Desert Hills Sacrament Meeting 7/19/09

June 27th. A lot happened today, and I don’t feel much like thinking about it, let alone writing about it. But President Heber J. Grant says keeping a journal of our daily doings is important, so I better get it done.

It all started this morning when my sister, Charity, was holed up in the privy with a catalog and I had a discomfort worse than I can ever remember. So I cornered a mouse in the root cellar, put it into a fruit jar, and dropped it through a hole in the bathroom wall.

Charity came screaming out of there madder than bees in a poked hive! She chased me from one end of the farm to the other, but I ran so fast that she couldn’t get close enough to me to do anything more than yell. So she commenced to throw rocks. . .

Afterward, the [next] thing I saw was Charity—with the little box of marbles I’ve been collecting since I was six years old.

She was standing just outside my open window, holding up the box so that I was sure to see it. I ran outside, but she was gone. Then I saw her by our pet pig Thaddius’ pen. He was wallowing in the mud, which was nice and oozy from last night’s rain.

Charity smiled at me and threw my collection into the mud. By the time I got to the pen, Thaddius had stomped and rolled over the marbles good, and I could only find eight of my twenty-two.

I said some hurtful things to Charity and spent the next little while in my room, thinking of ways I could get even with her. And when she walked by my room, she gave me a look that said if I did any of them, I’d soon wish I’d never been born!

After lunch, Mama said that she needed Charity and me to go to the city with her. She needed me to help load the car with groceries and to crank it up. And she needed Charity to choose some material for a dress.

The drive to Salt Lake City takes about an hour. It was real quiet the whole way except for when Mama talked about getting along with one another. . .

We’d finished shopping and started for home when the car broke down. Some kind men helped us push it up the street to an automobile shop, and the man there said that he’d have it running again in a couple hours. Mama wanted to wait on the temple grounds until it was ready, so that’s what we did.

Mama and Papa were married in the Salt Lake Temple, and she said that outside of heaven or home, it was the best place to be. It is pretty there. It looks like a place where God would like to visit. Mama says that He has visited all His holy temples. Mama told Charity and me that we could go wherever we wanted to go on Temple Square, but to not leave it. She’d find us when she was ready to return to the shop.

Neither one of us wanted to do anything together, so Charity went one way and I went another. I would’ve enjoyed it more if Charity and I hadn’t been so angry at each other. It kind of ruined the feelings that kept trying to grow in me.

[After wandering the grounds of temple square], just as I was turning the corner of the temple, I ran into Charity. We both just stood there and stared at each other. Then she began to cry. She hugged me and said she was sorry. I said I was sorry too.

It was late in the day when Charity, Mama, and I left Salt Lake City for home. I looked back at the temple. It stood as tall as a fine memory against the gold sky.

Mama didn’t have to fill up the silence with talk on the way home, because Charity and I didn’t leave her any room. We talked about everything, especially the temple. What we had seen. And felt. Especially what we had felt. Mama just listened, nodded, and smiled.

Ray Goldrup, “Getting Even,” Friend, Jun 1993, 43

That story was taken from the Jun 1993 issue of the friend. Who of us have not had a day when some argument or negative feeling was all we could think about? When we were tormented by a family member or the atmosphere at home wasn’t peaceful. Often, the resolution comes when we find away to replace that negative spirit with one of peace, understanding and forgiving. Luckily, there are several ways to regain that spirit in our homes and with our families. These include scripture study, spending quality time together listening to good music and a variety of other ways.

One major way to maintain a level of peace at home is to attend the temple. Elder Gary Stevenson of the Seventy said “There exists a righteous unity between the temple and the home. Understanding the eternal nature of the temple will draw you to your family; understanding the eternal nature of the family will draw you to the temple."

President Boyd K. Packer counseled: “Say the word temple. Say it quietly and reverently. Say it over and over again. Temple. Temple. Temple. Add the word holy. Holy Temple. Say it as though it were capitalized, no matter where it appears in the sentence.

“Temple. One other word is equal in importance to a Latter-day Saint. Home. Put the words holy temple and home together, and you have described the house of the Lord!”12

We all know from experience that creating a successful home environment takes a lot of work and cooperation. If the temple is the house of the Lord, then he has given us an example of how our own homes could be. But when we wonder how to improve our lives at home, do we think to compare our homes to temples?

Elder Stevenson shared the following experience: Recently, in a stake conference, all present were invited by the visiting authority, Elder Glen Jenson, an Area Seventy, to take a virtual tour of their homes using their spiritual eyes. I would like to invite each of you to do this also. Wherever your home may be and whatever its configuration, the application of eternal gospel principles within its walls is universal. Let’s begin. Imagine that you are opening your front door and walking inside your home. What do you see, and how do you feel? Is it a place of love, peace, and refuge from the world, as is the temple? Is it clean and orderly? As you walk through the rooms of your home, do you see uplifting images which include appropriate pictures of the temple and the Savior? Is your bedroom or sleeping area a place for personal prayer? Is your gathering area or kitchen a place where food is prepared and enjoyed together, allowing uplifting conversation and family time? Are scriptures found in a room where the family can study, pray, and learn together? Can you find your personal gospel study space? Does the music you hear or the entertainment you see, online or otherwise, offend the Spirit? Is the conversation uplifting and without contention? That concludes our tour. Perhaps you, as I, found a few spots that need some “home improvement”—hopefully not an “extreme home makeover.”

Whether our living space is large or small, humble or extravagant, there is a place for each of these gospel priorities in each of our homes.”

