Temple Bound

Many faithful members answer every temple recommend question honestly and still don’t feel worthy. In this episode, Will and Heather Humphreys sit down with Brother Brad Wilcox, BYU professor and author of the talk “Worthiness Is Not Flawlessness,” to talk about grace, trust, and what it means to stand with Jesus Christ.

Brother Wilcox shares the story of a woman in a temple recommend interview who said, “I’m never worthy, not by myself. But I’m not alone. I’m standing with Jesus Christ, and together we’re worthy.” From there, the conversation covers scrupulosity, the symbols of grace in the temple, hope for parents of struggling adult children, and a new way to think about daily repentance during the sacrament.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why worthiness means trying and staying honest, not being perfect
• How grace works as enabling power, not a reward you earn after doing all you can
• Why “Satan is not the judge in Israel” and how to trust the bishop and stake president who serve as judges
• How temple symbols, including the veil and clasped hands, teach grace
• What a BYU study of over 600 students found about grace, depression, anxiety, and scrupulosity
• Why God is happy with day two on day two, an idea from Emily Belle Freeman
• How 2 Nephi 10:2 offers hope to parents whose children have stepped away
• The difference between weakness and rebellion: which way you’re facing
• How to use the sacrament to look forward, not only back, by asking for grace for the week ahead
• Why grace has to be received, explained through a package left on the front porch and a free scholarship
• How temple work for the dead lets us return grace for grace

Scriptures mentioned: Matthew 11:28 to 30, 2 Nephi 2:6, 2 Nephi 10:2, Matthew 1:23

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Temple Bound is brought to you by the Light on a Hill Foundation, a nonprofit focused on building and strengthening families across the globe.

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Why does the Lord teach through ritual in the temple? What does Freemasonry have to do with the endowment? Why has the endowment presentation changed over time?

In this episode of Temple Bound, Will Humphreys talks with Dr. Jennifer Lane, author of Let’s Talk About Temples and Ritual from Deseret Book. Jennifer taught religious education at BYU Hawaii for almost two decades, served as dean, and now researches at BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute. She holds a PhD in the history of Christianity.

They cover how ritual shapes who we become, how Old Testament temple worship connects to temples today, and how temple worship gives us rest and power through Jesus Christ during hard seasons.

What you’ll learn:

• Why ritual is a way of learning that changes the heart, not only the mind
• How everyday routines like a trip to the mall work as rituals, and why disciples need “counter liturgies”
• How temple ritual orients us to person, place, and time: Jesus Christ, the path home, and the eternal view of mortality
• What Pacific golden plovers teach about knowing where we’re going
• How Old Testament sacrifice and today’s temple ordinances both point to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ
• Why the temple uses symbols, and how scripture helps us read them
• How Jennifer found peace at the temple in the days before her mother passed away
• A clear answer to the Freemasonry question: the language matters less than who is speaking
• Why the endowment presentation changes, and what continuing revelation has to do with it
• Why serving in the temple for others transforms us and places us in the Savior’s hands

Resources mentioned:

• Let’s Talk About Temples and Ritual by Jennifer C. Lane, available at Deseret Book in print and digital
• Finding Christ in the Covenant Path: Ancient Insights for a Modern World by Jennifer C. Lane
• Jennifer’s articles, free online through the BYU Religious Studies Center: rsc.byu.edu - https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rsc.byu.edu/author/lane-jennifer-c&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1791870259144016&usg=AOvVaw2jSGR3daS1lVWjOex4sPW0

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Why does the Church of Jesus Christ spend so much on temples when the money could feed the poor? Tammy Uzelac Hall answers that question from the book of Exodus. She reads it in the original Hebrew.

Tammy and Will follow the gold and silver Israel carried out of Egypt into the building of the tabernacle. They look at what the name "I AM" means in Hebrew and how it ties to the answers we give in temple recommend interviews. Then they turn to the women of the Old Testament who changed the story: Shiphrah and Puah, the daughters of Zelophehad, and the Shunammite woman, whose answer "It is well" comes from the Hebrew word shalom.

The episode closes with a clip from Sister Sharon Eubank on why temples matter more to lasting change than money alone.

