HOPES AND PROMISES

The other day I had an opportunity to spend a day with my 3 year old granddaughter.  Just she and I, together for the day, playing with abandon.  It always touches my heart that she wants to be with me and that we can have such a good relationship, that she trusts me to take care of her.  Before she was born I had decided that I wanted to be called Grandmummy.  My granddaughter though decided otherwise.  When she was 2 she declared that my name would be Damma.  I am convinced she brought this name with her from pre-existence.  This is the name her mother used to call her paternal grandmother when she started to speak. She could not pronounce Grandma so Damma it was for awhile but the name remained a special reminder in the family of my daughter's early life.

My daughter and her grandmother had a very special bond.  Her grandmother, my mother-in-law, was a wonderful person and a unique grandmother.  When I started to look forward to being a grandmother myself I hoped ardently that I would be a grandmother like her.  This special woman passed away while my daughter was still pregnant with her first child, my granddaughter Addy.  Before Addy was born her paternal grandfather had a dream about his mother who had passed away and in that dream saw her instructing a little girl about earth life.  We all knew Addy was going to be Addy before she even appeared.  I could not be more sure that my mother-in-law told Addy about the name 'Damma' and that Addy remembered it when the time came in her life to put a name to me.  I sometimes feel that this is a special message to me from beyond the grave.  Addy had never heard anybody else use this name and she can pronounce Grandma perfectly so I feel that this name could not have come from anywhere else. Such a simple thing but such a strong cord binding us together in this great adventure of mortality made possible by the plan of salvation.

When Abraham had a vision of the intelligences that were organized before the world was created he found himself standing among the 'noble and great' ones and was told by the Saviour that he was chosen before he was born. (Abraham 3:23)  Among these noble and great spirits Joseph Fielding Smith identified prophets of our dispensation whom he saw in his vision of the dead who he declared 'were reserved to come forth in the fulness of time to take part in laying the foundations of the great latter-day work....I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God". (D&C 138:53-55)  These great spirits were 'prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labour in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men' (D&C 138:56).  Joseph Smith taught:

"Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabits of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was.  I suppose I was ordained to this very office in that Grand Council" (TPJS, p 365)

How would you feel being one of the great spirits chosen to come to earth to do a specific job and one of great importance and magnitude?  Would you feel important?  Would you understand the gravity of your responsibility and live up to it every day?  How would you feel if you knew you were responsible for salvation of the souls of men?  What Joseph Smith said is true.  It is true of every one of us.  We have all been called to minister to the inhabitants of the world in one way or another.  Looking into my granddaughter's sweet face, I am convinced that I could not have a more important calling in life than that of being her grandmother.

As I considered our relationship the other day, I wondered what promises I had made to her in pre-existence.  I have always believed that we choose our parents but I never gave it much thought to grandparents and beyond.  Did we know each other as such back then?  My patriarchal blessing tells me that my time of coming to earth was set that I may fulfill the promise I made in my pre-existence and that I had fulfilled that promise by entering the waters of baptism.  It goes on to say that many of those spirits who were with me had rejoiced when that promise was fulfilled.  Could it be that those spirits were my ancestors and my posterity who depended on me to assist them in working out their salvation whilst in the flesh?  Were they watching me beyond the veil as I progressed through my life hoping against all hope that my promise will one day bear fruit?  I am a convert to the Church and by my conversion and acceptance of the truth, I have not only been instrumental in redeeming the dead in my family, I have also paved the path for my granddaughter to be born a child of the covenant.  This has given her a great start in life. If I continue faithful, my love, my example and what I can teach her will be the priceless legacy I will leave her when I am gone. Is this my work of any less importance than the one of 'the great and noble ones'?

