Because my husband, Larry, and I now serve as missionaries in the New York North Mission, we live in a high-rise apartment on 66th Street in midtown Manhattan. Our apartment building is adjacent to the Manhattan New York Temple. It is a thrill every day to see the statue of Angel Moroni—and all that it represents—amidst the clamor and congestion of this metropolis.
We never thought, however, that when we received our mission call that we had also signed up for a hurricane! Living in Utah most of my life, I was more concerned about the threat of an earthquake than a hurricane. Nevertheless, when warnings of Hurricane Sandy’s destructive path northward were issued, we paid attention.
We prepared emergency supplies and assembled 72 hour suitcases during that last weekend of October. When we headed for church meetings via the subway on Sunday morning, we could feel a definite change in the air. As Larry and I came home later in the afternoon, the wind had intensified and rain was starting to fall. By nighttime, our anxiety increased as we listened to what was happening around us and to what we heard on news reports.
Monday morning, October 29, 2012, was surreal. Our apartment suffered no damage during the night, and we very fortunate that we still had power, water, and heat. From our window we could see a few downed trees, some debris, and virtually no traffic—either on the streets or sidewalks. Later that day we ventured out to a too-quiet world. We learned of the massive destruction Hurricane Sandy wreaked throughout the Northeast through personal accounts as well as mass media.
As public transportation was shut down for most of that week, the temple was thus closed. The temple president invited all the couple missionaries in our building to attend the temple together on Tuesday morning. Being together in the House of the Lord was a solemn, reflective, yet joyful experience.
Whenever I have gone to a temple and participated in the ordinances or have witnessed sealings, I have felt peace, calm, and a retreat from the outside world. But that day I gained a new understanding of the temple as a refuge. It literally was!
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated: “Today temples dot the earth as sacred places or ordinances and covenants, of edification, and of refuge from the storm.”[1]
Ann A. Jones served as assistant temple matron when her husband, Charles, served in the Mesa Arizona Temple presidency. She said, “In the temple one finds peace, quiet, and respite from the things of the world that are not of real importance. There is a peace in the temple,and one feels immediately safe where things that are most important surround you.”
We are told in Isaiah 4:6, “And there shall be a tabernacle [a temple] for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”
One cannot expect this refuge without seeking it by qualifying for a temple recommend and then attending the temple often. Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve stated: I have felt an urgency to counsel each of us to seek the higher ground—the refuge and eternal protection of the temple.”[2]
