The House of the Lord in Logan, Utah

 

I was in Logan, Utah, last week to attend an endowment session. I have been drawn there, and I'm not certain why except to say it's been many years since I have been there. This time it was the HDOY to date in Utah this year, and it was a wonderful respite on a crystal clear day without a cloud in the sky.

These pioneer era temples in Utah are monuments to our pioneer ancestors who built them. The intricacies in the workmanship are everywhere to be seen both outside and inside. I am constantly struck with the happiness I see in the faces of the people who attend the temples. I am an eyewitness of what I see in them, and I hope I project the same happiness in my face as I greet them.

With each session I attend, I come away with one or two impressions that remain with me. This week, I was impressed to remember "Health in the navel, marrow in the bones." Our physical bodies are the habitation of our eternal spirits that were created by our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother. We are encouraged both in our observance of the Word of Wisdom, and in the ordinances of the temple to cherish these bodies we possess, so our days may be lengthened while we are on the earth. I love the thought that mortality is and can be a fulfilling and blessed state in which to live if we are true and faithful to our covenants.

In Logan last week, I observed so many elderly saints who filled the session. There were some young people too, now that school is out for the summer at Utah State University. I am struck with how many of those young people are serving as ordinance workers. The encouragement of President Russell M. Nelson is surely the catalyst for what I am witnessing no matter which temple I attend these days.

After the session, I had a strong impression to do something totally enjoyable. I stopped along my way home for a visit to Maddox Ranch House just south of Brigham City. Unbeknownst to me they are celebrating their 75th year anniversary this year, almost as old as me. I was not disappointed in my menu selection of a perfectly prepared filet mignon. Being fed spiritually and physically on the same day is an unbeatable feast!

In the space of a month's time I have gone from southern Utah to northern Utah to attend temples, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey. We are so blessed here in Utah to have the many choices we do to attend the temples. There is little in life that brings me a greater sense of happiness and joy as I contemplate the family members for whom I am serving as proxy in these ordinances. I had a name last week of a seventh-generation great-uncle who was born in 1620 in Scotland. I can't help wondering what his life must have been like as I perform these ordinances. Imagine it! 

Sometimes I fear we might wonder if the divine mandate to gather Israel on both sides of the veil just isn't a pipe dream that could never possibly be fulfilled. But remember, life in the spirit world still lies ahead of us and the work of temples will be accelerated for 1000 years during the Millennium. The God of the Universe whom we worship and in whom we trust, has the timetable. I seek progress toward the goal with every session I attend in every temple I visit.

There are some parents I know who are lamenting the fact they have children who have left the Church for a season of inactivity. They are saddened and they seem to lose hope as they witness the ongoing poor choices that attend those children. I have tried to encourage them by sharing my devout belief that life is eternal in its nature. This moment in eternity for us is too often punctuated with temporary sorrow and grief, but I remind those parents our time here on earth is a small speck of dust in a vast landscape of eternal magnificence we can only catch a glimpse of on occasion as our eyes to see are opened from time to time. That's what those visits to the temple on a frequent rotation will do for us.

I was also in the Bountiful Temple last week, and happened to be on the same endowment session with President Jeffrey R. Holland. An ordinance worker rolled him quietly into the back of the room in a wheel chair after we were all seated, and after the session ended he waited patiently as we all went through the veil ahead of him. He embodies what a true servant-leader is. 

I thought as I observed his smiling face that it's never too late and we are never too old to attend the temple. Who can doubt the fervor of his witness and his testimony as we hear him speak? 

He no doubt brushed against the veil this past year with the simultaneous passing of his beloved wife Pat within days of the passing of my dear Patsy. Once we walk alone after a lifetime of companionship, there can be many days of loneliness and sorrow. I have experienced those days, and I know exactly what President Holland is experiencing too.

But, there is hope for the future when we are a covenant-making and covenant-keeping people. There is nothing that bolsters that hope and conviction as much as performing those sacred and simple ordinances for our deceased ancestors, and I believe there will be few, if any, who will not accept that proxy work we do for them. They are grateful, and the peace we feel from them is payment enough in my estimation.

If you are some of those parents who pray for and long for your children to return to the fold of activity in the Church, please know you are not alone. I pray for you and for your loved ones that they may migrate back to the oasis of ever-flowing waters of truth and fulfillment within the Church. 

Life is eternal, and truth in all its beauty will triumph! Even in the hearts and minds of those who may be considered lost sheep today.

How Can One Man Be So Blessed?

Allie, Dianne, Dad, Emily

Yesterday, I was in the Mount Timpanogos Temple with three of my daughters. We are pictured in front of a manger scene on a blustery day after our endowment session. It was the "warm before the storm," a fitting analogy when the sky was blue overhead and the temperature was warmer than normal for a winter day.

Today, in Pine Valley where I live up in the mountains, I awoke to blowing snow. The temperature had plunged to 20 degrees. 