What you'll learn:

• Why the Lord told the Israelites to ask the Egyptians for jewels of gold, silver, and fine clothing before the Exodus
• What the name "I AM" means in Hebrew and how D&C 68:6 explains it
• Why the tabernacle was built from offerings brought by "whosoever is of a willing heart"
• How the women of Israel spun the linen and colored fabrics for the tabernacle
• Why the Garden of Eden is considered the first temple and what "Eden" means in Hebrew
• How answering "I am" in a temple recommend interview is answering in the Lord's name
• Why God measures the sacrifice, not the size of the offering
• The meaning of shalom and the story behind the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul"
• Sister Sharon Eubank's answer to why the Church builds temples instead of putting everything into humanitarian aid

Scriptures discussed: Exodus 1, 3, 11, 12, 35; D&C 68:6; Mosiah 18; Numbers 27; 2 Kings 4; 1 Nephi 16

Find Tammy: Sunday on Monday podcast at ldsliving.com/podcasts 

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Many people are taught that grace is a gift with no strings attached. Accept Christ and it's done. Cooper Johnson spent 15 years studying what the word grace meant to the people who first heard it, and he found that in the ancient world, grace was the start of a relationship that asks something of you in return.

In this episode of Temple Bound, host Will Humphreys and Cooper talk about his return to the Church after 10 years away, the questions that pushed him to study the Atonement, and how the original Greek and Hebrew words for grace, faith, belief, and knowing changed the way he reads scripture. Cooper now teaches temple prep in a young single adult ward. He shares how he frames worthiness, symbolism, and covenants for people preparing to enter the temple for the first time.

What you'll learn:

• What the Greek word charis meant to Paul's first century audience, and why grace was always relational
• How pistis, the word translated as faith, carries the meaning of loyalty and faithfulness
• Why "believe" in John 3:16 means to trust and rely on Christ, not just agree that He exists
• What ginosko teaches about knowing God through experience in John 17:3
• How hesed describes God's covenant love
• Why covenants are connections, not contracts
• How to see worthiness as readiness instead of perfection
• Why God teaches through symbolism, and why symbols lose meaning when they're overexplained
• What "endowed" means: to be clothed with power
• Why staying with a scripture, talk, or temple experience until it opens up to you matters

Resources mentioned:

• Elder David A. Bednar, "In the Strength of the Lord" (2001)
• John Barclay's work on grace and Paul
• Brent Schmidt, Relational Grace and Relational Faith
• Jennifer Lane's book on the temple
• Melinda Brown's teaching on law as love

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Shayden Bertagnolli has sat across from more grieving families than he ever expected when he became a therapist. That's what pushed him into men's mental health, and it's what shaped the idea at the center of this episode. Pornography addiction was never really about pornography. It's about pain nobody ever taught these men to name.

In this conversation, Shayden and Will Humphreys break down why men suppress pain instead of naming it, why so many chase approval and call it love, and what the temple initiatory ordinance actually represents (a wound being washed, anointed, and covered). If you've ever felt stuck, or you love someone who is, this episode gives you a new way to see it.

What you'll learn:

• Why pornography is a solution to pain, not the problem itself, and why treating the symptom keeps men stuck
• What "attunement" means and why so many boys stop being truly seen around age six or seven
• Why men chase approval through achievement when they've internalized the false idea that love has to be earned
• How the temple initiatory ordinance mirrors what every parent does for a child's wound: wash it, anoint it, cover it
• Why asking God to "help me overcome this" keeps men in a cycle of shame, and what changes when they ask to be healed instead
• Three practical questions parents can ask their kids to open up conversations that usually stay hidden
• Why the average age of first exposure to pornography is now 10 to 11 years old, and what to do about it

Guest: Shayden Bertagnolli, licensed therapist and founder of Motyv, creator of the Liberate program for men working through pornography addiction and pain. Learn more at motyv.com.

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Former Bishop Tim Raymond has sat across from more men confessing pornography addiction than he can count. His conclusion after years in that chair: the addiction was never really the problem. Pride was.

In this episode, Will Humphreys and Tim unpack what actually helps someone come back from pornography addiction, why the standard reactions of shame and judgment make things worse, and why Ezra Taft Benson's 1989 talk "Beware of Pride" became the single biggest influence on Tim's ministry outside of the Book of Mormon.

This is the first of three episodes for Recovery Awareness Month. The next two feature a married couple who nearly lost their marriage to this addiction, and a therapist who has spent years treating men through it.

What you'll learn:

• Why the first reaction to a confession decides whether someone comes back for help again
• The difference between the addiction you can see and the pride underneath it that you can't
• Why pornography addiction is no longer only a young man's struggle
• What humility actually means (it's not what most people think)
• Five faces of pride most people don't recognize in themselves
• Why "just stop" never works as a long term solution
• The one sin Tim says actually matters, and it isn't the one you're thinking of

Guest: Tim Raymond served as a bishop for several years, working closely with youth and counseling individuals and families through repentance and addiction recovery. He is a father of seven and currently serves as an ordinance worker in the Gilbert Temple.

