LIGHT THE WORLD: GETTING MORE JOY OUT OF THE GIFT HE RECEIVES

By: Norberto Betita 

The wise King Solomon in one of his many inspired declarations, counseled, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). In this we are taught a simple but distinct pattern of raising and rearing our children into becoming the kind of persons that we wanted them to be. Such a model is applicable not only during the time of the reign of the Kings, but even more appropriate in this very turbulent times when the terrible assaults of the adversary are launched to demonize the youth in their vulnerability. With moral repression becoming a haunting challenge and a barrier for righteous living, it is most vital and imperative that our children be taught the ways of uprightness and virtue.

Our children and youth today are overfed with inflated entertainments on televisions and social media---the internet and smartphones---broadening its impact upon their tender minds and entreating them to embrace those unhealthy values and morals they are peddling. Of such, King Bejamin in the Book of Mormon likewise warned, “And ye will not suffer your children…that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

“But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.” (Mosiah 4:14-15).

My 12-year-old grandson Rulon Asher has always been generous of his friends and classmates and fellow members of the church his age group. He is loving and patient to his sister and cousins. He has been taught in the ways of righteousness and truth by his parents.

In this time of the joyous season, in celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I wanted him to experience greater joy by giving gifts the way Jesus gives. Prior to our Christmas program in the church, I asked him if he would go with me to give food to the beggars as part of our light the world activities for the family. I wanted to teach him how it feels to “succor those that stand in need of [his] succor” and “administer of [his] substance unto him that standeth in need; and…not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to [him] in vain…”, as taught by King Benjamin. (See Mosiah 4:16).

He obliged and apprised his parents about our plans. His parents agreed but he was cautioned though that if he is truly willing to give of his entire gift for Christmas to the beggars, he consequently will be depriving himself of the joy that it brings personally to him. He consented without hesitation and honestly told his parents that he is willing to sacrifice for the sake of those who needed the gift more.

In the morning of Saturday. December 22, 2018, in my prayer, I express gratitude to Heavenly Father for my grandson’s having the opportunity to experience for the first time in sharing his personal Christmas gift to the beggars. However, after the party, I somehow forgot about our plans and while we were sitting on the church lobby, Rulon Asher furtively requested his mother to remind me of our scheduled light the world activity. Therefore, Analiza called my attention as regards our planned dinner with the beggars. Then she gave him the cash gift that in my estimate would be able to feed regular meals for at least 7 to 8 persons. Again she reminded him that such was his gift and nothing more, and for the last time tried to validate his willingness to have it given. But he responded with conviction in the affirmative.

And off we went, first along the pedestrian alley near the Roman Catholic Church, but we found none, until we reached the church entrance and found an old woman sitting on a makeshift chair and a paraplegic man on a wheelchair. We talked to them and invited them to have dinner with us at Jollibee. But the old woman refused as it would be difficult for her to push the wheelchair. We assured her that we will be the one to transport them to and from the restaurant, but she declined as she was ashamed. So we just asked her if she would be willing for us to buy food for them, which she willingly agreed. So we went to Jollibee and ordered meals for two and went back and gave it to the suffering needy souls. They were very happy and grateful. I requested that they take a picture with Rulon for a remembrance as the money we used to buy food was actually his gift from his parents for him which he instead offer to be given to them for this Christmas season. The paraplegic was extremely grateful as to try his best effort to grasp my hand with his paralytic arms.

We then went to the park to look for other beggars, but we observed only one. We further went to Metro Surigao Mall to find more, but found none. We went back to the park to invite the one lady we have observed begging. But while on our way, my legs suffered severe cramps and I was in pain. So we rested on a bench and while massaging my legs, we noticed that the beggar was already eating her scanty meal which she had been carrying the first time we observe her. When my cramps was somewhat relieved we approached her while she was counting her money from her coin purse. We observed there were only a few coins. We talked to her and asked about her circumstances. We observed her to be some kind of a woman with special interest. She said she was living alone. We invited her for a dinner at Jollibee. But she was reluctant telling us that she had already eaten her meal. We suggested that if she be willing, we will instead buy for her some groceries, but she rather asked that we buy for her Jollibee for her breakfast the following day. So we went and ordered a special Jollibee meal for her. We also took a picture for a remembrance. And we see the joy that shines in the gentle smile of a woman with special needs, even more than a beggar. She even asked Rulon Asher to let her see her picture, and her countenance even glowed with so much joy and gladness. 

 

We should have feed more, but we found no other, except for those three. Since I was also feeling pains from my cramps and found it difficult to walk, we decided to go home.

While we were on our way home, I saw in Rulon Asher’s countenance the indescribable feeling of joy for having been able to serve those three people who were truly in dire need. He told me how difficult their lives are. He even suggested that we come back other days and find more. While we have our dinner at home and in the presence of his parents I asked him what he feels about our activity. He simply said, “Nice”.

Indeed, it was so nice to feel the joy that comes from doing good. To Rulon Asher it was getting more joy out of the gift he receives by giving it forward to those who needed it most. With such real life experience he learned best that it is indeed “better to give than to receive.” In his regular scripture studies with his parents, he is sure to understand better the words of King Benjamin: “For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

“And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

“And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.” (Mosiah 4:19-21)

I am aware of the warning to “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.” (see Matthew 6:1-4). However, this activity is part of the church initiative to “Light The World,” to show to everybody that no matter our circumstances, no matter our age, no matter our economic conditions in life, we can always extend the light of Christ in service to others and find greater joy by giving as Jesus gives.

For as King Benjamin had further taught: “And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

“And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.

“And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.” (Mosiah 4:24-26).

When I related part of our experience during my Sacrament Meeting message the following day, Sunday, Rulon Asher covertly hide his tears from his mother. Surely, those were tears not of sorrow and sadness, but of joy and happiness; a symbol of emotional strength that develops as he let go of his personal gift to share the light of Christmas to the hungry needy souls even just during that short moment of their lives. Indeed, his heart was filled with gratitude and exceedingly great joy according to the Lord’s promise, that he found no utterance but tears of gladness. I am most confident that such a life reality experience will long stay in the library of Rulon Asher’s young and tender heart for a remembrance and reference on to his growing years.

