The Greatest Love Story in the Universe

Today is Valentine's Day. It's the season of love. We spoke yesterday in our sacrament meeting at the request of the bishopric. They asked us to address the topic of eternal marriage and eternal life. 

So that started me thinking about what the greatest love stories in the universe might be. Would we think about a famous couple in history like Cleopatra and Mark Antony? Or Robin Hood and Maid Marian? Or maybe the fictional characters of Romeo and Juliet? Or Joseph and Emma Smith? Or how about John and Abigail Adams? What about Abraham and Sarah? Or even Dave and Patsy?

Then I looked a little deeper into the ramifications of love. It has to be more than platitudes in cards and candy shaped like hearts, or boxes of chocolates and dozens of roses. The greatest love of all involves a willingness to sacrifice all for the ones we love. If you're me, it could mean making a bed with way too many throw pillows on it. It means forsaking all others and focusing our affections on those for whom we have such natural affinity that we will willingly give all for them regardless of the cost.

Given those simple thoughts, I have to conclude that the greatest love story in the universe involves the love our Father in Heaven exhibits for each of His children in offering to them exaltation through the intervention and atonement of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Over the span of a lifetime it has settled on my heart that the magnitude of that gift is truly incalculable. Through Him we overcome spiritual and physical death. Would any of us like the role of being the Father and standing by as He watches His Son brutally tortured and nailed on a crude wooden cross and hung to die while bystanders ridiculed and tormented Him? Or would any of us volunteer to take the Savior’s place as the One crucified for all the sins of all the children of God? The cost seems too enormous to pay, either as the Father or the Son. But each paid that cost for us.

When we are born into mortality we come as William Wordsworth expressed it:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,

          Hath had elsewhere its setting

               And cometh from afar;

          Not in entire forgetfulness,

          And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

               From God, who is our home:

We lived as premortal spirits with our Father in Heaven. We knew Him. We spoke with Him. We were tutored by Him. Pure and innocent we were, but we yearned for a mortal experience where we could take upon ourselves a physical body and learn to distinguish for ourselves between good and evil. We knew there were risks, and we knew there would be hardships to endure, but none of that deterred us. We knew since the fall of Adam and Eve that a Savior and Redeemer would be provided to allow us to repent and do better day by day if our faith in Jesus Christ were in evidence. We knew we would be free to choose. We were among the seraphic hosts of heaven who shouted for joy when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden into the lone and dreary world. As we grow and develop, experiencing all the challenges, trials and temptations of mortality, we can be forgiven if we wonder now what everyone in heaven was shouting for joy about.

We progress to the day of baptism, when we pass through a “gate” and enter into the covenant path that stretches out before us as far as the eye can see ahead. We hear it referred to as “the strait (or straight) and narrow path” and we are anxious to walk in light and truth. (See 2 Nephi 31:15-21).We are given the promise of a spiritual guide, even the Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, as our constant companion to help us discern between truth and error. We stumble along the path in spite of our gift of the Holy Ghost, and we are surprised at how weak we are in our mortal bodies, but we get back up and continue walking in faith.

As we fail at this or that endeavor in life, we are reminded of the blessed assurance that we are redeemed in this world as soon as we repent. But the atonement is not reserved alone for sinners. We can find comfort in the days of our fears, our anxiety and our disappointments of all sorts. We are promised divinity lies ahead of us in spite of ourselves or the unkindness of others. So we struggle on, at times feeling all alone, in the hope deliverance can be obtained.

We wonder how we, so feeble and pathetic, can possibly be worthy of such heavenly intervention, but we grow and develop until we meet our eternal companion and we go to the temple of the Lord together. We are amazed at how marvelously delicious this other person is, as though he or she was the part we had been missing that now makes us complete. Truly, this is love, we think. There can be nothing better than this, we assert.

We marry in God’s temple. We are promised eternal life, or the life which God our Father lives. Indeed, “Eternal” is one of His names. We can live “Eternal’s life” if we are faithful to the gospel covenants we make. We begin this step in our progress by taking upon ourselves the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. We are “sealed” to one another. I love that word “sealed”. There is something so permanent in the word. We are sealed for time and for all eternity with power to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed in glory, immortality and eternal lives. 

We are also admonished to “cleave” unto one another in marriage and to become “one flesh.” We are commanded, “Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.” (D&C 42:22). Jacob also promises, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you." (Jacob 6:5). “Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.” (D&C 49:16). We are told if we are faithful we “shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths.” (D&C 132:19). 

But the sealing is conditional, conditioned upon being sealed by the holy spirit of promise. (D&C 132:19). None of us can deceive the Holy Ghost. When he places his seal of approval on our sealing, then it is binding. The promises in the sealing ceremony are big ideas. There is nothing small about it. There are no half-measures. What more is there beyond what God promises - that we will become in time joint-heirs with Christ possessing ALL that the Father hath.

