The Gospel Blesses Families

Temple Square Sisters

This week was a week of firsts for Sister Bat-ulzii. We took our first motor coach of the season and our first investigator lesson too! A motor coach is a big tour bus that comes to Temple Square and we get to take them all on a tour here. On this motor coach there were 38 people from all over the US and they were on their way from Jackson Hole, WY to their next stop. Usually these groups of people are retired and so much fun to be around. Before the motor coach, Sister Bat-ulzii and I were exhausted and probably not in a mood to be taking so many people around. We had just finished role playing what we would say in each place that we would take them and it was a difficult thing to get straight, but we managed to do it. When we started talking with the people that we were going to take on the tour both of us perked up and we enjoyed the whole thing. It's always wonderful when you can focus on other people and not yourself. We took them to the Tabernacle and talked about the building and how it was used to listen to the Prophet and the twelve Apostles--they mostly wanted to know about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, though.... Then we went outside and talked about the Temple and how through the Temple our families can be sealed, or united together, for all eternity not "until death do you part". I shared the Amanda Smith story, which is about how a mother's faith produced great miracles in her son's life (It's from "Our Heritage", Chapter 4):

On 30 October 1838, three days after the extermination order was issued, some 200 men mounted a surprise attack against the small community of Saints at Haun’s Mill on Shoal Creek, Caldwell County. The assailants, in an act of treachery, called for those men who wished to save themselves to run into the blacksmith shop. They then took up positions around the building and fired into it until they thought all inside were dead. Others were shot as they tried to make their escape. In all, 17 men and boys were killed and 15 wounded.

After the massacre, Amanda Smith went to the blacksmith shop, where she found her husband, Warren, and a son, Sardius, dead. Among the carnage she was overjoyed to find another son, little Alma, still alive though severely wounded. His hip had been blown away by a musket blast. With most of the men dead or wounded, Amanda knelt down and pleaded with the Lord for help:

“Oh my Heavenly Father, I cried, what shall I do? Thou seest my poor wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh Heavenly Father direct me what to do!” She said that she “was directed as by a voice,” instructing her to make a lye from the ashes and cleanse the wound. She then prepared a slippery elm poultice and filled the wound with it. The next day she poured the contents of a bottle of balsam into the wound.

Amanda said to her son, “ ‘Alma, my child, … you believe that the Lord made your hip?’

“ ‘Yes, mother.’

“ ‘Well, the Lord can make something there in the place of your hip, don’t you believe he can, Alma?’

“ ‘Do you think that the Lord can, mother?’ inquired the child, in his simplicity.

“ ‘Yes, my son,’ I replied, ‘he has shown it all to me in a vision.’

“Then I laid him comfortably on his face, and said: ‘Now you lay like that, and don’t move, and the Lord will make you another hip.’

“So Alma laid on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely recovered—a flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing joint and socket.” 

I love that story. Mothers play such an important role in their children's lives. Then we went to the Assembly Hall and talked about the Book of Mormon. They had great questions and were very kind a respectful. We had a great time with them and I hope that it left a good impression for the next time they hear about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

An investigator lesson is where missionaries from the Salt Lake City or Salt Lake City South missions bring their investigators to Temple Square for a tour. We took around a part member family and the son, Landon, was the one taking lessons from the missionaries. The Elders wanted us to focus on how the gospel blesses families. We showed them the temple model and pointed out the sealing room. Then we took them to the Seagull Monument and talked about how God answers prayers and how family prayer is a powerful way to unite a family. I shared with them about my experience with family prayer--kneeling around mom and dad's bed making jokes with each other and talking about our day and then ending with prayer. Those are some of my favorite memories. The mother of this family really liked that idea and she wanted to apply that too. Then we ended the tour with God's Plan for His Family. I love that presentation SO much, it touches people right where they can feel the Spirit the most. The Elders invited this family to think and pray about a date that Landon can be baptized and to work towards that day. I sure know that the gospel really does bless families because it has blessed mine more than I even knew.

We had another great tour yesterday with Mike and Au, a married couple, who were probably in their upper 30s. They are from Washington state and they have lots of friends that are members of the church. Their member friends encouraged them to come to Temple Square while they were in Salt Lake and to take a tour...so they did. We had a great time with them. We found out that Au is from Thailand and actually Buddhist, but also kind of Christian because she also prays to God. Sister Bat-ulzii was also Buddhist so she was able to relate to her really well. Sister Bat-ulzii and I both felt that we should take them to God's Plan for His Family so we ended our tour there. Part of the presentation was about how our children lived with God before they came to this earth and that the most important things we can teach our children is that they are children of God, that they are loved, and that families can be together forever. This was only the second of six rooms and Au was already crying...usually people don't cry until the fourth or sixth room. At the end we found out that Mike and Au are in the process of adopting a little boy from Thailand and they came to Salt Lake so that Mike could find work so they could afford the trip to Thailand. They said that this presentation was absolutely applicable to what they were going through. I love how the Spirit directs us to do things even though we don't know exactly why. They didn't refer for missionaries because they don't know where they will end up, but we showed them mormon.org as well as a profile of some members that went through the same thing as they did. I hope that sometime down the line they can have the full blessings of the gospel and be sealed together as a family. How wonderful that would be for them!

This morning we got to do baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake Temple! It was our zone activity. Sister Bat-ulzii was proxy for both her grandmothers and her great grandmother and her great-great grandmother. The man doing the baptisms had a hard time pronouncing their names, but Sister Bat-ulzii loved the experience.