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It was fun to be with Miles yesterday as he reported on his mission to the Stake High Council. He did a great job! I commented to mama afterwards how rewarding it is as a parent to hear your children be able to articulate so well on the the fly of how the gospel of Jesus Christ influences not only their life, but the lives of those they share it with.
This made me think of the blessing a mission has been for me and for you older kids, and how much it will impact Avery, Graham, and Lainey lives in the near future.
As you think about the temple endowment and covenants we make there, ponder on how those covenants have been strengthened because of your missionary experience. I think you will see a pattern of how the Lord has taught and instructed each of us through serving Him as a full time missionary.
Think about about it. You learn very early on in your mission the importance of exact obedience, so you can be worthy to call down God’s blessings on those you love and teach. You do everything you can to align to every mission rule, because you recognized that all blessings are associated with obedience to God’s laws. In addition to obedience you make so many sacrifices. It may be a special fast, or going the extra mile to meet your weekly missionary goals, or personally going through the repentance process with a broken heart and contrite spirit, wanting to be a worthy vessel the Lord can work through.
As a missionary you literally eat, drink and breathe the Law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Time after time you teach the Plan of Salvation, the importance of having faith in Jesus Christ. You teach everyone that will listen about repentance and the need to follow the Savior’s example into the waters of baptism. You teach the vital role of the Holy Ghost in a person’s life, and ultimately preparing themselves to go to the Temple to receive all of God’s promised blessings. You emphasize how this cycle of the Doctrine of Christ must be repeated over and over again until each person finishes their time here on Earth.
And then there is the Law of Consecration. No doubt a full time mission gives us a pattern of learning what it looks like to give God a “fair share” of our time.” We magnify this covenant as missionaries as we give all of our time, talents, or whatever the Lord blesses us with to building His kingdom on Earth and establishing Zion wherever we have been called to serve.
Our Heavenly Father in His perfect wisdom, gives the maturing youth of His church this amazing opportunity of a full time mission to build a solid foundation to live these covenants throughout the rest of their lives. What a perfect plan in every way!
In the Church News this week there was a message given by Elder Anderson at last weeks Education Week at BYU. His talk was titled The Foundational Role of Temple Covenants.
Elder Andersen said these covenants of the endowment are “foundational to educating your righteous desires. In His house, the temple, God speaks to and teaches His children through His Spirit. Because He knows and understands your strengths, weaknesses, anxieties, hopes, longings, fears, private struggles and faith, the Lord’s revelation … is His truth, especially for you, His encouragement and comfort to you, His correction of you, His love for you.”
Invitation: Remember the pattern we learned of keeping our temple covenants while serving a full time mission, and continue to allow this same pattern to build “upon our righteous desires” today. As we seek for the the Holy Ghost to continue to guide us in keeping our covenants, our Heavenly Father will continue to bless each one of us with the exact things we need.
Love you all so much,
Dad!
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