We are not here just for ourselves.  I am certain we covenanted with one another through the bonds of love before the plan of salvation unfolded that we would contribute to the salvation of each other's souls.  I am certain our hearts were turned to one another and bonded through the promises that knitted our souls together.  It is not by chance that we have a responsibility whilst here to love and serve one another and to become 'saviours on mount Zion'.  When fulfilled, this responsibility in turn makes us like the Saviour, possessors of the pure love of Christ without which we cannot be saved.  (Moroni 7:46-48)

Contrast this pure love of Christ that binds us together to the self-serving objective of the adversary's plan which had no capacity to bring us together in love and unity.  Satan had only one goal, to exalt himself above everyone else.  He had no regard or love for any of us and even his dysfunctional plan to save us was for his own benefit and not ours.  His goal to draw away after him as many as he can is purely to make us as miserable as he is, his promise of eternal life based on a lie, a plan that could never work.  Why did so many in our pre-existent state fall prey to his empty promises?  Consider the following:

"When we talk about our relationship to the Savior and our redemption, we must begin with the pre-mortal life.  I think we often miss the real issue of the contention in the spirit world that eventually led to the War in Heaven.  We talk about it as though Lucifer was going to force everybody to obey.  Most people don't want to be forced.  As I see it, the real issue is that Lucifer would guarantee their salvation.  He promised salvation without effort, without excellence, without hard work, without individual responsibility.  That's the lie that he promulgated in the pre-earth councils.  That so-called shortcut to salvation captivated many gullible and lazy spirits.  They wanted something for nothing.  We have certain aspects in our life today where things are awkward.  Something for nothing - a free lunch, we sometimes call it - with certain kinds of subsidies which promise to guarantee the reward without the effort.  On that basis Lucifer led away many spirits."
(Robert J. Matthews, "The Price of Redemption", The 11th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium - New Testament, January 29, 1983)

Redemption is not for the faint hearted and we know that we are not of such disposition because we chose Christ's plan which comes with a price.  Some of us can afford to pay more than others, some of us are stronger, more capable and some of us need help but none of us can make it alone.  Even the strongest of us need help to hold onto the iron rod at some point in our lives.  We all need succor, guidance, positive influence, inspiration, motivation, a righteous example, a kind word, to be loved, to be cherished. None of us can do without any of these and yet all of these are given and provided by another.  You would not be you without the people you have had in your life.  Both of my granddaughters have the same birthmark as I do on the back of their heads.  It makes me feel like this is evidence that they are mine but more than this physical proof of our kinship I hope that their spirits will bear resemblance to mine as I strive to be an example of faithfulness to God and show them the path to righteousness.  I feel as responsible for their spiritual welfare as I did for my children's.  I cannot afford to let go of the iron rod, small eyes are watching and small hearts hoping that I will not fail in my promises.

Whilst attending our new ward yesterday, my daughter was introduced in Relief Society with significant reference to her grandparents who are well known far and wide for their faithfulness and Church service. Her grandmother who I believe passed onto Addy the famous name of 'Damma', is highly regarded in the Church in Sydney by many saints who knew her.  My daughter whispered to me: "Gram and Grandpa are famous in the Church" and I whispered back: "Wherever you go, you will be associated with their good name. This is the legacy they have left for you".  I hope that one day Addy will be introduced somewhere as my granddaughter and that she will be proud of that fact.

WHEN WE LOSE A LOVED ONE

While delivering an inspired discourse at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Sunday, October 4, 1896, President Wilford Woodruff stated that while labouring in the St. George Temple, he had learned a new principle of the gospel pertaining to the redemption of the dead:

While in the St. George Temple I had a son, who was in the north country, drowned.  He was 21 years of age, and was a faithful young man.  He had a warning of this.  In a dream he was notified how he would die.  We had a testimony of that after his death.  I asked the Lord why he was taken from me.  The answer to me was, "You are doing a great deal for the redemption of your dead; but the law of redemption requires some of your own seed in the spirit world to attend to work connected with this".  That was a new principle to me; but it satisfied me why he was taken away.  I name this, because there are a great many instances like it among the Latter-day Saints.

Marriner Wood Merrill was a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles from 1889 and Logan Temple President from 1884 to 1906.  Often his excessive temple labours fatigued him, which was later compounded by the death of one son, whose sudden passing Apostle Merrill could not reconcile.  Finally, on one evening following his exhaustive temple work, the Logan Temple President received a visit from his deceased son from the spirit world as recounted by President Heber J Grant:

He once told me that he could not reconcile himself to the death of his son Marriner, who had had charge of practically all his financial affairs, as he gave so much of his time to the Temple, until he received a manifestation in which Marriner seemed to be in the room with him, although not seen, and spoke to his father and said: "Pa, I am where the Lord wants me to be.  I am doing work of more importance than I would be on earth, and it is not pleasing to the Lord for you to grieve as you are doing over my death".  He said this reconciled him to the loss.