I am always in awe of weather patterns here in Utah. A few years ago for the first time I learned about "atmospheric rivers." That's where the upper level wind patterns set up in a direct path that points directly at us originating somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. In the winter those winds aloft bring prodigious amounts of weather, usually snowstorms, with them. Like the phrase implies, the weather flows like a river with little or nothing to stop it.

Some have asked me if I intended to stay alone in my home this winter since the passing of my wife, Patsy, earlier this summer. I hadn't thought, really, about doing anything else. This is where I built my wooden "palace" in the mountains all those years ago, and it's where I thrive the most. It's familiar. 

I know every nuance of this little shack. I am astounded at its appraised value today. How did that happen? At night I hear the rippling of the flag that flies just outside my bedroom window. I actually had to take it down recently to aid my ability to fall asleep. I hear the coyotes sing their lullabies. 

I hear the propane boiler cycling on and off in the crawl space that heats the water circulating in the baseboard heating system. I love the sound of the crackling firewood in the wood burning stove in the other side of the house where I installed it when all I used it for was to generate heat in cool summer mornings. 

And now I live here year-around and fight off the cold winter blasts that come barreling down upon me when the atmospheric river does its best to discourage me, especially when it sets up directly north in the Polar region.

Once in awhile, I hear my faithful snowplow guy outside my window when he comes early in the morning to clear the road for us. That was a steep learning curve for cousin Steve Smoot and me when we had to learn how to do it all those years ago. We managed through record-breaking 100-year winters like last year, and years when we only plowed four or five times. 

Through it all, here we are, still standing as it were on a rock in the middle of the atmospheric river flowing all around us. 

Now, I have a Starlink satellite internet system to link me to the outside world. It is astoundingly more robust and reliable than anything I could have ever envisioned when I put this plan in place all those years ago to live here. But new revelation was given. What did we ever do before Elon Musk?

When the wind is howling outside late at night and in the early morning hours, I can hear the wooden members that hold the structure together. I hear the wood shifting and creaking slightly. Am I ever worried about it crashing down around my head? Nope. I built it. I know why I hear what I hear, and I am seldom alarmed. I am the creator, and I know my creation. Therefore, I do not wring my hands in anxiety over what will happen to it. 

I find a spiritually analogous meaning in it all. Our Father in Heaven is our Creator. He knows us all - every one of us. He has made ample provision for us. 

He vouched safe our moral agency before the foundations of this Mother Earth were laid. 

He knew exactly the number of His children who would come here to inhabit it. 

He made the provisions for the amount of natural resources we would need to sustain ourselves. 

He anticipated there would be some "bad actors" among us who would reject Him. 

He also knows there are many of His children who would triumph over all their enemies and honor and serve Him. 

He has raised up prophets from the beginning who would give guidance to all His children. 

He gave them inspiration and revelation, and made revelation a possibility for all of us who would obey and value their writings in the scriptures. 

He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to atone for all our sins.

He promised and delivered the Holy Ghost to guide us in all we do while we live here.

To which I add my humble amen, and amen, and amen.

Be a Maker of Peace

As this Christmas season commences, I have a suggestion. Let's all make a concerted effort to make peace in our world this year. It all starts with each of us as individuals. But you may ask what can one person do to make a difference in such a noisy contentious world? My answer is that you can do more than you imagine.

This year, as in every year, there is chaos everywhere. We end each year, it seems, determined to do better in the coming year. That's what New Year's resolutions are designed to help us focus on. We get to breathe a huge sigh of relief as we recount what happened to us in the year. We pause, we slow down and reflect, and we are often overwhelmed with sorrow and grief over the tragedies that have hit us. Often these setbacks have come upon us uninvited and certainly unwelcomed. And yet, come they do and there seems to be little we can do to stop them.

It's the stuff of which this mortal probation is all about. If life were predictable and everything always worked out exactly the way we drew it up in our planning, there would be no testing, no opposition and no stretching to help us progress to a higher and holier place. Indeed, we would be following blindly like robots programmed for perfection without having paid a price for any of it ourselves. And whose idea was that in the beginning? Oh wait, I remember now:

And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.

And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him. (Abraham 3:27-28).

And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying — Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor. 

But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me — thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. 

Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; 

And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice. 

And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which I, the Lord God, had made. 

And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world. (Moses 4:1-6). 

In today's world, we are witnessing the adherents to Satan at war with one another. Some in the Church are still fond of citing the "two plans" that were posited in the beginning. But, there were never two plans, only one plan - the Father's plan. At issue was who would implement THAT ONE PLAN. 

The Father's great plan of happiness included the agency of man "which I, the Lord God, had given him, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten." 

In opposition to the Father's plan Satan offered to redeem everyone and to have the Father give him all the honor and glory. Because of his rebellion, he was cast down, deprived of the privilege of a mortal body. 

