Kunzler Family Temple Goal

Overcoming adversity through focus on eternal principles is the hallmark of the Kunzler Family. Amy, Hunter, Haden and Ariana have made the blessings of temple service an integral part of their lives and through their service, more than 1,000 others have been blessed as well. Their inspirational pursuit of their goal is a great example of family unity and dedication. 

After Ariana turned twelve, the Kunzlers made it a priority to go to the temple regularly and participate in ordinances as a family.  The joy and happiness that they felt lead to a goal being proposed: To go to as many different temples as possible. One road trip lead to another and  soon the goal grew to the idea that they would try to attend 50 temples before Hunter went on his mission.

To accomplish their goal they have taken some long, long .... long road trips to every temple in Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and after a trip to Colorado this month they will have been to a total of 37 temples. An amazing feat, but still short of their ultimate goal. With every temple within a reasonable distance from their home in Sandy, UT being checked off the list, plans for how they could get to 13 more temples are being hatched. This is where this fundraising drive comes in, Amy is a single mother raising three teenagers on her own. The cost it would take to pay for a trip to visit 13 more temples would be more than the family could spare even with all the sacrifices they have already made to go on their previous temple excursions. They have planned a road trip that will take them into the heartland of the country and allow them to reach their Fiftieth Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. However their little car would not make trip,  its been a miracle  it has made it as far as it has (they have logged over 8,000 miles for the temple trips alone).  If we can meet our fundraising goal this would provide the Kunzlers enough money to fly to St. Louis and start their road trip there, as well as cover the expenses for a rental car, hotel rooms, and food.

Please join us in helping the Kunzler family to achieve their temple goal.

For more inspiration see the pictures and read Amy's story below:   




In 2008, when I first became a single mom, one of my biggest worries for my children was that they would grow up in a home that wouldn’t have the priesthood in it. I stressed about this a lot until I received a blessing that told me that if I were to attend the temple as often as possible I would never be without the priesthood in my home. One thing that came out of this promise is I took my kids to every temple open house I could.

This means that before my daughter turned 12 she had been inside 6 temples. She loved to look at the different design features and looked for patterns and symbols. She loved that each temple was unique and had it’s own special place in her heart.

So when she turned 12, September 2016, and was able to receive her recommend we picked a day that we all had off school and each of my children picked a temple to visit. That day we visited the Brigham City, the Salt Lake City and the Draper Temples and did work for 80 individuals. The kids loved seeing the different temples and the goal of completing all the names that we had. We spent the entire day either inside a temple or driving to the temple.

When we walked out of the baptistry of the Draper Temple we could see the whole Salt Lake valley spread out before us. As we stood there together we reflected on our experience and we felt closer and more connected to each other and to our Savior. I determined right there and then to create that feeling and experience at any opportunity I could. My children needed that connection to the Lord if they were going to make it in this world.

The next day, my daughter came to me and told me that as part of her personal progress goals she wanted to do baptisms in all of the Utah temples. We talked about it as a family and decided that it was doable and set a goal to do this within a year. Since I am a teacher and have the time in the summer to devote to this goal, I thought it would be no problem.

At every school break we went to 1 or more temples. We drove through snowstorms, 3 hour winding roads and our entire winter holiday. But on December 30, 2016 we entered the Ogden Utah Temple, the last open temple in Utah. 15 temple in 3 months!

But none of us wanted to stop visiting temples together. We were hooked! As we talked during FHE we wondered how many temples we could visit before my oldest son left on his mission. He would be 18 and eligible to serve a mission in August 2019. We set a new goal to serve together in 50 different temple before that time. This seemed a little unattainable to me as I thought about how much money and time this goal would take. But my children were so excited that we committed to reach our goal.

With that in mind, spring break found us driving around Arizona visiting the 5 temples in that state and 1 in Las Vegas. Summer 2017 we made the trip to Idaho to visit the 4 temples there. These trips became known as our temple trips. We took a quick one to the Star Valley Temple in Wyoming in the spring of 2018. And the second school was out this past summer we headed for California on a whirlwind three day trip to 9 temples in Utah, California and Nevada. We just got back from Colorado where we attended the two temples in that state.

As of today, we have served in 37 different temples, spent 65 hours dressed in white together, performed ordinances for 1084 individuals on the other side of the veil, and driven about 8000 miles crammed in our little Toyota Corolla. This time spent together doing the Lord’s work as been invaluable! We have had countless experiences that have strengthened our testimonies and given us hope through these years of worry and change for our family.

My children are strong in their testimonies and know the importance of the gospel and the priesthood in their lives. They know that the work they do in the temple is important and that they will get to meet these individuals when they leave this life. And we have strong ties to each other as a family and know how to work together to accomplish our goals. It has cost a lot of money, time, and sacrifice but it has all been worth every minute! The peace we feel when we enter the temple together helps us weather the storms in our lives.

With my son being a senior in high school, our time is starting to run short and we have run out of any temples closer than a full days drive away. Rather than try to do small trips back and forth, that would cost more, we have mapped out and planned a cross country trip that would take us to the last 13 temples during a 3 week car trip in June 2019. This would have us hitting the Nauvoo Illinois Temple as our 50th temple. All of us are really enthusiastic that we have come this far and are so close to reaching our goal that seemed to unattainable in the beginning. We are not positive how this is going to happen as our car is beginning to give up the ghost and won’t make it on a trip this size and I am a single mom raising 3 teenagers on a teacher’s income. Between hotel cost, car rental, gas and food, even if all we do is go to temples and drive between them, it will still cost more than we can save on our own. But, we know that if we put in everything we have towards reaching our goal of 50 temples in three years that the Lord will help us find a way.