In a Church general conference Rudger Clawson of the Quorum of the Twelve related a marvellous manifestation received by one faithful Salt Lake Temple worker in which the status of married couples in the spirit prison who have not been sealed for eternity in a temple was revealed:

Upon one occasion I saw in vision my father and mother who were not members of the Church, who had not received the gospel in life, and I discovered that they were living separate and apart in the spirit world, and when I asked them how it was that they were so, my father said, "This is an enforced separation, and you are the only individual who can bring us together.  You can do this work.  Will you do it? - meaning that he should go to the House of the Lord and there officiate for his parents who were dead, and by the ordinance of sealing bring them together and unite them in the family relation beyond the veil.

"Temple Manifestations"  p. 77, 89, 131

 

 

 

SAVIOURS ON MOUNT ZION

Despite the fact that the forces of evil raged against the saints during the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, marvellous spiritual manifestations continued to attend those who laboured there.  One such labourer at the House of God received such a manifestation:

In the fall and winter of 1892-1893 I worked at painting in the Salt Lake Temple.  Although sick, I felt strongly impressed to go and do my very best.

At noon the third day after beginning, President Woodruff called all of the workmen together.  He said he had been told that some of the workmen had stated that it would be impossible to have the temple completed by April 6th.  he said when he looked at this body of men he didn't believe a word of it.  "Some of you may be sick and weak", (I thought he was talking to me) he continued, "Some of you may give out at night, but you will be here in the morning if you are faithful.  You are not here by accident.  You were ordained in the Eternal World to perform this work.  Brethren, I will be here April 6th to dedicate this building.  I know what I am talking about for this was shown me in a vision 50 years ago in the city of Boston".

Along about March, 1893, I found myself alone in the dining room - all had gone to bed.  I was sitting at the table when to my great surprise my old brother Alfred walked in, sat down opposite me at the table and smiled.  I said to him (he looked so natural), "When did you arrive in Utah?" (He had lived in New Zealand and I had not heard from him in years).

He said, "I have just come from the Spirit World, this is not my body that you see, it is lying in the tomb.  I want to tell you that when you were on your mission you told me many things about the Gospel, and the hereafter, and about the Spirit World being as real and tangible as the earth.  I realized that you had told the truth.  I attended the Mormon meetings".  he raised his hand and said with much warmth, "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart, I believe in faith and repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, but that is as far as I can go.  I look to you to do the work for me in the temple".  He continued, "You can go to any kind of sectarian meeting in the Spirit World.  All our kindred there knew you were trying to make up your mind to come and work on the temple.  You are watched closely, every move you make is known there; and we were glad you came.  We are all looking to you as our head in this great work.  I want to tell you that there are a great many spirits who weep and mourn because they have relatives in the Church here who are careless and are doing nothing for them".  He then disappeared.

As I sat pondering upon what I had seen and heard, with my hear filled with thanks and gratitude to God, the door opened again and my brother Alexander walked in and sat down in the chair that Alfred had just occupied.  He had died in 1852 in New Zealand.  I did the work for both he and Father in April 1885.  he had come from a different sphere, he looked more like an angel as his countenance was beautiful to look upon.  With a very pleasant smile he said, "Fred, I have come to thank you for doing my work for me; but you did not go quite far enough", and he paused.  Suddenly it was shown to me in large characters, "no man without the woman and no woman without the man in the Lord".

 

 

"Temple Manifestations", page 128

IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND

 

Elder John Mickelson Lang, a temple workers in the St. George Temple, received the following manifestation in the sacred structure in 1928:

One day while baptismal rites were being performed, I distinctly heard a voice at the east end of the font, very close to the ceiling calling the names of the dead to witness their own baptism, allowing a moment for each spirit to present itself.  After hearing many names called, I noticed a difference in the pronunciation of some of them.  It seemed that the spirit who was calling must have a different list to ours.  I was so impressed at the time that I placed my arm about the shoulders of Brother W.T. Morris, clerk, who was passing, and called his attention tot he sound of the voice, but it was not discernible to him.

This occurrence had taken place in March of 1928, and it continued to prey upon my mind for some months, until one day in October I had gone to an upper room of the Temple, as was my custom, to offer secret prayer, asking for the assistance of God in my work, and to thank Him for showing me that there was a recording angel in His house, to keep a perfect record of that which transpired.  I had finished my prayer and was about to leave the room when the question flashed through my mind, "But where and how does He get these names?  Some of them were not pronounced the same as ours".

