Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. John, we are in the opening chapters of Isaiah, and you have a story.

John Bytheway:               00:13                   I do. Hank, have you ever felt like jumping for joy before?

Hank Smith:                      00:19                   Um, sure, I guess.

John Bytheway:               00:21                   Have you ever felt like jumping for joy on a mission?

Hank Smith:                      00:24                   That never happened to me. No. Although I did have good days. I had good days.

John Bytheway:               00:28                   Around the world, what do you think is the mission rule for what time to go to bed?

Hank Smith:                      00:33                   Oh, I know this. When I was a missionary and my son is a missionary, it’s 10:30 PM in bed.

John Bytheway:               00:38                   I don’t know if there’s a rule about jumping for joy. This is what happened, Hank.  In 2016, President Monson announced four new temples and some really fun things happened around the world. For example, we have some sense of the rejoicing, Elder Cook said, that is going on in Quito, Ecuador, Harare, Zimbabwe, Belém, Brazil, Lima, Peru with both members and missionaries. Based on what happened in Bangkok, Thailand a year ago, Sister Shelley Senior wife of then president of the Thailand Bangkok Mission, David Senior emailed family and friends to say, after she and her husband had listened to President Monson announce that temple, there had been 12 sleepless hours, lots of tears and happiness. Then they called the mission assistants at 11:30 PM and informed them. The assistants called all the missionaries. At 11:30, report came back. The whole mission was awake in the middle of the night and jumping on their beds.

Hank Smith:                      01:45                   They would be so upset.

John Bytheway:               01:46                   Yeah. We’ve got to make a new rule about jumping on the bed. The deep spiritual response of the members in Thailand was strong. I’m confident there had been spiritual preparations in hearts and homes and manifestations from heaven preparing the saints where these newly announced temples will be located. Sister Senior had some special mirrors made, this is a cool idea, for her personal teaching, especially with the sisters. There was the outline of a temple etched in the mirror with the words, see yourself in the temple. As people gazed into the mirror, they saw themselves in the temple and the Seniors taught the investigators and members to picture themselves in the temple and make the necessary lifestyle changes to meet this goal. My challenge this morning, Elder Cook said, is for each of us wherever we are to see ourselves in the temple. President Monson has stated, “Until you’ve entered the house of the Lord and received all the blessings which await you there, you have not obtained everything the church has to offer.”

Hank Smith:                      03:22                   Jumping on the bed with joy. I can’t wait to see the new rules coming out.  No more elders jumping on the bed. Well, I have a temple story to match yours. You know who Vai Sikahema is?

John Bytheway:               03:35                   I do.

Hank Smith:                      03:36                   A general authority, NFL football player, a TV anchor, really wonderful man. Do you know that he was five years old when he first went to the temple? His family lived in Tonga, but the closest temple was in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hamilton, New Zealand. Okay, John, this is the part I want you to hear. His parents, as soon as they were married in 1961, started saving money to go to the temple. Now, John, I might have to do that. I might have to say, okay, I’m going to go to the temple this Thursday. I better have enough gas to get there. I think it would take me a gallon of gas. Here we go. They saved for six years to go to the temple. They sold corn, melons, yams. Even five-year-old Vai had a job sorting melons by size to sell them. In fact, Vai says his father peeled the wooden siding off of their own house to sell so they could get to the temple.

John Bytheway:               05:59                   Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m thinking right now. I should be jumping up and down, be willing to do what’s necessary to get my family there and get those blessings.

Hank Smith:                      06:09                   Yeah. I can rearrange my schedule.

John Bytheway:               06:12                   Yeah, I can shear sheep.

Hank Smith:                      06:15                   If I’m looking at these other saints, I should gain some inspiration. Not guilt. We don’t want anybody to say, “Hey, pack your bags. We’re going on a guilt trip.” That’s not what this is about, but it’s about saying, “Maybe they see something I’m not seeing or I once saw, and now I don’t.”

John Bytheway:               06:29                   Yeah, well put.

Hank Smith:                      06:30                   Yeah, I love it. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get any podcast. We’re with Dr. Jeff Chadwick this week. Not only does he know Isaiah, he can read Isaiah in its original Hebrew. He’s going to show you some things you’ve never seen before. John and I are blown away by it. Then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.