Latter Day Saints Prosper

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Imagine having to work in a place where heaven and earth meet. Elders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider their 124 temples around the world to be just such places. That alone, in the mind of Richard Winkel, constitutes a fine definition of being well off. Serving at the request of church president Gordon B. Hinckley to lead the Sacramento Temple in Rancho Cordova, he says, is prosperity.
   
The temple in September will celebrate its first anniversary. His wife of 35 years, Karen, works as temple matron. “Prosperity is having family close and united,” says Winkel, the father of nine — the first two were boys, and then came seven girls. Their ages range from 40 to 20 with 18 grandchildren. “Our children are doing well. They were loved in the home. There’s a saying in the church that no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”
   
Born in Oakland, raised in the East Bay city of Fremont, Winkel went to Chile in 1962 for his first mission for the Mormon Church. He also served the church in Mexico, Madrid and New Zealand — all with his family. These departures were mixed in with a business degree from Brigham Young University, a master’s from Pepperdine and work with his father in the family lumber business. He also ran his own lumber firm in Arcata, near Eureka.

“It was fine before the spotted owl that limited cutting into old growth,” Winkel notes. He developed the land into a business park, a business venture he said that allows him to spend most of his time devoted to the church. “It wasn’t a career path,” he said of his church-related travels. “But the calls came, and we lived where we lived.”
   
Located in Rancho Cordova, the Sacramento Temple sits on more than 40 acres, but at just under 20,000 square feet it is one of the smallest. A new temple recently opened in Helsinki and there are plans for Ukraine and the Philippines. The Sacramento Temple is meant to serve the 80,000 members from Yuba City to Fresno. Temples hold some of the same functions as Mormon churches, such as weddings and baptisms, except they do not hold Sunday worship.
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