribute to society. I think it just expands all that we are exposed to here academically.”
Cochran hopes his message will motivate students to go to the temple during their time at BYU-Idaho.
In his devotional address, he quoted Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “What is the source of such moral and spiritual power, and how do we obtain it? The source is God. Our access to that power is through our covenants with Him
Cochran shared the story of the Saints in Nauvoo and their desire to be endowed with greater power and strength from the temple before heading west. They would not leave Nauvoo until they could go to the temple. This made an impression upon Brigham Young to see such great faith of the Saints.
“We need the temple more than anything else,” Joseph Smith said.
Cochran invited his wife, Bonnie to share her feelings about temple worship.
Her thoughts focused on the power and strength that comes from going to the temple. She explained she will sometimes have feelings of peace and comfort or receive revelation when she is at the temple. Often nothing out of the ordinary happens, but she said, “I always feel the power of the adversary lessen in my life and in our home. It is never easy, but I do feel it is always worth it.”
In his talk he helped students understand the difference between occasional temple attendance and regular attendance through words of apostles.
“Honorable members may even pass through our holy temples, but, alas, they do not let the holy temples pass through them,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell said.
In his interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, he said that attending the temple is a choice we have to make.
“I cannot think of any place that would build one’s character more and help them become more like our Savior, than spending time in the temple,” he said.