Calling Myself on a Temple Mission

Oct 2010 Issue

By Lu Ann Brobst Staheli
Many years ago, before I was married, a very wise bishop called me into his office to issue a calling. “Sister Brobst,” he began, “I’d like to call you on a mission.”

I was nearly thirty years old and had had the confirmation previously that my mission in life was not to proselytize. Even my patriarchal blessing confirmed that I would perform missionary work in the way I lived my life and influence my friends and my family to join the church. I’d already seen much fruition of that blessing, so I felt sure I was reading the message the way I should be. But, could this bishop be right? Had my blessing somehow changed, and I was indeed supposed to serve a mission?

Before I could put into words the thoughts going through my mind, the bishop continued,
“I’d like to call you on a temple mission.”

A temple mission? I had no idea what that meant. Was I supposed to serve as a traveling missionary, one who would visit many temples across the country? I had finally gotten a job teaching school in the very place I felt I was supposed to be, and now the Lord was planning to call me away to work in a temple. Somehow I knew this calling couldn’t have been for me.

But it was, and in the next few minutes the bishop’s instructions brought me a great deal of relief, as well as the joy that brought me a willingness to serve. As a temple missionary I would stay at home, continue to work at my new job, and even date. The only requirement to fill an honorable mission was to attend the temple at least once a week. It sounded like the easiest calling that had ever come to me, and the bonus was that I could actually perform temple work for my own family members who I had been researching in my passion for genealogy.

I accepted that call, and the next week I was ready to begin. I learned to schedule my temple session a week or so ahead of time and for the first year of my temple mission it was pretty easy. The only times I missed my weekly session was those few weeks I flew from Utah to my native Indiana for a holiday vacation, but I was always certain to do two
sessions the very next week.

In the second year, I found my life a little more crowded with work obligations, so I started missing a week here, another there. After about four months I realized I hadn’t been in more than four weeks. How had this happened? I had been so diligent that first year, and my temple attendance had really been a blessing. I vowed to do better, but more than that,
I vowed to get caught up.

I sat down with my pocket calendar and figured out how many more weeks I had on my temple mission to complete the two years I had promised. I calculated just how many total weeks I had gotten behind then figured out which weeks I’d need account for when the next holiday season came around.

I realized it might be tight, but with a little planning I could do it. I could leave this mission having served faithfully for a total of 104 weeks—two full years as a temple missionary.

My new goal clear in my mind, I was back on track, serving the Lord, my family, or others who had their names waiting in the temple each and every week. Sometimes I had to get creative, and I learned the joys and insight that come from doing two temple sessions back to back in a single day. I started a tradition that brought me much peace by serving in the temple on my birthday. Sometimes I took friends with me, but often I served alone, basking in the serenity that comes from listening to the prayers and instruction one receives in the temple of the Lord.

When my two years were done, I was formally released, but for several years after I kept myself going to the temple regularly, as though that release had never come. As time progressed, I married and brought children into my home and the weekly sessions finally came to an end. To every thing there is a season, and this season requires me to spend more time at home, but I know that someday, once the kids are grown and gone, serving a temple mission might just be something I call myself to once again. In the meantime, I have fond memories of the two years spent serving my official temple mission.