Back in December, Patsy and I were on Temple Square. We looked down into the gaping chasm surrounding the Salt Lake Temple as it is thoroughly being renovated. The banner on the fence proclaims, "Thinking Big." I looked at the scope of the current project and I thought, "Yes, President Nelson is indeed thinking big here." Then just as quickly I had the thought that President Brigham Young must have also been thinking big back in his day. What in the world would have possessed him to consider such an enormous task of building that temple in the middle of nowhere? But Brigham had a vision. He saw that magnificent structure standing where he designated with his cane that it should stand, and they set to work. For forty years those early pioneers toiled at the task without any readily available materials, tools or engineering expertise. Brigham was thinking big, indeed!

Brigham described his vision of the Salt Lake Temple:

This I do know - there should be a Temple built here. I do know it is the duty of this people to commence to build a Temple. Now, some will want to know what kind of a building it will be. Wait patiently, brethren, until it is done, and put forth your hands willingly to finish it. I know what it will be. I am not a visionary man, neither am I given much to prophesying. When I want any of that done I call on brother Heber - he is my Prophet, he loves to prophesy, and I love to hear him. I scarcely ever say much about revelations, or visions, but suffice it to say, five years ago last July I was here, and saw in the Spirit the Temple not ten feet from where we have laid the Chief Corner Stone. I have not inquired what kind of a Temple we should build. Why? Because it was represented before me. I have never looked upon that ground, but the vision of it was there. I see it as plainly as if it was in reality before me. Wait until it is done. (Brigham Young, April 6, 1853 General Conference, Journal of Discourses, Vol.1, pp.132 - 133).

Then I recalled how details of the creation are given in each endowment session in the temples. It's not merely His prophets who are big thinkers, the God of Heaven, Jehovah and Michael were also big thinkers. There is nothing small about their plans for us. We are promised that all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are ours if we follow the covenant path leading to exaltation and eternal life. These are all big ideas, much bigger than we are capable of obtaining on our own. The Abrahamic Covenant is summarized in the Pearl of Great Price, (Abraham 2:8-13). How many stars in the heavens, and how many sands on the shores? Big ideas if you're numbering your posterity in eternity.

And then the children begin arriving in our home. They bring joy unsullied and uncompromised. They grow and eventually they leave us behind to take up their life journeys. We are sad to see them go, but we are also exhilarated to see them take their place in the world without us. Sometimes we see them stumble and sometimes they are saddled with health challenges and they suffer often for years without relief. We see our families sometimes bruised, broken, fractured, and we wonder how any of these promises can possibly be ours to claim. And then we remember that we worship our Redeemer. He mends broken things. We must trust in Him.

And we can pray for them, and we can enlist the faith of those faithful saints who attend the temples and offer prayers for their well-being. We can extend our love and affection. We often wish we could ease those burdens and erase that suffering. In short, we become more and more like our Father in Heaven as we pursue parenthood in mortality, preparing the physical bodies for the spirits created by God and Jesus Christ. (See Moses 1:39). We participate as partners in the creative process by creating the mortal bodies for the eternal spirits of our Father in Heaven to possess: “For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” There can be no immortality or eternal life without first obtaining a physical body from our earthly parents.

Truly, there is nothing greater as a demonstration of a Father’s love for His children, than holding out for us an inheritance that spans beyond this life. We can take nothing of this earth’s treasures with us when we die, but in the dying we step forward into the eternal realms ahead and a vast realization of blessings beyond imagination. The magnitude of our blessings is on a scale as unimaginable as staring down into the excavation around the Salt Lake Temple and wondering how any of it can ever be put back together again. Brigham Young had the vision of that building, and so does President Russell M. Nelson. 

How can there be any greater love story than this?

Hiding from God Under our Pavilions

President Henry B. Eyring

I have been preparing to give a lesson to the high priests tomorrow. The assigned October 2012 General Conference talk is one from President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency. He titled it "Where Is the Pavilion?" It was the anguished question Joseph Smith once asked while he was incarcerated in the dungeon cellar of Liberty Jail in the cold damp Missouri winter of 1839. He believed God had abandoned him.

There are times in our lives when we, like Joseph Smith, feel betrayed and abandoned by God. President Eyring suggests God never abandons us. Rather, it is we who separate ourselves from His loving watch care and desires to bless us by what President Eyring defined as "a pavilion of motivations." It's an interesting choice of words. What is it about our motivations that separate us from God? He expanded with the thought, "Our own desires, rather than a feeling of 'Thy will be done,' create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God."

"God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time," observed President Eyring.

This matter of submitting our will to the will of our Heavenly Father is tricky stuff, to be sure. It seems God is determined to help us understand that we, as little children, must submit our will to him "as a child doth submit to his father," since it comes up so often in Holy Writ. In another passage, we are admonished, "Cast off your sins, and [do] not procrastinate the day of your repentance; . . . humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest." (Mosiah 3:19; Alma 13:27-29).

