A Papua New Guinean member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took time out of her busy work schedule recently to visit the temple and visitors centre in Washington DC.
Barbara Masike Liri from the Gerehu Branch in Port Moresby works with The Nature Conservancy, a US based conservation NGO. She is the Director of the PNG program and was attending a meeting on Mangroves Conservation in Washington DC with some of her colleagues and other staff from two other US based conservation organisations, Conservation International and World Wide Fund for Nature.
On Thursday she spent time meeting with other colleagues at the TNC world office. Her flight was on Friday at 7pm and so she decided on visiting the Washington DC Temple Visitors Centre before her flight later that day.
Barbara had a very uplifting experience talking with senior couples and young sister missionaries who serve at the Temple Visitors Centre. She watched videos about individuals who have been blessed by committing themselves to the work of the Church and spent some time walking around the temple garden and grounds, enjoying the sacred atmospehere. She even had the opportunity to watch some families celebrating a wedding that was happening there.
" I had a very spiritually uplifting experience. It was such a beautiful place to be in. I hope that we in PNG can work hard to have a temple soon, so that we can have the same blessings that members of the Church here are receiving,’’ she said.
Her visit to the washington DC Temple grounds has only enhanced her desire to take her family to the temple one day. Earlier this year the Church reached a milestone of 150 operating temples. 27 more are announced or construction. An Additional four exising temples are being renovated. There are 10 temples in the Pacific Area located in Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga and New Zealand.