The Yigo Guam Temple is a great blessing to families in the Micronesia Guam North Asia Area. Many families are taking the opportunity to schedule special family priority time to perform baptisms for their ancestors. Through Family Search, youth and parents research their family history to find relatives who have not had the opportunity to be baptized on this earth. Family Priority Time is taking the opportunity to make your family on both sides of the veil a priority.
The Flahaut family from the Yigo Ward had the opportunity to attend one of these special family priority times. Their oldest son, Hagen baptized his brother, Jensen, and sister, Paislee. Brother Flahaut recorded the ordinances and Sister Flahaut was a witness to the baptisms. This truly was a family affair.
Hagen said: “It was Paislee’s [his sister] first time to go to the temple. We were the only ones doing baptisms, so for her it was nice.”
Brother Flahaut responded: “It was just us so we had the opportunity to just share with each other. For me, it was nice to not only be here as a family, but it made me reflect back when I served here as a missionary 20 plus years ago. There was just a branch here and to think that now there is a temple here and I can go with my family, made it even more of a great experience.”
Sister Flahaut said that having all her kids there, minus their 7 year old, was wonderful. To know they’re living righteously and wanted to be there as a family in the temple was like the ultimate goal. Their children have the opportunity to go to the temple as a youth group at least once a month. Because President Lopez, the temple president of the Yigo Guam Temple, wants the people of this area to go to the temple, he has encouraged family priority time and will open the temple any time to help with this great work. The Flahaut children are willing to give up or delay other outside activities in order to go to the temple. They love being in the temple and are excited to go. They had a youth activity where the youth were taught how to navigate the Family Tree app, add pictures and memories into Family Search. Finding family names to take to the temple is easier than it used to be. By adding some pictures of their ancestors and learning about them through the memories, helps to make it more personal. The youth in their ward have also been encouraged to add stories about themselves. One of the people that they baptized had the last name of Flahaut, which made this trip to the temple even more memorable.
Paislee told her mom that while she was sitting there waiting for her turn to be baptized, she felt the Spirit. She had felt the Spirit before so she knew how to recognize it, but it felt stronger in the temple.
Jensen said, “I think it’s easier to recognize the Spirit [in the temple] because you’re further away from worldly things in the House of the Lord and you recognize that it’s from the Lord and not a coincidence.
Sister Flahaut agreed with her son saying, “When you’re in the temple, you just know that it’s Heavenly Father speaking to you.”
When asked if they felt a special strength to go into the world after leaving the temple, Jensen said, “It just made me feel really happy and more connected to my family and everyone else in the world and that the Holy Ghost can help us.”
They all felt like this Family Priority time in the temple helped create a bond with their family making them excited to do it again. Their family has been around different temples before, but there is something special that happens when you make the time to go together.
Hagen says that “If you’re thinking about going, you should just go because it’s probably the Holy Ghost telling you to go!” Sister Flahaut said that she never regrets the time she’s spent in the temple. "It’s where we need to be."
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