My Ancestors and the Temple

Many of the stories of my ancestors deal with their interaction with the Temples. My 3rd Great-grandfather, George Jarvis, and his family worked on the construction St. George Temple and Tabernacle. Some of the stories come from a highly fictionalized account of his life as follows:

Kleinman, Mary Miles. The Essence of Faith. Springville, UT: Art City Pub. Co, 1973.

I might note that this book is in the FamilySearch Library catalog and also in WorldCat.org. I got the link to the FamilySearch Library from WorldCat.org. The OCLC number for this book is 50688381.

Back to the stories. In another book,

Overson, Margaret Godfrey (Jarvis). George Jarvis and Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Ariz: s.n, 1957.

The following story is told about George Frederick Jarvis, one of my uncles and the son of George Jarvis. 

An incident should be mentioned in connection with the plaster work our George was doing on the Temple. He was working on a scaffold high up near one of the southwest corner round windows. There was a scaffold above his head on which other workmen were, also. He thought he heard someone say, "Step inside the window. " He looked around to see who had spoken, but saw no one. Again he heard, "Step inside the window. " which he immediately did. Just then the workman from the scaffold above stepped down on the one he had been on, struck a knot in the plank, causing it to break. Had he not moved inside the window, he would have been struck by the plank, and knocked to the ground. The other workman went through the scaffold to the ground, and those below expected to see him mashed to a jelly, but on being examined, found that no bones were broken, 'tho' he was badly bruised. He was off work for a few days only. There were some other accidents that were narrow escapes, but when the Temple was completed it was found that the Prophesy made by President Young at the start of building, had been literally fulfilled. He had promised, "If you do right and Keep the Commandments of the Lord, no lives will be lost during the erection of the Temple.

Recently, FamilySearch had a blog post entitled, Temples and Our Ancestors. Quoting from that post

In the past year we have read and heard the quote from President Hunter teaching us that there are two halves to the blessings of temple and family history work. We are first blessed by attending the temple. We are further blessed by taking our own ancestors’ names to the temple for temple work.
Elder Neal A Maxwell said that “Temple attendance…provides a powerful and pointed invitation to become better. The ways of the world receive constant reinforcement—should not the ways of heaven?’’ We want to improve in our own lives. Doing our ancestor’s temple work opens the doors for them to improve also. As we do more and more temple work, it becomes a wonderful circle of improving ourselves while giving others the opportunity to do the same.
FamilySearch has gathered videos of many people bearing testimony to the joy and strength they find in their lives as they participate in family history work. These videos are available to you for your inspiration and for you to use as you teach others about this important work. Find these videos on lds.org under Media library: Family History: Work of Salvation.

From time to time, I will share more stories from my ancestors about their experiences in and around the Temple.