Temples

This is a video produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is from the Church's official Youtube channel, Mormon Messages. It discusses the reasons why we, as Latter-day Saints, build and use temples.

I will speak today on Temples and family history work. Why do we build temples, why do we go to Temples, and why do we do family history work in our Temples? Today, I would like to answer these questions. Many of you will know that while I was away on my mission, both my grandmother and my father passed away. Both of these experiences were trying times for me. Here I was thousands of miles away from home. My family was on the other side of the planet, and we were all suffering, and I was unable to be with them to comfort them, or to be comforted. When my grandmother died, it was very hard for me. Some time before my mother was born, my grandmother left the church, and had become very bitter against the church. Because of this, she did not raise my mother in the church. She had lost the blessings of the temple in her life, and in due course, so had my mother. I realized that with my grandmother’s death, she had gone her whole life holding feelings of bitterness, which prevented her from returning to the church, of having the blessings of the Temple in her home.
Well, happily, when my mom met my dad, she had already become a member, and my dad had converted to the church some years before. After about a nine month courtship, my parents were married. After some time of trying to have children, with no success, they chose to go to the Temple and be sealed together. Almost as if the Lord were withholding children till they were sealed, my mother became pregnant with my older sister soon after their Temple sealing, and the children just kept on coming.
When my grandmother had died, I felt very different emotions than that of when my dad had died. You might think that it would be natural for that to be so, my grandmother having lived a full life, and my father dying with children still at home, with me not there to help. But these were not the factors as to my pain. When my grandmother died, I was not grieving over her death, but rather over the fact that she had gone so much of her life without the Gospel to bless her. I was unable to cope with that pain that I felt, that someone that I loved dearly might be lost forever because of her pride, and was unable to do my missionary duties for the remainder of that day.
Now, when my dad died, the pain was different. I was grieving over the pain in the choice that now faced me. Whether or not to return home. I didn’t know what to do. I only had five weeks remaining for me to complete my two years as a missionary, and I really wanted to be there for my family, but I also had read in Luke 9:59-60,62, which reads “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” And in verse sixty-two, “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” I was in conflict. I didn’t know what to do. My mission president had said that if I wanted to go home, that would be perfectly acceptible, but then I thought of what the Lord had said, and of the promise that I had made to him by sending in my letter of acceptance to the first presidency upon my mission call, which said that I would serve two years. And on top of all that, my dad, a few days before I left for my mission, probably having spiritual insight, had told me that if he were to die before I came home from my mission, he wanted me to stay and finish. I had promised him that I would do so.
It became hard for me to decide what to do. I was told by some that it would probably be okay for me to come home only five weeks early, and that the Lord and my dad would find my promises kept. After all five weeks is a very small time when compared to two years, and it wouldn’t be as if I had come home dishonorably. But, I eventually felt that I needed to stay. The next few days became very hard. I had even called my mission president back to tell him that I had decided to return home, thinking that I couldn’t do it, but changed my mind in the last minute. I had received my answer, and knew that I needed to stay.
I was blessed for doing what I knew the Lord, and my dad, had wanted me to do, and my serious grieving period, the period in which my effectiveness as a missionary was effected, lasted only for three days. I soon bacame happy again, and until my mission president announced to the mission that my dad had died, about two weeks before I went home, only my zone leaders, my district leader and my companion had known what happened, because I didn’t show it emotionally. I was just as happy as before.
Why was I able to handle my grief so well? It was because of the Temple. First, I knew that my parents had been sealed together for time and all eternity, and that I was sealed to them, so I would see him again. Then secondly, I had been strengthened. I had been endowed with power from on high. We may read in Doctrine and Covenants 43:15-16, “Ye are not sent forth to be taught, but to teach the children of men the things which I have put into your hands by the power of my spirit; and ye are to be taught from on high. Sanctify yourselves and ye shal be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken.” I had received the strength promised to me. In my time of need, I was reminded of what was is taught in the Temple: eternal family, covenants, and most important of all, the actuality of and purpose for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was also during this time that I overcame the grief of my grandmother’s death. I knew then that because of the Atonement, everything would be okay for my dad and grandmother, as well as for myself and my family at home. I could then teach what I had learned to my investigators. The last five weeks of my mission are the most precious to me, because I served to teach people of the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that had the power to ease my pain.
The Temple is a place, set apart from the world, in which we may go to receive inspiration, and guidance. It is also where we go to receive the full blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is there that we make covenants which allow us to become eternal families, and to gain strength to overcome our trials. This is why it was so important for the pioneers to finish the Nauvoo Temple before going west. The covenants they made there gave them the strength to carry on, to leave loved ones who had passed on behind, and those blessings are even extending into our day as we learn from our ancestor’s faithfulness and endurance.
Many people look for the answers to life’s questions, and seek for the way out of the stresses of life. What we learn in the Temple will answer our questions, and although it won’t rid us of our stress, it will give us the strenght to endure it. How many people would give up the opportunity to rid their life of stress and to gain answers to their most difficult questions. I don’t know many who would do so, if they knew really where to find it. And how many of us would desire those same blessings upon those that we care about? This is why we build Temples. This is why we go to the Temple. And this is why we perform temple ordinances for our ancestors, so that they who made it possible for us to receive these great blessings may also receive them. I urge all those who have the ability to go to the Temple to go. I urge all those who may not think that they have that ability to go. Did you know that you can even attend a session in the Temple if you are on a hospital stretcher. The people in the Temple will compensate for your needs. If you are in a wheelchair, a temple worker will aid you in the temple with your clothing, and other needs. I see no reason why anyone who is worthy to go to the Temple couldn’t go. I would like to bear my testimony that through the Temple, we may be blessed in ways that we would never imagine. We will learn that there are many good things to come, and that everything is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Temple points to Christ. It teaches us of him, and helps us learn who he is. For it is by learning who he is that we come to know God, and that is Eternal Life. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” I testify of the importance of Temple and Family History work, for it will bless ours and the lives of our ancestors and posterity for eternity. I say this in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.