Talking in Church

The Bishop asked us a couple weeks ago to talk briefly in church about our experience going through the Temple & what it brings to our lives. Did Zac and I want to talk? Of course not.. however, we did agree. We didn't want anyone to come because sometimes it's harder to talk in front of people we know rather than strangers. I figured that since we didn't tell anyone and didn't have anyone come listen, I would post our talks so that you could read them! We do talk about personal experiences so if you are looking for a doctrine talk, this is probably not the one to read...

Temples & Eternal Family

(Taylor) 

Good Afternoon Brothers & Sisters. My husband and I have only been in this ward for about 8 or 9 months so I thought I would take a moment to introduce us.

            We are The Carrolls. My name is Taylor, and my husband is Zac. We met almost 4 years ago through mutual friends. Went on our first date the night after & pretty much hit it off from there! We have been married for a year and don’t have any children but we do have a cute puppy that keeps us very busy & always on our toes J.  Zac grew up in Sandy and is the youngest of 5 children with 4 older sisters. I grew up in South salt lake around the holiday area and am the second oldest of 14, almost 15. 6 girls with one on the way and 8 boys. My parents are divorced, so no, my mom did not have 15 however it has been fun to have such a large family! We were never bored growing up.

            The bishop asked us to talk about Temples. I would like to focus on going through the temple & starting an eternal family.

            Zac and I were sealed for time and all eternity last Friday. September 16. This happened to be our 1 year anniversary. Zac and I were married last year for Time. We were happily in love and that was the best day of our lives. At that moment, For Time didn’t mean what it means to us now. We always figured that we knew exactly what we wanted and where we wanted to go. We both felt we knew the gospel however through separate experiences, had decided that it was not for us at that point in our life, if ever.

As the days went on, our marriage continued to be everything we could have asked for. We had life problems come up like everyone always does, but as a couple we felt pretty solid.

Zac’s oldest sister Amberly was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroendocrine Cancer back in August of 2009. She was told it was slow growing however they did not say how much time she had. She did have to have surgery however when they caught it, it had already spread to her liver and was all over it. I was dating Zac at the time and I remember that even though that was always in our mind that she was sick, she had a great spirit and never complained about whatever pain she may have been experiencing. She lost a lot of weight in 2010 but continued to keep her spirits up and was doing great at our wedding. She really seemed to be turning around which of course we were all excited for. The start of this year is when things made a huge turn for the worst. This is when Zac & I really started to evaluate our lives and felt something missing. We had our every day rituals, work, school, date nights, but what about the important things in life?

-  What did we believe in and what were we working towards in life?

·      Was it the next promotion at work? The next A in a class we were taking at school? The next get together with our friends?

We both had this strong feeling to seek out what was missing. We both had grown up very close to the church and decided that we were going to pray for inspiration, as that is what we were taught to do when we were younger. We started going to church on a regular basis once again & really working towards filling that empty space in our lives.

MOSIAH 4:9

“Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.”

 I have to say that there is nothing like the gospel. It brings so much happiness, and in times of need, so much comfort. It’s amazing how much your life can change just by going to church each week and letting Heavenly Father in. Allowing him to help guide you through your life in what is right or wrong and being reminded of his love on a weekly basis.

·      Will going to church each week help us be together as a family for eternity?

·      Is that all or is there something more we should be doing to prepare our families for eternity as adults?

Quote by Barbara Thompson:

“Come to the temple and then come again. Making and keeping temple covenants will keep us on course to the greatest of all blessings – eternal life.” End Quote.

            When we go to the temple, we receive eternal life. When we are sealed in the temple, we receive eternal family.

Quote By: James E. Faust

“ A basic eternal truth of this Church is that families may, if they are worthy, have a eternal relationship; for us it would not be heaven without our parents, our grandparents, our eternal companions, our children, and our posterity. This union of families comes through the sealing power exercised within the hallowed walls of the temples under authorized priesthood authority. An eternal family begins when a young couple kneels at an alter in the holy temple of God and make covenants with each other and with God and receive is greatest promises. This sealing is proceeded by each making and receiving covenants which, if they continue worthy, will bless them in this life as well as in the life to come.”

Eternity is our greatest gift. This is what we should always be working towards. There are no words that can describe how big of a blessing it is to be together as a family even after death. Death is not the end.

In The Family: A Proclamation to the World it states

“The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.”

We went with Zac’s Family on their annual weekend get away the last weekend of April. Sadly to say, this was the last vacation we were going to have here on this earth as a complete family. Amberly was very very sick and passed away 3 weeks later at her home on May 24 of this year. Just 10 days after her 36^th birthday and 4 months ago from yesterday. She left behind a wonderful husband and 4 beautiful little boys.

-       Through Am’s sickness, our eyes were able to be re-opened to how important family was and why we really were here on this earth. It’s not for vacations, toys or even money. It’s for family. The gospel brings us together and allows us to have the knowledge that our Heavenly Father promises us that we will be together for eternity as long as we follow his plan to go to the temple and be sealed.

