Embedded Files
Devotional
Devotional
FYI - Elder Ames has encouraged us to prepare a temple and family history devotional (both live and in Zoom) for our coordinating council. The request for approval has been sent to church headquarters by President Barton of the Council Bluffs stake (President Barton has the TFH oversight responsibility for the council). The proposed date is January 23, 2025, so please keep that date in mind as we go forward. For now, we are just waiting for approval from church headquarters, and we are excited at the prospect of getting together with you!
Each time we accept and act on an invitation, our trust in God grows. -- Elder Paul B. Pieper
News from Brother Adamz
News from Brother Adamz
Brother Glenn Adamz is the North America Central Manager at FamilySearch - he has given us some great ideas in the past and has been a wonderful resource for any questions we have had related to the way FamilySearch works, especially related to the keys of the priesthood.
He sent this email last week. I hope that you will take a look at all of the links he provided below, but we wanted to point out a couple of them in particular. The first one is a short animated video that reminds us of the importance of following prophetic counsel in regard to organizing the work of gathering. You may remember that our training emphasized a special priesthood structure for the TFH organization, which at the time may have been novel. In the five years or so since then, it has thankfully become more commonplace. How are your units doing with this?
The second one is an article from the Liahona. We want to encourage you to read it prayerfully, even if you have read it before. It is sort of a moderated panel discussion, with Elder Hamilton of the Family History Department and Brother Rockbrook of FamilySearch. They discuss the miraculous confluence of events that continue to attend the gathering of Israel, and draw attention to the fact that the number of new FamilySearch accounts belonging to people who are not yet members of the church exceed the number of those who are!
Here is Brother Adamz' email:
I visited with some coordinating councils and shared the following quote from President Nelson:
“Family history research and temple service are one work in this church. We cannot do vicarious work for our progenitors unless we know who they are. Temples are nourished with names. Without genealogies, ordinances could be performed only for the living. Searching out the names of our kindred dead is a duty of consummate importance. The saints are rallying to this responsibility in a most remarkable way.” President Russell M. Nelson, 2019 Temple Leadership Seminar
Additionally, I shared the following as resources to assist members as they discover, gather, and connect to their family on both sides of the veil. Perhaps something will be of benefit to you or your area.
Organizing the Work
https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/organizing-temple-and-family-history-work?lang=eng
Liahona Article - An Unprecedented Time for Temple and Family History Work https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/08/06-an-unprecedented-time-for-temple-and-family-history-work?lang=eng
Ordinances Ready Resources
https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/ordinances-ready-ministering
Family Name Assist Resources
https://www.familysearch.org/temple/guide-me/leader-preview
Help and Access Resources
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helper/
Exegesis On Gathering
Exegesis On Gathering
We listened to a BYU Devitional from October 22nd that we thought was terrific restatement of many of the things that we learn in the temple, even though it wasn't strictly about the temple. I say "strictly" because the temple was was not the subject of the talk, but it was rather the understated but understood thread that tied it all together. Elder Jörg Klebingat, a General Authority Seventy (and adult convert to the church), walks us through the plan of salvation, from the premortal council through the ongoing Atonement of JesusChrist, with power, authority, humanity and an understanding that comes by "study and also by faith," and leads us unmistakably in the end to covenant-making and covenant-keeping in His house.
For me, it was well worth the 30 minutes or so it took to listen. The full speech is below, or you can look at a highlight video here (you can also download the mp3 file at that page so that you can listen to it on your commute).
Think Celestial!
Think Celestial!
Two commentaries from John Welch on 4 Nephi hit home to me as I studied the Come Follow Me readings this month. I think they speak to a definition of the role of the temple in building a Zion society. I hope that you get some good take-aways for use in your ministries!
There were “no contentions and disputations” or fighting and quarrelling among the Nephites, as Jesus had [previously] stressed in 3 Nephi 11. Perhaps they avoided a great deal of contention [now] because they were able to repent and recognize their part in the problem. The influence of the Holy Ghost helps reduce contention. This same behavior occurred among the early Christians in Palestine and Asia Minor. In Acts 4:32, the record reads, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.”
Even today, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a modern apostle, stated, “[T]he fact that something is true is not always a justification for communicating it. … The use of truth should also be constrained by the principle of unity. One who focuses on faults, though they be true, fosters dissensions and divisions among fellow Church members in the body of Christ.” A Zion community is maintained by relationships, and contention tends to become personal and leads to the breakdown of relationships.
John W. Welch. Commentary: 4 Nephi 1:2. BOM Central. ScripturePlus Day 299. October 25, 2024.
How did they create a Zion community? It takes a temple, it takes a church of God, and it takes priesthood to have a society like this. Of course, it takes all members in such a society to be willing to operate all of those things and make these beautiful, happy blessings a reality. As a result, they were blessed and never has there been a happier people.
I pray that we can have that kind of happiness. Although we may not live in a world where all of this surrounds us, we can still have that in our own lives. President Thomas S. Monson once said, “The future is as bright as your faith.” Happiness is all up to you. Somebody once asked, “How is it that President Monson is so optimistic? How can he always be so happy?” We can be assured that it is because he knows how it is going to turn out, and it’s going to turn out right.
It is going to turn out all right. Brothers and sisters, it will turn out right and it will turn out right for each of us and for our family, for our children, and for our posterity, if we will do the things that are spelled out in the Book of Mormon for us.
Thomas S. Monson, “Be of Good Cheer,” Ensign, May 2009, online at churchofjesuschrist.org.
John W. Welch. Commentary 4 Nephi 1:18. BOM Central. ScripturePlus Day 299 October 25, 2024.
What is Perfect?
What is Perfect?
Here is an interesting analysis of the use of a word church leaders often get questions about, a word that may be best described as a process, rather than a state of being (in mortality anyway). Again, it's from scholar John Welch, and I think it's fascinating - the way he weaves the rites of the ancient temple into a better undestanding of "perfection."
There are a lot of wonderful, rich nuances to this word “perfect,” and many, many of them have temple connections. There is a subtle undertone of another word for perfect, teliosis. This word is found eleven times at the end of Exodus and the beginning of Leviticus to describe an offering that is consecrated to God and given in the temple. Giving it to God is your final act, the teliosis. Now, bear in mind that the law of consecration is one of the last of the principles in the endowment.
Similarly, if you were to say a phrase like “the presence of God” to one of Jesus’ listeners, they most likely would immediately associate it with the holy of holies in their temple; that was where the presence of God was found. When Jesus said, “Repent of your sins, and come unto me,” they may have thought that has something to do with instruction on how to stand worthily before the face of God. The holy of holies was a perfect cube, 10 cubits by 10 cubits by 10 cubits, and the number ten is not accidental. It was the perfect number to the third power because it represented the state of completeness, or perfection— God’s perfection. Thus, with this word, Jesus was essentially teaching how to be able to enter into the holy of holies. Under the Law of Moses, only the high priest could go into the holy of holies. But upon Jesus’ death, the veil into the holy of holies was rent, and now everyone who is worthy, has the proper priesthood and instruction, and has a covenant relationship is able to enter into the presence of God, as the people gathered in Bountiful fully enjoyed.
The intent of the Father’s plan of mercy is to extend mercy as you turn back to Him and honour your covenant of fidelity to Him. -- Elder Patrick Kearon
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse