Happy 40th Anniversary to us! (LDS Temple Blessings)

Family Photo

Forty years ago, my sweet husband and I drove to the Salt Lake LDS Temple on a beautiful, snowy morning to make sacred commitments to each other. We were sealed together for time and all eternity in a covenant that would include our children and their children and so on. The knowledge that our family is an eternal family comforts me and gives me courage to press forward through the next weeks and months of lost abilities and good health.

"In the temple husbands, wives, and children are sealed so that they can remain a family even after this life. It is this desire for united, enduring relationships with loved ones and with God that draws people to the temple and its eternal, binding promises."

https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/temples

Photo by Lance Bertola
https://www.ldstemple.pics/store/salt-lake-temple-glimmer-of-hope/
https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/temples

My wise and deeply spiritual friend, Mary McConkie Donoho, taught me that the best way to learn is by asking basic questions before you begin studying. I was preparing a lesson on temples for Relief Society and asked the basics: Who? What? When? Where? and Why? 

If you've been to the temple and made those specific promises you will find the parallels interesting and reassuring. It has ever been thus... the principles and covenants we make have been everlasting and eternal. 

1) Who built the first temple? What? When? Where?

The very first people commanded to build a place to worship were Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They built an altar to make "offerings" on. We know that they were not able to see God physically. 

And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence. And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord. 

Pearl of Great Price: Moses 5:4-5

2) Why did Adam build the altar?

Because he was obedient.. We read in Moses 5:6  

"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me."

Adam's answer reveals his commitment to obedience. He sacrificed for "many days" before an angel of the Lord appeared unto him. In fact, we know that Adam was a grandfather before he even knew WHY he was sacrificing!

The first two principles of temple worship are 

SACRIFICE and OBEDIENCE.

Operationterra.org

When the children of Israel were traveling in Egypt the Lord commanded them to build a "moveable" place to worship, a "house built to the name of the Lord" and they called it a sanctuary. It served as their temple for 500 years.

In Exodus 25:8 "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."

1 Chronicles 22:19 "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord."

The third principle of temple worship is SANCTUARY.

I love these quotes from different prophets in S. Michael Wilcox's book about the House of The Lord speaking of the temple as a house of protection, healing and refuge: 

Ezra Taft Benson said "Let us make the temple a sacred home away from our eternal home. This temple will be a standing witness that the power of God can stay the power of evil in our midst. Many parents within and without the church are concerned about protection against a cascading avalanche of wickedness which threatens to engulf Christian principles. There is a power associated with the ordinances of heaven, even a power of godliness, which can and will thwart the forces of evil if we will be worthy of those sacred blessings. 

This community will be protected. Our families will be protected. Our children will be safeguarded as we live the gospel, visit the temple and live close to the Lord. 

Boyd K Packer said, "No work is more of a protection to this church than temple work and the genealogical research which supports it. No work is more spiritually refining, no work we do gives us more power, no work requires a higher standard of righteousness, but the work, although demanding carries with it wonderful benefits.

Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people. 

George Q Cannon promised that when other temples will be completed an increase of power will be bestowed upon the people of God and they will be better fitted to cope with the powers of darkness and the evils that exist in the world. I do not think it is coincidental that as we see the powers of the adversary increase, that also the number of temples is increasing. 

Widstoe: Men and women grow mighty and more powerful through temple service until the devil has less influence than he ever had before.

All those who faithfully attend to temple work will have unseen angels to watch over their loved ones when satanic forces tempt them. 

Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone

"Recognize that when you left the temple on the day you were endowed, you left with promises from the Lord directly to you. Not promises made to some ancient prophet or people, but promises made to you. The temple’s purpose is to bring us unto Christ so that we might be redeemed."

http://www.ldsliving.com/3-Things-to-Understand-About-Your-Temple-Endowment/s/79806

"Let us be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. Let us hasten to the temple as frequently as time and means and personal circumstances allow. Let us go not only for our kindred dead, but let us also go for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and the safety which are provided within those hallowed and consecrated walls. The temple is a place of beauty; it is a place of revelation; it is a place of peace. It is the house of the Lord."

Howard W. Hunter Ensign Mar 2004

"The temple helps us understand God’s expectations for His children from an eternal perspective. In temples baptisms are performed for ancestors to give deceased relatives the opportunity to accept blessings of eternity. In the temple, husbands, wives, and children are sealed so that they can remain a family even after this life. It is this desire for united, enduring relationships with loved ones and with God that draws people to the temple and its eternal, binding promises."

https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/temples

Spokane, WA Temple - lds.org

Manti, UT Temple - Instagram @housesofthelord

Sand or Rock?

Sand
or
Rock?

Last month my family visited our homeland, the Piedmont Valleys of northern Italy. There in the Italian Alps, Waldensian families hid for hundreds of years from the persecution brought upon them by holding fast to the truths taught by Christ's ancient apostles. Early church missionaries, led by Lorenzo Snow, discovered these families prepared to be taught the fulness of the restored gospel. We hiked overgrown, narrow paths to find the rock- solid home of these early saints hidden in the steep hills of Eissart, Italy. How the missionaries ever found them I will never know. Abandoned for over 180 years, it still stands as a monument to the conviction and sacrifice of faithful ancestors to the truth of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Facing persecution again from their own neighbors, they left their ancestral home in the middle of winter, with little more than the clothes on their backs. They crossed the Alps, traveled to England,crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Council Bluffs to begin their pioneer trek in the first handcart company during the summer of 1856. Arriving penniless and having lost their youngest child to illness, they came with faith founded on the rock of the Redeemer, the Savior of mankind. They would instill this in their children, to serve and rely upon this firm foundation. Their descendants would return through the years to share His gospel of happiness as missionaries themselves.

Like the wise man who built his house upon a rock, not sand (Matthew 7:24), we should build our testimonies upon the firm foundation of the immovable Rock of the Redeemer which will protect us from the storms and trials that lie ahead. Helaman speaking to his sons stated it perfectly, " And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12)

Recently, we have seen the effects of shifting sand on a society of changing values. Only those whose testimonies are built upon a foundation centered on Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel will be able to withstand the winds, rain, and storms of adversity.
As we approach this Christmas Season, let us be reminded that He is the Only Begotten One, the Savior born for all mankind, that all might live again because of Him. He invites, "...follow me, and do the things ye have seen me do." (2 Nephi 31:12). May we seek to do those things that will cause us to become more like Him, that we might have a fulness of joy. He is the way, the life and the light of the world. I testify of His gospel of happiness and unconditional love for all.




Michael Beus, Farmington Utah North Stake