Quote By Ezra Taft Benson:

“Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives that they can. He can deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities’, comfort their souls, and pour out peace.”

Testimony

Eternal Family

(Zac)

 Good afternoon brothers and sisters, Taylor shared some great things of how we got where we are, and I would like to focus on the where are we going. The Temple has many great lessons and blessings that we can receive when we go there.

The church describes the Temple as a place of learning. Their principal purpose is to provide ordinances necessary for the children of God to enable them to return to dwell with Him. Temple ordinances lead to the greatest blessings available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Everything in the Church—the meetings and activities, the missionary efforts, the lessons taught and the hymns—all lead to the work done in holy temples.

Remember, if you will, the first time you went to the temple. For me, it was a lot of information to take in and a bit overwhelming. The Temple President talked to me before I received my endowment and described the temple as an upper division college course. He said that it was an upper division course because the way the information was taught, and although you received the whole course in one session, to be able to pass the final, you would have to come back often to be able to learn everything that you need to know.  Once I started in the Temple, I tried very hard to listen to all the words that were said. Not long after, I realized that the Temple President was right and if I were to remember anything, we would have to come back time and time again to fully understand.

Like Taylor said last Friday we were able to be sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. Before we got sealed we were able to sit in the Celestial room together for a while. It was such a great peaceful place to sit and ponder many of life’s questions. Not too long after, we were taken to the sealing room together and I was able to kneel across the alter from my beautiful wife as we were sealed on earth as well in heaven. It was a great relief to me that if anything were to happen to either of us, we would still be able to be an eternal family after this mortal life. I think back to my sister, that she would be able to return to our Heavenly Father sealed to her mortal family and what a great blessing that will be.

It also got me thinking that this eternal marriage is only the start of our eternal progression and that it is conditional to our faithfulness in living the way the Lord wants us to live.

On the LDS website it says:

After receiving the sealing ordinance and making sacred covenants in the temple, a couple must continue in faithfulness in order to receive the blessings of eternal marriage and exaltation. The Lord said in D&C 132,

“If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood; . . . and if [they] abide in my covenant, . . . it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall be of full force when they are out of the world” (D&C 132:19).

I got to thinking about how we should treat our eternal marriage and the sacred covenants we made when I found a story that did a great job of describing just that. It was given by Elder F. Burton Howard in the May 2003 Ensign.

We started as poor college students, but her vision for our marriage was exemplified by a set of silverware.  When we went to register for gifts, instead of listing all the pots and pans and appliances we needed, she chose another course. She asked for silverware. She chose the design and the number of place settings and registered for knives, forks, and spoons and nothing else. No towels, no toasters, no television—just knives, forks, and spoons.

The wedding came and went. Our friends and our parents’ friends gave gifts. We departed for a brief honeymoon and decided to open the presents when we returned. When we did so, we were shocked. There was not a single knife or fork in the lot. We joked about it and went on with our lives.

While we were in law school, we had no money to spare. When my wife worked extra or when someone gave her a few dollars for her birthday, she would quietly set it aside. When she had enough money for a single piece, she would go to buy a fork or a spoon. It took us several years to accumulate enough pieces to use them. When we finally had service for four, we began to invite some of our friends over for dinner.

Before they came, we would have a little discussion in the kitchen. Which utensils would we use, the battered and mismatched stainless or the special silverware? In those early days I would often vote for the stainless. It was easier. You could just throw it in the dishwasher after the meal, and it took care of itself. The silver, on the other hand, was a lot of work. My wife had it hidden away under the bed where it could not be found easily by a burglar. She had insisted that I buy a tarnish-free cloth to wrap it in. Each piece was in a separate pocket, and it was no easy task to assemble all the pieces. When the silver was used, it had to be hand washed and dried so that it would not spot, and put back in the pockets so it would not tarnish, and wrapped up and carefully hidden again so it would not get stolen. If any tarnish was discovered, I was sent to get the silver polish, and together we carefully rubbed the stains away.

Over the years we added to the set, and I watched with amazement how she cared for the silver. I noticed that the silverware never went camping or on picnics. It never accompanied the many meals she made and sent to others who were sick or needy. In fact it never went anywhere; and, as time went by, it didn’t even come to the table very often.

The time came when we were called to go on a mission. I arrived home one day and was told that I had to rent a safe-deposit box for the silver. She didn’t want to take it with us. She didn’t want to leave it behind. And she didn’t want to lose it.

For years I thought she was just a little bit eccentric, and then one day I realized that she had known for a long time something that I was just beginning to understand. If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. You shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary.

If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by. Eternal marriage is just like that. We need to treat it just that way.

I am so glad that I was able to go to the Temple, and get sealed to my beautiful wife. It was an amazing place, they are such beautiful buildings, a beacon of light and hope in such a dark world, which is what I hope the temple is for all of us, a symbol of the Lord and the plan that Heavenly Father has for each of us. I hope we all can go to the temple often. I know that through faithfulness to our covenants we may be able to be an eternal family and once again return to our Heavenly Father. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.