Well I don't have too much time this week but I would like
to share with everyone something that was confirmed for me this week.
I had the opportunity to sing at the civil wedding of an investigator
and his wife this weekend. While sitting there as they took their vows, I
pondered in something that our mission president had shown us a couple months
back in regards to saving ordinances.
He had drawn six circles in a pattern very similar to a rock
climbing wall. He then drew a couple of lines and labeled the circles starting
at the very bottom with baptism and ending with marriage in the Temple, also
known as a Temple Sealing. Much like this
Temple Sealing
Endowment
-----------------------------
Melchizedek Priesthood
-----------------------------
Sacrament
Confirmation
Baptism
He then told us that we as missionaries are focusing a lot
on this first part (below the bottom line) and how sometimes people get stuck
there. The thing is in order to achieve the highest degree of glory and live
with our Heavenly Father after this life, a man must receive the Melchizedek
Priesthood which a woman does not need to obtain. And then everyone must obtain
their Endowments and be sealed in the temple for time and for all eternity.
These things are ESSENTIAL to achieve Eternal Life.
As I was pondering this I thought of the importance of the
Temple. Our own temple, the Montreal Temple, has been closed for my entire
mission so far for renovations and has been announced to open in November. This
announcement has given us a wonderful opportunity to testify of the blessings
of a temple and how it is a building wherein we receive sacred ordinances that
allow us to live with our families for eternity and to live with Heavenly
Father after the coming of the last days.
Growing up it feels like I did not understand the importance
of the temple, and I was just beginning to cherish it when I was whisked away to
the wonderful land of Quebec where there is no temple for the time being.
Ironically this has made me cherish it even more. I know now that the Lord
loves his children and wishes them to come back to him. In order to do so and
live with our families for eternity we must be baptized by someone holding the
proper priesthood authority and then given the Holy Ghost through the
confirmation, which ordinances we then receive and renew when we take the
sacrament every Sunday. And then we may receive those ordinances that are so
cherished and holy that can only be made in the holy temple of the Lord.
I know and I can testify that the Lord loves his children
and he has provided them a way for them to return to him through the sacred
ordinances that we make a take a part in. I know that this church is true and
it holds the fullness of the gospel and that through this we have the true
power of God and by this power we may be baptized, confirmed and receive the
holy covenants in the temple and be sealed for all time and eternity with a
family who we love and they love us. I am so grateful to be a member of this
church and to be a missionary out here sharing these wonderful truths. And I
leave you with these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment