Eternal Families

This has been an interesting week. I've finished up my first year of medical school, which was definitely tough, but worth every minute of it. In the midst of this, two very sad events happened. On Thursday afternoon, one of my beloved Institute teachers passed away. Sister Hunsaker was full of life and love. Her family has always been very supportive of me since I joined the church. I especially loved learning from her insight weekly at Institute. We were working on Isaiah. Then, on Friday, President Thomas S. Monson's wife passed away in the morning. So, death has touched some very important people recently.

On the flipside, this weekend I'm going to a wedding and a wedding reception. It's very interesting how things work out, how both joy and sadness can be intermingled.

I have been very impressed with the strength that the Hunsaker family has been showing. They are strong, and are that way because of the sacred covenants that they have made. Brother and Sister Hunsaker were sealed in the temple many years ago. When a husband and wife get sealed in the temple, it is for all time and eternity. Most other weddings that I have gone to, or heard of, have the line, "til death do us part", while in the LDS faith we use the line "for all time and eternity". The family is a quintessential part of God's plan for our lives, and for our happiness.

The family unit can be sealed, or bound together for all eternity. This sealing is mentioned in Matthew 16: 19, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The Hunsakers know that they have been sealed together, and that they will be reunited after they die, and I can imagine how glorious a day that will be.

The family is such an important part of God's plan of happiness for us. God wants us to be happy. Just like in the beginning when God created Adam, He knew that Adam needed a help mate, so thus Eve was created. Man and woman were always meant to form that bound, and it should be done in a holy and respectful way. When the pair are routed in Christ, their love gets changed. It becomes less about what the individual wants for themselves, but more for the partner, as they both strive to act, and follow the Savior. This is such a beautifully designed plan. Made in the beginning, and available to those in the present. God is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The principles that founded his original family are still in place today.

I pray that many people will be able to experience this happiness and joy. I know that I am looking forward to that day. I also pray that the Hunsakers, and that the Monsons will be comforted in their time of grief, and that they may always remember to look eternally, for that joyous reunion.

My Institute class.

Endurance

This post is going out a day late because I had the wonderful opportunity to have my local missionaries, Elder King and Elder Beames, skype their families yesterday at my apartment for Mother's Day. I had my friend Matt over, so that the missionaries could enter my apartment. It was great to see the love and joy come over the missionaries faces as they got to reconnect with their loved ones. For those of you who don't know, missionaries are allowed to email their loved ones once a week, and call/skype twice a year (Mother's Day and Christmas).

The end of last week was really hard on me. I was missing a dear friend of mine exceedingly, missing the missionaries that had taught me my lessons, that were present at my baptism, and just struggling in general. It was really starting to get me all frazzled and upset. On Saturday morning, I received a text from Elder Beames, asking me if I could contact his mom to figure out what time would work best to skype the family. As I called him back to get the specifics, I broke down on the phone to him. I didn't like how I was feeling, had prayed about it, and wasn't quite sure what to do. Elder Beames, bless him, gave me some really sage advice. He told me to pray before I read my Scriptures (which I normally do), but this time to pray and ask God to guide me to where I should be reading. Elder Beames told me that an Apostle had once said that when we want to talk to God, we pray; when we want God to talk back to us, we read our Scriptures. So, I did what he suggested to do. I honestly didn't think it would work, but I thought I would humor him. I really need to have stronger faith.

After I prayed, I randomly opened up my Scriptures, and it opened up to the Topical Guide, and on the right hand side was the word "Endure", followed by a ton of references. I immediately thought, Wow, that is exactly what I need to work on: enduring, enduring through the hard times, enduring through the good times, enduring until I return back to my Heavenly Father. As it is stated in the 13th Article of Faith, "We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" (emphasis added). A couple other references that stood out as I was flipping back and forth from the guide to them were, 3 Nephi 15:9, "Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life" and James 5:11, "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." As I was reading, one of the times I overshot the page for "endure" and hit the topic of "love". When I read that word, and realized that God was, once again, reminding me of how much He loves me, I was overwhelmed with the Spirit.

God spoke to me, through His Holy Word. I should never have doubted that He could do that. Elder Beames reminded me of an important lesson that originally Elder Colvin and Elder O'Laughlin had taught me. Life will not always be easy, life will be very hard, in fact at times, but how we act during the difficult times, really does matter. As they taught me, Christ's resurrection provided a bridge over my inevitable physical death. But then, since "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God", the sin is what is keeps me from quickly overcoming Spiritual Death. Thankfully, God, in His infinite mercy, provided saving ordinances to allow us to return back to Him. These are: faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It is important that all of endure, and that we endure life well, that we may be able to be an example to those around us. 

Temples

Let me start off by saying that I really like temples. I have only been able to go to two so far, Palmyra and Boston, but they are awesome. I truly agree with the statement that temples are places where heaven and earth meet. They are sacred, holy places. I have definitely felt God's presence so much stronger whenever I do work there.

But, what exactly do I mean by work? Plain and simple, it's helping those who have passed on with ordinance work. Okay, so what's an ordinance? Ordinances include: baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, endowments, and sealings. Since I have only been a member for a relatively short period of time, I can currently do baptisms and confirmations. I can be baptized in the place of women who have lived before me and have since died. The temples normally have a bunch of names submitted from family members who can't do all the ordinance work themselves.

To best explain it, I will use excerpts from my diary from December 1, 2012:

Let me just say, Palmyra is beautiful...The temple was more on the small size. It's a pristine, white stone building with stained glass windows and an angel on the top. On the building it says, "Holiness to the Lord." I was unprepared for what I was going to witness inside. We stepped in (wearing church clothes), and we are immediately greeted by a figure in white. In fact, everyone in the temple wears long white clothing. Plus, it's pretty quiet. We were directed to where we could could until it was our turn to use the baptismal fount. We were given white jumpsuits...to put on. Then we sat and waited as a female youth group came in. In the baptistry, there were paintings on the wall of Jesus getting baptized and person (maybe Joseph Smith) having hands laid on his head to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once everyone was changed, the President of the Temple came forward and explained how things would work and the significance of it all. Of how, those who died have another chance for missionaries to come to them to teach and be converted. the work that we do in the temple we do as proxies.

Then we sat down by the fount to wait to do baptisms. The fount is a large size and is supported by 12 white oxen, representing the 12 tribes of Israel...I just remember feeling such peace and joy wash over me as I was dunked. I know Heavenly Father was smiling down on me. Then I got out of the fount to be confirmed...I am so thankful that I went. It was then surreal to change out of the white jumpsuits into normal clothing. I felt so at home in the temple. Once there, I didn't want to leave.

Diane and I outside of the Palmyra Temple in Palmyra, NY.

I later had the great opportunity to join the local missionaries in Nashua, NH to go do baptisms in the Boston Temple. It was so much fun, and such a great experience. I was baptized for 27 people that night.

Me outside of the Boston Temple in Boston, MA.

This summer, I am planning on going temple hopping. I'm going to see how many different temples I can visit and do work in. I will also be doing actual paying work as well, but the temple trips will be a good refresher, a way for me to plug back in to the Spirit. And I know that I most definitely want to be married in the temple. Temple marriages offer so much more, and are complete, and everlasting, that there is no way I would miss out on that opportunity. I encourage those that hold temple recommends to go do work in the temple, and to do it frequently. Your lives will definitely be blessed. I know that mine has.