'Mountain of the Lord' won't collect any dust

Most of the time, gift books are hardly a nice gift — at least to me.

While they come in many shapes and sizes, and usually have beautiful photography or art, more often than not they become dust collectors adorning coffee tables.

Chad Hawkins' latest literary and artistic offering, "The Mountain of the Lord: True Stories of Faith and Miracles from Latter-day Temples," (Deseret Book Company, 130 pages, $17.99) is hardly one of those dust collectors.

In "The Mountain of the Lord," Hawkins gathers faith-promoting stories from more than 40 temples around the world, based on his own in-depth research and interviews from people that witnessed the event.

In the foreword of the book, he tells stories of touring temples for the famous paintings he's done in each of them, and of the attention to detail given to the smallest of things, like the pioneer-era doorstops in the Nauvoo temple.

Like the small details he saw in various temples, Hawkins felt he needed to give attention to lesser-known, yet important details and miracles of each temple in the book. Some were construction miracles, while others were miracles associated with long distances of travel. Many of the stories told of people being physically protected while working on the temples.

A great thing about the book is the selection of the temple stories in the work. It would have been easy to include an abundance of pioneer-era temples, but Hawkins does a masterful job at mixing up the locations, eras and stories in the book. In one moment, you're traveling long distances with Mormons from Cameroon, Peru and Brazil to get to the nearest temple, and the next, you're witnessing events in Helsinki, Finland; Edmonton, Alberta; and Louisville, Ky.; or going back to the pioneer era in Nauvoo, Logan or St. George. Some temples have more than one story to them, but each story is worth the time to read.

The 130-page book can be consumed by an avid reader in less than a day, or it can be enjoyed by reading one story a day. Perhaps a family uses one story per week for family home evening lessons on the importance of the temple. Regardless of how it is used, it's sure to uplift and inspire readers, and show how God's hand is in every aspect of temple work.

This book is one that needs to be in the collection of all those who revere the temple and want to be inspired by the lesser-known miracles that occur in our day and age with temples around the world. While I still don't like the aforementioned "dust collector"-type books, this is one I will cherish in my family library.

e-mail: nnewman@desnews.com