Hello ladies and gents! For any who may have missed it, here's my farewell talk. I hope perhaps it may touch some soul, and I hope perhaps it may be yours. God bless.
Introduction
Introduction
Buenos días,
mi familia y amigos, mi hermanos y hermanas! {Just kidding. I don’t
actually know Spanish.} I’m Lexi Hewitt, and I’m headed for the Peru Lima West
Mission. I leave Wednesday for the Peru MTC, and in case you haven’t noticed, I
am EXCITED. In my musings about two months ago I was contemplating the day when
I will finally one-up my mother and become General
Relief Society President. I decided that when I first speak in General
Conference I will speak on the topic of temples. As temples are very dear to my
heart and so are all of you good people, I figured that perhaps in the meantime
I should speak to you about temples!
As I prepared my talk, I found that I wanted, or rather needed, to place an
emphasis on the sealing ordinance and eternal families.
Primary resources: Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple,
Preach My Gospel, “The Holy Temple: A Beacon to the World” by Thomas S. Monson
from May 2011 Ensign
What is the Temple?
“In the temples members of the Church who make
themselves eligible can participate in the most exalted of the redeeming
ordinances that have been revealed to mankind. There, in a sacred ceremony, an
individual may be washed and anointed and instructed and endowed and sealed. And
when we have received these blessings for ourselves, we may officiate for those
who have died without having had the same opportunity. In the temples the
sacred ordinances are performed for the living and for the dead alike. Here is
the baptismal font, where vicarious baptisms for the dead are performed, with worthy
members acting as proxy for those who have gone beyond the veil.”[1]
The
ordinances of the temple can be broken down into about four basic chunks:
Baptism: worthy members 12 years
of age and older may participate in the vicarious ordinances of baptism and
confirmation for the dead
Initiatory (washing and
anointing): blessings preparatory to our receiving the endowment
Endowment: “The endowment and
the temple work as revealed by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith…fall
clearly into four distinct parts: the preparatory ordinances; the giving of
instruction by lectures and representations; covenants; and, finally, tests of
knowledge.”[2]
“[We] are endowed with, or are given, a gift
of power and knowledge from on high. This power helps us in our daily lives and
enables us to build God’s kingdom.”[3]
Sealing: Husbands and wives are
married and sealed, and sons and daughters are sealed to their parents for time
and for all eternity
“My
brothers and sisters, temples are more than stone and mortar. They are filled
with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. They are
sanctified by sacrifice and service.”[4]
The
temple is also a place of reflection, a safe haven away from the noisy world.
Therein we can feel our Heavenly Father’s presence and receive personal
revelation from Him through the Spirit. I have felt this truth especially in
the San Diego and New York City temples, which are both right on very busy
streets. The difference between the craze of the outside world and the quiet
spirit within the temple is astounding and especially meaningful here.
Picture
for a moment the temple at night, or even at those 5:30 AM sessions. “The house
of the Lord, bathed in light, standing out in the darkness, becomes symbolic of
the power and the inspiration of the gospel of Jesus Christ standing as a
beacon in a world that sinks ever further into spiritual darkness.[5]”
In the temple we learn in symbols. As we come with questions in mind and
willing to learn, the Spirit teaches our hearts. For the rest of my talk I
would like to speak to your hearts, and ask that the Spirit may help me in
doing so.
Why does Heavenly Father Want Us There?
Life doesn’t begin with birth, and it doesn’t end with
death. Each of us is a spirit son or daughter of a living God, who has the
boundless capacity to love every last one of His children. We lived with Him
before we came to this earth. He sees us, takes an interest in us, and wants
more than anything for us to one day return to Him. He states that His work and
His glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”[6]
We are truly His greatest creation, and His whole purpose is to bring us back
home to live in His presence.
“Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through
the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father in
Heaven and how familiar His face is to us.”[7]
I know that before I came to this earth I had a relationship
with God, and that I am able to rebuild that relationship with Him as I
experience mortality. This relationship gives me strength to make the right
decisions.