Satan must have been very persuasive, however, because we learn "at that day many followed after him." When we think about all those - dare we call them "evil spirits?" - who followed Satan in the pre-existence, then we do the math on it, let's look at Neal A. Maxwell's analysis: 

64,000,000,000 who have lived in physical bodies on Earth to 1976 

~ 70,000,000,000 to 1984 (Maxwell's estimate) or 2/3 of all the spirits 

35,000,000,000 or 1/3 of all the hosts of heaven who followed Satan 

The current world population is 8,076,994,357 as of Wednesday, December 6, 2023 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer. 

Now think about this: For every one of us Satan has about four of his minions he could assign to us to help him in his avowed mission to "destroy the world." Seems a little overwhelming doesn't it? Here's the good news: God has called only one prophet at a time to send His redeeming love into the world to bless all His children, and that man, that one man, is President Russell M. Nelson. That one man has been a consistent champion and witness to the divinity of the Savior Jesus Christ, who was chosen by the Father to implement that ONE PLAN of redeeming grace.

President Russell M. Nelson

When he dies (he's in his 100th year today!), as surely he will, God will raise up another prophet in his stead to carry forward the work of gathering Israel in these last days until the Savior comes again to rule and reign on Earth. Here's what the prophet has said about peacemakers: 

"At this point you may be thinking that this message [to become peacemakers] would really help someone you know. Perhaps you are hoping that it will help him or her to be nicer to you. I hope it will! But I also hope that you will look deeply into your heart to see if there are shards of pride or jealousy that prevent you from becoming a peacemaker. 

"If you are serious about helping to gather Israel and about building relationships that will last throughout the eternities, now is the time to lay aside bitterness. Now is the time to cease insisting that it is your way or no way. Now is the time to stop doing things that make others walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting you. Now is the time to bury your weapons of war. If your verbal arsenal is filled with insults and accusations, now is the time to put them away. You will arise as a spiritually strong man or woman of Christ. 

"The temple can help us in our quest. There we are endowed with God’s power, giving us the ability to overcome Satan, the instigator of all contention. Cast him out of your relationships! Note that we also rebuke the adversary every time we heal a misunderstanding or refuse to take offense. Instead, we can show the tender mercy that is characteristic of true disciples of Jesus Christ. Peacemakers thwart the adversary. 

"Let us as a people become a true light on the hill — a light that 'cannot be hid.' Let us show that there is a peaceful, respectful way to resolve complex issues and an enlightened way to work out disagreements. As you demonstrate the charity that true followers of Jesus Christ manifest, the Lord will magnify your efforts beyond your loftiest imagination.

"The gospel net is the largest net in the world. God has invited all to come unto Him, 'black and white, bond and free, male and female.' There is room for everyone. However, there is no room for prejudice, condemnation, or contention of any kind. 

"My dear brothers and sisters, the best is yet to come for those who spend their lives building up others. Today I invite you to examine your discipleship within the context of the way you treat others. 

"I bless you to make any adjustments that may be needed so that your behavior is ennobling, respectful, and representative of a true follower of Jesus Christ. 

"God lives! Jesus is the Christ. He stands at the head of this Church. We are His servants. He will help us to become His peacemakers." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/47nelson?lang=eng

I had the perfect example of a peacemaker in my own home. Patsy was always a peacemaker who shunned even the slightest hint of contention. She lifted others, blessed them with her grace and her love. She served them constantly, tirelessly and championed them in their adversities. She even worried about them, but even in that one weakness she ultimately overcame her worry with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She took her worries to Him in everything, and in time - His time - solutions presented themselves to which she immediately subscribed and put into action. 

We are often talked out of our good intentions by the four evil spirits working on our faith. We too often are convinced that we are just one person, and what can only one weak individual like us do to bring about improvements in a wicked world? 

When you are tempted with those faulty thoughts, think about what one prophet, one mother, one father, one son or daughter, one bishop, one Relief Society President, one ministering saint can do, and then be assured that you are not just one. As our son, Steve, reminded us at Patsy's funeral, "When we show up our gifts show up too." What a priceless insight that is for each of us. You just have to "show up." 

But you might counter, "I don't have any gifts compared to everyone else around me." Again, that thought is worse than faulty. It is Satanic. Your gifts are many and they are powerful, more efficacious in someone else's life than you will ever know. 

When I think about Patsy's gifts and how they have been multiplied many times over into a posterity that now numbers over ninety precious souls in mortal tabernacles who are faithful and serving the best they know how, I have come to believe that none of us should ever discount our capability for good in such dismissive terms as, "I'm just not good enough." Or, "What difference can I make?" Or, "I am only one person." Stop it, already! 

You can be that peacemaker in your marriage, in your ward, in your stake, in your calling in the Church wherever it may take you, and don't be surprised when you get to the spirit world to be surrounded by your kindred spirits for whom you did all those vicarious ordinances in the temples. You are blessing legions whom you have never met in this life!! 

Only you, only one person, only someone as insignificant and weak as you. 

Only someone who learned how to make peace.

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.