I know what you're thinking,...there's no temple in Guam...yet. Sister Martin and I were asked to speak in church today and the topics we were given to speak on are "Learning about our Ancestors" and "Blessings of the Temple".
Over the past couple of months we've hiked on some beautiful trails, seen caves, waterfalls and sunsets. These are all of God's amazing creations. The temple is man's creation, under the direction of a living Prophet under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finding our Ancestors - These are some screen shot examples of our family trees on familysearch.org
 |
| Farrell Kirk Sparti Family Tree |
 |
| Michael John Martin Family Tree |
 |
| Laura Lynn Henderson Martin Family Tree |
 |
| Terry Lee Sinclair (Sparti) (Martin) Family Tree |
Here's Sister Martin's Talk:
Learning About Our Ancestors
Sister Martin’s Talk - Barrigada Ward, Guam, - 6/28/2014
Good Morning, brothers and
sisters. I’m Sister Martin. Elder Martin
and I came to Guam a few months ago to serve in the Micronesia Guam Mission Office.
We feel so welcomed here and appreciate your warm hearts and the friendliness
around the island. We are loving our experience here.
I've been asked to talk about
“Learning About Our Ancestors.” I have a great love for family history.
However, sometimes I feel like a saying I found, “I trace my family history so,
I will know who to blame” -------or who to thank.
Why do we talk so much about
doing family history work?
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day-Saints is the only church on the earth today that builds temples to perform
ordinances for the dead. Faithful members of the Church research and prepare
family histories to determine their family names so that saving ordinances may
be performed for them.
I have found that when I
search to find out about my ancestors lives, what their life was like and how
they lived, they become more meaningful to me. I learn to love them because I
know more about them.
Have you ever wondered who
your ancestors were and what life was like for them? What do you know about
them in addition to their name or when they were born or died?
You may think “I don’t know
where to start or how to do genealogy.”
A good place to start is to
write down what you know about you and your family. Then ask your parents,
grandparents or other relatives about the names and stories that they know
about your ancestors. Then write them down. Stories are the gems that make
family history exciting as we connect with our ancestors.
My mother used to tell me
about our pioneer ancestors. One of them is Elizabeth Walker. She joined the
church as a teenager in England. She was the only member of her family who
sailed on the ship to America. She joined the Saints and came across the plains
of America with a handcart. She and her friends pulled their handcarts, they
waded through rivers with their clothes on and let them dry on their backs. At night, when the company camped for the
evening, they would sing and dance. She didn't complain about her hardship. She focused on going to Zion and that’s all
that mattered. I have learned from her
to find joy in my journey and to keep focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
By Learning about my
ancestors I have learned to understand and have empathy for others trials.
My father was raised in the
Catholic faith. He never knew his father and his mother grew up in an
orphanage. He had two brothers and one sister. One brother died at the age of 7
and the other was given up for adoption. When my father was about 3 years old, he
was standing on the corner with his brother. His brother was hit by a truck and
died as a result of it. He told me when he was about 5 years old a couple came
to his home. They wanted to take him and his baby brother. He begged his mother
to please let him stay. She said she had no food for him, but he clung to her
and he stayed while the baby brother was taken by this couple. He never saw him
again. Later he had a sister. This
sister never married. She was my Aunt Mary. (My father later converted to the
Church after he married my mother.)
My grandmother was very
faithful in the Catholic faith. Despite her trials, I learned from her that if
I have faith in God, I can make it through my trials.
Sometimes learning about our
ancestor’s stories is like putting together a big jig-saw puzzles and finding
the pieces that fit together.
One time my mother was telling about the
difficulty of finding information about this family. My husband had cancer and we knew he would die
soon. He told my mother, “Bonnie, when I get on the other side, I will help
you.” Shortly after he died, my mother planned to go to New York to do family
research. She had a dream. In the dream she saw the cemetery and graves of my
great-grandmother and one of my great aunts. When my mother went to the
cemetery, it was pouring rain. But she recognized this as the place in her
dream and she went directly to the tombstones. On that same trip, she went to
the courthouse, to look for a name. The man at the desk told her there was no
was no one with the name she was looking for in their books. She asked if she
could see the book. She turned the page and took her finger running down the
page and stopped, she found the name she was looking for. I testify to you that
this work is real and it is part of our Heavenly Father’s plan and we will
receive help, it we just start doing the work. He will help us put the pieces
together.
By learning about my
ancestors I have gained a testimony of the Spirit of Elijah. Elijah was a great
prophet who at the end of his life did not die, but ascended into heaven in a
chariot of fire.” He held the priesthood keys of the sealing of families
together forever. In D&C 110:13-16. He appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, to restore the keys of the
sealing power. The spirit of Elijah is refers to the workings of the Holy Ghost
upon individuals that causes a desire to be involved in the work of family
history. This Spirit is on the earth today, it is all over the world, people
young and old are having their hearts turned to their fathers and they don’t
even know why. But we do.
My husband was the only
member of the church in his family. So, after he died, I decided to devote
myself to finding the ancestors on his side of the pedigree. I have found relatives that are not members of the church
who I have exchanged family history information with. One of them was a retired
minister who just found a passion for family history. We exchanged information.
The spirit of Elijah is real.
I made temple cards from my family research,
and our family, worked on doing temple baptisms and endowments for the family
names until we had a stack of family names that all needed to be sealed. Our
family planned to go to the temple before a family reunion and do all the
sealings. Our children and two nieces met at the Jordan River Temple. We filled
two sealing rooms with all of our children and their spouses. What a glorious
experience to be there in the temple and to know about the names of those who
we were about to seal together as families. I would tell them, this one was
blind, or this one was a fire chief, or this one owned a farm. There was this
connection of great love towards all of them. We also took the name of my aunt
Mary.
