#22 Visit 5 new temples (3/5): Rexburg, ID; #50 Temple Service: perform all ordinances as proxy for a deceased ancestor in one day

A week ago I went to visit my oldest nephew Bryce.  He's going to school up there and will be leaving in a month and a half to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years.  So I wanted to spend some time with him before he left.  :)

Bryce is now able to worship and serve in the holy temples of our church.  These beautiful buildings are different from our chapels where we meet on Sundays.  Chapels can be entered by anyone, and it is where we worship on Sundays, partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and have midweek activities.  Temples are literally the houses of the Lord--holy, dedicated buildings that are set apart and special.  They can only be entered by members of the Church, but membership is not the only requirement.  Members must be worthy and must have reached a certain maturity level (18 is the youngest I've heard of; many people do this in their 20s).  New members of the Church must wait a year before making additional covenants with God in the temples (I'll discuss that a little later).

So Bryce is excited about being able to attend the temple, and I love it too, so we went together to the temple that is in Rexburg, Idaho.  It's only 5 years old, and very beautiful.

Aren't we cute?  The inscription above the door reads, "holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord"

Besides attending a new temple, we also accomplished one of my other goals while I was there.  Goal #50 used the say that I would only attend the temple to perform proxy ordinances for my own ancestors for 6 months.  The idea was to encourage me to do family history (to find people who needed essential saving ordinances), but the result was to discourage me from attending the temple when I didn't have names.  So I changed it to something else I've wanted to do for a long time: do all ordinances in one day for an ancestor that I found.

I found a few people in my family tree that needed temple ordinances, and Bryce and I served as proxies for them in the temple.  He did my great great aunt's son (who knows what kind of cousin that is?), and I did his wife.

This is Mabel's card, where we marked that she had received individual ordinances

This is the card for sealing her in holy matrimony to her husband

All in all we spent about 7 hours in the temple, and it was great.  I feel so much peace when I am there.  It's like all of my worldly cares and concerns leave, and I can see the bigger picture of why I'm here.  I also felt my ancestor's excitement at receiving these ordinances, especially when she was sealed in eternal marriage to her husband.  It was a beautiful experience, and it was special to share it with my nephew.
For more information about what goes on in Mormon temples, please continue reading!  :)

Ordinances for the Dead
So, one of the "problems" in Christianity is what happens to all those people who never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We know that God is a loving God, and we also know that baptism is required for salvation...so how does that work without choosing favorites?  We provide ordinances for those who have passed on, by serving as proxies in their place, and then in the spirit world they can choose to accept or reject the ordinances performed on their behalf.  I am pretty sure that the LDS Church is unique in this practice, although it was practiced in New Testament times as well:

Baptism
In defending the doctrine of resurrection (the Sadduccees didn't believe there would be a resurrection), Paul said, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?  Why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Corinthians 15:29).  This pre-supposes that all in the audience were familiar with the practice of being baptized for the dead. Baptisms of live people happens in baptismal fonts in the chapels throughout the world, but if it is on behalf of someone who has died, it must be performed in the temple.  Temple baptismal fonts look like this:

The twelve oxen below represent the 12 tribes of Israel

Confirmation
The next step is to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands of someone who has the Priesthood of God.  There is also a precedent set for this in the New Testament.  Peter and John came across a group of people who had received the baptism of Jesus, but had not received the Holy Ghost.  In Acts 8:17 it says that they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.  We believe that a baptism by water is only half; the other half is to be baptized by fire or by the spirit, which is receiving the Holy Ghost.  On the picture of the ordinance card above, this is called "confirmation," because it is also when you are confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Both baptism and confirmation are ordinances that members of the Church receive in chapels or meeting houses.  The next ordinances are ones that are always performed in the temple, whether for the living or the dead.

Temples
Here is some background information on temples, published on mormon.org:

Temples are houses of the Lord, the most sacred structures on the earth.

Anciently, the Lord directed Solomon to build a temple (1 Chronicles 28:1-6). This temple was a place where God could dwell, was a place of prayer, was a place of sacrifice and was a place where the principle and covenant of sacrifice was fundamental to worship.

At the time of the Restoration, the Lord commanded Joseph Smith to once again build temples on the earth. Like ancient temples, today’s temples are also sacred places where God may dwell; they are places of prayer and, although we no longer offer animal sacrifices because that was done away with when Jesus Christ became the Eternal Sacrifice for our sins, the principle and covenant of sacrifice is fundamental to our temple worship.

In temples, Church members participate in ordinances designed to unite their families together forever and help them return to God

This beginning of an eternal family

Endowment and Sealing
Here is information regarding the additional ordinances that are performed in the temple, as quoted from the book "True to the Faith" (pg 170-174):

One ordinance received in the temple is called the endowment. The word endowment means “gift,” and the temple endowment truly is a gift from God. The ordinance consists of a series of instructions and includes covenants to live righteously and follow the requirements of the gospel. The endowment focuses on the Savior, His role in Heavenly Father's plan, and the personal commitment of each member to follow Him.

Another temple ordinance is celestial marriage. In this ordinance husband and wife are sealed to one another for eternity. A sealing performed in the temple continues forever if the husband and wife are faithful to the covenants they make.

Here is an altar where a man and woman can kneel and be sealed forever in eternal marriage.

If you want to learn more, you can visit this website or this one, talk with missionaries, or go to the visitor's center of the nearest temple to you.  My life has been blessed by temple worship.

My dollar for completing goal #50 went to purchasing 2 boxes of crayons for children in Title 1 schools.