i used to go to the manhattan temple on tuesday or wednesday to perform ordinances for the dead.

with so little time left to serve the living members of my ward, i decide to focus on the living this year and to focus on the dead next year.

i still commit to go to the temple every week this year.

tonight i try to visit a brother in the quorum who is in the hospital, but visiting hours are over when i arrive.

i tell the security guard i'm a member of this brother's ward family. i tell him i came all the way from 14th street.

he tells me i'm too late. i've never heard that before.

i write a note on a pass-along card, and someone comes and offers to deliver the card for me.

i give the security guard a book of mormon pass-along card.

"call this number, and they'll bring you this book," i tell him.

it's cold, and i want to go home. but i need to meet needs, and i want to visit all my needs meetees before sunday.

i visit a brother who was baptized into another ward around the time i was called as elders quorum president.

i visit him every month, sometimes in the hall outside his apartment.

he tells me about his big new gig.

i share an inspirational thought, and we pray.

he always appreciates my visit, and he always says he'll come to church the next sunday.

but he never comes.