LIGHT THE WORLD: OUR LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE FOR THE POOR AND NEEDY

By: Norberto Betita

The whole year through we had been giving so much for our self and for our loved ones. Perhaps at this blessed season of the year when we celebrate the birth of the infinite giver of all, we need to open our hearts and from the warmth inside its deepest chamber, we give out our love to those whom we care less during the entire time of the year and in our abundance or even in our own deprivations give meaningful gifts to those who are more in need.

During this festive season, with so many in distress, maybe we need to temporarily reduce our budgetary plans for personal gifts and parties; trim down on expensive flickering lights and luxurious decorations on our Christmas trees; and shorten our list and modify our arrangements for sumptuous ‘carte du jour’ on Christmas eve. After all, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland puts it, "First and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or tinsel. With a baby—that’s how Christmas began."

Let us instead uncover the avenue for greater joy by finding those who are in the depths of despair; those who are suffering and in pain; those who are deprived of the necessities of life; those who had been feeling hopeless and depressed; and those whom the Lord would have loved so much to invite and visit if He should have been here on the grand celebration of His birth. Those who are in such complicated temporal conditions were the Lord’s subject in His parable of the sheep and the goats, where He pointed out clearly and unmistakably those whom we are to give of our love and concern and our service. He taught:

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

“And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

“And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

“Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

“I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

“Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

“Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:31-46.)

To be assured of an eternal inheritance in God’s Kingdom is so much more to cherish and treasure than the possibility of a consequent painful eternal penalty for failing to care for the least of our brethren as the Lord so plainly admonished. In the parable He obviously gives us the choice whether to do or not to do in so far as caring for the poor and the needy is concerned, but warned us in advance the sure eternal consequences of our choices.

In the world where selfishness is becoming a more common characteristic amongst many of the men and women, it is so delightful and pleasing to note that there are still people who are distinctively generous and benevolent of others as to radiate the pure love of Christ in their lives. These people are particularly well acquainted with the Lord’s commandment, “…Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:39).

Each Christmas time, we do not have any display of expensive large Christmas tree in our home as there are in many homes and malls. We only have a small tree that we can afford. On this 2018 Christmas season, I decided to create a live Christmas tree from my bonsai plants and adorned it with old Christmas decorations and lights. While so many people are busy for their Christmas purchases, we bought groceries not for our Christmas feast, but for some chosen poverty stricken families which we intend to help see and feel the true spirit and real meaning of Christmas.

No longer did we bedeck the base of the tree with boxes of personal gifts, but several packs of food stuffs as gifts for our chosen beneficiaries. This is not only ours to give, but had been in a long time partnership of giving with a very generous benefactor of whom we had been the extended hands, and who herself has her own needs and serious concerns as much as we have. The gift may not have been wrapped in sophistication and elegance, but it is draped with Christlike love and ribboned with fondness and affection that springs halfway across the world.

We did not as yet buy stuffs for our Christmas Eve menu, but for an advance Christmas dinner for at least fifteen needy families at our humble home in time for the 81st birthday today, December 14th, of our most generous donor and partner. She doesn’t prepare a banquet on her birthday at her home, but she prefers to have it celebrated in a faraway place where we could invite those whom the Lord wanted us to invite, especially on this His most celebrated Christmas feast. The Lord, in His parable of the great supper, taught:

“…When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.

“But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:

“And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12-14).

Of course, we are not after the recompense, although we together felt that even in this life we had been receiving continued blessings of great joy and gladness as we gave of ourselves to those in need. This partnership of generous giving is our own expression of our great love for the Lord and Heavenly Father.

Our dear friend’s gifts are hard-earned. As a farmerette she raises cows, goats, chicken, pigs, and sheep, which she sells in time. She plants crops not only for herself, but for others in the neighborhood. She doesn’t employ people to care for her animals, but does all that are necessary by herself even at this time of her old age and failing health. She experienced being kicked and thrown aside and her legs stepped upon by unruly cows while caring for them. She sustains injuries while repairing their shelters during the winter season. Truly her gifts are the products of blood, sweat and tears, a reflection of the Lord’s marvelous divine gift of the Atonement---a great sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears---which commenced on that first Christmas morn when He condescend and thus be born in a stable and laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes for there was no room for him in the inn (see Luke 12:7); the winding scene being the cruel crucifixion on Calvary’s hill.

I am always in awe and wonder of our dearest friend’s unlimited capacity to love and be concerned for the temporal and spiritual welfare of a group of people, she doesn’t even know, not only on Christmas but on other periods during the year, whenever she felt a need to help. Her love spans no boundaries. Her caring and compassionate heart holds no bar. Indeed, she loves as Jesus loves.

In this exalted season of the year we light the world with our little Christmas tree for the poor and needy as our gift and tribute for the Savior of us all. Notwithstanding the limits imposed upon our old and weary souls by the realities of aging, we hire no one, but instead personally prepared the food that we laid on the table for those whom the Lord described as the least of the brethren. By such humble service, we felt greater joy and gladness as we witness our honored guests enjoying our modest meal offering and leaving with the unpretentious Christmas gift we have prepared, rejoicing and most humbly expressing sincere gratitude. I thought, how wonderful and happier we would have been as a people if each family will take time to invite a needy weary soul for a Christmas dinner and wrap a gift or two as a token of love that emanates from the ultimate gift giver, whose gift of light through His Atonement brightens the way to our eternal destinations.

A MESSAGE FOR THE DEBUTANT

By: Norberto Betita

As my eldest granddaughter KayAn now turns from an amazing young woman to a gorgeous beautiful lady, I also felt like descending in a cliff with faltering feet and trembling knees, hardly grasping the breath of life. While KayAn blooms forward with youthful vigor and vitality, my energy and stamina that once run the length of 35 laps in the Vasquez oval and the 12 kilometer distance to our town of San Francisco now fades in natural deterioration like a vintage machine. While her intellectual brilliance is impressively evolving and exponentially expanding, my mental state of recollection is now somewhat waning and am now fairly bereft of academic nerves. While her physical senses remain virtually in perfect condition, I slowly suffer from a blurred vision and hearing impairment and to some extent my tongue seems to have been twisted as to forfeit my oratorical and phonetic virtues. Yet these are fundamentally life’s forlorn realities which all of us must pass.

