A "Thank You" to our Mothers

LeRoy and I realized yesterday that our mother's are working together. LeRoy's mom did a bunch of family history before she passed away, I inherited the box of stuff and worked a little on it, my mom is now researching and preparing so many names for the temple. But don't think for a minute that LeRoy's mom isn't still in on this.

LeRoy and I were going to the temple Thursday afternoon to do an endowment session. In talking with mom that day she suggested that we take 2 of the family names, do the initiatory first and then the endowment session for those 2 people. About 45 minutes after I talked with mom, LeRoy called and wondered if I still had all those family cards (24 men, 10 women) that we had already done the baptisms for and could we do initiatory instead. I quickly agreed but we didn't have time to talk about it right then.

On the way to the temple I asked LeRoy what inspired him to do initiatory and he replied "I think my mom is nagging me". I had to laugh. Our mother's are working together.

We can picture LeRoy's mom doing all kinds of missionary teaching to all of those family members who never did hear the gospel. She is teaching there, my mom is doing the prep work here and LeRoy and I need to be more dedicated and consistent in attending the temple to have their ordinace work done.

It feels great to be part of such a worthy cause. With the experiences that Levi and Erika had on the Martin Handcart trek, talking with Jace about eternal families and doing this temple work . . . my testimony of those sacred ordinances is growing immensly. I feel so blessed to be a member of the church and to have the blessings of an eternal family. There are so many who gave up so much to be able to build a temple and receive those blessings and some times I feel like I take those blessings/covenants too lightly. I remember watching a video about a family that gave up everything, sold their house, traveled for days and didn't know how they would get back home because they wanted to be sealed in the temple. Many pioneers died trying to do the same. I don't believe that Heavenly Father would ask so much of them, or the pioneers or any of us if it wasn't a truly important and binding covenant. It isn't just something that anyone can get on a whim, it takes effort and commitment. I must be worthy of my temple recommend and living according to his commandments for that covenant to be binding. The scripture "what is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven" really means just that. Heavenly Father wouldn't offer to all of his children the opportunity to be together eternally if he was going to require everything from a few to get the same thing. I believe He will be just, but He will stick with the laws that are in place. That is why I need to be more committed not only to my own covenants but also dedicated to the work that needs to be done for those who did not have the chance here.

All of these thoughts give me a prioritized focus on what I need to do. Making sure that our favorite shows are recorded, or that I'm working at losing weight, or that we are all to our various activities on time all fall a very short second in comparison to the things I really should be working on - more dedicated teaching/learning of the scriptures, temple attendance, less sarcasm of the people of the church and more serving.

And before I become overwhelmed with it all . . . I'll just eat this elephant a little at a time.

Back to our temple trip: LeRoy was so honored to do the initiatory work for his grandfathers and I was just as honored to do the work for his grandmothers. I was glad to be part of it since I missed out when LeRoy and the kids all went to the temple to do the baptisms.

Thanks Moms!!