Referenced in this episode: "Beware of Pride" by President Ezra Taft Benson, delivered at General Conference in April 1989 and read by his counselor Gordon B. Hinckley.

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This is episode 100 of Temple Bound, and it kicks off the show's three-part series for Recovery Awareness Month. Natalie and Cory Wadsworth sit down with Will to talk about what came after that night: years of counseling, weekly drives to the temple, and how a marriage on the brink of divorce became, in their words, the best of friends.

What you'll learn:

• Why pornography addiction is rarely about sex, and what it's actually a coping mechanism for
• Why the addiction gets worse over time if it isn't addressed, and why willpower alone doesn't fix it
• Why isolation is what lets an addiction grow, and why recovery can't happen alone
• What a wife needs to hear in the moment she finds out (and why "it's not about you" changed everything for Natalie)
• Why their bishop told them to keep attending the temple and taking the sacrament during recovery, not step back from it
• Why relapse is part of the process, not proof that recovery failed
• How they rebuilt trust after years of hiding, and what their marriage looks like now, eight years later

This conversation is honest about how hard this road is. It's also honest about what's possible on the other side of it.

Follow Temple Bound

Instagram: instagram.com/templeboundpodcast 

Facebook: facebook.com/templeboundofficial 

TikTok: tiktok.com/@temple.bound 

Connect with Cory and Natalie

Natalie's Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DEBx9sE4p/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Cory’s Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/share/17XZTLodAz/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Natalie's Insta link: https://www.instagram.com/natalie_wadsworth?stkn=MTM5Z2F4cGUxY29p&utm_source=qr

Natalie's email: [email protected]

Cory’s email: [email protected] 

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Will re-releases episode one of Temple Bound, a conversation with Brett Blake that never got the audience it deserved the first time around. Brett served as a mission president in Denver during COVID and shares what he learned about preparing youth for missions through temple worship and family history.

What you'll learn:

• Why a testimony of and love for Jesus Christ matters more than any missionary training checklist
• How the temple gives missionaries an actual endowment of power, not just spiritual encouragement
• Why Brett tells parents the goal isn't the mission. It's the relationship with the Savior
• What Brett saw in a generation of missionaries dealing with anxiety and isolation after COVID
• How repentance, not perfection, is what prepares a missionary's heart
• Why "what does love look like here" became Brett's guiding question as a parent and mission leader
• The story of a missionary who found forgiveness after years of running from his past

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In 2021, Jenny Komenda hit a fork in the road. Her business was growing. The opportunity in front of her was real. She could have leaned in harder. Instead, she chose her faith and her family.

She didn't fully understand why that choice mattered until a year later, when her daughter landed in the hospital in a coma for almost a week.

Jenny walks through the two conference talks that shaped that decision, the family history behind it (including a great-great-grandmother who crossed an ocean and stayed faithful for decades with no other church members around her), and how becoming a temple worker changed the way she runs her business, The Rooted Home.

What you'll learn:

• Why "starting with the end in mind" led Jenny to step back from hyper growth
• How Elder Renlund's heart transplant talk reframed what it means to protect a changed heart
• The four-part Ho'oponopono practice Jenny uses to work through conflict with real charity
• Why she said yes to becoming a temple worker, even when the timing made no sense
• The story behind The Rooted Home, and the great-great-grandmother who inspired it
• What changes when you stop asking God to remove the burden and start asking him to make it lighter

Follow Jenny and her Christian art company The Rooted Home: @the.rootedhome on Instagram and visit her website at therootedhome.com.

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Tia Smith hosts "Thinning of the Veil," one of the only other podcasts built around temple worship. In this episode, she and Will unpack President Nelson's talk on the temple and spiritual foundations, and Tia shares how her own near death experience with cystic fibrosis changed the way she sees the veil between this life and the next.

This conversation goes beyond temple attendance. Tia lays out an actual practice for connecting with ancestors: intercessory prayer, paying attention to names and dreams, and treating family history as a two way relationship instead of a checklist.

What you'll learn:

• Why President Nelson called this "an unprecedented time" and what that word actually means
• The difference between fishing (ordinances ready) and hunting (intercessory prayer) in family history work
• How Tia survived a 20 percent chance of survival during septic shock, and what she heard in that hospital room
• Why healing in the temple isn't just spiritual. It's physical, mental, and marital too
• The story of the DeGear family Bible and how it found its way home
• How to know what's "too sacred" to share and what the Spirit is actually asking you to say
• Why parting the veil happens in increments, not all at once

If you've ever wondered whether your ancestors are actually aware of the work you're doing for them, this episode answers that directly.

Connect with Tia

Facebook: Thinning of the Veil

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinning.of.the.veil/

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