In any way, however, this does not mean that we be dismayed by the turning tides of these events in life. We should value the glorious times of youth as much as we should treasure the deteriorating effects of old age. We all need to know that life is one eternal round.

KayAn Betita Palma

The legendary Shakespeare compared a youthful life to a summer’s day---brilliant and wonderfully beautiful---arguing that the young woman’s ‘eternal summer’, or prime, will not fade no matter the refining tests of life; nor does it lose its hold on the beauty the youth owns. Not even death, the grim reaper, is able to boast that the youth walks in the shadow of death, not even when the youth grows to a ripened age like me, not even towards death, for the beauty of youth springs from a timeless origin with destination towards immortality. And thus he wrote in Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou own’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

KayAn’s high points in life, or what the poet described as “eternal summer,” is still to be unearthed in an ongoing flight far into the verdant landscape of future prospects and on to the realms of success. She may have magnificently survived the harrowing encounters with trials and adversities early in her vulnerable youthful life, but such was only a short chapter of her long story. This march that we witnessed today is not of success, but a commencement of her yet long unfolding journey far afield the domains of life’s real battlefield. As she enters the world’s competitive amphitheater, there will still be more defeats and wins, failures and successes, battles and victories, but as in her study of the Old Testament in the Seminary she knew as did the preacher in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “...that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Yes, there will be sorrows in defeats and joys in winnings; there will be despairs attendant to failures and laurels that come of success; there will still be more Goliaths to battle, and she knows that she needs to be a David in order to win the most coveted victories.

In this inauguration and unveiling of the new and more challenging episode of her life, she needs to understand, that goals and objective are the links that will connect her best efforts to her desired achievements. She needs to know that one could not attain a wish to study in a premier university if the effort is only equivalent for a local college. One could not progress to the highest attainable degree if the toil and slog is only for an average vocational attainment. One could not achieve the glory and wonder of success if the sweat of labor is measly and inadequate. One could not obtain the full blessings from God with superficial obedience to His Commandments. It is only in rising from every fall; overcoming daunting failures; and swimming against the heaving waves of life’s stormy seas that one could find greatest delight in the glory of triumph and victory. It is only by obedience to God’s unenforceable laws that predicated blessings are poured out in bountiful abundance. As Julie Andrews, in the movie The Sound of Music, most brilliantly put it, “I will do better than my best.” I am sure that KayAn will have these truths always kept in the cellar of her mind and written in the tablet of her heart.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” These immeasurable gates of opportunities, however, are not just closed by strings of tensions as to be easily opened by striking. But the best of these opportunities are locked and bolted as to need a refined and sophisticated key to access. And that superior key is education.

She is young and is an easy target of the lure and wheedling of the world and her youthful vulnerability is generally exposed to the mad rush of worldly indulgence. Her life’s wandering may still cover more of life’s stormy seas and a ride on life’s titanic in the vast ocean of survival. She knew that this life is a probationary state, a tryout of an enduring race, a contest of persistence and fortitude, a test of faith and courage. She needs to be brave and valiant as she now faces the escalating challenges and mounting adversities as she takes every demanding lap all along the race through the circle of life. Elton John described this tough and defying trials in a song from the popular animated movie Lion King, thus:

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the Sun
There's more to be seen than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done…

In the circle of life
It's the wheel of fortune
It's the leap of faith
It's the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle of life

Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars

There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the Sun rolling high through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

Indeed, in the circle of life, KayAn will have to experience defeat, she may be downed by failure, and she may often feel frustrated and drained as she scuffle and wrestle with setbacks. Yet these are all necessary for her to develop the muscles to hurdle impediments and negative forces along the way to her goals and aspirations. Ezra Taft Benzon once said, “It is not in the pinnacle of success or ease where men and women grow most. It is down the valley of heartaches and disappointments and reverses, where men and women grow into strong characters.” And she needs to understand that her character will shape her destiny.

KayAn, however, should be consoled, that in all her failings and shortcomings, she is promised that there will come the joy of trying again and again; until shadows turns into sunshine; until the storm eventually calms; until sorrow transforms to gladness.

Yet beyond and above all that she can achieve in this life, there is nothing comparable to Heavenly Father’s indisputable promise of eternal life and mansions of glory in His Celestial Kingdom. This belief stands as the enduring foundation of her reason to be faithful and fearless of the seemingly insurmountable but equally luxuriant future. The Lord reminds: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” I know as she also believes that if she remains faithful and true to her covenants, God will be at the helm of her voyage to the blissful eternal shore.

To my ever dearest granddaughter KayAn, the debutant, as you now enter formally for the first time in the society of single adults, on this your 18th birthday, it is my earnest wish and hope that as you scale the sloping hills of your dreams, you will be able to see in perfect view the magnified contrast between the dark valleys below and the gleaming rays of a promising sunshine decorated with marvelously colored rainbow above the mount. I pray in humility that each dawning day of your continuing journey through the circle of life may provide you with constant renewal of strength to move on no matter the barriers; that you will be able to harness the spiritual gifts which the Lord has so abundantly blessed you for your best interest and that of your loved ones; and that you may have the needed faith and courage to endure the uphill route to the apex of success and to the zenith of a glorious victory.

I earnestly pray, that you will always remember the undeniable truth that while it is true that you and your siblings and we your ancestors have a common everlasting beginnings and you were born on earth with the same parentage; that the blood pumped by the heart into your system is from the same source; that our divine and genetic DNAs are the same; we all have our personal differences. That such an evident reality is to help us better understand the true purpose of life and the reason for living. That it is apparently made part of our lives to help us to support each other in our weaknesses and imperfections; bear each other’s burdens; and binding ourselves with love that extends into the wonders of the glorious eternity.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR DEARLY BELOVED FIRSTBORN GRANDDAUGHTER KAYAN BETITA PALMA! We love you very much!