Being submissive and meek makes us keenly aware of our blessings. I felt to say based upon my own life experiences with President Eyring, "I was blessed to know that whatever success I had in my career and family life was a gift from God."

This week marked a "dubious" milestone for Patsy and me. Our eldest grand-daughter Tessi gave birth to an infant daughter. They named her Quincy Aida Wood. That makes five generations of our family now living on planet Earth! What a breathtaking thought! This little girl threatened an early arrival a couple of months ago, but as we united our faith and prayers as a family on her behalf her delivery was delayed until she could be born full-term at a healthy 8 lbs. 1 oz. with a full head of black hair! I don't think we ever recover from the miracle that is birth, no matter how many times we witness it. And our gratitude finds a way to expand exponentially.

Sometimes we lose sight for a season of our blessings. President Eyring suggested that happens when "[our] desires for professional success might have created a pavilion that would make it hard for [us] to find God and harder for [us] to listen to and follow His invitations." He reflected, "My personal ambitions might have clouded my view of reality and made it hard for me to receive revelation."

As you reflect on your own life, how often can you find a time when "my desire to know and do His will gave me a soul-stretching opportunity?" I thought of one in recent years. My world had turned upside down almost overnight when a long-sought fulfillment was snatched away at the finish line. I found myself adrift in the aftermath of the worldwide financial meltdown, having to search for employment late in life.

I reached out for help from the Employment Resource Center sponsored by the Church. To make a long story shorter, I was invited to accept a calling with Patsy as a senior missionary couple to serve as the Chair of the Professional Placement Program. I found it so ironic. I wasn't considering myself retired and certainly not eligible to be called a "senior" missionary. I still had years of work ahead of me. However, I learned a valuable lesson about service. It could not have come at a worse time in our lives. I needed to focus on my own employment needs. How was I to be able to give precious time I didn't feel I had to serve others in their search? As I helped others network into new opportunities, I found few were helping me. "Where was I to find answers to my own problem?" we wondered frequently. I learned that service to others of any kind is rarely convenient.

As the months in that assignment unfolded we found marvelous fulfillment not only in helping others, but it seemed our own prayers were being answered. Marvelous lasting relationships with those we served were forged out of the fires of our shared adversity. I was fond of reminding those who showed up week after week, "Look around, you're in good company. Don't let your temporary unemployment situation define you."

And so it was. My heart was drawn out continually as I watched the suffering of those we served. My own appreciation for my blessings was heightened. I found joy again. From the joy came new hope for the future. None of it happened overnight. In fact, it has taken years since it all happened to fully appreciate just how blessed we have been. And isn't that true for all of us? We are rarely able to discern the blessings while we are in the crucible of our suffering. Only looking back do we fully appreciate that we were not consumed in the fires of adversity, only singed a little.

I also learned perhaps the most valuable lesson of a lifetime. "We can't insist on our timetable when the Lord has His own." While we often have an agenda for goals being reached on the timetable we set for ourselves, God is often interested in a completely different timetable with eternal objectives. We are in such a rush to get things done here and now, and He is willing to wait upon the harvest a bit longer. Said President Eyring, "We remove the pavilion when we feel and pray, 'Thy will be done' and 'in Thine own time.' His time should be soon enough for us since we know that He wants only what is best."

It seems God is willing let us simmer on the back burner as long as it takes for us to submit. He is willing to be invited to move us to the front burner when we are ready to accept His judgment for what is best for us. "Submitting fully to heaven's will. . ., is essential to removing the spiritual pavilions we sometimes put over our heads. But it does not guarantee immediate answers to our prayers." And I found that to be the case also. When you're building for eternity, it takes time for the cement to cure a bit in the weather.

Who could doubt the time it took for Abraham and Sarah? God had purposes in mind that had to be fulfilled first before the promised blessings were realized in their lives. "Those purposes included not only building Abraham and Sarah's faith but also teaching them eternal truths that they shared with others on their long, circuitous route to the land prepared for them. The Lord's delays often seem long; some last a lifetime. But they are always calculated to bless. They need never be times of loneliness or sorrow or impatience. Although His time is not always our time, we can be sure that the Lord keeps His promises." I wondered how many childless couples there are today, and how many single women, who would give anything for the promised blessing of posterity. Sarah-like faith is to be prized as we wait upon Him. And that requires patience.

Paul reminds us, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:26-29).

Abraham-like, we are often required to remove our "pavilions of motivations" by waiting patiently upon the Lord for His promises to be fulfilled. The harvest will come, even unto the fifth generation. Of that, I am sure.

In Tribute to Patsy Hewlett Goates

Merilee and Patsy Goates

This week I've been living with two of my favorite women under one roof - my wife and our youngest daughter, Merilee. I realize in this circumstance three's a crowd, and I gladly accept my fate as a husband and father. They've been having way too much fun together, and I'm not about to spoil that by demanding equal time from either one.