While we are here in this probationary state, we have the
power to exercise our free agency and make choices. Each little choice we make
takes us either one step forward or one step back. We are given the Holy Ghost
to help us make the decisions that will guide us toward our Heavenly Father.
Sometimes the Spirit will prompt us to do things that don’t
really make sense, or perhaps seem too difficult for us to accomplish on our
own. This is where the Savior steps in, and through His atoning sacrifice we
are made capable to bear the burdens which are placed upon us. The Atonement
grants us the courage and strength to do our Father’s will, if we will give Him
our hearts and most sincere efforts.
After we die, we go to the Spirit World. From there we will
be resurrected like unto Christ, wherein “the spirit and the body is restored
to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and [we] are
living souls, having a perfect knowledge[8].”
With this perfect knowledge we are brought before God to be judged. If we have
chosen to follow our Savior Jesus Christ while in this life, have put off the
natural man, and have become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient,
full of love, [and] willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to
inflict upon [us][9],”
we may enter into His rest in the Celestial Kingdom to dwell with God and our
families for eternity.
The ordinances performed within the walls of the holy
temples are redeeming. If we keep the covenants we make there and are faithful
to the commandments of God, we are promised eternal life. We partake of these
blessings for ourselves, and then we do so for the souls of those who did not
have the opportunity in this life. They are then free to choose whether or not
they will accept those ordinances performed on their behalf.
In a talk titled “The Joy of Redeeming the Dead,” Elder
Richard G. Scott emphasized the blessings that accompany temple service. He
said, “Do you young people want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the
adversary in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors,
prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the
temple, and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them to receive the
ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.[10]”
As we make ourselves worthy to enter the temple, we are
blessed for our obedience and diligence in keeping the commandments. And once
we are able to go there, our consistent and meaningful temple attendance brings
forth even more blessings not only for ourselves and our families here on the
earth, but for generations of ancestors who have been waiting hundreds of years
to receive the ordinances of the temple.
How can we Become Worthy?
Elder Robert D. Hales said in the April 2012 General
Conference, “Worthiness to hold a temple recommend gives us the strength to
keep our temple covenants. How do we personally gain that strength? We strive
to obtain a testimony of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the
reality of the Atonement, and the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith and
the Restoration. We sustain our leaders, treat our families with kindness,
stand as a witness of the Lord’s true Church, attend our Church meetings, honor
our covenants, fulfill parental obligations, and live a virtuous life. You may
say that sounds like just being a faithful Latter-day Saint! You are right. The
standard for temple recommend holders is not too high for us to achieve. It is
simply to faithfully live the gospel and follow the prophets[11].”
As I began preparing to serve a mission, I was generally
under the impression that missionaries are interviewed so thoroughly because
bishops are afraid they’ll accidentally send out young men and women who are
going to wreak havoc and spiritual destruction upon the innocent people in
their mission areas. Personal worthiness seemed to be the focal point, but it
wasn’t until an inspired mission prep teacher gave a particular lesson that I
really understood why. He told our valiant little class without batting an
eyelash,
“Repentance is more important than serving a mission.”
Missionaries receive their endowments before entering the
field. With this simple sentence I realized that I wasn’t just cleaning up my
act so I could preach the gospel without a guilty conscience, but so I could
enter the temple with a pure heart and make sacred covenants with my Heavenly
Father, which will not only give me power as I teach and throughout my life but
will make it possible for me to
return to Him someday. This understanding helps me feel the importance of
everyday repentance and being worthy to go to the temple every week.
The Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple pamphlet offers the
basic answer for how and why we get ready:
“The ordinances and ceremonies of the temple are simple.