THE BIRTHDAY AND THE WEDDING DAY

By: Norberto Betita

The couple: Richard Albert Douglas-Denton and Shauna Megan Betita-Denton

While the whole family were on the way to join in the birthday and the wedding day celebrations of our last born Shauna Megan, enjoying the pristine beauty of the scenery all along the stretched route and beholding the delightful panorama of the surrounding verdant hills and the far vista of the metropolis from the pool at the venue, my thoughts lugged me a year far back into a quiet introspection of the same day---November 23, 2017---when  I wrote a blog of her entitled “A time to be single,” a phrase adapted from a Bible verse, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:3.) In that I wrote that such a time was yet a point in her life to be alone, “until the man of her choice and of whom she can trust appears in God’s appointed time.”

Never an instant did I ever thought that from that time on, or in such so short a time as a year, she would be able to persuade Heavenly Father in prayer to rush the timetable as to fill the calendar of her birthday---November 23, 2018---with a more significant schedule of an event which she had long since hoped for, when the shadows of her youthful past will eventually be overtaken by an impressive sunshine of a new day in her life---her marriage to the man of her dreams. Finally, the majestic excitement of looking far into the immaculate splendor and fancy reverie of creating a wonderful family, which once was only an upshot of hope, will now become a reality as the birthday celebration turns into another most memorable chapter of her life and that of her husband---the wedding day.

This day is the time I have been longing for to finally happen for me to be able to wrap up a chapter in my personal history while I still live. Therefore I was inspired to write not about Shauna, but for her husband---RICHARD ALBERT DOUGLAS DENTON---my son-in-law. 

I did not know how they ever met, the only one thing that I understood was that they were both very exultant about stumbling upon each other in an unusual venue, as though they have seen each other’s big picture long before. When both their dreams closed and the welcoming door of physical presence was unlocked before their very eyes, they seemed to see each other as the flawless interpretation of the long held common vision of a man and a woman in love, as to excitedly and unhesitatingly decide to be engaged and have their marriage scheduled in a matter of five months---from June 23 to November 23, 2018. I don’t believe in soul mates, but I have faith that such an atypical determination to ply upon a very crucial life changing decision is inspired. Never did I know of any couple who made such a hasty decision about marrying after a very short time of acquaintance and engagement.

While they may not have so much time to familiarize with each other, it is incumbent upon them to continue to understand each other’s strength and weakness; character and virtues; and moral values, while already in marriage. What’s important is that they are sure they love each other and are willing to bind such love by a covenant in the sacred altar of matrimony. Gordon B. Hinckley said, “Love is the only force that can erase the differences between people; that can bridge chasms of bitterness.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, And the Greatest of this is Love, lds.org.)

My heartfelt gratitude is deeply influenced by Richard’s unwavering commitment to marry Shauna Megan so soon. It seldom happens to a man, perhaps not in a thousand. Psychologists may even label such a quick and impulsive marital decision as a reckless approach to marriage in accordance with scientific studies. Yet I beg to disagree because I look at marriage as a covenant, a solemn promise between two different individuals, and not an experiment. It is a commitment and a sacred pledge to have and to hold; for better or for worse; for richer or for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish. The strength of such a binding contract is totally dependent on the earnestness and intensity of each couple’s feelings toward each other. So that no matter how long individuals should have to be engaged before marriage is not so much a matter of concern. I trust though that Shauna, who has earned a degree in Psychology with flying colors, and Richard, who is a well-educated and best informed University instructor, understood this best.

There are so many ways to consider in deciding to marry. While those considerations are important, yet the final test of marital stability and endurance are rooted in the couple’s ability to adjust and understand each other’s faults and personal weaknesses. Some of these earlier undiscovered relationship factors and individual differences may even emerge late during the marriage and sometimes create detours on the road to marital continuity. However, if a couple is looking forward with enthusiasm to a happy and enjoyable future, such shared vision can transform marital commitments and can create an atmosphere of commonality towards establishing an enduring relationship. I imagine that such points and issues may have been in the mind of Richard and Shauna as they opt to bind their love and commitment to each other. After all, as in the words of Robert D. Hales, “None of us marry perfection; we marry potential.” (Meeting the Challenges of Today’s World, lds.org.)

My one day of acquaintance with Richard, may not be sufficiently enough to know the depths of his personality and character, yet I trust in his humility, honesty and integrity. Instead of a comfortable accommodation in a hotel room, he agreed and decided to sleep in our home, in a room, he perhaps have never once experienced to slumber in his lifetime. This early display of noble attributes, plus the fact that Shauna described him as a very loving and kind man she ever knew, to me has become a precise overlay of the unknown side of Richard. His honest and candid observation about our family adds a boon to our first impression of him. He said, "I think your family is lovely and I'm grateful that they shuffled things around for me." However, Richard has yet to familiarize more about our family life. There is nothing of us to boast, but the love and support that we shared with each other.

With Richard's family

We met Richard’s family for the first time right on the wedding day in an arranged luncheon. It was simply a getting acquainted roundtable for the two families while waiting for the final event---the wedding reception. However, such a very short acquaintanceship leaves for me an imprint of a most profound respect and remarkably cherished first impression for the family. There was Richards’ octogenarian grandpa Alan; Daddy Timothy and Mommy Tracey; Uncle Simon and Aunt Catherine; Brother Julian and partner Cassie; and sister Lucy, who made it to the grand event, not counting the cost, in one united expression of support for Richard and Soi in that fresh episode of their lives together. In them I witnessed and felt an exemplary attitude of extending friendship and love beyond boundaries. I was awesomely touched as one of them pinned me a very modest token as an honest gesture of appreciation and respect. It was not the gift that was of value, but the eternal words that has been spoken as he said, “This is an emblem of friendship and love between two nations, two people, and two families.” The memento was a small lapel pin with symbols of the Australian and Philippine flags joined together. I trust that Richard and Shauna will have such cherished family relationships carried on into their family and even to the coming generations.  