We've been doing a lot of celebrating around here lately. Our 40th grandchild, Emma Lynn Goates, was blessed and received a father's blessing from her father, Andrew, last Sunday. She completes another circle of four generations of women in our family! We gathered in sacrament meeting where she was blessed and for a brunch following that coincided with Emma Lynn's mother's graduation from BYU. Congratulations Jessica!

Jessica, Peggy, Emma Lynn, Patsy

En route to the meeting, Merillee and BBF Kate got lost in Orem trying to find the building. After several attempts and text messages and conversations on cell phones trying to guide her to the meeting, they gave up and parked the car awaiting a rescue when the meeting was over. Her final text was classic, and provided an object lesson that will serve her well in the mission field: "We're tired of wandering around in circles, and we're lost. Will you PLEASE just come and find us and rescue us and show us the way back to Andrew's home when the meeting is over?"

Jessica, Emma Lynn, Andrew

The reason the object lesson is so profound is that Merilee will depart next week as the eighth missionary from our family for the Missionary Training Center in Provo, prior to her departure to the Washington D.C. South Mission, headquartered in Virginia. I reminded Merilee to treasure up in her heart the feelings she had as a lost soul, because it will help her identify with so many potential converts she will encounter on her mission.

It's all about perspective, and no one understood "perspective" better than Joseph Smith, unless it was the Savior Himself. Incarcerated against his will and falsely accused, Joseph Smith languished through the bitter cold winter months of 1838-39 in his dungeon temple - a Missouri hell hole ironically named Liberty Jail.

Liberty Jail

From his pen flowed these incredible words that follow, later canonized as scripture. These words illustrate the lofty revelatory heights to which an itinerant unlearned plow boy had risen in a few short years. One cannot read these words today and fail to be impressed with the prophetic insight Joseph possessed. The false claims and outrageous bigotry still raging today against him and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will someday have its end, but for the moment we can stand in awe of his prophetic tone:

And all that are in the magazines, and in the encyclopedias, and all the libelous histories that are published, and are writing, and by whom, and present the whole concatenation of diabolical rascality and nefarious and murderous impositions that have been practised upon this people —

That we may not only publish to all the world, but present them to the heads of government in all their dark and hellish hue, as the last effort which is enjoined on us by our Heavenly Father, before we can fully and completely claim that promise which shall call him forth from his hiding place; and also that the whole nation may be left without excuse before he can send forth the power of his mighty arm.

It is an imperative duty that we owe to God, to angels, with whom we shall be brought to stand, and also to ourselves, to our wives and children, who have been made to bow down with grief, sorrow, and care, under the most damning hand of murder, tyranny, and oppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts of the children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole earth groans under the weight of its iniquity.

It is an iron yoke, it is a strong band; they are the very handcuffs, and chains, and shackles, and fetters of hell.

Therefore it is an imperative duty that we owe, not only to our own wives and children, but to the widows and fatherless, whose husbands and fathers have been murdered under its iron hand;

Which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy.

And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart —


For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it —


Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven —


These should then be attended to with great earnestness.

Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lieth in futurity, pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things.

You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed. (D&C 123:5-17, emphasis mine).

Despite the opposition, we are still in a season of gathering, and it is a prolonged season because of the patience of God. We are gathering the gatherers still, searching for the predominant blood of the sons of Israel flowing in the veins of the descendants of Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. It is "believing blood." They are the good people of the earth who are searching to be reclaimed from their fallen and lost condition and to be brought into the light of the fullness of the restored gospel. They are lost and we know the way. They want it, but they simply do not yet know where to find it.

Merilee and all those 56,000 missionaries like her scattered throughout the earth today, will lead them one by one into the light, point the way to happiness now and everlasting joy eternally. She will lead them into the light and when they meet her they will find the missing piece in their lives explaining their mortal condition in simple and cogent terms even a child can understand. She will help lead them home to the stakes of Zion where safety and hope abide in the midst of a chaotic world gone mad. Oh, did I mention she's going to the belly of THAT beast in Washington D. C.? I love that part. . .

The other significant event this week was Patsy's birthday. I titled this post as a tribute to her. I am so grateful for this magnificent woman. As we sat at dinner with her mother the other night, I commented that the best thing her mother did in this life was giving birth to this choice daughter whom I married for time and for all eternity on a December morning many moons ago. She has welcomed thirteen choice and extraordinary children - one at a time. For twenty years she was bearing children. We once calculated the number of months (including miscarriages) she had been pregnant. It was a large number we have both blissfully forgotten as we entered grand-parenthood.

Together we have coached an All-Star team of superstars. We have walked together through sunshine and shadows. Each child is a unique creation, so similar in their extraordinary spiritual gifts, but so divergent in personality, temperament and talents. When asked which we love best, the simplest answer is whoever we're with at the moment.

