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| On the way home after our last session |
We seldom have the opportunity to visit the temple because of the distance and the financial requirements for the travel. However, in each of our visit to the temple we gained some tremendously significant and inspiring experiences that can only be attained in the House of the Lord. It brings us to a reminder of our covenants and promises and the blessings of eternal happiness and joy that follow sincere commitments to our eternal vows. As we entered the temple doors we are reminded of our continuing quest for eternal exaltation which we as sons and daughters of God are divinely directed to attain. It is part of the infinite plan and design of our God that we should receive temple ordinances for us to achieve eternal celestial glory. Nowhere can we find these qualifying saving ordinances than those performed only in the Lord’s house.
Last December 2014 a very generous friend and benefactor offered for us---husband and wife--- a free trip to the Cebu Philippines Temple as a Christmas gift. We tried to decline but her insistence prompts us to accept and acknowledge with gratitude her benevolence. She knew we have always tried to be worthy and she does not want our current temple recommend to expire without us having gone to the temple. Hence, immediately after the closing of the temple for scheduled maintenance, we left for Cebu City on January 27, 2015. We found that the temple exterior is still surrounded with scaffoldings while undergoing deep-cleaning, but its services were already opened. The tranquil and peaceful atmosphere of the temple interior was ever heavenly and remains worthy for the eternal saving ordinances that it provides.
Last December 2014 a very generous friend and benefactor offered for us---husband and wife--- a free trip to the Cebu Philippines Temple as a Christmas gift. We tried to decline but her insistence prompts us to accept and acknowledge with gratitude her benevolence. She knew we have always tried to be worthy and she does not want our current temple recommend to expire without us having gone to the temple. Hence, immediately after the closing of the temple for scheduled maintenance, we left for Cebu City on January 27, 2015. We found that the temple exterior is still surrounded with scaffoldings while undergoing deep-cleaning, but its services were already opened. The tranquil and peaceful atmosphere of the temple interior was ever heavenly and remains worthy for the eternal saving ordinances that it provides.
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| The Cebu Philippines Temple with scaffolds high for deep cleaning |
Beforehand, we have already decided to stay at the small rented apartment of our daughter and her family instead of the cheap and comfortable accommodation at the temple patron housing. We felt that there is greater joy in climbing the alpine location despite our weary aged knees to be with part of our posterity in their humble home. The uphill climb made me short of breath, but what joy I felt as my granddaughter Jeliene Zaffera ran to embrace us, followed by the first opportunity for me to cuddle and huddle my 8th grandchild Zaina Viveca. Our daily hugs with them relieved us of the hustles and the dangers of commuting by single motorcycles on the busy streets to the temple. We were made to realize how important the family is in our quest for eternal glory in the Celestial kingdom of God. Being sealed with our family in the temple linked us together forever.
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| The cheap and comfortable temple patron housing |
We did not want each day to end without us attending a session. During our first day we attended an afternoon session where we were made as couple witness. While it is difficult for me to kneel yet I could not refuse the opportunity to humbly stoop at the holy altar of the Temple and be a witness to all for our common covenants. We did the same opportunity during the last four days of our visit. There was indeed a wonderful feeling that flows as we---husband and wife---together knelt at the holy altar.
During the second day of our visit, we scheduled one very important ordinance---sealing to parents. Each of our parents was already sealed to each other by proxy together with our dead siblings. Yet we the living have not been sealed to them. While inside the sacred chambers of God’s holy house we were reminded of the prophetic words of Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6). With the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, His gospel and the Holy Priesthood, Elijah also came and restored the sealing power that all who may be bound on earth shall be bound in heaven and for us to receive the greatest blessings that are found in the temples of God. For a time we have worked on the necessary temple ordinances for our ancestors by finding their names and connecting the link of our progenitors and our posterity. Since we could not easily afford a trip to the temple, we instead requested for the ordinances to be performed by others for them, while some were performed by our children. We are so happy to see that the needed ordinances for our dead forebears whose names we found have already been performed except for some which are reserved for us---the direct descendants---to personally do. We find it very joyful that at this time it became our opportunity to be sealed to them for time and all eternity.
During the second day of our visit, we scheduled one very important ordinance---sealing to parents. Each of our parents was already sealed to each other by proxy together with our dead siblings. Yet we the living have not been sealed to them. While inside the sacred chambers of God’s holy house we were reminded of the prophetic words of Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6). With the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, His gospel and the Holy Priesthood, Elijah also came and restored the sealing power that all who may be bound on earth shall be bound in heaven and for us to receive the greatest blessings that are found in the temples of God. For a time we have worked on the necessary temple ordinances for our ancestors by finding their names and connecting the link of our progenitors and our posterity. Since we could not easily afford a trip to the temple, we instead requested for the ordinances to be performed by others for them, while some were performed by our children. We are so happy to see that the needed ordinances for our dead forebears whose names we found have already been performed except for some which are reserved for us---the direct descendants---to personally do. We find it very joyful that at this time it became our opportunity to be sealed to them for time and all eternity.
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| Part of the temple grounds |
As my wife Letty knelt on the holy altar of the sealing room in the presence of proxies of her parents and witnesses, and as the sealer pronounced the ordinance, I have to hold back a very powerful feeling of joy that almost brought my eyes to tears. Then as it was my time to be sealed to my parents, my wife acted as proxy for my mother. As we knelt together on the holy altar I have the same feeling of exquisite gladness that I forgot the consequent knee-pains of kneeling. When I stood between the mirrors of eternity in that holy room and looked at the never ending reflections, I could not help but think of the wonderful promises which God made to the faithful. The words of the Prophet Joseph Smith ring anew: “And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect.” (Doctrine & Covenants 128:15).
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| Family picture after Sunday services with heaven's dews falling |
“…for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time. And not only this, but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times.” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:18). How grateful I am for being in number of those ‘babes and sucklings’ as to fully understand these eternal doctrines of salvation through the Holy Ghost---the revealer of truth.
There is still a lot to be done for the redemption of the rest of our dead ancestors and we are working on it that they too may partake of the blessings of salvation with their families and our families. As in the words of the apostle Paul: “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?” (1 Corinthians 15:29). Therefore, we are bound by a compelling duty to search for our progenitors and perform saving ordinances for them in the House of the Lord.
There is still a lot to be done for the redemption of the rest of our dead ancestors and we are working on it that they too may partake of the blessings of salvation with their families and our families. As in the words of the apostle Paul: “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?” (1 Corinthians 15:29). Therefore, we are bound by a compelling duty to search for our progenitors and perform saving ordinances for them in the House of the Lord.
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| Where heaven and the Philippines islands meet |
President Thomas S. Monson declared, “In the temple, the precious plan of God is taught. It is in the temple that eternal covenants are made. All that occurs within the walls of the temple is uplifting and ennobling. (Thomas S. Monson, Blessings of the Temple). Indeed, in each of our visit to the temple we learned eternal truths and spiritual occurrences which reinforce and deepen our continuing quest for eternal exaltation. The costs may be high and sacrifices difficult but the attendant spiritual experiences are truly priceless.
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