The Day of Zion
We just had stake conference in the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend. It was truly a day in Zion. I have been called to invite others to come and see and come and share and to take a name to the temple. The latter I will do with the name of one of my wife's relatives.
I was so glad to hear from Elder Peter M. Johnson of the 70 who made mention of being from New York, and the trouble of moving to the dry climate of Utah including having to work extra hard on his 'fro. Elder Johnson is the only African-American general authority (not the only black one though, Elder Sitati and Elder Dube are clearly black, African, just not in any way shape means or form American).
The most moving talk was by a girl who just turned 12 last month. I wish I had had the vision of temple envolvement when I was her age. The failure to find as many names is partly due to a harder process, little internet access (we didn't get internet in my house until I was 17, 1992 there was very little of it period), but I still wonder why when we went to Utah in the summer of 1996 for a family reunion we didn't make time to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. At that time for many of us baptisms for the dead were something you did with the youth in your ward, not with your family. The Church is moving us to a new approach. As a freshman at BYU I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead a lot, but for some reason not during the trip to Utah in 1996, or 1999. We could have easily made time either of those summers if we had decided to. 1997 was a tighter schedule, but we could have headed to Oakland Temple while we were in California with my grandparents. I think my parents went and did an endowment session there, but us doing baptisms didn't cross our mind.
This just 12 year old speaker told us about how she jumped for joy when he Mom told her of the new advancement policies that would mean she would be able to go to the temple in January. She went there with her parents and a family friend, and her Dad helped her prepare family file names beforehand. This involved going to the Detroit Michigan Temple, about a 20 minute drive from her house. I know because I used to be her familie's ministering brother (OK, hometeacher).
She mentioned going to Nauvoo Temple in April. She also mentioned that when they went to Utah in the summer (her parents both grew up in the Provo Utah Sharon East Stake, I was once in that stake, and I first had a conversation with her Dad about this fact at either a stake preisthood meeting or a stake priesthood leadership meeting, if it was the later when she was 2, and if the former it might have been before she was born, or when she was much younger than 2, either way she was in junior primary the whole time I taught senior primary, she was just 6 when I was released as a primary teacher). So when they went to Utah her Mom said she could pick 3 temples to visit. She choose Provo where her parents were married and where they were sealed to her adopted brother, so she had been there beofre, Provo City Center because in her words "it is new", and Salt Lake City because it will close in December so if she didn't choose it she would have to wait 4 years. They also ended up going to Payson. So she has been inside 6 temles to do baptisms for the dead. I think I have only actually done baptisms for the dead in 4 temples, and have only done endowments in 8 temples, with 1 temple not overlapping, so I have only performed ordinances in 9 temples.
So we live in the day of wonder. It gets more exciting. When they went to the Salt Lake Temple they were stopped by a Church security officer. Then President Nelson and President Oaks came by. President Nelson came over to them and told them they were doing a great work in the temple. It is truly a great day to be alive.
I was so glad to hear from Elder Peter M. Johnson of the 70 who made mention of being from New York, and the trouble of moving to the dry climate of Utah including having to work extra hard on his 'fro. Elder Johnson is the only African-American general authority (not the only black one though, Elder Sitati and Elder Dube are clearly black, African, just not in any way shape means or form American).
The most moving talk was by a girl who just turned 12 last month. I wish I had had the vision of temple envolvement when I was her age. The failure to find as many names is partly due to a harder process, little internet access (we didn't get internet in my house until I was 17, 1992 there was very little of it period), but I still wonder why when we went to Utah in the summer of 1996 for a family reunion we didn't make time to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. At that time for many of us baptisms for the dead were something you did with the youth in your ward, not with your family. The Church is moving us to a new approach. As a freshman at BYU I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead a lot, but for some reason not during the trip to Utah in 1996, or 1999. We could have easily made time either of those summers if we had decided to. 1997 was a tighter schedule, but we could have headed to Oakland Temple while we were in California with my grandparents. I think my parents went and did an endowment session there, but us doing baptisms didn't cross our mind.
This just 12 year old speaker told us about how she jumped for joy when he Mom told her of the new advancement policies that would mean she would be able to go to the temple in January. She went there with her parents and a family friend, and her Dad helped her prepare family file names beforehand. This involved going to the Detroit Michigan Temple, about a 20 minute drive from her house. I know because I used to be her familie's ministering brother (OK, hometeacher).
She mentioned going to Nauvoo Temple in April. She also mentioned that when they went to Utah in the summer (her parents both grew up in the Provo Utah Sharon East Stake, I was once in that stake, and I first had a conversation with her Dad about this fact at either a stake preisthood meeting or a stake priesthood leadership meeting, if it was the later when she was 2, and if the former it might have been before she was born, or when she was much younger than 2, either way she was in junior primary the whole time I taught senior primary, she was just 6 when I was released as a primary teacher). So when they went to Utah her Mom said she could pick 3 temples to visit. She choose Provo where her parents were married and where they were sealed to her adopted brother, so she had been there beofre, Provo City Center because in her words "it is new", and Salt Lake City because it will close in December so if she didn't choose it she would have to wait 4 years. They also ended up going to Payson. So she has been inside 6 temles to do baptisms for the dead. I think I have only actually done baptisms for the dead in 4 temples, and have only done endowments in 8 temples, with 1 temple not overlapping, so I have only performed ordinances in 9 temples.
So we live in the day of wonder. It gets more exciting. When they went to the Salt Lake Temple they were stopped by a Church security officer. Then President Nelson and President Oaks came by. President Nelson came over to them and told them they were doing a great work in the temple. It is truly a great day to be alive.
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