They are beautiful. They are sacred. They are kept confidential lest they be
given to those who are unprepared. Curiosity is not a preparation. Deep
interest itself is not a preparation. Preparation for the ordinances includes
preliminary steps: faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation, worthiness, a
maturity and dignity worthy of one who comes invited as a guest into the house
of the Lord.[12]”
“‘Come to the temple.’ If not now, come soon. Pray
fervently, set your lives in order, save whatever you can in hopes that that
day may come. Start now that sometimes very difficult and discouraging journey
of repentance. The temple transforms the individual and makes abundantly
worthwhile any efforts made to get there.[13]”
In my own preparations to come to the temple, I received
what I felt was a mighty change of heart. Before, I had planned to go because
it was “just another step” on the course to my mission. With this attitude I
felt okay with coasting through interviews with my singles ward bishop,
skimming over the details that seemed insignificant, because I knew my heart
was in the right place despite where it may have been in the past.
Not coincidentally, Brother Weiss taught our mission prep
class about personal worthiness the day after I was supposed to receive my mission call. Not coincidentally, my
assignment was delayed a week and a day past the date I had been told to expect
it. Not coincidentally, my mom and Chris had planned a trip to visit my sister
Mookie in Las Vegas; their flight left the morning of the Thursday my call came
in the mail. Not coincidentally, an unbelievable snowstorm prevented all my
ever-patient family members from traveling through the canyon to witness the
opening of my call on Sunday night, and Mom and Chris’s return flight was sent
back to Las Vegas and I was left to stare at the large white envelope on my
kitchen counter until 12:30 in the morning almost 4 days after I had received
it, when Mom, Chris, and Andrew got home and I couldn’t contain it any longer.
Not coincidentally, as I waited and waited and waited for two weeks following that fateful mission prep class,
those words echoed through my mind:
“Repentance is more
important than serving a mission.”
As I carried my call around with me for the few days prior
to opening it, I knew I wanted to do so with a completely clear conscience. I
wanted to serve whomever the Lord instructed me with full purpose of heart, and
I especially wanted to enter His house worthily. So before opening my call on
that blizzarding Sunday night, I met with my bishop and got rid of the
skeletons in my closet.
For me, this was the final step in my repentance process.
For someone else, it may be the first step on a very long road. But I testify
to you that it is so worth it. Repentance is more important than going to that
party. Repentance is more important than simply going through the motions of
the gospel. Now, repentance isn’t an excuse to put off cleaning your room or
mowing the lawn. Repentance is the means by which we come to the temple and
come unto the Lord, who is the means wherewith we may obtain eternal life.
Sealing Families for Eternity
Where would be the joy of eternal life if we had not our
families with us? Sure, my brothers call me Shamu at the dinner table and my
mom and dad live in separate counties and my social life is generally
tyrannized by my little sister, but I love
my family: all four parents, all eight grandparents, all nine brothers and
sisters, and too many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and
animals to count. We, like every family, have had our fair share of trials and
miscommunications, and yet these are the people whose company I look forward to
enjoying throughout eternity.
The restoration of the power to seal is portrayed in the
temple preparation teacher’s manual in a way that I found easy to understand:
[Malachi 4:5-6
Matthew 16:19
D&C 110:13-16
“From that very day, April 3, 1836, the hearts of the
children began to turn to their fathers. Thereafter ordinances were not
tentative, but permanent. The sealing power was with us. No authorization
transcends it in value. That power gives substance and eternal permanence to all
ordinances performed with proper authority for both the living and the dead.”
Thus we have on this earth today a prophet, Thomas S.
Monson, who holds the same keys given by Jesus Christ to the prophet Elijah.
“That sacred sealing power is with the Church now. Nothing is regarded with
more sacred contemplation by those who know the significance of this authority.
Nothing is more closely held. There are relatively few men who hold this
sealing power upon the earth at any given time – in each temple are brethren
who have been given the sealing power. No one can get it except from the
prophet, seer, and revelator and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints or from those he has delegated to give it to others.[14]”][15]
I have a personal testimony of the sealing power. My mother
and father were married and sealed to each other and my older brother, and I
and my younger brothers were born into the covenant. Chris and his wife, Nan,
were married and sealed to their five children. Now my mom and Chris are sealed
as well as my dad and Heidi. I know that eventually my little sister, Mookie,
will be sealed in the temple and our family will be complete. I am so grateful
for this understanding and know that the sealing power is indeed real.
