Today, I Will Write

Once you reach a certain age and you are "retired" from the work-every-day world, you have more latitude than you ever imagined. You awake each morning to greet a new day with a clean slate just waiting for your input. You can sleep in if you choose. You can call a friend you haven't seen for awhile and go to lunch. If it's summer you can play a round of golf. You can go to the temple if you can get an appointment, and if you live by several temples as we do you can choose which one to attend. You can read your new favorite book. You can research a topic that interests you. Life seems to bristle with new opportunities. You can call and visit with a child or grandchild on their birthdays, or visit their world of sports when they play the games they love. Or you can wake up with the thought, "Today, I will write."

And that's what I feel impressed to do today. Several thoughts have been tumbling around in my head, itching for expression.

Salt Lake Temple

First, we are living in a day of ongoing revelation. This is troubling to some, but not to me. Many of the temple ordinance workers with whom we served in the Salt Lake Temple were so proficient in the endowment ceremony and had of necessity memorized every word of the dialogue. Many do not like comfortable things around them to change. The closing of the temple for extensive renovations was for many a difficult end of an era, as they realized many of them would not live long enough to ever see it reopen. They get used to doing things a certain way, and they love the thought that what they know is steady state and predictable. Policies change, procedures are altered, technology is introduced to supplant older manual ways of doing things. Missionaries now call home on each preparation day to their families, something we never did in my era. I remember being called many years ago as a ward clerk at the time the Church introduced digital records and computer programs into the wards. Membership records, home and visiting teaching assignments and financial records were now computerized. Being a ward clerk was not a calling to which I had ever aspired. Then, it dawned on me that few if any others in the ward were familiar with computers at that time and that was likely the only reason I was called to assist in that transition.  

President Russell M. Nelson

Second, I have rejoiced exceedingly with the last five years of acceleration in the pace of the Church under the inspired leadership of President Russell M. Nelson. I don't think he's left a single stone unturned in seeking for ways to improve, streamline, clarify and amplify the teachings of the gospel which have been entrusted to him. Try this simple exercise to see what I'm talking about. Go back into the Ensign and then the Liahona (or the Church website) since President Nelson has become the President of the Church. Isolate his sermons, print them out, compile them sequentially, then study them intently. It may take you weeks to do, but the effort will be worth it. You will discover, as I have, the pure revelatory channel that has opened up. I remember saying to my sons and daughters after that first General Conference over which he presided and conducted, "Well, he is not going to be just a caretaker President of the Church." Little did I know how accurate that insight would prove to be.

Joseph Smith (1805-1844)

Third, if there is one area of emphasis that dropped out of that exercise for me it has been the emphasis on temple work by President Nelson. Joseph Smith's prophetic declaration that the Church would one day fill the entire earth when the entire priesthood was gathered in one small room over the Newell K. Whitney store is being realized in our day. The gentle, loving and kindly invitations to prepare ourselves more spiritually for participation in temple work leap out of his sermons. The number of temples now announced or currently under construction or renovation has now reached 300 worldwide. There are now 416 full-time missions that dot the globe as the Church gathers Israel on this side of the veil. The acceleration is nearly impossible to comprehend. He told us early in his administration to take our vitamins and put on our running shoes, and he has led by example. He is God's prophet on the earth today.

The Christus

Fourth, if you haven't been to the temple in some time, prepare yourself by getting your recommend updated and go. You will discover not just a "new and improved" version of temple worship, but more importantly, you will be immersed and endowed spiritually as never before. You will be shown the history of the world and your place in the ongoing work of salvation, epitomized by the life of the Savior. You will be instructed with an endowment of knowledge. You will be assured of the reality of repentance and forgiveness. During that first General Conference, April 2018, President Nelson observed, "One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will. The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children." 

