WELCOME: ROHAN ASHLEI FRESH FROM PREMORTALITY

By: Norberto G. Betita

Rohan Ashlei and her first smile

After we were told that her mother Analiza was pregnant, our hearts jerked with excitement for a new addition to the family circle. For nine months we are filled with anticipation for her coming. We know she was sent from Heavenly Father to be a part of our growing family. She is our ninth grandchild, the fifth granddaughter. I was sitting with my granddaughters Keeshia and KayAn at church during the Sacrament Meeting when suddenly my cellphone, which I inadvertently forgot to off, rang sending us the news that she has finally come. Everybody’s excitement even intensified that immediately after the sacrament all the family went to the Maddona Maternity Hospital where she was given birth at exactly 10:10 AM, a 7.4 pounds bounding baby, beautiful and fair. Everybody welcomes ROHAN ASHLEI fresh from premortality and wants to take pictures with her even before her parents could have one with her. 

Her first stick of the tongue

Like all who had been born on earth she was one of those who sang together and with “all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7).” She knew the great plan of redemption and eternal happiness, for the spirit children of Heavenly Father to be placed on earth to obtain a body of flesh and bones as the father has, then to be tried and tested by obedience and faith. She was present at the grand council in heaven while the plan was presented and she strongly supported as the Lord Jesus Christ finally declared, “Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever Moses 4:2)”

While in the premortal world she started to crave and yearn for the opportunity to have a body of flesh and bones as the Father has, that she may be glorified also as our heavenly parents are. She longed to enjoy the glory of being born on earth and be tried and tested to prove her worth of the sacrifice that has to be done by a Savior which would eventually bring her back into the presence of the Father in a perfected and glorified state. She understood that she would be required to pass the veil of forgetfulness for her to forget all the premortal knowledge of her divine origin with the father. But the same moral agency that she exercised during that grand council will be given her in mortality. 

With her most excited brother Rulon Asher
who suggested her name

For her to have been born in this last dispensation of the fullness of times and to be able to usher in the Second Coming of the Lord is such an honor and a rare opportunity. President Ezra Taft Benson said of this generation: “You are not just ordinary young men and young women. You are choice spirits, many of you having been held back in reserve for almost 6,000 years to come forth in this day, at this time, when the temptations, responsibilities, and opportunities are the very greatest (A Message to the Rising Generation, October 1977).”

Rohan Ashlei is one of Heavenly Father’s trusted spirits in the premortal world prepared to come in these times and seasons when the world is in turmoil. God knows she has the capability to endure the challenges of her mortal journey and to assist in His work on earth. Her coming will be a time of deepest trials and great calamities. It will be a time when the work of salvation is going to be in its last stretch and more will be opposing the truth of the great plan of happiness and eternal salvation. There will be a great battle between good and evil that will be initiated by Satan. However, she was given the privilege to be born with goodly parents to rear and raise her strong to face her mortal contests. She was born in the covenant to one day be reminded of her eternal choice and to be faithful to “keep [her] second estate” that she “shall have glory added upon [her head] for ever and ever (Abraham 3:26)” and eventually receive the blessing of exaltation back into the realms of Heavenly Father’s eternal kingdom. 

With her ever excited grandma Letty who spent a
sleepless night to welcome her

Unfortunately, her first name Rohan is generally a boy’s name which implies “ascending”. It does not matter though because babies’ names are generally interchanged. Rohan could be a sociable woman who enjoys meeting and conversing with people. She has great concern for the plight of humanity.

Powerful and complete is what Ashlei meant; intellectually good and require several outlets for her energies. She can be a planner who wants others to carry out her plans. She can be bold, independent, inquisitive and interested in research. She can have a desire to inspire and lead. She can be generous, courageous and bold, action oriented, energetic and strong willed. She would want to make a difference in the world, and this attitude often attracts her to cultural interests, politics, social issues, and the cultivation of her creative talents.

Such meanings of her names are not to be her ultimate destiny. But it may serve her best as she builds the building blocks of her future life. Still she should be guided by the wisdom of King Solomon, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour than silver and gold (Proverbs 22:1).

Talking with her grandfather requesting him to write
an article of her birth

Indeed, how grateful we are to have her in the line of our posterity. She is a most welcomed addition. Surely she will have the unconditional love of her parents and sibling and our entire family circle. Her coming into the family on a Sabbath Day was timely. Our lesson in the Priesthood and Relief Society was about Marriage and Family---Ordained of God, by President Ezra Taft Benson. From the lesson I quote this counsel of President Benson: “The family is one of God’s greatest fortresses against the evils of our day. Help keep your family strong and close and worthy of our Father in Heaven’s blessings.” While President Benson wanted “their family to have “no empty chairs” in the eternities;” my undying wish as a father has always been and will ever be that my children and posterity are accounted for when the end comes. Rohan Ashlei will now be part of that wish. 

With grandma, and excited cousins Keeshia & Craig Kirby and brother

Today, July 19, 2015, is Rohan Ashlei’s day of birth---her first day in mortality. She really looks very fresh from premortality. Her hair was still wet and marks of blood from her mother’s womb are still noticeable. Yet when I saw her first smile, I could feel how happy she was to have finally come to her second estate and to be born with goodly parents and of course in the circle of unbounded family love. When I first saw her stick the tongue out in the presence of cousins and sibling, she is as if sending them a prank to watch out; she will be a much greater achiever.

She is like her father Robert Sherwin---curly-haired and fair-skinned. She has gotten some of the features of her only brother Rulon Asher, who suggested her name. But of course, and most of all, she has got the beauty of her ever loving mother Analiza. As grandparents it matters not to whom she has got the looks; she is a daughter of God; she is most welcomed and will be filled with our love

HAPPY DAY OF YOUR BIRTH ROHAN ASHLEI; YOU ARE A JOY AND A DELIGHT TO US; WE WELCOME YOU FRESH FROM PREMORTALITY!!!