It is stated in the Doctrine and Covenants that “that same
sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be
coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.[16]”
Does not this assurance give us reason to rebuild broken bridges, mend broken
hearts, and repair broken relationships within our families? Perhaps what
you’re hearing from me now is one of those promptings from the Spirit that seem
quite impossible to accomplish. Jesus taught in such a situation, “With men it
is impossible; but with God all things are possible[17],”
and further explicated, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth.[18]”
We know that we cannot do what our Heavenly Father requires
of us without seeking His assistance and that according to our faith that
assistance will be given us. Nephi exercised such faith when he said, “I will
go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord
giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way
for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.[19]”
Furthermore, Christ admonishes to “ask, and it shall be
given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you.[20]”
There are some family situations which look nothing short of
desolate. Many of my family’s problems seem like a walk in the park when
compared to some of the things I’ve seen outside of our home. I testify that Jesus
Christ is the Hope of the hopeless. He overcame grief, sorrow, sin, and death and
was resurrected so that we may obtain the same blessings for ourselves. He does
not wish for us to live forever in pain or in hatred toward one another. His
commandment to love one another was not meant to be used solely for our friends
or bosses or teachers or parents of dates we’re trying to impress. We are
commanded to love God and then love one another within the walls of our own
homes before any other.
If we are willing to humble ourselves, to fall on our knees
and ask simply for the courage to do God’s will, we are promised that it will
be given unto us. It isn’t always going to be easy; in fact, it may never be easy, but the blessings of
eternity are more than worth every effort made to gather our families in love
and bring them to the temple.
Testimony
We are children of a loving and living God. Through the
Atonement and gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, we are able to return to live in
His presence, clothed in immortality. This gospel was restored to the earth by
the first prophet of this last dispensation, Joseph Smith. He truly saw God the
Father and Jesus Christ, and by their power received the priesthood keys and
translated the Book of Mormon, which is the word of God. Thomas S. Monson is a
living prophet of God on the earth today, who, along with his counselors,
receives revelation for the entire world. I testify that by giving heed to the
counsel of the prophets and making ourselves worthy to enter the temple, we
will seal up the blessings of eternal life unto ourselves and our families.
If I may, I’d like to make a personal challenge to each of
you. We are all in different places in our lives. Some may attend the temple
several times a week, some may be coming to church for the first time in weeks
or months or years or ever, some of you may be holding on to the last shred of
your testimony. But I know without any reason to doubt that every last one is a child of our
Heavenly Father. He loves you. He wants you to return to Him. I want you to
leave here with that in mind, but don’t take my word for it. Ask Him, and He
will answer.
Of this I so testify in the sacred name of our Savior Jesus
Christ, amen.
[1]
Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, p. 1
[2]
Dr. John A. Widtsoe, “Temple Worship”
[3]
Preach My Gospel, p. 86
[4]
Thomas S. Monson, “The Holy Temple – a Beacon to the World”
[5]
Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, p. 10
[6]
Moses 1:39
[7]
President Ezra Taft Benson
[8]
2 Nephi 9:13
[9]
Mosiah 3:19
[10]
Richard G. Scott, “The Joy of Redeeming the Dead”
[11]
Robert D. Hales, “Coming to Ourselves: The Sacrament, the Temple, and Sacrifice in Service”
[12]
Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, p. 2
[13]
Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, p. 1
[14]
Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, p. 24, 26
[15]
Endowed From On High Temple Preparation Seminar: Teacher’s Manual,” p. 33
[16]
D&C 130:2
[17]
Mark 10:27
[18]
Mark 9:23
[19]
1 Nephi 3:7
[20]
3 Nephi 14:7
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