God knew my thoughts; I never asked of Him to know.  The explanation came to me in these words:
"Every spirit that comes to earth has a guardian angel, whose duty it is to keep a record of the individual's parentage, the conditions under which it was born, its inheritance, environment, thoughts and desires, and when the individual's life is completed, the guardian angel's mission ends.  It returns, makes its report and hands in the record it has kept.  This record is placed upon the other book, spoken of as The Book of Life".

All this gave me to understand that in this other book is preserved the names and perfect dates of every spirit that ever came to earth. 

It is also made plain therein, how all things will be proved by two or three witnesses; for instance, in case a child is left on a doorstep, the guardian angel of the child, that of the father and of the mother constitute three witnesses to the child's parentage.  There are two witnesses to all things which transpire between any two persons.  Also, God can give into the Temples a perfect record of the Lamanites, for instance, or any other people who have no earth record.

God is perfect.  His record is perfect.  We will be judged from the books.

I bear record that this testimony is true for I received it from an angel in the house of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

FINDING THE LOST

"Several years ago as I was about to depart for work, a call came from my Bishop.  His oldest son had disappeared.  He had eaten breakfast and dressed for elementary school, but when his mother was ready to drive him and his sisters to school he could not be found.  They thought perhaps he had walked to school.  His mother transported her daughters and then made a search.  The boy was not at school.  It was at this point that calls went out to the police and to several ward members.  I delayed my departure for work and along with several dozen others, commenced an intensive search of the neighbourhood.  After a few hours his mother found him, curled up on the floor of his closet with the door closed.  He was fast asleep.

I have reflected many times on the shared anxiety of so many to find this boy, to see that he was safe again with his family, to ensure that nothing unacceptable happened to him.

The search for that boy is a metaphor for this lesson.  You see, I have ancestors lost in history.  We all do.  They languish in the spirit world, waiting and hoping for someone to find them.  Our longing to locate the dead who are lost should be as compelling as our anxiety to find the living who are lost".
(Ted L. Gibbons, D&C Lesson 40)

The estimated population of the world in A.D. 1 was 200 million; by 1850 it had reached one billion (see World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995 (1994), 510).  By mid 1995, the world's population was estimated at 5.76 billion.  Over time, as many as 105 billion people may have lived on the earth.  (Estimates courtesy of Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C.; see Carl Haub, "How Many People Have Ever Lived on the Earth?" Population Today, 23 (Feb. 1995): 4-5)

The number of completed proxy temple endowments is approaching an estimated 140 million, meaning that this work has been performed for about .13 percent (just over one-tenth of 1 percent) of the earth's estimated historic population of 105 billion.  (Ted Gibbons, D&C Lesson 40)
Daunting isn't it?  These statistics should not be discouraging but encouraging.  It should make us act in haste to save even just one soul who is languishing in the spirit world forgotten.  Oscar Shindler said something powerful:  "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire".  Elder Dallin H. Oaks broke it down to a manageable task when he said: "Our effort is not to compel everyone to do everything, but to encourage everyone to do something".  ("Family  History: In Wisdom and Order", Ensign, June 1989, 6)

Saving souls is the greatest work we can be engaged in. Saving the dead is comparatively easy compared to going from door to door asking people to listen to you while you tell them about the gospel. All it takes is planned time and a willing heart.

The Sunday School manual suggests four activities that will allow us involvement in this great work:

1.  Have a current temple recommend and attend the temple regularly.
2.  Prepare to have ordinances performed for deceased relatives.
3.  Learn about ancestors' lives.
4.  Keep a journal or prepare a personal history or a family history.

I was born and raised in Croatia.  My ability to trace my ancestors has been somewhat limited for many years.  I have done relatively little in this area compared to a lot of serious family history buffs.  I have done what I could and I ardently hope I will have the means and ways to do more in the near future.  I want to do more.  I am the only church member in my family and that makes me my ancestors' only hope.  I believe in family.  It's the main reason why I joined the Church 38 years ago.  My patriarchal blessing tells me I have been blessed with a rich heritage. I want to know what that means and I believe I will one day because I have the tools that are needed for this work, my Church membership and my desire.