As we know from experience in our own homes, life isn’t always peaceful. While I can take the time to sit in silence in the temple, silence can be hard to come by at home. While the temple is clean and orderly, sometimes at home the dishes are undone, or toys are left out, or clutter accumulates. Some days we may feel that there simply isn’t time to do the spiritual things that we know we should. However, these things do not mean that the spirit of the temple can’t reside with our families. Or that when we lose that spirit, we can’t gain it back.
In Doctrine and covenants 109:8 we are counseled: Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. This description can apply to the Lord’s house our houses.

So, how do we more fully turn ourselves to the temple?

As pointed out by Elder Stevenson, The First Presidency has invited “adult members to have a current temple recommend and visit the temple more often” where time and circumstance permit and encouraged members “to replace some leisure activities with temple service.” They also encouraged “newer members and youth of the Church who are 12 years of age and older to live worthy to assist in this great work by serving as proxies for baptisms and confirmations.” Even our young children have been encouraged to visit the temple grounds and touch the temple. President Thomas S. Monson once counseled, “As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.”

One thing that has helped our family is to have a picture of the temple in our home. My three year old daughter knows that the building in the picture is a special place called the temple where mom and dad go. The picture reminds all of us of the spirit of the Lord.

While the temple can help us to create peace in our earthly homes, it is the eternal nature of the family that is foremost in our temple covenants. President Boyd K. Packer stated, “The ultimate purpose of all we teach is to unite parents and children in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are happy at home, sealed in an eternal marriage, linked to their generations, and assured of exaltation in the presence of our Heavenly Father.”

Elder Russel M Neilson shared the following story: I remember well an experience I had as a passenger in a small two-propeller airplane. One of its engines suddenly burst open and caught on fire. The propeller of the flaming engine wasn’t moving anymore. As we dropped in a steep spiral dive toward the earth, I expected to die. Some of the passengers screamed in hysterical panic.

Miraculously the steep dive put out the flames. Then, by starting up the other engine, the pilot was able to get the plane under control and bring us down safely.

Throughout that ordeal, though I “knew” death was coming, I was not afraid to die. I remember a sense of returning home to meet ancestors for whom I had done temple work. I remember my deep sense of gratitude that my sweetheart and I had been sealed eternally to each other and to our children, born and raised in the covenant.

The Lord has said, “Fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full” (D&C 101:36).

I realized that day that my marriage in the temple was my most important accomplishment. Honors bestowed upon me by men could not approach the inner peace provided by sealings performed in the house of the Lord.”

Again, as Elder Stevenson said: “Understanding the eternal nature of the temple will draw you to your family; understanding the eternal nature of the family will draw you to the temple.”
When I study the relationship between family and the temple, I know that there are great blessings that come from starting a family with a temple marriage. I am grateful to have had that experience and I hope a temple marriage for my children. I also know that there are many successful, wonderful, loving marriages that exist without being temple marriages and that marriage in the temple does not alone guarantee happiness.

My grandmother has always been a member of the church. She married my grandfather in 1954. And they have been married for almost 55 years. They have had a good life, they’ve traveled together, raised three sons together, and experience much of the success that life has to offer. My grandfather joined the church in 1997, over 40 years after their marriage.

My grandmother has mentioned that especially at first, it was difficult to hear people at church talk about the temple. But, by attending the temple herself a calm peaceful feeling came into her life. My Grandfather went through the Salt Lake Temple on the 21st of March, 1998. On that same day, my Grandparents were sealed and their three sons were sealed to them. My grandmother said the following: “We now have an eternal family as long as we all remain faithful. That had to be the happiest day of my life. Kneeling at the altar across from Grandpa and the boys with us was beyond joyful. Many, many happy tears were shed. I was treated at the temple as though I were a new bride. I have enjoyed a completely different life following this. It has been so good to have a companion that takes me to the temple, rather than going by myself. And I went many times alone. We now share in this wonderful blessing. . . Grandpa has been "on the run" spiritually every since and I am now running to keep up.”

I love my grandparents deeply and now we are linked in an eternal chain. We were a happy family before. I loved my grandfather before he joined this church and I love him now. The knowledge that we have the potential to be together as an extended family forever brings a new joy and peace for me. I have felt the unity of my extended family grow and know that the temple has been a central part of the unity we now feel. My grandmother has left me a legacy of love, patience and faith by holding true to her beliefs even without knowing how her personal story would turn out. Understanding that my family can be eternal helps me keep those standards that allow me to enter the temple. When I attend the temple, I am reminded that my family can be eternal.

I would like to close with a story shared by Elder Stevenson: He recalls a Saturday when his Father picked him and his sons up for a Saturday drive. They went beyond the city to a place where the young boys had never been before. The grandfather asked “Do you think we are lost?” Then Elder Stevenson says:

Followed by a moment of silent assessment came the profound reply of a young child. “Look,” he said, pointing his finger. “Grandpa, you are never lost when you can see the temple.” Our eyes turned, focusing with his, seeing the sun glistening off the spires of the Logan Temple, far across the valley.

You are never lost when you can see the temple. The temple will provide direction for you and your family in a world filled with chaos. It is an eternal guidepost which will help you from getting lost in the “mist of darkness.”1 It is the house of the Lord.2 It is a place where covenants are made and eternal ordinances are performed.

I would like to add my testimony that we are never lost when we can spiritually see the temple. Let us make our homes a place where the spirit of the temple can be felt and used as a guidepost to prevent us from becoming lost.

Testify.