We used to think we loved them so much when we were all together as a nuclear family, but as we now bid farewell to our youngest and we have witnessed the addition of spouses who outshine even our children, and they have in turn welcomed 40 grandchildren into the mix, we cannot say more than "our cup truly runneth over."

As a husband and father, it is Patsy to whom I owe everything in the joy and realization of all these supernal blessings. I've always said she did the heavy lifting on the homefront, and I did the easy part - I got to go off to work every day. Giving herself as she has through all these years to me, her children and now her grandchildren is what she has excelled at.

When we were younger and having our family, we were often reminded about how wicked the world was, and we were questioned routinely about whether bringing so many children into such a wicked world was well-advised. Now that they are grown, we can refer our critics to each of our children and have them ask, "Are you happy to be in such a wicked world, or would you have been better off never being born?"

I'm hoping they would all answer that mortal life has been considered a gift, having a physical body enshrouding their eternal spirit is a blessing, and the prospects of eternal life despite all the opposition is worth it all. Only as we bring children into this world and become parents ourselves do we begin to grasp the significance of the great plan of happiness. As a grandfather in my advancing years, I am only now beginning to understand the full implications of the word, "FATHER."

There's a magnet on our refrigerator door in the kitchen, bearing words from an unknown author:

"Yesterday is History,
Tomorrow a Mystery,
Today is a Gift,
That's why it's called the Present."

Every day for the next eighteen months, Sister Merilee Goates will give a gift of inestimable worth to the lost souls she encounters - she will give a present of herself as she has never given before.

Every day of her life, my beloved companion Patsy has given me a present of inestimable worth - the gift of herself. She has demonstrated that in the giving - only in the giving - is the getting.

So today, I pay homage to the two women under my roof, and in the case of the younger we wish her well as she embarks on her latest adventure.

To the older, I owe everything. Thank you Patsy.

My Ambassador to Washington D.C.

U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

The first week in May our youngest daughter, Merilee will embark on her LDS mission to the Washington D.C. South Mission. There is a sweet irony in her call to serve for this father who regularly writes about politics and religion. She will likely want to discuss politics before she leaves, but what she doesn't realize is that she will have no need of it for the next eighteen months.

Instead, Merilee's mission will focus on the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All she needs is laid out for her, and for that matter, all the world to see and understand in the four works of scripture published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. She will have the glorious privilege and matchless opportunity to ignore politics, even while she is living serving others voluntarily in the "belly of the beast."

When she was born, her mother and I had no trouble selecting her name. We had a dear friend, Merilee Tanner Preece, whom we had long admired and treasured for her kind spirit, her enthusiasm, and her gentility. Our Merilee was, as they say, "well-named." She has been a constant source of joy and happiness for us as her parents. She has had many and varied experiences since her graduation from South Summit High School in our little mountain community hamlet. She's been to SUU and USU as a student, and most recently she has been living in Sunnyvale, California, with an older sister and her family while she has been working to save for her mission. She is well prepared to take this next step. My father's heart is still wrenching a bit as I think about sending her out. It never seems to get easier, especially when it's a daughter who is leaving for the mission field. Sons, no problem. But daughters? It's just harder when you're their Dad and you remember them as that helpless little infant you once held in your arms.

So what advice do I have for her? It is simple, and can be summarized in the three words my father wrote in the front of my journal: "Service to Others." Not particularly original, and probably plagiarized from many independent sources, but nevertheless still serviceable as a motto to live by. Merilee has always served well. She was a SBO in high school, she was a camp counselor at Oakcrest, she has served others in many capacities since then, but one thing has always been consistent about her - she blooms where she's planted.

Sister Merilee Goates

As she leaves to serve her mission in Washington D.C., she will be thrust into the community where politics is a way of life every day for people with whom she will rub shoulders. Even if she weren't going to Washington D.C. she would find contention, anxiety about the future, and competing ideas for what is right and wrong.

The Book of Mormon offers precious insight:

But behold, there shall be many — at that day when I shall proceed to do a marvelous work among them, that I may remember my covenants which I have made unto the children of men, that I may set my hand again the second time to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel;

And also, that I may remember the promises which I have made unto thee, Nephi, and also unto thy father, that I would remember your seed; and that the words of your seed should proceed forth out of my mouth unto your seed; and my words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the house of Israel;

And because my words shall hiss forth — many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.

But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?

O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord have not forgotten my people.

Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?

Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.

Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.

For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.

For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it.

And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.

And it shall come to pass that my people, which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands of their possessions; and my word also shall be gathered in one. And I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever. (2 Nephi 29, emphasis mine).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be in Washington D.C. this weekend, meeting with President Obama and speaking at AIPAC tomorrow. Never before has Israel's physical existence been more threatened than it is right now with the prospects of a rogue leadership in Iran proclaiming their intentions to wipe Israel off the map. Iran is developing nuclear weaponry designed to do just that. Wars and rumors of wars, indeed! Our political interests as Americans are closely aligned with Israel's, but more importantly we are brothers in the family of Abraham, and we are brothers with all the descendants of Ishmael, including all who are of Islam, too. We are children of the same God.

