Adoptive sealings

 2:22, 12/16/22 Friday, Hello Brandon, I had to do a couple of batches of indexing before leaving home this morning to calm down my anxiety. I was assigned the spiritual thought for the prayer meeting at 8:30 this morning. Yikes! You may remember me sharing with you a story from Saints vol. 3:

Chapter 2 As We Prove Ourselves Ready (notice the kind of pen being used, Brandon.) On the first day of 1894, George Q. Cannon awoke full of gratitude to the Lord for his family’s well-being. “We have food, raiment, and shelter,” he wrote in his journal. “Our houses are comfortable, and we need nothing to add to our physical comfort.”. . .\In early March, Lorenzo Snow, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, sought the First Presidency’s advice on how to perform the temple work for his immediate ancestors. He was specifically interested in sealing children to parents who had not embraced the gospel during their lives.

The first sealings of children to parents had occurred in Nauvoo. At the time, several Saints whose parents were not members of the Church chose instead to be sealed by adoption to Church leaders. They believed that doing so would ensure them a place in an eternal family and connect the community of Saints together in the next life.

After the Saints arrived in Utah, adoption sealings and child-parent sealings were not performed until the St. George Temple was dedicated in 1877. Since then, many more Saints had chosen to be sealed by adoption into the families of apostles or other Church leaders. In fact, the usual practice of the Church was to not seal a woman to a man who had not accepted the gospel while alive. This meant a Latter-day Saint widow at that time could not be sealed to her deceased husband if he had never joined the Church. The practice could sometimes be painful to bear.

George had been uncomfortable with adoption sealings for many years. As a young man in Nauvoo, he had been sealed by adoption into his uncle John Taylor’s family, even though his parents had been faithful Church members. Other Church members had also chosen to be sealed to apostles rather than their own faithful Latter-day Saint parents. George now believed this practice had created some clannishness among the Saints. And in 1890, he and his siblings canceled their sealing to the Taylor family and were sealed instead to their own deceased parents in the St. George Temple, affirming the bonds of natural affection within their family.

As the First Presidency discussed the case of Lorenzo’s family, George proposed a possible solution. “Why not have his father and his brothers sealed to his grandfather,” he asked, “and then have his grandfather and his brothers and sisters sealed to their parents, and so on back as far as possible?”

Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith seemed pleased with George’s proposal. Both men harbored their own concerns about adoption sealings. Yet President Woodruff was not ready to endorse any changes to the practice. George held out hope that the Lord would soon reveal His will on the subject.

“The fact is, there has not been much known about this doctrine of adoption,” George observed in his journal. “It is our privilege to know concerning these things, and I trust the Lord will be kind to us and give us knowledge.” Did you understand that story Brandon? Here are the 15 apostles, 60 years after 1830, when the church was organized, trying to figure out how to use the sealing power/sealing keys restored by Elijah in the Kirtland temple!!! And yet President WW did not accept their proposal. He wanted further direction/revelation from God! @@@ That volume of church history just came out this year. I read that story months and months ago but it floored me. Did you see the picture at the beginning of the chapter? There it is, a pedigree chart! All of us working at the FSC know what those are. I imagine most of the membership of the church knows what those are. When I asked if anyone on our shift had heard of adoptive sealing about half nodded their heads. We don’t do adoptive sealings in the church anymore. “I got sealed to Joseph Smith.” “Well, I got sealed to Brigham Young” can you see the competition there, Brandon? It turned out to be wrong! The church had gone down the wrong path. Further Revelation was needed. @ You may remember that Moroni came to JS when he was 17 yo. He repeated his message 4 times! This is my favorite scripture story of all time. He quoted Malachi which is also found in the OT, NT, D&C, PoGP, & BoM!!!! How important is that? After Joseph had pondered that verse for 20 years he got a revelation explaining it: section 128. So now we have an example of a 20 year wait and a 60 year wait for revelation. There was 100 years of waiting before the WoW became effective for temple recommends. In 1930 Believing the Church would be known by its fruits, Heber had urged the Saints to live clean lives. Over and over, he challenged them to keep the Word of Wisdom with exactness, abstaining from alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco, and other harmful substances earlier generations of Saints had sometimes used. He made obedience to the Word of Wisdom mandatory for temple attendance and missionary service and pleaded with the Saints to pay full tithes and give offerings.So there are 3 examples of continuing revelation. I shared a 4th one of a portion of the Sermon on the mount being given only to the 12:25 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked upon the twelve whom he had chosen, and said unto them: Remember the words which I have spoken. For behold, ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this people. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?26 Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin;

