Conference = Incredible.

When I wrote that I was specifically thinking of the Church's 196th semi-annual General Conference, but then I realized that I could also be referring to BYU's McKay School of Education Mentored Research Conference, of which I was a part this afternoon. That also went well; at times it seemed a little long and at times it was excellent but none of it was horrible. So I would say it was a success.

The big winners of this General Conference: Temples, and going to them.

I loved this. I am so excited about the Temple, having learned a lot more about it in my D&C class this semester, and also preparing myself to go.

Part of section 109 of the D&C (Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer, March 27, 1836) was quoted in Conference:

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God."

I was talking with Andy about Conference, the Temple, etc, and we discussed how only homes compare with the Temple in terms of sacredness. I love the idea of homes being sacred sanctuaries, and also the idea of the feeling in the Temple being like that of my home home. I'm so blessed to have grown up in a home with a lot of love, and I believe the Temple feels like home in that respect.

lots of love and family

This morning my brother and sister and I who are living here in Provo attended the memorial service of my great-Uncle Alan Ray Hansen. I find that I actually sometimes look forward to going to funerals. Often there is more cause to celebrate than there is to mourn when we reflect on the well-lived life of a loved one. That was definitely the case today. A tear or two may have been shed, but they were the type of tears that come when speaking of strong love for a wonderful friend, not tears of sadness.

My siblings and I enjoyed seeing family members we hadn't seen in years. We were there to represent all of the descendants of Alan's older brother Don (my grandfather). We felt very at home in the presence of lots of very tall men and women!

This evening I opened to Doctrince & Covenants 110. This section of the D&C is a record of a vision that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had in the Kirtland, Ohio temple on April 3, 1836. At that time Elijah the prophet returned to restore the keys of his dispensation, to fulfill the prophecy of Malachi in the New Testament, in order "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the father, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse." I definitely felt my heart turned to my family today. I loved pondering on the lives of my ancestors and contemporaries, and I also am looking forward to building a my own future forever family!

I just re-read my post-script from two posts ago. My cute little plants are still growing in their cute little containers (although I think I may have given them a little too much to drink for a little bit). But one thing has changed: it is COLD outside! Andy and I joked today about the fake spring, or "fring" we've been experiencing. Apparently that's normal here?

I got some exciting news in the mail yesterday: I was accepted to my fourth graduate school! It would be sweet to spend a couple of years in Boston, but we'll see where we end up. Andy's still waiting on several schools. Both of us have friends who are getting antsy about grad school and associated issues--funding/the lack thereof, acceptance/rejection letters/the lack thereof, etc.

For my Doctrine and Covenants class today the assigned reading was D&C sections 127 and 128, which contain revelations through the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning baptism for the dead. Section 128 quotes several verses from the Old and New Testaments. 1 Corinthians 15:29 stuck out to me because I saw it on a sign as I walked through the Draper Temple Open House this past Thursday. Baptism is an essential ordinance, and a just God makes it possible for everyone to have the opportunity to accept or reject it. This is accomplished through vicarious baptisms in behalf of deceased ancestors. This ordinance takes place in LDS Temples, and through this verse in 1 Corinthians, we can see that it was also practiced during the time of the Apostle Paul.

Temple

In my D&C class we have been learning about how the Prophet Joseph Smith, as part of the Restoration of Jesus Christ's gospel, restored Temple ordinances and keys. This has been an interesting thing to learn about. I've been to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead, but I haven't yet gone to receive my own endowment. This is what the Prophet Brigham Young, who, as senior apostles was Joseph's successor as president of the Church and prophet, said about the endowment:

"Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell." (Discourses of Brigham Young [Desert Book Co., 1941], p. 416.)

I know the Temple is a special place. This Thursday, actually, I am going to the open house for the Draper, Utah Temple. Since it hasn't been dedicated yet, it is open to the entire public. Once it is dedicated it is open to, in the words of Joseph Smith, "all the Saints of the last days, so soon as they are prepared to receive" (History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1980], 5:1-2). The blessings of the Temple can be each of ours!

Cheerfully do

This is one of those weeks. One of those weeks in the middle of the semester when exams, projects, presentations, and quizzes all combine in the perfect storm to make it necessary to burn the midnight oil while still trying to stay sane. Actually, I don't feel like I have any right to complain when I look at the load my sister is carrying. She's working the max number of hours at her job and going to school full-time (including four credits of Mandarin Chinese and four credits of Arabic!), along with other responsibilities. What impresses me most about her, though, is her constant enthusiasm and optimistic outlook. She seems to have an unending supply of these things, and her attitude is contagious.

In trying to think of a passage in the Doctrine & Covenants that fits this theme, this is the first verse that came to mind: D&C 123:17, which reads in part--"let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power." Once we do that, the scripture continues, "then we may stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." This must have been very powerful to those who heard it at the time as they had been suffering intense persecution and hardships, but I believe that, like much of scripture, this verse can be applied to us today. I may not be able to control when my professors schedule assignments, but I can do what lies in my power to prepare for them ahead of time, use my time wisely, pay attention in class, etc. If I do these things I have a much greater assurance that things will work out no matter what stresses I face at the moment. This give me hope!

PS: The plants Andy gave me on Valentine's Day are starting to grow! They might be loving this sunny weather as much as I am. :-)

Liberty Jail

Last week for my religion class we read Doctrine and Covenants sections 121, 122, and 123. These sections were written while the Prophet Joseph Smith was in Clay County, Missouri's Liberty Jail. We learned that these sections of the D&C were extracted from a rather lengthy letter that the Prophet Joseph Smith and his prison companions wrote to the church members and their families. In class we gathered into small groups of three and reviewed transcriptions of the letter and saw the sections of the letter that became these three sections of the D&C. By looking at the Bible we can see that it isn’t unusual for inspired letters to become scripture: for example, Paul’s epistles to the saints at Thessalonica.

This was an extraordinarily difficult time for the Prophet. Those five cold, dark months in “liberty” Jail during the winter of 1838-1839 changed him. He came out with more confidence and boldness.

Difficult times stretch us. We find inspiring words in D&C 122:5-7. They are kind of lengthy verses, all describing the Lord’s point: “If thou art called to pass through tribulation […] know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” Verse 8 continues, “The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?” These are words we should all remember when we face difficult things.

Words of Wisdom

I recently read Doctrine & Covenants 109 by assignment for my religion class, and I loved it. The last time I read that whole section must have been during my sophomore year of high school, when we studied the D&C during early-morning seminary. Section 109 is the dedicatory prayer for the temple in Kirtland, Ohio, dedicated March 27, 1836.

Here is part of one verse that I like (verse 7):

"Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom."

This semester I am taking a "Masterpieces of World Literature" class. It's the second class in a two-course series, and having never taken the first course in the series I have often felt a bit lost. But I think there are valuables things to learn from literature from all over the world, from all different times, places, and people. Currently we are reading Candide, by Voltaire. We're talking about the Enlightenment, and how that grew out of the Neoclassical period. A lot of times the widsom comes from learning what not to do and how not to act.

I like that the Lord had the Prophet Joseph include that in the dedicatory prayer. I think we can learn a lot of wisdom from all sorts of books!