Merilee will be taking the message of the restoration of the gospel in its fulness to the inhabitants of Washington D.C. at a critical time when that message has never been more timely. It is a message of peace and a promise of fulfillment, as we see in the quote cited above. It is a time of gathering, and nowhere in the United States is there a more representative melting pot for the nations than Washington D.C. and its environs.

We send her out with full confidence she will have an impact. Her message and her demeanor will change many lives for good. She is a gatherer, and she will gather many.

God promised he would not forget His promises made to father Abraham, and his descendants all these generations later who now reside in Washington D.C., whether they be Jew, Gentile, Muslim or Christian will be blessed collectively and individually by her service.

"I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever." And he's sending Sister Merilee Goates to deliver on that promise.

Mitt Romney, Daniel's Little Stone, and World Domination

Because Mitt Romney is running for President of the United States in this campaign cycle, much attention is being focused on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though he laid concerns to rest in the last presidential campaign about taking his instructions from 47 E. South Temple Street in Salt Lake City, much as John F. Kennedy would have to do when he was the first Catholic to run for the presidency, rumors and innuendo persist. What are the true aims of this upstart Mormon who would presume to have the American people put him in the White House? Is there a secret agenda among Mormons to control the world?

In a word, Yes. But it's not what you think.

In a previous post I discredited the infamous "White Horse Prophecy," and today I would make a further declaration now that Romney's candidacy has advanced to the point it has, making him the presumptive choice of the Republicans. It is this: With or without Mitt Romney in the White House, Daniel's prophecy about the little stone cut out of the mountain without hands will be fulfilled in its entirety. Mitt Romney or any other Mormon who runs and is elected to public office notwithstanding, the true prophecies and Daniel's interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream will come to pass. The little stone was interpreted by Daniel to be "a kingdom" that would begin rolling after being cut "from a mountain without hands" that would become larger as it rolled forth until it had filled the whole earth. (See Daniel 2:34-35, 44; D&C 65:2).

That little stone today is easily identifiable as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Orson Pratt, "Theocracy," JD 7:210). It began with six members in a log home in Fayette, New York, on April 6, 1830. Thus was born a "mini-nation within a nation." A branch of the house of Israel had been planted "in a good spot of ground" and would eventually flourish and spread forth. (See Jacob 5:25). It is the fulfillment of the promise made to Father Abraham, who was promised he would become the father of "many nations." (JST Genesis 17:8-9; Genesis 17:5).

President Gordon B. Hinckley

If the truth be told, with or without Mitt Romney, the Church has become a mighty empire, characterized in recent years by this statement by President Gordon B. Hinckley, who observed in 2005 the demise of the British Empire: "There is now another empire. It is the empire of Christ the Lord. It is the empire of the restored gospel. It is the kingdom of God. And the sun never sets on this kingdom. It has not come of conquest, of conflict, or war. It has come of peaceful persuasion, of testimony, of teaching, one here and another there." ("Opening Remarks," Ensign, November 4, 2005).

The enemies of Mitt Romney have nothing to fear. If they think for one minute by defeating him the little stone can be stopped in its tracks, or that it will alter or reverse its course by stopping his candidacy, they are sadly mistaken. With or without Mitt Romney in the White House, the destiny of the little stone's trajectory and the Church's role in it remains unchanged.

There was a time anciently when Israel was "a nation within a nation." (See Deuteronomy 4:34). By turning away from God's law, however, Israel lost her identity as a nation. (See Jeremiah 31:6). On April 6, 1830, however, Israel regained her status as a nation with the restoration of the gospel and the establishment of a latter-day kingdom. This kingdom was a spiritual kingdom in the beginning, not a political one, and not until the eventual return of the King of kings and Lord of lords will it become the universal nation referred to by Jehovah when He appeared to Abraham in Haran. (See Micah 4:3-7).

As early as 1832, in a revelation given September 22 and 23, we have this directive from the Lord:

And verily I say unto you, the rest of my servants, go ye forth as your circumstances shall permit, in your several callings, unto the great and notable cities and villages, reproving the world in righteousness of all their unrighteous and ungodly deeds, setting forth clearly and understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days.
For, with you saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms; I will not only shake the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble.
For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Amen. (D&C 84:117-120, emphasis mine).

The kingdom of God on the earth today is now worldwide in its influence, and it will continue to grow. Nothing can stop its forward momentum. Today, already, it fills "the whole earth." Temples dot the globe, an eventuality long foretold. One day it will be found in all nations -- a "nation within nations." It is because truth and light cannot be suppressed.

Joseph Smith

Said Joseph Smith, writing in 1842 to John Wentworth, Editor of the Chicago Democrat:

The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah will say, "The work is done.” (HC 4:535-40).