29 And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith.

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. aSufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.1 aAnd now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he turned again to the multitude, and did open his mouth unto them again, saying: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Judge not, that ye be not judged. Did you see all those verses that were only spoken to the 12? It makes good sense to me! They left their livelihoods behind and followed Christ. Quit worrying about worldly needs. You are my apostles and we have more important things to do. @ When I watched THE CHOSEN season 3 episode 1 Monday night I wondered why he gave that part to the multitude? Answer: Dallas(producer) did not have 3 Nephi to update him. So that took 1800 years before continuing revelation corrected a mistake. @@ Those are the 4 I was prepared to share today. I did not have time for the WoW one. @@@ Next, My afternoon Shift coordinator has never seen me in his prayer meeting and he brought his walker over to visit me at 12:20 and invited me to his prayer meeting. [George Clark] I offered  to give the spiritual thought since I had given it this morning. He agreed to have me do it. My director is Rand Packer and when he saw me there in the afternoon prayer meeting he asked if I was giving it. George said yes. Rand told me that he has not read SAINTS 3 yet and he was surprised at that story about adoptive sealings this morning. He was encouraging and said it would be good. As it turned out GeorgeC had prepared a special spiritual thought and music. He wanted me to come today because he knew the two videos he had to cover those 2 things would be wonderful. They were. I got chills and thrills a  couple of times during the music video. He used all the time and we only had 2 minutes left for the closing prayer. When he invited me to come share my spiritual thought I said: Brother Clark, I love you and I appreciate you inviting me to share my spiritual thought today but we are almost at time and I think it would detract from the beautiful spirit of your presentations (videos). He accepted that and we had a closing prayer. Rand Packer put his hand on my shoulder and told me: “I agree with you. Spot on, You handled that beautifully.” I love being approved of Brandon! Later, as he was dropping off stuff in the computer server room he told me: “You're a good man, Vern” “So are you Rand!” “We try to be don’t we?” “Yep, we do our best.” “Even with all our flaws and weaknesses.” @ JC gives HF all the credit and glory. I did not need to show off my wonderful spiritual thought. We had been feasting spiritually and were full. @ Sister Sherri Schwab came by my indexing table and said she hoped they would be able to hear my thought some time. :) See how cool it is to work here at the FSC? @@@Saturday, 12/17 Email I just sent: Dear Brother Rand Packer,[Brandon, he is my FSC director.]

You probably already know this but it is hard for lots of singles to go to Christmas Parties. It was for me and it was for Sheryl Sullivan and it was for Chris Reber.

At 6:15 last night I sat in the car and prayed about whether to go home from having practiced reading with my grandson, or whether to go to the party. Earlier that day, You asked me if I would be there when you passed me at the round table and I said yes. Nevertheless, I really didn't want to go when it came right down to it.

As I prayed and thought about all the food I already had ready to eat at home I decided not to go. But then I asked myself another question in prayer. . . what will happen if I do go?

I have a motto/phrase come to mind that I repeat to myself in situations like this. So I said it: If you go you will be blessed. I repeated it 5 times. If you go you will be blessed. That helped me over the hump. I put it to the test again. Prove me now herewith. . .

And I was.

And then you took the opportunity to offer the closing prayer!! You are our leader. It was like being blessed by the prophet or an apostle.

You didn't pass off the assignment to pray to anyone else. You took the opportunity to pray and to bless us.

Yippee!

Thank you.

Good thinking and good following your heart or calling or responsibility or HG or whatever it was!