My aunt made my mother
promise that she would never do temple work for her. A few years ago my aunt
passed away. I said, “I never promised her that. So Elder Martin got a temple
card made for her. And her temple work was done at this same time. This same
aunt appeared last year to my nephew who was serving a mission and she told him
all about my grandmother and cleared up some questions we have. I’m anxious to
talk to him as he came home from his mission just after we arrived in Guam.
By learning about my
ancestors I have gained a love and appreciation for them; for I would not be here
without them. I find joy in doing something for them that they can’t do for
themselves.
By learning about my ancestors,
my faith has grown, my love has grown and my testimony of Heavenly Father’s
plan. It is a blessing of take their names to the temple.
In closing I want to share a
promise that David A. Bednar gave regarding Family History work: “Your love and
gratitude for your ancestors will increase.
Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding.
And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the
adversary.”
Here's Elder Martin's Talk:
Elder Martin’s Talk - Barrigada Ward, Guam, - 6/28/2014
It’s interesting that I would be given the topic, “Blessings
of the Temple” while serving as a missionary in Guam. There is no temple within
our mission boundaries...yet. I miss the temple.
That’s one mission rule I’ve been tempted to break…just take
a long weekend, and catch a quick flight to Manila or Tokyo and back.
I love going to the temple.
That’s where my wife and I were sealed for time and all
eternity. About 7 years ago at age 40, my wife was taken home to our Heavenly
Father. I believe and I know that the sealing ordinance performed by the
priesthood in the Salt Lake Temple on July 11, 1986 is still in force, and will
be forever. The only thing that would keep me from being sealed for all
eternity is unworthiness or not repenting of my sins when I make a mistake.
Jesus told his apostles the following, in Matthew 16:19,
And I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
That same Priesthood authority that Jesus gave to his
Apostles to bind on earth and in heaven has been restored to The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and is administered in the holy temples
today.
Several years ago, Sister Martin and I began dating. We had
previously been in the same ward, our daughters were good friends, and both of
us lost our spouses to an earlier than expected death.
We both agreed that one major goal that we had made with our
late spouses was to someday serve a couple mission. We set this as our goal
together that after about 10 years, we would go. Well, we were blessed to come
4 years earlier than planned. I am convinced that when you set righteous goals,
God helps you figure out how to reach that goal. If you decide today that you
want to go to the temple someday, God will help you figure out how to make it
happen.
Before we left on our mission
there was a popular song called “Happiness”. In the song he sings, “Here come bad news…I’ll be just fine…don’t waste your
time, here’s why…Clap along if you feel that happiness is the truth…and so on…”
What makes you happy? Some may
say…If I just had that new car, or that truck with massive mud tires, I would
be so happy.
Jesus said in Matthew 6: 19-21
19 ¶Lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
RUST. I've seen some pretty rusted out vehicles that have
almost become landmarks on some of the outer islands. When Sister Martin and I
went to the Joy Hotel on Pohnpei, we got a little lost while driving. Elder and
Sister Chandler, the senior couple there, told us to remember to turn off Main
street at the rusted out fork lift, and you’ll find the hotel.
One thing that makes me very happy is going to the temple. When
we enter the temple doors, the “bad news”, as the song goes, is somehow left
outside. I feel peace, happiness and joy in the temple.
I've had the opportunity of doing family history research
and then doing ordinances for many of my ancestors in the temple. They of
course may choose to accept it. But the peace I've felt there so many times is
unforgettable.
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the 12 Apostles said,
“Every activity,
every lesson, all we do in the Church, point to the Lord and His holy house.
Our efforts to proclaim the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead all
lead to the temple. Each holy temple stands as a symbol of our membership in
the Church, as a sign
of our faith in life after death, and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for
us and our families.
President Hinckley said that “these unique and wonderful
buildings, and the ordinances administered therein, represent the ultimate in
our worship. These ordinances become the most profound expressions of our
theology.”
Click here for Elder Nelson's complete talk
To enter the temple is a tremendous blessing. But first we
must be worthy. We should not be rushed. We cannot cut corners of preparation
and risk the breaking of covenants we were not prepared to make. That would be
worse than not making them at all.” Close Quote (April 2001)
My fondest memories were trips that included the temple in
the schedule. For my work, I had the opportunity of traveling around the world.
If the state or country I was visiting had a temple, I would do my best to work
it into my schedule. Sometimes, I could take my family on these trips. Whenever
I did, we would try to go to the temple. We did many times and the memories and
experiences are priceless. Heavenly Father helped us to make this a priority because
I knew the blessings of the temple. My favorite was doing baptisms for the dead
with my daughters.
Remember in the N. T. it mentions Baptism for the dead, 1
Cor. 15:29.
29 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?
Temple blessings are many…and I testify that they are
eternal and real.
President Monson Said,
“The temple provides purpose for our lives. It brings
peace to our souls—not the peace provided by men but the peace promised by the
Son of God when He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.”
Click here for complete talk by President Monson
One of my favorite scriptures will help us stay focused on
reaching goals such as the temple, and never give up:
2 Nephi 31: 20-21
20. Wherefore,
ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ,
having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.
Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold,
thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
21 …and there is none other way nor name given under heaven
whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the
only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ that has been restored is
true. We have living prophets on the earth today, receiving revelation from God
for our benefit and opportunity for eternal salvation. President Thomas S.
Monson is a true and living prophet. The Lord loves us and wants us to serve
each other, love each other, be patient with each other and forgive each other.
May we align our thoughts and actions with God, is my prayer and faith in the
name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
