Steadfast In Christ!

Just a little note to share...
Sept 16, 2013

My Dear Fellow Missionaries,

What an incredible blessing to attend the temple this past week with each one of you!

Didn’t you just love the new temple film?  Sister Hanks and I found it amazing that without changing any words, specific doctrines and events were made so much clearer.  Certain things were made even more noticeable to me, such as: Eve’s difficult and emotional choice, Satan’s devious nature, the happiness that learning about a Savior can bring to people, and more.

Along with attending the temple, came the blessing of seeing and rubbing shoulders with the best missionaries on the planet!  What a joy and blessing.

I hope you are as recharged, rejuvenated, and recommitted as we are!

I wanted to point out a few things about the temple.  I had the chance to share these two ideas with many of you, but not all of you.

1) As we attend the temple it is good to focus on the covenants that we are making with God.  Depending on how you count them, there are 4 or 5 major promises.  They have to do with us placing our lives in compliance with how Heavenly Father has asked us to live, with maintaining devotion to the cause of truth, with charity and love, with disciplining ourselves, and with “being willing to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive…Jesus Christ.” (J.E. Talmage).

I ask you this… who best lived a life that demonstrated each of the covenants that you and I made in the temple?  The obvious answer is the Son of God.  Was his not the most obedient, loving, unselfish, completely committed life to ever grace the earth? 

So, to me, the Temple is really about the Savior.

Sometimes we go to the temple looking for some new and great insight… and perhaps the greatest insight that lies right in front of us all along is that the temple is really about us making promises to God, that we will comport our life in some small way to be similar to the life the Master lived while he was on the earth.

2) A second idea comes from the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in DC 109: 22-23.  I think it applies directly to you… the Disciples of the Alabama Birmingham Mission! 

“And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;  And from this place they may bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and that thou hast put forth thy hand, to fulfil that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets, concerning the last days.”   (DC 109: 22-23) 

I testify to you that you have made promises this week in the temple that point you toward the life of the Savior.  Then you have gone forth from His Holy House, armed with power, surrounded by angels, and bearing “exceedingly great and glorious tidings.” 

You carry the truth!

It was a wonderful week for me.  I pray it was for you!

I love you.

President Hanks



STEADFAST IN CHRIST!