We/I needed that. Vern @@@ Sat. 3:49 Hello Brandon, I bought two turkeys from Smiths this week. BOGO=buy one get one free. I had Louis smoke one for me a week before Thanksgiving and I cooked another one in the oven and gave it to Bill after eating just the wings off it that night. :) So seeing a $27 turkey and one for free this week I thought, those tasted great. . . let’s do it. I have a fiberglass bathtub and put them in to thaw. Yesterday they were still cold and thawing but this morning I thought it was time to cook them up. Can you imagine cooking two turkeys in the oven at a time?  How can they fit? I put my two turkey pans in the oven before turning it on and they didn’t fit. But. . . I put a cake pan under one of them so it was like a split level house. Then they fit. I seasoned them, stuck rosemary underneath, inside and on top, stuck onions between the wings and legs and the body, put one whole carrot in the body cavity (that is called an aromatic) and stuck them in the oven at 9am. At noon I pulled them out and made some phone calls to figure out who I could give them to. I have discovered that if I have stuff to give away [like sparkling grape soda (10bottles), bags of candy or potatoes or chips or icecream] the opportunity presents itself. Last year Roger and I threw a FF party for the Becky Gibson family. My grandson Lincoln’13 qualified for a french fry party this week, by reading with me or his dad for 30 minutes/day. Becky’s husband went to jail last year. She had 1 son and 5 daughters at home. When I called her last year and offered the ff party I did not know she was a newly singled parent. So she was the first one I called about a cooked turkey. No answer. So I called Nate Bird, my ministering family with 4 girls and one boy. “WE accept and eat turkey,” he said. :) I delivered. So fun!! Shanna Haney didn’t answer so I called Frank, my home teacher. He accepted as well, so my turkeys have been distributed and delivered. Ask me if it makes me happy inside? @ I believe that if we take comfortable baby steps and do what feels good to us along the service lines, then eventually we will become Godlike. @ As I rode my bike to the FSC at 9am, leaving the turkeys cooking in the oven I asked myself: why haven’t I ridden my bike any other days this week? I realized that it wasn’t the cold that was keeping me from wanting to ride but the wet/water! Do you dare to ask yourself questions like that? @ As you read from the email I sent to Rand Packer, not wanting to go to the Christmas party I sat in the truck and prayed. I wasn’t really connecting to heaven very well and I wondered what I needed to do. I needed to consider what would happen if I went? See how I had to ask a question? I needed to be willing to consider an answer. I had to pray with real intent. And I had to repeat a lesson in a sentence that I have learned over and over: If I go I will be blessed. By repeating that phrase I gained energy/motivation to test it. @@@ So since I listen to 3 podcasts from youtube each week the algorithm thinks I want to watch religious videos. I don’t! When I go to youtube it is for entertainment. But It gave me an intriguing DAB title:

Elder Bednar | Quit worrying about it. Is it the Holy Ghost or me?@ That little arrow before the word Elder is a youtube “play” button. A hot link. Sorry, they don’t work in emails! Ha @ I decided to listen while indexing at home this afternoon. In the summer of 2009 DAB addressed the missionaries in the MTC. As you probably remember I profess not to be able to feel the HG worth a darn. It’s OK. I don’t have to be able to feel the HG. I can just be a good boy and try my best. He says the HG only guides you while you are moving. Sitting and analyzing and trying to feel what to do doesn’t work. Just start with what you think is best and the confirmation may come later. We are supposed to be practicing godhood. We shouldn’t have to need to be slapped in the side of the head with the Holy Ghost each time we are supposed to do something.  Funny huh! @ This fits me perfectly. @ I don’t think I have ever commented on a youtube video before. But I ventured.

 phonev649 seconds ago (edited)

At the 29 minute mark it gives the clue: Last general conference I gave the talk "Honorably hold a name and standing". That was April 2009! So this talk to the missionaries at the MTC happened before October 2009.  I absolutely love this video. Thank you!

This channel is called TheRisen. And this is how he introduces the video: 99,112 views  Jul 6, 2020 Elder David A Bednar | Quit worrying about it. Is it the Holy Ghost or me?

Location: MTC Provo Utah

Date - unknown (possible 2009/2010)

Video received years ago so no link, etc. is known.

A video I shared both with a son in the MA Boston Mission and then on YoutTube 7/6/2020 that for some reason beginning 12/1/22 saw a steep increase in views.  It had approx. 200 views until that point.

Perhaps further preparation on learning how to hear Him.

Let those with eyes to see - See, and ears to hear - Hear.

The comment I made was using internal evidence to isolate the Date -unknown.