On matters of temporal affairs and condition, our family is far at variance with Richard’s. They were born and raised in a highly developed country of Australia which has always been listed as one of the best livable countries of the world and we are living in a third world. They lived in a land of better and greater opportunities, while we are sustained by our resiliency in a land where the doors of opportunities are closed and bolted. Yet, we are all prepared to face our unending battles with life’s adversities, hopeful that our land will eventually be blessed as to provide more doors of opportunities forward to an abundant life for the Filipino people.

Nevertheless, I wanted Richard to know that we have long since realized that happiness in family life is not so much about the guts of luxury and career preoccupation as it is a real and honest concern for the physical security and spiritual well-being of children and family. Today, children are faced with overwhelming challenges. The ever changing and decaying moral values which are spread into the internet are almost irrepressible as to even penetrate in the sheltered and secured confines of home. Thus, they need a moral compass, a righteous exemplar and a guiding hand. Of this moral specter which threatens our children’s future, A. Theodore Tuttle raised this warning: “Parental responsibility cannot go unheeded, nor can it be shifted to day-care centers, nor to the schoolroom, nor even to the Church. Family responsibility comes by divine decree. Parents may violate this decree only at the peril of their eternal salvation.” (Altar, Tent, Well - ensign - LDS.org.)

As Richard is now the patriarch of his own family, he deserves my highest respect and honor in his divine role as the presiding authority in the home. I dissociate myself from any participation on how he and Shauna will guide and raise their children and how they would influence their children’s lives. And, I dare not intervene on how he will deal with the cultural and religious differences that is already most familiar to him from the beginning. However, if I may be given one final and dying wish, for I know I only have a short time remaining in this life, I would like to most humbly request my dearly beloved son-in-law Richard to allow Shauna to have the privilege to exercise her religiosity and worship God according to the dictates of her own conscience and faith and sacred covenants. She was born in the covenant and was sealed to our family for eternity. I can only hope that someday, Richard will be able to grasp the eternal truths of life so that our connections and family link will continue to be bound by an eternal love on to our celestial destinations.

As I turn my heart to my beloved son-in-law Richard, I again express my love and gratitude, in behalf of our family, for his trust and great love for Shauna. I wish to reiterate that no greater role is played in the world stage than that of being loyal marital partners and dependable parental guides; and no better players are called upon and appointed than those who are responsibly prepared and wholeheartedly committed to challenge the overwhelming accountability and serious obligations around the circle of home and family life.  

I would like to restate my best wishes on the wedding day that Richard and Shauna will be guided through in their yet long journey through life; that they will have the sustaining power and courage to battle with the inundating challenges along every lap of their life’s race; that they will widen their common prospective vision and creatively paint the wonderful tapestry of their on-going family life forward to a flourishing and glorious future; that they will eventually grasp God’s great eternal plan of happiness and soon realize that families are indeed meant forever. I pray that Richard and Shauna will wake up each morning to see the beautiful flowers of love abundantly sprinkled in the marvelous landscape of their marriage and family life and gather them together for a delightful bouquet for each other and their future children to cherish and treasure.

To Richard I say, I may not live long enough to see the beautiful rainbow that will eventually decorate the horizon and skyline all along your marital journey on to the fulfillment of my earnest prayers for you and Shauna and your family. Yet I am comfortable and confident that as you and Shauna will have your vision concentrated on your collective mutual goals, and progressively walk the miles beyond the rugged terrains of life’s race, you will in due time discover the golden gate to the wondrous corridor of success and victory.       

ENDURING WELL IN SERVICE AT 69

By: Norberto Betita

I should have awakened myself as early as the tick of the first second that signals the last hour of the passing day and the turning point to the dawn of a grand new day. By that moment I should have offered my ever dearest Letty the divine bouquet of love and devotion that ever fills the depths of my heart on her birthday. Yet, the forlorn reality of a diminished physical vigor of an aging lover, sets a deep sleep on the weary eyes that hours passed by unnoticed until the cocks crowed and the usual morning call for comfort awakened my soundly sleeping soul.

The crack of dawn breaks the seemingly long and weary night, and the profundity of my affection reverberate perpetually as to prompt me to serenade her with a birthday song written long before my lifetime:

Happy birthday my darling,
And many, many more
Another year had passed,
And I love you even more

Your eyes I love to see,
Your hair I love to touch,
Your lips I love to kiss
I love you oh, so very much

Tomorrow starts a new year,
And memories could wait
I want to say I love you,
Darling, happy birthday

The gift I have for you
Is a promise to be true
To love you through the years
And never ever bring you tears

Tomorrow starts a new year,
And memories could wait
I want to say I love you,
Darling, happy birthday

As she awakened and we hugged tightly together, stirred by the profoundness of our affection and love for each other, I sang for her the song which throughout our marriage have remained a binding melody---No Other Love. And while sharing morsels of memories gone by, I was prompted to recite with fondness, although occasionally fragmented by a somewhat ebbing memory, the lines of Shakespeare’s sonnet 116: 

 

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove;
O no! it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wondering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
(William Shakespeare, 1564-1616)

In a short while the alarm rang, then with hands clasped, we sat together in a moment of prayer to the Most High in expressions of gratitude for the wonderful new day he added into our lives; and for Letty a prayer of thankfulness for the passing of another challenging but fruitful year and welcoming the blessings of a new year in her yet continuing mortal journey.

As the sunrise of her 69th birthday slowly breaks the dark horizon, and imperceptively consumed the passing hours of a busy morning for the celebrant, my mind was again transported to the wonderful memories of the kind of life she lives.

She has been retired in public service for already six years, but of her voluntary service in the church and kingdom of God on earth, she expects no retirement entitlement. As a matter of fact, she even accept an additional major calling as Relief Society President again, in our branch of the church. She understood best as a teacher of the Institute class that service is a crowning principle. Her long and dedicated service in the church for more than 40 years, has been motivated by her love of God and His people. Despite her physical limitations consequent to the natural deterioration of the mortal body related to aging, she determined to endure well to the end.

In her life of service with real intent, I perceived best the profound and reflective import of the Lord’s declaration and promise, “I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.” (D & C 76:5-6.)

