Sacrament Meeting talk

Being a teenager in the 1990s, the yearly trip to the temple to do baptisms for the dead was somewhat of a pilgrimage.  I lived north of Spokane near a town called Newport, and it was about a 5 ½ hour car ride to the Seattle Temple from our meeting point at the church in Priest River, Idaho.  Due to the long hours spent in the car, the trip was always in the summer and was always expected to be overnight.  We would stay at Ensign Ranch, with a few hours of outside adventures like rope swings or floating down the river in an intertube, followed by a dutch oven dinner and a fireside, before enjoying our pioneer-like sleeping accommodations.  The morning found us fasting breakfast, slipping into rumpled church clothes pulled from our backpacks and journeying the last hour to the temple (or more, especially if your driver decided to drive east to Cle Elum for gas before driving west to Bellevue).  It was always a happy relief to see the golden Angel Moroni high above the trees, proclaiming we were just about ready to get out of the car.  After baptisms and confirmations, our ward leaders would turn the whole lot of us starving teenagers over to an all-you-can-eat buffet before the long journey home.  Needless to say, a trip to the temple was an event.
We are blessed to live in a time and place where temple attendance doesn’t require as much time and physical preparation.  I can attend the temple with a friend during the hours my kids are at school or make a date of it with my husband for an evening.  This doesn’t mean that temple attendance is any less important by being more readily available.  The prophets and apostles have stressed over and over the privilege and sacred responsibility we have to attend the temple as often as our circumstances allow.  We still do need to prepare physically to attend the temple.  Time must be scheduled for temple attendance, babysitters to arrange, and even small things such as wearing our Sunday best to enter the Lord’s holy house.  We are guests in the House of the Lord, and as Boyd K Packer stresses in his book, “The Holy Temple” that we should "comport ourselves with dignity and refinement in such a way that we would feel comfortable should our Host appear."
Even more important than physical preparation is spiritual preparation.  President Russell M Nelson in his April 2001 talk, “Personal Preparation for Temple Blessings” states that “As temples are prepared for our members, our members need to prepare for the temple.”  We are definitely living in an age when so many temples are being prepared for our use. Every General Conference brings an announcement of new temples to be built.  Each temple has the words “Holiness to the Lord” engraved on the outside.  This can remind us that both the purpose of the temple is holy, and an attribute we need to earnestly seek is holiness.  President Nelson in the same talk said, “The temple is the house of the Lord. The basis for every temple ordinance and covenant—the heart of the plan of salvation—is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Every activity, every lesson, all we do in the Church, point to the Lord and His holy house. Our efforts to proclaim the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead all lead to the temple. Each holy temple stands as a symbol of our membership in the Church, as a sign of our faith in life after death, and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families."
From a very young age, we should teach our children the importance of the temple.  Some ways we have done this is to have pictures of the temple in our home.  We’ve taken our small children to the temple grounds, and while there, snapped a picture of our girls there to display in our home.  We’ve talked about the blessings of the temple.  And of course, we try to attend the temple regularly as an example is the best teacher.  We are lucky to live in a time where temple open houses sporadically happen within driving distance.  We’ve been to three as a family, and are eagerly awaiting the temple in Moses Lake.
Just last month we were able to able to attend the temple as a family for youth baptisms.  With the age adjustments for Young Men and Young Women announced at the end of 2018, we realized that our wait to go as a family was considerably shortened.  Annie and Maddie were just two months past their 11th birthdays in January.  It was an amazing and joyful experience to be in the temple as a family.  The changes are exciting.  I loved watching each of the youth cycle through being witnesses before being baptized.  There is a general air of excitement when the youth bring their own family names for baptisms.  We have done so, and also passed off some of our family names to some of the young men in our ward for baptisms, as we are lacking in the young men department in our home.  We were able to watch, if not always participate in, the baptism and confirmation of 3 of Ryan’s grandparents and his uncle who have passed away.
Baptism for the dead is not the only ordinance done in the temple.  Another ordinance received in the temple is the endowment. The word endowment means “gift,” and the temple endowment truly is a gift from God. The ordinance consists of a series of instructions and includes covenants to live righteously and follow the requirements of the gospel. The endowment focuses on the Savior, His role in Heavenly Father’s plan, and the personal commitment of each member to follow Him.
Another temple ordinance is celestial marriage. In this ordinance, husband and wife are sealed to one another for eternity. For many centuries it has been the practice all over the world to use an official seal to certify that a document is valid.  The word seal in that context becomes synonymous for endorse, to license, to ratify, to authorize, and to bind.  To seal, then, is the right word to be used to represent the spiritual authority from God to man to bind families together.  Binding or sealing families together into an unbroken chain can be comforting to those who have lost loved ones, or those like me who come from three and four generations of broken families.  I have not met all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.  And yet, one of the times Ryan and I were doing sealings, I had an “aha” moment.  These ancestors of mine, who I have not met in this life, are still my family- a part of my eternal family.  This may not sound like anything life-changing for some, but for me with not many close family relationships, it was a balm to my soul.  President Eyring put it this way: For some, that [hope of] eternal [family] joy may seem a faint or even a fading hope. Parents, children, brothers, and sisters may have made choices that seem to disqualify them from eternal life. You may even wonder whether you have yet been qualified through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. A prophet of God once offered me counsel that gives me peace. I was worried that the choices of others might make it impossible for our family to be together forever. He said, “You are worrying about the wrong problem. You just live worthy of the celestial kingdom, and the family arrangements will be more wonderful than you can imagine.”  --I am both lucky and blessed that Ryan took a chance on me, in spite of a rocky family history and some traumatic experiences in my past.  Together we can work towards our own Celestial family through consistent time and effort of putting the Savior first in our lives.  Not that we are anywhere near perfect in this.  This mortal life may be our test to prove ourselves to Heavenly Father, but through the atonement of Jesus Christ, it’s an “open book” test with chances for repentance to fix mistakes and many opportunities for help along the way- if we live worthily.  And it isn’t easy.  Challenges always come.  One of my favorite quotes from Jeffrey R Holland is this: “Expecting a trouble-free life because you are a good person is like expecting the bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian.”
Before entering the temple, one needs to be already keeping the commandments and be ready to make and keep sacred covenants with the Lord.  Once we receive our own ordinances, we can go back and act on behalf of our ancestors and others who did not have the opportunity to have these saving ordinances.  We are blessed when we go to the temple and those blessings are not limited to the time spent in the temple.  We are blessed in all aspects of our lives.  Our labors in the temple strengthen and refine us.  President Thomas S Monson in his talk “The Holy Temple- A Beacon to the World,” says this: “The world can be a challenging and difficult place.  We are often surrounded by that which would drag us down.  As you and I go to the holy houses of God, as we remember the covenants we make within, we will be more able to bear every trial and to overcome each temptation.  In this sacred sanctuary, we will find peace; we will be renewed and fortified.”
I love to go to the temple.  I love the peace it brings to my life and the guidance I can find there for my life.  I also appreciate the spiritual “sunshine” boost I get from going during the cloudy and dreary winter months.
I’d like to end with this quote from President Nelson’s talk: “With each ordinance is a covenant- a promise.  A promise made with God is not restrictive but protective.  Such a concept is not new.  For example, if our water supply is not clean, we filter the water to screen out harmful ingredients.  Divine covenants help us filter out of our minds impurities that could harm us.  When we choose to deny ourselves of all ungodliness, we lose nothing of value and gain the glory of eternal life.  Covenants do not hold us down, they elevate us beyond the limits of our own power and perspective.”
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.