Even earlier in 1834, in Kirtland, Ohio, the Church still in its infancy, Wilford Woodruff told of the following event:

President Wilford Woodruff

On Sunday night the Prophet called on all who held the Priesthood to gather into the little log school house they had there. It was a small house, perhaps 14 feet square. But it held the whole of the Priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were then in the town of Kirtland. . . . When we got together the Prophet called upon the Elders of Israel with him to bear testimony of this work. . . . When they got through the Prophet said, "Brethren I have been very much edified and instructed in your testimonies here tonight, but I want to say to you before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies of this Church and kingdom than a babe upon its mother’s lap. You don’t comprehend it." I was rather surprised. He said "it is only a little handful of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America — it will fill the world.” (CR, April 1898, 57).

Two years later in dedicating the Kirtland Temple, the Prophet Joseph prayed, "that the kingdom, which thou hast set up without hands, may become a great mountain and fill the whole earth." (D&C 109:72).

Truman Madsen characterized another such audacious statement by Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, in these words:

President Brigham Young

There is from the earliest records of this man's [Brigham Young's] vision, incredible grasp. Imagine walking into this valley [Salt Lake], one tree, and it is dead. Stands up on a wagon the day after they arrived, a hundred and something people, opening line, "Attention the whole world." And then (paraphrasing), "We have come here to fill these rocky mountains. We have come here to establish, never to be thrown down, the kingdom of God on the earth. From this place the power and word of God will reach all mankind." And a few other humble and minor predictions like that. Brigham had the vision. (Lecture Three by Truman G. Madsen, Life and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Tape 2, Bookcraft, 1997).

President Heber J. Grant

President Heber J. Grant offered these insights on the future of the Church: "Our enemies have never done anything that has injured this work of God, and they never will. . . [A]nd all the disbelief of the world, all the opposition of all the world cannot stop it, God has established it and it will go on and on until it has fulfilled its destiny. . . The little stone cut from the mountain without hands is to roll forth and fill the whole earth." (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, Heber J. Grant, 216).

President David O. McKay

The worldwide reach of the Church began to blossom and spread under the administration of President David O. McKay. In 1952, speaking in General Conference, he said: "God bless the Church. It is worldwide. Its influence should be felt by all nations. May his spirit influence men everywhere and incline their hearts toward good will and peace." (Gospel Ideals, 584, emphasis mine).

The promises made to Father Abraham have come to pass already, and will continue to expand in the days and years ahead. In every sense the promise that the Lord would "make of [Abraham] a great nation," and the promise that through his seed "all the families/nations of the earth" would be blessed are being fulfilled. The seed of Abraham have become a nation within all the nations.

We must make clear the stone cut out of the mountain without hands has already rolled forth. It has had an impact upon nations and kingdoms. Even in recent months kingdoms of tyrannical dictators have continued to fall in succession. Since the restoration of the gospel in 1830, none has fallen through any force or violence by the Lord's emissaries who are among the seed of Abraham or Israel. Rather, all power and influence in the kingdom of God is exercised through the righteous use of the priesthood, "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge." (D&C 121:41-42). Priesthood power in this kingdom is something quite different than the abuses of power so prevalent in governments set up by men's hands. Richard L. Bushman put it well in his epic treatment of Joseph Smith, in these words: "The democratic concern about political power seemed beside the point when the power of the priesthood was the power of God." (Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling, 265-269).

The truth and light of the restoration of the gospel, now proclaimed by some 50,000 missionaries worldwide representing the Church, coupled with the light and majesty of the Constitution of the United States of America, are quietly and peacefully leavening the whole earth. (See Matthew 13:33; Mark 4:26-28; Luke 13:20-21; D&C 35:13-14).

People will push back on that statement that things are going forward "peacefully" since there is so much evidence of war and bloodshed. However, the Church has no control over the intrigues between nations, whether or not national borders are enforced. These conflicts have actually contributed to the spreading of the gospel among Abraham's seed and the spreading of Abraham's nation of believers within the nations in the midst of all the calamities that have befallen the world in the these last days. The days ahead will continue to add numbers to the ranks of those who will be weary of war, and they will increasingly turn to the stakes of Zion throughout the earth for safety. The City of Zion will someday be viewed as "terrible." "And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand." (D&C 5:14; 45:70).

The leavening of the nations continues, and never discount the influence of the constitutional government the Lord established in America. It was brought forth by good and wise men whom the Lord raised up for that very purpose. Its influence will continue to roll forth because the land of America was foreordained to preserve and protect freedoms throughout the earth. (D&C 101:77-80; 109:54).