At age 69, she should have been relaxing and enjoying the remaining days, months and years of her life as many retirees her age do. Yet, even when she should have been supposedly under the care of our children, she instead continues her service in the family, not even minding the pains of a frozen shoulder and faltering feet. Perhaps her vision goes far beyond the infirmities and weaknesses of the flesh, as she learns of the assurance that, “When the frailties and imperfections of mortality are left behind, in the glorified state of the blessed hereafter,... shall woman be recompensed in rich measure for all the injustice that womanhood has endured in mortality. Then shall woman reign by divine right, a queen in the resplendent realm of her glorified state, even as exalted man shall stand, priest and king unto the Most High God. Mortal eye cannot see nor mind comprehend the beauty, glory, and majesty of a righteous woman made perfect in the celestial kingdom of God.” (James E. Talmage, The Eternity of Sex, quoted by Jeffrey R. Holland, To My Friends, p. 238.)

While the sunset of life slowly dims, her light ever so brilliantly shines as she stands up the zenith of her consecrated life; a beacon which provides flares for our family to follow along the path to eternity.

The youthful beauty, vigor and vitality are now resigned beneath the shadows of the passing years leaving behind silhouettes of a once most adorable outward countenance. Yet, within the loop of her inherently divine soul, now physically waned by the the process of aging, is hidden and permanently kept aglow, the loveliness and splendor which springs from the timeless wonders of eternity.

I am hopeful and faithfully inclined that my ever dearest Letty, by her sheer dedication and devotion to every inspired call for service in God’s kingdom, and her obedience to God and His commandments, will be rewarded, in due time of the Lord, the crown of glory which He promised “shall follow after much tribulation.” (see D & C 58:2-4.)

As ever, my heart overflows with gratitude and love for her unconquerable desire to serve God and family and her inexplicable determination to move on through the remaining laps of life’s race undeterred by the constant negative variables along the way; joyfully content of whatever is laid on the table of a most challenging mortality; ever positively hoping that after enduring well in service and defeating all the trials there will come a wondrous reckoning of a blessed and glorious eternal life.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY EVER DEAREST AND DEARLY BELOVED, THE ONLY ONE THAT OCCUPIES THE DEEPEST CHAMBER OF MY HEART, EVEN MY ETERNAL PARTNER---LETTY!

FATHER ORDAINING HIS SON TO THE PRIESTHOOD: A FAMILY TRADITION OF HONORING COVENANTS

By: Norberto Betita 

Rulon Asher Garcia Betita with his family after ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood

When I was conferred and ordained and given the authority and power of the Holy Priesthood, I was still a young Father with a 2-year old daughter. I prayed that I might have a son, for me to be able to pass on the same authority and power of God to him. I was so excited and felt blessed when I did have a son born to us, followed by three more daughters.

In due time, I had been privileged to confer and ordain my only son to the Aaronic Priesthood. However, I missed the opportunity to confer and ordain him to the Melchizedek Priesthood, because when his age was ripe for advancement he was already studying college in Manila, hence, he was conferred and ordained by another Melchizedek Priesthood holder, who is a friend to the family.

Through the years, I have made it a point that I should perform the necessary priesthood ordinances for my family and have trained my son to exercise the same authority and power of the Priesthood to his posterity.

My grandson RULON ASHER GARCIA BETITA turned 12 years old on October 13, 2018. He should have been conferred the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained to the office of a Deacon on Sunday, October 14, immediately following his birthday as has been our family tradition. However, due to the General Conference rebroadcast it was postponed. On October 21, he was sustained and thereafter was finally ordained to the priesthood by his Father. It was such an honor for me, his grandfather, to witness and have my hands laid upon him together with his father, our district president and his uncle-in-law, our branch president, during his conferral of the Aaronic Priesthood and ordination to the office of a Deacon. Rulon Asher is the second of our third generation of priesthood holders to have been ordained to the priesthood, and the first to have his ordination performed by his own father.

This new episode of my son, a father, ordaining his son to the Priesthood will now become part of a family tradition of honoring covenants, which we intend to pass on to our coming generations. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us who now hold the priesthood in the family to teach our children and grandchildren the divine significance of such authority and power from God and to train our sons and grandsons to keep themselves worthy to perform priesthood ordinances in preparation for us to continue to bless our families and be worthy to ordain the coming generations to the same priesthood. By so doing, we can build for our families, stronger spiritual foundations and building blocks to defend and contend against the continuing assaults of the adversary and to hold on to faith.

President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in his April 2010 General Conference message, said, “We have done very well at distributing the authority of the priesthood. We have priesthood authority planted nearly everywhere. We have quorums of elders and high priests worldwide. But distributing the authority of the priesthood has raced, I think, ahead of distributing the power of the priesthood. The priesthood does not have the strength that it should have and will not have until the power of the priesthood is firmly fixed in the families as it should be.” Then in the same conference message he told of two stories about exercising the power of the priesthood in the family, by the father.

First he related: “During the Vietnam War, we held a series of special meetings for members of the Church called into military service. After such a meeting in Chicago, I was standing next to President Harold B. Lee when a fine young Latter-day Saint told President Lee that he was on leave to visit his home and then had orders to Vietnam. He asked President Lee to give him a blessing.

“Much to my surprise, President Lee said, “Your father should give you the blessing.”

“Very disappointed, the boy said, “My father wouldn’t know how to give a blessing.”

“President Lee answered, “Go home, my boy, and tell your father that you are going away to war and want to receive a father’s blessing from him. If he does not know how, tell him that you will sit on a chair. He can stand behind you and put his hands on your head and say whatever comes.”

“This young soldier went away sorrowing.

“About two years later I met him again. I do not recall where. He reminded me of that experience and said, “I did as I was told to do. I explained to my father that I would sit on the chair and that he should put his hands on my head. The power of the priesthood filled both of us. That was a strength and protection in those perilous months of battle.”

Second, he recounted: “Another time I was in a distant city. After a conference we were ordaining and setting apart leaders. As we concluded, the stake president asked, “Can we ordain a young man to be an elder who is leaving for the mission field?” The answer, of course, was yes.

“As the young man came forward, he motioned for three brethren to follow and stand in for his ordination.

“I noticed on the back row a carbon copy of this boy, and I asked, “Is that your father?”

