“Temple Pilgrims”

One of the luxuries of being in the Marshall Islands is a quiet Sabbath. I’ve occasionally had unprecedented blocks of time for reading the scriptures as long as I like. Today I uncover a marvelous thing. Watch this.

I’m reading in Psalms and notice the header to Psalm 120: “A song of degrees.” I know the book of Psalms is the hymnbook for ancient Israel, but I wonder what “degrees” means. The Bible Dictionary entry for “degrees” has this short explanation: “Fifteen Psalms (120-134), probably so called because they were sung by Jewish pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem.” Jerusalem – the temple. I read the fifteen short psalms and discover that many are looking toward the hills and/or the temple.

I wonder whether modern-day temple pilgrims might pick a date to go to the temple that was at least 15 days off, and read one of these psalms a day. Most are 8 verses or fewer. Families could read them together and talk about what these ancient hymn lyrics must have meant to the temple pilgrims in David’s day as they journeyed to the temple, perhaps wondering if Jesus’s family read them when they went to the temple when Jesus was twelve.

After that scriptural preparation, the family could go to the temple together to do baptisms, or have a picnic on the temple grounds. (You mean it’s not 85 degrees there year-round? I keep forgetting that.)

The closest temple here is Hawaii, about 2100 miles away. Going to the temple personally is something I miss a lot, but I delight in finding gems about the temple in the scriptures.

The Back Story: “I Have a Dream”

Sophia giving Martin Luther King a kiss

A friend wrote me, “Do you still feel called of God to be there?”

Yes. Oh yes.

Check out the photo of the speaker I’ve posted at my blog entry below entitled “General Conference: The Sequel.” I took the photo while I was watching Conference in Marshallese with the other members of my branch. Even though I couldn’t understand much, I just enjoyed feeling the Spirit. At one point I thought “I should get a picture of this – at least it will show the chapel in Ebeye with the TV in front and a General Authority speaking.” I snapped a photo of someone I didn’t know with a name I couldn’t pronounce – Russell T. Osguthorpe. After I got home, I looked at the photo and thought, “That was dumb. I should have gotten one of President Monson speaking – you know, prophet to the whole world.” But when I was sitting in the chapel, the idea just came into my mind and I took the picture. Whatever.

This week, the magazine came with the conference proceedings. I discovered that Pres. Osguthorpe’s talk was entitled “Teaching Helps Save Lives.” My prompting to take a picture during his talk was as if God wanted to make sure I particularly noted that talk, reminding me why I’m here.

In Osguthorpe’s talk, he quotes President Monson: “The goal of gospel teaching is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members. . . . The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles.” (Ensign, 11/09, 15, italics in the original).

Today I happened upon this scripture: “Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls. Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men, for it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.” (Doctrine & Covenants 100:4-8)

Maybe my students will remember the difference between a noun and a pronoun; maybe they’ll remember which personal pronouns go with which gender. Or maybe they’ll remember the feeling they felt when they heard for the first time Dr. Martin Luther King declare:

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together. We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. [Amos 5:24] And when that happens, all God’s children will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”

Ebeye Hospital - Right at Home

Check out my “large plates” for the full story of my (largely unnecessary) hospitalization – marciinthemarshalls.blogspot.com. Here’s the LDS angle:

In the emergency room, after getting my forehead stitched up, imagine how “at home” I felt when they gave me a ride upstairs to my hospital room in a wheelchair donated by . . . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I knew the church had made wheelchair donations in various locations in the world; now I know the RMI is among them.



Then, when they wheeled me into my room, the first person to greet me was one of the sister missionaries in my branch! For just one day I roomed with the sister missionaries, one of whom was hospitalized for a boil on her foot. This is quite serious. According to Helen Claire Sievers, now of the Weston 1 Ward, many years ago her RMI branch president’s wife died from a boil, the infection from which spread into her bloodstream. This sister missionary had already spent 5 days in the hospital and was discharged the day I arrived. Interestingly, one of the sister missionaries is from Palau and the other is from Papua New Guinea.



Between the ride in the LDS-donated wheelchair and the sister missionary roommates, I felt right at home in the hospital from the first. In a situation that might have been quite unnerving, it was a sweet blessing to feel so comfortable and watched over by the Lord.