When was the last time you attended the temple?

Now that the temples are opening, hopefully you can say it was recent! Thankfully, I was able to go a couple weeks ago. My temple district (Oklahoma City) is in Phase 3 and Brock and I were able to take an impromptu trip during a particularly difficult week.

It brought so much peace.

It was also the first time I had been to the temple since really dedicating my time to temple and family history work. The mindset was so different as I sat in the sealing room with my husband, actually connecting members of my family tree – it came with a whole new appreciation.

When our hearts turn to our ancestors, something changes inside us. We feel part of something greater than ourselves

– Russell M Nelson

I truly believe what President Nelson has told us, that turning our hearts to our ancestors will change us! It is changing me and I’m so grateful that we can start doing the work in the temples for our families once again.

What Phase is your Temple in?

As of July 26, 2021, all United States temples are open to Phase 3. This means all living and limited proxy ordinances can be performed upon appointment!

The only exception to this is the Mesa, Arizona and Salt Lake City, Utah temples which are currently undergoing renovations.

Most of the South American temples are currently open to Phase 2 and Phase 2B. Phase 2 allows for all living ordinances by appointment, and 2B adds proxy baptisms, also by appointment.

For a complete list of the temples and which phase they are in, you can see this list. When you’re ready to schedule your appointment, you can do it right here, after logging in to your LDS account.

As you prepare to go to the temple again, remember the many blessings that will surround you and your family, both on this side of the veil and the other.

Drawing 100 temples.

That’s a daunting task, you might say. You’d be right. It’s slightly ridiculous. Yet, here I am, in the middle of #the100dayproject, committed to drawing 100 temples.

Who’s idea was that?!

I will tell you… it wasn’t mine.

Let’s start at the beginning shall we?

What IS #the100dayproject?

It’s simple, really. You pick something – literally anything – and you do it for 100 days. It’s a creative challenge and most people do it to fuel some arty goal or desire they have (like making a new habit, discovering their artistic voice, learning a new medium, you get the idea).

This is my 5th year doing it. Wow, that even sounds crazy to me! Granted, I didn’t finish all 100 days every year, and to be honest, I haven’t been as hardcore this year either – that’s a different story. But the question is how did I decide on temples?

At the end of last year, “they,” the great planners of the project, decided to move the start date from April to January 31st, giving us something to get us through the winter. So I started thinking and wondering what I could do. I already had a lot I was trying to do with my business, illustrating maps and home portraits and stuff. I was getting plenty of orders and I was really loving it AND I was doing creative things regularly.

So I didn’t really need something creative for this project, but I just wanted to do it.

My first thought was to doodle a plant every day. Just something simple. Something I could do in five minutes and it would give me a plethora of doodled plants to use in my artwork. That sounded pretty solid to me.

But God had a different idea. He always does for me. Always.

One night, I was lying in bed trying to sleep and thinking about how I was going to lay this out in my bullet journal (because I’m weird like that and I daydream of bullet journal layouts). It was going to be beautiful.

-Insert divine intervention here –

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The idea of doodled temples literally POPPED into my head.

And then it wouldn’t go away. And the next day and the day after that, it was all I could think of.

WHY?! That was not going to take me five minutes and I was already trying to do so many other things!! I needed something small, something short, something I could commit to! But I couldn’t let it go.

And Heavenly Father kept telling me during my scripture study and prayers, and whatever else I was doing:

Focus on the temples. Focus on the temples.

And so I decided. I guess I would do it. I drew a couple the week before the project started to see how long it would take me (over an hour!) and to figure how I wanted to do these. It felt good, drawing a temple. I liked drawing them, and the style I decided to go with really looked better than I hoped and I loved it.

And that was the pivot point.

In my life. In my business. It was a serious pivot.

A pivot from doing what I wanted to do, to doing what the Lord wanted me to do. A pivot from making art because I like to, to making art because it means something. A pivot from a cliche goal of “cherishing the past,” to actually bringing families together by shifting my focus to temple and family history work.

If you’re here because you like art, that’s so sweet of you; thanks for being my fan. But if you want to take a journey with me to make bring families together (yours or others), then this is going to be really awesome!

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Life is a crazy thing.

I don’t share a lot of it, frankly because I’m just so busy trying to make it all work!

But I felt like I needed to share a little bit of what goes in my life that effects Gardner Lane.

I’ve gone a little off track.

Finding the track in the first place was a process! It took several months of mental and spiritual preparation I didn’t know was happening. And then when I was in the right place, the Lord told me what I needed to do.

Focus on temple art and family history.

It wasn’t how I started Gardner Lane, but I’ve been doing my best to shift that direction.

But lately, I’ve been taking up other jobs too, helping other entrepreneurs with their branding. Even though I love doing it, it takes a lot of time and has been pulling me away from the path that was laid out in front of me.

This morning, I went for a walk before my little people woke up. I like to listen to conference when I walk in the morning, and today I listened to Elder Eyring’s conference talk, “I love to See the Temple.”

It was just next up in my list of conference talks, but it was timely. As always, the Lord knew what I needed to hear.

[More back story, we found a branch in our family tree that has opened up so many doors. I’ve seen miracle upon miracle unfold through this new part of my family.]

But again, I’ve been distracted.

Back to this morning.

Listening to the talk, I was reminded that I’m spending my time on the wrong things. I need to get back to focusing on temple art and family history.

I had this overwhelming feeling that my mom and I are the only hope our new branch has of receiving their temple ordinances.

I know that those angels, our family, connected us to this branch and I know that they are waiting for us to do the work. They’ve been waiting for this moment. This phase in my life. And they are ready.

But am I?

I’m trying to be!

As Elder Eyring read the words to the sweet primary song, these ones hit me like a rock:

This is my sacred duty.

And it is. Doing this work for my family is my sacred duty. I have been lead to this part of my life for this purpose. To bring my family into the fold of God.

It feels overwhelming, but again, He knows what I need to hear.

After I finished listening to the talk, I switched over to the youth music and the song “small things” came on.

By doing small things, like writing a letter to my new found grandmother, or emailing a cousin who knows about our family’s history, will bring to pass great things, even miracles.

I’m still sorting out what this looks like for me, but since this little revelation hit me, I have been uber productive. you won’t believe how much I accomplished the last two days, know that I need to finish these projects so I can focus on temples and family history.

AND, I finally figured out some technical difficulties I was having with my emails. Seriously, things unfold just when you open your eyes to what God has planned for you.

That being said, the thing I finished??

10 Ways to Attend the Temple at Home! You can sign up here, and get the 10 day email course starting today!