“The young man said, “Yes.”

“I said, “Your father will ordain you.”

“And he protested, “But I’ve already asked another brother to ordain me.”

“And I said, “Young man, your father will ordain you, and you’ll live to thank the Lord for this day.”

“Then the father came forward.

“Thank goodness he was an elder. Had he not been, he soon could have been! In the military they would call that a battlefield commission. Sometimes such things are done in the Church.

“The father did not know how to ordain his son. I put my arm around him and coached him through the ordinance. When he was finished, the young man was an elder. Then something wonderful happened. Completely changed, the father and son embraced. It was obvious that had never happened before.

“The father, through his tears, said, “I didn’t get to ordain my other boys.”

“Think how much more was accomplished than if another had ordained him, even an Apostle.”

And I love it when President Packer said, “Authority in the priesthood comes by way of ordination; power in the priesthood comes through faithful and obedient living in honoring covenants. It is increased by exercising and using the priesthood in righteousness.” (The Power of the Priesthood, April 2010, lds.org.) 

With grandparents and cousin, Craig Kirby, also a Deacon

I am ever grateful that Heavenly Father has sustained me and my family throughout those 41 years of my membership in the church, honoring the Priesthood and living a life of worthiness. There may have been times when I failed in my obligations to the Lord, but I tried to make it a point to stay put in the shelter that the church offers while the storms of life raged. Sunday has always been a delight for me and the family and partaking of the Sacrament worthily provides a constant reminder of the second chances to correct our disobedience and sinfulness, which the Lord offers through the transcendent saving power of His atoning sacrifice, on conditions of repentance.

I am likewise grateful that my only son, Robert Sherwin, the father of Rulon Asher, has remained a pillar of spiritual strength in the family. His dedication to his church duties and the magnifying of his priesthood responsibilities, allowed him to be able to perform the necessary ordinances for his children and family.

Exercising the authority and power of the priesthood to perform saving ordinances for family members, such as naming and blessing of children, baptism and confirmation, administering to the sick, conferring the priesthood and ordaining to an office, father’s blessings and other blessings of comfort and counsel, dedicating our home, did truly strengthen our testimonies and conviction of the power of the priesthood, and the love that binds the family together.

The conferring and ordaining to an office in the priesthood which I performed as a father to my son, and my son’s doing the same as a father to his son, had served well and will serve fittingly through the years, in our family life, as a tower of strength. It will be a flare that will light the way for our coming posterity to follow a family tradition of honoring covenants which will provide relevant influences in using the authority and power of God to bless their future families.

Rulon Asher now holds the great gift of spiritual power that is in the Aaronic Priesthood, even “the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins…” (D & C 13:1.) He will surely cherish the memory of having his father, together with his grandfather and uncle, laid their hands upon his head, with his father as the voice, to confer upon him the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain him to the office of a Deacon, and blessed him to honor such priesthood and perform his duties according to the Lord’s standards, as did his father.

It is my wish that he will continue to live a clean life and keep his priesthood covenants so that he may have the blessings of spiritual companionship and communication from the Holy Ghost. Such will be a moving force for him to serve well in his future callings in the priesthood throughout his growing up years.

It is always a great joy for me and my only son to have been able to bequeath a legacy of eternal consequence to our posterity, especially the opportunity to personally and worthily pass on the authority and power of God to our children and our children’s children.

BEING FAITHFUL TO THE END

by: Norberto Betita

The last and most memorable event that I remembered about Bro. Leonardo Preciosa was during our Temple trip at the Cebu Philippines Temple. I and my dear wife Letty were out after an endowment session and we observed him walking alone along the isles toward the temple to attend another session. In his countenance was shown a mixture of joy and sorrow and some expressions of distress perhaps associated with the natural physical deterioration resultant of aging. Yet he was trying his best to relearn and renew his covenant to the Lord and once and for all refresh his memory of the knowledge provided in the temple endowment of how it is to grow and ascend from the Telestial state of mortality to the wonders of the Celestial realms. After the temple trip, we learned that he had become very ill.

The walk through life in this mortal world is indeed one of enduring the contrasting experiences of tranquility and turbulence; of light and darkness; of pleasure and pain. The telestial thoroughfare is replete with unremitting invitations that lead to moral debauchery and sin. In consequence, even the choice spirits who have accepted the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully in the beginning, were eventually lost among the passing procession of a drifting humanity. Their spiritual strength were devoured by the influences and lusts that sucked them hard into the doors of the large and spacious building.

However, Brother Preciosa who was one of the pioneer members of the Surigao Philippines District of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, notwithstanding his own share of the highs and lows of life and the bitter tests of faithfulness as a member of a Christian minority, endured well his trials. His dedication and devotion to God and His kingdom on earth was profoundly deep and sincere as to motivate him to voluntarily serve in different capacities throughout his lifetime as a church member. He has raised four generations of active family members of the Church. He might have failed in others of his children, but he has raised from among his family and posterity Priesthood leaders and missionaries---himself, his sons and grandsons---who served faithfully, diligently and with integrity and honor as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Last of his calling where he served faithfully toward the end of his life was that of an Elder’s Quorum President, even as an octogenarian or age 82, when most should have been rested and confined in a racking chair. 

 

Life for him as a struggling mechanic with seven children to support was never easy. While he encouraged them to obtain the highest education that they possibly can, he also trained them to work in the shop. When he felt that supporting his children through college had become a burden beyond his capacity to provide, he decided to join the Filipino diaspora and worked abroad for several years. Such a sacrifice away from home and family raised for him six college graduates and one college level among his children. He also was able to build a modest home for his old age. At retirement, he devoted his time to serving the Lord and his people in different capacities.

His pioneering membership and service in the church since 1975 was one sublime example of dedicated discipleship. He walked approximately 8 kilometers round trek with the members to attend and worship in a rented facility. He attended Institute of Religion even with his busy schedule as a mechanic. He woke up with his family very early dawn to walk three kilometers and back to donate labor for the building of the Ceniza Heights Chapel of the church in 1981. He passed the Sacrament as a matured deacon and prepared and administered the same after he was ordained as a teacher and as a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. He taught the priesthood quorum which he himself preside. In all, he did what he has been called upon to do, interrupted only during his work abroad. An American sister missionary remembered him as one who helped them pioneer the Welfare Program in Surigao City in 1986 as an Elder’s Quorum President.

