Temple Work or Temple Blessings

My mission wasn’t anything I thought it would be. It was far better than I thought it would ever be and it changed me forever. Something happened to me there that I will never forget and it helped inspire me for this this project for me.

I all started the day I left for my mission. Right before I entered the MTC I made a few quick stops. One of them was a stop at my grandparents house just down the street from the MTC. After I took some pictures and embraced my grandparents for the last for two I made a statement that turned out to be prophetic. As I was getting into the car I turned to my mom and said to her, “This might be the last time I ever see Poppa” Poppa is a my grandfather, at the time he was very sick and we weren’t sure how much longer he would make it. His quality of life had been diminishing for a few months and mentally he was losing the strength to continue. My Poppa wasn’t a member of the church either.

Fast-forward a year and a half later. I enter the library in a town outside Boston, Massachusetts to email my parents like any other Monday. I opened my email to read that my cousin who was only a few months older than me had passed away due to substance abuse and that my Poppa had suffered a seizure and was in a medically induced coma. My mind went blank. I could not think. I couldn’t speak. I had only heard of things like this happening to other people it didn’t happen to me and my family. We were safe from that kind of stuff. It was terrifying to know that we were so vulnerable. Only one day later he passed away. I knew that the ordinances that are preformed in temples are true but I had never been tested on this knowledge before. Did I have enough faith to KNOW that everything would be okay, or would I let if bother me and become angry with the fact that my grandfather had been taken from me and I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye. With the knowledge that I had at the time I continued to do missionary work and I didn’t really think about it very much. I knew there was nothing I could do to change anything and I was busy. But then and there I knew and I made a promise to myself that in one year I would return to the temple to help Poppa obtain those precious blessing that are only available in the temple.

One year later I entered the temple to preform those necessary ordinances. I didn’t know it would be as hard as it was to go back, but I could see that Satan was trying his hardest to make sure that I would not be able enter the temple. I overcame and I was able to enter the temple and help Poppa. The Holy Spirit of Promise confirmed to me that what we were doing was real and that it was a valid ordinance in the eyes of God. This inspired me to do enter the temple more often to help other, especially my family members, take part in these blessings.

Russell M. Nelson once mentioned in a talk that those on the other side of the veil have the agency as well:

For whom will such temple work be efficacious? Principles of agency pertain on both sides of the veil. There, in post mortal realms, personal choice and accountability will be of paramount importance. 32 Not all will accept these ordinances. Not all that would choose to do so may be worthy to receive them. Scriptures indicate that individual faith, 33repentance, 34 and obedience 35 will be required to consummate this vicarious work.

I Love how our Heavenly Father loves us so much and he knows how important it is for us to be able to always choose. I like that we don’t now for sure that what we do here in the temple will be appreciated by those whom we do it for. But we must have faith that what we do there is not in vain. But I have faith that no matter what, even if we go to the temple and do work for someone who does not accept the work, Heavenly Father still sees the effort that we have put forth and it is still appreciated. Something I know to be true is that consistency is key. If we are consistent we will always achieve what we set out to do. If we have the goal to go to the temple to help others then our lives will be blessed no matter what. Just like the missionary that goes on a mission and doesn’t baptize one person, as long as he is faithful he is still blessed.

In teachings of the Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith he mentions how difficult it seems to build a temple.
“When we realized that the building was constructed by people in extreme poverty, how courageous men worked during the day to lay the foundations and build the walls of that structure, and then at night stood and defended it with weapons against those who had sworn that the building should never be completed, we could not help but feel that it was no wonder the Lord received their offerings and blessed them as few people have been blest upon the earth.

I believe that this is manifested now, but Satan is more sneaky in the way he tries to get us to not participate in these ordinances. It seemed like every time I tried to go to the temple it seemed that there was always something going on in my head that made me not want to go or I would be harboring some kind of bad feelings toward someone. However every time I went I felt better about myself and my life. It was like I had taken a life shower. Everything that seemed so important and that was weighing me down no longer bothered me and I was better able to handle the things that came my way. It seemed like my week went way better as well.

President Monson mentioned in the dedicatory prayer of the Gilbert Arizona temple that the temple would be a sanctuary of serenity. I have come to realize this in the temple here in Rexburg. He also said this is a talk once

Sometimes our minds are so beset with problems, and there are so many things clamoring for attention at once that we just cannot think clearly and see clearly. At the temple the dust of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and the haze seem to lift, and we can ‘see’ things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our troubles that we had not previously known.

It has been a place for me to go and relax and escape all of the things that weighed me down. It has provided a place for me to understand who I truly am. I feel closer to my ancestors, now that I have been able to help them. I also feel that they have helped me understand the importance of these ordinances. I have learned that we try to help and bless the lives of others that our lives our blessed. To me it’s a strange paradox. The more I help people and try to bless their lives the more my life is blessed. There is no way to only give when you are helping others, there is always something that you receive in return. I can say that this statement is true “The Spirit of Elijah will inspire individual members of the Church to link their generations” I know that the Spirit of Elijah is real and that it not only helps us to be connected to those who have passed on but it also helps to realize who we really are. As we preform these sacred ordinances in the temple we are putting ourselves in position of the Savior. We are doing something for someone else that they cannot do themselves.

No mortal mind could have conceived this divine work. It is evidence of the restoration of the gospel in its fulness and is sparked by the Spirit of Elijah. “Let us, therefore, as a church and a people … offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple … a book containing the records of our dead … worthy of all acceptation.” 41Then we shall bless and be blessed as saviors upon mount Zion, I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I agree with this statement in that if we as individuals work to better the lives of all others including the dead that we will bring to pass great works of wonder. This work is divine and I know that now. I know that as I go to the temple and look to serve others that I will be blessed and I will bless the lives of others.