Insights gained from my glimpse of the past

Woman Praying

Woman and Her Talents

partnership and milestones

play

Raising sons

and daughters

Passing on traditions and heritage

A witness sealed with blood

Sacrifice and dedication 

Light emitting from darkness-- Joseph recording revelations received at Liberty Jail

And everywhere the beauty of God's good earth and the evidence of his love.

I received some insight into what it means to be me, and into what the work is, that is being done through the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ on the earth, as a result of my trip to Missouri and Illinois this past August.  One of the missionaries in Nauvoo mentioned, at one point, that each time the Saints completed a temple in an area, that mob violence increased against the church at that place, to the point that the members of the church had to move on.  Thinking back about the locations we had visited up to that point, I recalled how at each location where the Saints had established a settlement, that the cornerstones of a temple were immediately set, and that the city was established around it.  Not all of those temple sites became actual temples, but on the other hand, they each remain, to this day, dedicated land, with nothing on it but temple cornerstones.  Even in the case of the Nauvoo Temple, which was built and then defiled by mobs and fire and finished off by lightning, the land upon which it stood was considered sacred by another church, and nothing was built thereon until The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was able to return and re-build the Nauvoo temple on that spot, as it was intended to stand.  Even after the Saints had left the boundries of the United States and had settled in the Salt Lake Valley, they were threatened by an army at one point, and had to bury the temple foundation.  Satan, I concluded, was very determined to destroy this small body of Saints before they could establish themselves, and especially before they could establish a temple.

Why, I asked myself,  is the existence of temples so upsetting to Satan?  The answer is, of course, that they have the power to undo all, or at least much, of his devilry.  They are the key to Christ's plan to save mankind.  They hold within them the power to unlock the gates of the spirit prison and set free the souls of mankind through Christ's atonement and the ordinances that are attached to it--saving ordinances and sealing ordinances.

It is easy to underestimate the importance of who you are, and of your place in the world, when you grow up in a small town.  It is doubly so when your entire state is seen by many as a place that is backward and odd by the rest of the society in which you live, including, at times members of your own faith.  However, while visiting church history sights, I pondered upon the type of people that made up the early founders of this church.  They were sometimes educated, sometimes not.  They were often poor, but sometimes not.  They had one thing in common however, they were willing to submit in all things to the will of the Lord, as revealed to them by a prophet, and confirmed to them by the spirit of the Holy Ghost which they received.  They were determined, united by a common cause, and tested through trial.  The heritage which they earned and handed down to us, their posterity, was not based on great worldly prestige, or wealth, or honor.  Instead, they gave up what they had acquired of these things.  What they had of worldly wealth, they dedicated, to the building up of the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth.  They passed to us, their posterity, instead of riches and worldly aclaim, the mission of building up a kingdom of God on the earth that could be received by Christ upon His return.  This was their great desire--Their great obsession. They learned obedience and faith in God's mercy through the things that they suffered.  They did not welcome Christ to the earth, as they may have expected to do, but instead, they established for their posterity a place of sanctuary, a place where a people could become established; where a theology could become ingrained; where precious temples could be built; and where prophets could live to advanced years beloved by their people, and accomplish great things.  This church was not destined to be a small rock in a desert place apart from the world.  It was meant to fill the earth.  Through my growing understanding of these things, I  began to realize and to become much more keenly aware of the importance of my place in the world, and of the value of my inheritance as a member of Christ's church, and a descendant of these valiant pioneers who fulfilled their earthly missions with honor, and passed to us the blessings of the gospel, and the saving ordinances of the temple.

keys and callings

Looking forward in faith

We are as the armies of Helaman.  We have been taught in our youth.  And we will be the Lord's missionaries, to bring the world his truth.