President Monson, L. Brent Goates

Fifth, the newest edition of the endowment ceremony as found only in the dedicated temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a modern-day testament for all those with eyes to see and hearts to understand just how revelation operates in the Church and in our own lives. As I sat reverently in the last endowment session we attended, I felt awash in the power of the Spirit. I could envision clearly the Prophet Russell awake in the middle of the night, pen in hand at his bedside, taking down the words of the endowment, then taking those words to his Brethren of the First Presidency and the Twelve for their sustaining vote. You will feel as I did the confirming witness that what is being done in the work of the temples worldwide is coming straight from heaven. Not that it has not always been that way historically, but now it carries more power spiritually than ever before. 

In this Church we testify of the ministering of angels among us. Those angels are more often than not our deceased family members. Now residing in the spirit world while their physical bodies rest in the earth, they are teaching others the precious truths of the gospel. Sometimes they will draw near to us and impart messages of inspiration, comfort, counsel and guidance if our hearts are attuned to theirs.

Such was my experience this past week coming on the heels of our endowment session. Still basking in that revelatory light, I had a dream in which my father who died several years ago appeared unexpectedly at my side. He looked much younger than his 93 years on earth would have indicated by his slumped over posture and gnarly back. Now in my dream he stood erect, energetic and youthful before me. We had a wonderful visit together, as he reassured me of his feelings of satisfaction over our shared posterity. The words he conveyed were "obedient" and "courageous," and he told me how pleased he was with each of them. He was aware that the following day we would be baptizing our eight-year-old granddaughter Vivienne Goates. He also reveled with me in the births of a new granddaughter, Fern Josephine Goates, great-granddaughter Rosemary Johns, and great-grandson Brooks Lee Jach, all of whom were blessed by their fathers and given their names recently. There was a thorough review of each child, grandchild and all the great-grandchildren. I was having an intimate "personal priesthood interview" with him, and he was beaming throughout our visit together. I came away from that experience with the firm conviction that even though we do not rise to the level of perfection on this side of the veil, it is sufficient for him and our Heavenly Father and Jesus that we are trying to do our best. That's what pleased him so much - that our reliance on the Savior's perfection is sufficient to save everyone. 

In dreams, as you may have also noticed, words are not spoken as much as a free-flowing communication takes place. Knowledge is exchanged, comfort is offered, the rich realization that life goes on beyond the veil of death is confirmed. My father is not one "who is dead," but rather lives on in the spirit world. He had the sealing keys conferred upon him late in life by President Thomas S. Monson, and then he served as a sealer in the Salt Lake Temple. I know by his visit to me that he is still very interested in the ongoing sealing up of his posterity on this side of the veil. In fact, he shared how their work in the spirit world is limited to teaching the gospel. The ordinance work is done here in mortality, and they in the spirit world are dependent upon us to provide that effort to establish those family links. Increasingly, there is little or no distinction separating the spirit world from the physical world. He wanted me to share his message of hope for all our family to hear. 

There may be some who leave the covenant path for a season, or maybe they are indifferent for awhile, but he reassured me they will return because the offering of eternal life is so compelling that few will reject it. The sealing ordinance has power to claim even the wayward through the merciful forgiveness available to those who repent. In the end of our interview he confirmed there is nothing more important than loving one another and sustaining one another as we travel through life together. Everything that swirls around us is nothing more than background noise. The gospel of Jesus Christ provides the common denominator for each family member. As we live our lives here in mortality we are given the opportunity to become literal "saviors on Mount Zion," as we do our part in the delivery of the saving ordinances to all our kindred family members who are now living in the spirit world. The work has never been easier to identify who they are. We often speak of "taking their names through the temple," but it is so much more than that. We are blessed to have the constant reminder of our own covenants as we officiate in the saving ordinances for our ancestors, and they are blessed with the affirmation of our love for them by providing the labor of love to seal them to us and us to them.

Never in my life has the reality of linked arms together to gather Israel on both sides of the veil been more comprehensive and more spiritual. The living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson is gently, lovingly, and consistently setting the agenda for us to embrace. As you review his sermons over the past five years, notice how many times he "invites," not "commands" that we follow.