The Logan Temple in Winter
Yesterday some of the Eborn family met at the Logan Temple for a Family Temple Day.
I had been to the Temple Baptistery a couple of months ago and had asked if we could reserve a two-hour block of time to do baptisms for deceased family members. The baptistery is usually very busy and especially on weekends, in the early mornings and also evenings after school is out. The secretary checked her schedule book and informed me that there was some free time on March 2nd beginning at 1:00 PM. I accordingly scheduled two hours. I knew I had enough names of extended family members to fill that time, but I really had no idea if I could find enough people in the family who could work this particular time frame into their busy schedule. I sent out an e-mail to those I had addresses for and hoped to get a response. I was blessed when several of the family showed an interest, and as I had suspected there were several who wanted to come and participate, but who have busy family schedules and couldn't work it in at this particular time. At first I though about just canceling it and turning all the names into the Temple. I'm glad we decided to go ahead with this project.
As it turned out we had Ammon and Addison come. I was so impressed with Addison. He came and sacrificed going to the State Championship basketball game between Mountain Crest (his school) and Skyview, their valley rival. There are not very many young men who would do such a thing. I am very proud of Addison and also his dad for bringing him and also participating. Jared and Shana came from Murray. They brought their children. Emily was able to participate along with her parents and her older Sister, Kinsey. It was a very special day for them and for us, especially Kinsey.
She is our oldest granddaughter. She will be 19 in June. With the lowering of ages for missionary service, she was waiting at her bishop's door 120 days before her birthday to get the missionaries papers started. She is excited to serve and we are very proud of her example and strength of testimony. She opened her call from the First Presidency on Friday night and we were thrilled, as was she. Beginning in July, Kinsey will be serving as a missionary in Sweden. Suddenly, Sweden is one of the most interesting places on earth for us. Kinsey is well prepared and will do well. Reed came with some of his family. Dan and Rachel were there. Dan did a lot of the baptizing and helped with the confirmations. We loved seeing them and being in the Temple with them. They are beautiful people. Also Valerie came and performed baptisms. Iris and I also participated. Coincidentally. Donald Daugs and his wife, Ammon's dad and step-mother are workers in the baptistery and it just so happened that they were on duty just at the time we were there. All in all it made a wonderful day.
At the end of our allotted time we had completed 150 baptisms for male relatives and a like number for the females. Confirmations were also performed for each of these. That is 600 ordinances. We are grateful. Now the real work begins. It is work, but it is also very joyful work, at least for me, and I think also for the rest of those who have participated or will participate in the future. I seriously doubt that we could have spent those few hours in a more productive way.
I was recently reminded of a vision Elder Melvin J. Ballard had at the baptistery in the Logan Temple many years ago. I don't know that any of us had an actual vision, but I am certain that all of us felt just as he did. Below is a short report of his experience.
The Vision of Melvin J. Ballard
at the Logan Temple Baptistery
at the Logan Temple Baptistery
“Elder Ballard sat at our baptismal font [in the Logan Utah Temple] one Saturday while nearly a thousand baptisms were performed for the dead. As he sat there, he contemplated on how great the temple ceremonies were, and how we are bringing special blessings to the living and the dead. His thoughts turned to the spirit world, and he wondered if the people there would accept the work we were doing for them.
“Brother Ballard said: ‘All at once a vision opened to me, and I beheld a great congregation of people gathered in the east end of the font room. One by one, as each name was baptized for, one of these people climbed a stairway over the font to the west end of the room. Not one soul was missing, but there was a person for every one of the thousand names done that day.’
“Brother Ballard said that he had never seen such happy people in all his life, and the whole congregation rejoiced at what was [being] done for them.
“For the rest of his life, Apostle Ballard preached to the Church in all his travels, that the work we do in the temples is accepted, and that the people themselves are permitted to attend and receive the blessings personally” (Nolan Porter Olsen, Logan Temple: The First 100 Years [1978], 170).
A Temple Baptism Font where sacred covenants are made by proxies for those who died without the opportunity. Each of the LDS Temples has a font similar to this and dedicated for use in the sacred ordinances of the Temple.
In sacred places like this I find Heaven and Earth seem to be not very far apart
Hopefully we can have an experience like this again in the not so distant future, and include more of the family.Let us know if you would like you and yours to be involved and we will see what we can arrange. Thanks again to each of you who came and added your special spirits to those of the Temple. We love you all and always will.
Coming Home! Jesus, Lover of My Soul
3 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful time.
Thanks dad for arranging it. I wish that I could have been there. I was also impressed that Addison kept to his responsibility. He knew that he had committed to do the baptisms. He was bummed about missing the game at least getting there with his friends. I got home about 3:15 from my workshop and we headed right out to Ogden to the game. We got there in the middle of the first quarter. He wishes he could have watched it with his friends, but he got to sit next to his mom instead. It was better than nothing and I appreciated that he did the baptisms as I bet those he did them for are as well.
Alison,
You are such a good mother and daughter. I would certainly have understood, had he chosen to go to the game with his friends, but I truly look up to a young man who lives by his word no matter what. There is no doubt those he was baptized for are grateful to him. Sometimes it's hard to make choices, especially when neither choice seems to be bad. I have struggled often in my life with choices demanding me to be in more than one place at a time. Over the years I have learned that it's best to make the choice that most effectively blesses someone elses life. One of our biggest challenges is to overcome "the natural man." Addison is a great young man. I'm sure you are very pleased with him. We are too and greatful for his commitment to do what is right.
Love you all and always,
Grandpa Bart
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