By: Norberto Betita
Since our family sealing at the Manila Philippines Temple on December 13, 1986, I only had about three times that I was able to go back to perform ordinances for the dead. This is due to the distance and the very limited resources to meet the cost of travel. I am grateful that a Temple was built in Cebu City in the year 2010 which is very much nearer and cost affordable that we can now go to the temple at least once or twice a year.
My recent frequent attendance in the Cebu Philippines Temple to perform ordinances for the dead had given me greater spiritual knowledge and profound appreciation of the eternal verities and meaning of life. I seldom entered the Celestial room of the Holy House of God without having tears in my eyes. Once President Thomas S. Monson asked; “How far is heaven? And then he declared; “I testify that in the holy temples it is not far at all—for it is in these sacred places that heaven and earth meet and our Heavenly Father gives His children His greatest blessings. As we touch the temple and love the temple, our lives will reflect our faith. As we go to the holy house, as we remember the covenants we make therein, we will be able to bear every trial and overcome each temptation.” Indeed, the sacred beauty and grandeur and the celestial serenity of the Holy House of God seem to convey heaven’s presence.
I long since believe in the overriding importance of the Temple ordinances in my life and that of my family. And I also believe that these holy ordinances are likewise highly significant to those of our dead ancestors. For some time I had not performed several other ordinances for my dead parents due to penury. Then came the time when during the night immediately after the temple marriage of my only son at the Manila Philippines Temple on May 20, 2005, which I was not able to attend due to financial deficiency, I dreamed of my mother telling me that her condition was very difficult. I asked her about father, and she replied that they were under the same complex situation. I was awakened and just tried to ignore the dream. Then as I returned to sleep, exactly the same dream disturbed my deep and quiet slumber. I woke up and realized that they had something for me to do. Immediately in the morning I called on my son to check the record of my genealogy and requested him to perform the unfinished temple ordinances. My son and his wife performed the ordinances including the sealing by proxy for my parents. Since then I had never been bothered by a dream about my parents.
During one of our temple trips on June 2012, I was requested by my eldest daughter to bring with me a bunch of temple ordinance cards for the dead ancestors of her husband---the Palma family. There were hundreds of pink and blue cards. As we arrived in the patron house we immediately prepared to attend a session. We went about an hour before the scheduled endowment session for us to have time to submit the cards to the office of the Temple recorder. After the Temple recorder had opened the pouch, he requested me and my wife to perform initiatory ordinances for some names. On my part I was given ten names which I should have refused but which the recorder insisted with the assurance that he will arrange with temple workers to make sure that I would be able to attend the endowment session. I agreed and immediately went to the initiatory ordinance room.
That was my second time to perform initiatory ordinance. First was for my own. After a short briefing, I sat on the chair and a Priesthood temple worker started the ordinance. As he displayed one name and laid his hand upon my head I sensed that there was a group of spirits right over my head looking towards the names that I hold. Tears started to flow from my very eyes until sobs seemed to bother the ordinance workers. As each name was alternately displayed and the ordinance performed I felt the same group of spirits watching above me as if peeping at the cards and waiting to have the ordinance pronounced on their name’s behalf. Tears did not stop and sniffs continued to move my head and shoulders as I realized the common anxieties of those spirits until the ordinances for all eight names were done and I was informed that the remaining two names will just be reserved to give priority to a first timer. Tears of joy continued to flow as I sat at the Celestial Room after the endowment. I silently prayed to Heavenly Father in expressions of gratitude for the opportunity to perform ordinances for those waiting spirits and to have them rejoice at having received their most needed ordinances which they couldn’t do by themselves but only by proxy as I did. Inside the Temple I felt the truth of what Elder Boyd K. Packer had to say: “At the Temple the dust of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and haze seem to lift, and we can see things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our troubles that we had not previously known.”
Such a revelatory experience inside the House of the Lord increased my understanding and faith of the paramount importance of holy temple ordinances for both the living and the dead.
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