So where is this notion of world dominion by the Mormons coming from? On the one hand it is God's kingdom rolling forth in fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, but it is also a Satanic copycat at work here, a demonic imitation of the real thing. Satan is offering up a counterfeit, and its earmarks are now more easily discerned. Ultimately, Satan's dominions on this earth will collapse in upon itself, because it is unsustainable. The little stone will destroy what is not destroyed by the wicked among themselves. Read this projection of the future, and then ask yourselves, "Is 'world domination' by the Mormons (if that is their aim) really such an awful specter compared to what might happen if the forces of Satan's counterfeit are triumphant?" You be the judge:

Paraphrasing three contemporaries of the Prophet Joseph Smith regarding the role of the Constitution in the Millennium: The other three seem to say, that this form of government, which the Prophet called a glorious standard, this Constitution which cost, according to our own scriptures, the best blood of the [18th] century, . . . this Constitution, which is a canape of guaranteeing certain basic rights in a republican form of government, will ultimately extend its influence worldwide. Other forms of government will eventually crumble, and in that sense if I read him correctly, the Constitution will win by default.
The only stable society that eventually will obtain, even in this glorious country of America, unless we repent, and there isn't a lot of evidence of that at the moment, . . . the only people that will be secure in both the spiritual and temporal senses, call it safety if you want, because Joseph did, will be in the stakes of Zion. Temporal as well as spiritual survival, will depend upon peoples clustering who do continue to uphold the Constitution, and who also honor, love and serve the God of his land, who is Jesus Christ. But eventually, and especially in the Millennium, world government will be literally based upon the Constitution. (Joseph Smith, as quoted and paraphrased in Lecture Three by Truman G. Madsen, Life and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Tape 2, Bookcraft, 1997, emphasis mine).

This great nation of Abraham will become more visible in the days ahead. We still have before us the building of the New Jerusalem. Among other things, Zion will be characterized as occupying all of North and South America. As it was in the days of Enoch, so shall it yet be: "The fear of the Lord was upon all nations, so great was the glory of the Lord, which was upon his people." (Moses 7:17). "The glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the Lord also shall be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it, and it shall be called Zion." (D&C 45:66-71).

It will not occur overnight, the ultimate fulfillment of these prophecies. However, with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the conversion of Judah, the return of the Lord in glory, and the establishment of two world capitols, one in Zion and one in Jerusalem, with the return of the inhabitants of the city of Enoch, it will someday be said that truly the nation of Abraham has been born "in one day." (Isaiah 66:7-8). This will just be the beginning of the physical kingdom over which the Savior will someday rule and reign when He comes again. In the meantime, all the priesthood keys that authorize the Abrahamic covenant now available to everyone on earth today without restriction, reside in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every day of their lives, faithful Mormons are conspiring for the salvation of the whole human race. It is a conspiracy of love, and the participants are the covenant people of modern Israel, and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah. To the descendants of Ishmael he is Allah. When His true identity is someday known, He will be reigning and ruling among us.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Said Elder Bruce R. McConkie: "This kingdom is going to grow and increase, multiply and abound, and nothing can stop it, until the day comes that it will be both an ecclesiastical kingdom and a political kingdom, and it will govern in all things - spiritual, civil, temporal, and political." (CR, October 1958, 116).

Conclusion:

For all the printers' ink that is being spilled on Mitt Romney these days, and for all the people who fear those "cultists" - the Mormons - let it be known now and forevermore: The God of Abraham is doing everything within His awesome power to spread the truth about the salvation of God to every nation, kindred, tongue and people living on earth today. They are all His children. He would have them live in peace among one another, even if it means they will have to suffer mightily to learn the lessons that war can so cruelly teach. The land promised to the descendants of Abraham, including the children of Israel and Ishmael, will someday be cohabited in peace by Palestinian Arabs and Jews.

With or without Mitt Romney as the next occupant of the White House, the kingdom of God will roll forth until it has filled the whole earth. While Romney's candidacy is tantalizing to most members of the Church, he is doing everything he can to disavow how his presidency might be linked to the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have just outlined in broad brush strokes what that doctrine is.

But Mitt Romney, I emphasize, or any other elder of Israel, has little to do with its ultimate fruition. A true theocracy transcends the petty political machinations presently before us. What we are witnessing today is political theater, having little to do with the prophecies described in holy writ.

We as a Church are the little stone Daniel saw and interpreted in King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. We are the lineal descendants of Abraham with all the birthright blessings of the covenants. As members of the restored Church we are almost all descendants of Joseph, the birthright son of Israel, through Ephraim and Manasseh. We invite all to come in at the expansive tent door of Abraham, and we do mean ALL. In the tent of Abraham there is room for EVERYONE. That's "world domination," Abraham-style.

And it has little or nothing to do with Mitt Romney's candidacy. It might matter to Mitt whether or not he's elected, but whether Mitt Romney is eventually elected as President of the United States or not will have little impact on the final victory of the family of Abraham, the establishment of Zion, and the triumphal Millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

That knowledge of the final outcome has been "out of the bag" for a very long time, and it's no secret conspiracy.