As it is, our life in mortality moves forward in silent cadence to an eternal destination. We each go by appointment with God. Not one of us is exempted from the irrevocable sentence of death and nobody knows when our final fate comes. But perhaps personally we can feel when it is evident. Like Bro. Preciosa, being faithful to the end, should be our constant object in life that when we feel we are about to slip to the other side of the veil, we are best prepared to be “…received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where [we] shall rest from all [our] troubles and from all care, and sorrow.” (Alma 40:12.)

Bro. Preciosa is now at rest in the paradise of God. He died about 6:00 PM, October 11, 2018. His yearning desire to visit the temple for the last time before his mortal body finally yields to the invitation from the other side of the veil, made him that worthy to receive such a blessing only promised to the faithful:

A land holy and pure,
Where all trouble doth end,…
Where no tears shall be shed,
For no sorrows remain.
(Does The Journey Seem Long, Hymn No. 127)

I cherish the memory of having been a friend to Brother Leonardo Preciosa for such a long time. To me he was an inspiration and an exemplar of a true disciple of the Lord. His life will be remembered as a righteous husband, father, and Priesthood holder.

I and my family would like to express our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of Brother Leonardo Preciosa for his passing.

CEBU PHILIPPINES TEMPLE: RECALLING AND RENEWING OUR COVENANTS

by: Norberto Betita 

CEBU PHILIPPINES TEMPLE

Living in the countryside away from the temple district is a barrier for many members to go and worship in the House of the Lord, not only because of the distance, but also because of the high cost of travel expenses, plus the fact that most of them have no regular sources of income. The opportunity then to be able to visit the Cebu Philippines Temple is such a sacrifice for many and a rare privilege.

Temple attendance has been the regular and unvarying reminder from living apostles and prophets. President Russel M. Nelson once said: “Each Holy Temple stands as a symbol of our membership in the church, as a sign of our faith in life after death, and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families.” (Personal Preparation for Temple Blessings, April 2001.) 

Baptismal Font

It is in this most sacred edifice that the pronouncements of the ultimate spiritual blessings that may be received in mortality and in the life to come are made available both for the living and the dead through sacred Priesthood ordinances. It is in this consecrated sanctuary that we learn and know of spiritual mysteries, which may be revealed to us personally; feel of its importance in our lives; and do the covenants we have entered into toward becoming celestial citizens worthy to pass by the angels standing as sentinels.

Learning and understanding the gifts of the spirit that are in the temple are most essential in our personal quest for spiritual maturity. Regularly recalling and renewing our covenants, therefore, should be given deeper personal attention. Regular may mean as frequently as possible, but for those who are far and financially handicapped, it can be a once a year visit to the temple. 

Grand Staircase

Indeed, for the Latter Day Saints of Surigao Philippines District going to the temple is rather a difficult undertaking. Even qualifying for a temple recommend is already a mounting challenge to most of the members. Tithing faithfulness is one great hurdle that many Priesthood holders find difficulty to leap. Their irregular meager income creates a vacuum between their increasing needs against available resources as to tempt them to differ obedience. Ironically though, even those who had been blessed with better employments find it hard to qualify. Many don’t realize how small a tenth of our income for a sacrifice in comparison to the promised blessings if we stand true and faithful to our covenants. I too was once in that kind of attitude of giving more concern in the things of the world. But I soon realized, as I kept myself qualified for a temple recommend and visit the temple at least once in a year, that blessings of greater knowledge and understanding did flow with superior light and wisdom, and with sweet feelings of joy and contentment, thereby inspiring me even more to walk on the covenant path toward what Heavenly Father wanted me to become. 

Sealing Room

During the April 2018 General conference, President Russel M. Nelson, in his concluding remarks, pronounced blessings for the members. Said he: “…I bless you to identify those things you can set aside so you can spend more time in the temple. I bless you with greater harmony and love in your homes and a deeper desire to care for your eternal family relationships. I bless you with increased faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a greater ability to follow Him as His true disciples.” In this light, with one simple idea and suggestion from a veteran temple worker, backed by such prophetic blessings, the Surigao District leadership gives emphasis on the pronouncement and encouraged and even challenged the members to try the Lord and start preparing to qualify for a temple recommend forgetting at first the concern for the needed financial resources for the trip, and instead try to “identify those things [they] can set aside.” 

Celestial Room

The last few years, we only have one temple trip for adults which seldom covers the reservation of 20 persons in the temple patron housing. But as soon as the blessings were declared by the prophet and emphasis were regularly given for members to take the challenge, more were aroused and motivated to work out for the needed temple recommend interview and qualified. While some were short of resources on the scheduled dates, God’s extended hands provided some needed resources through benefactors who ministered with love beyond boundaries.

Since that prophetic blessings, the Surigao Philippines District had already conducted three temple trips with a total of 67 adult members visiting the Cebu Philippines Temple, with one more scheduled trip in November. With such excitement, the district leadership planned to make the temple trip a yearly activity for each Branch. 

Entrance

S. Michael Wilcox wrote: “The Lord knew that some people would fail to maintain their temple worthiness through the temptation and weaknesses of human nature. But we are not so much condemned for our mistakes and sins as we are for our failure to cease doing them. In terms of temple covenants, the condemnation comes for not correcting our faults so that we can return to the temple. Worthiness and the desire to return to the temple are often the best signs we have that our repentance has been complete and is accepted by the Lord. Then we must forgive ourselves, continue with our lives, and remain temple worthy.” (House of Glory, p. 79-80, Deseret Book Company).

When we first received our temple ordinances at the Manila Philippines Temple it was such a great sacrifice on our part. We tried our best to spiritually qualify according to the requirements. Money was then in scarcity that it was difficult for us to save for the trip. My wife sold her treasured jewelries without hesitation to cover the cost of our planned temple trip to be sealed together as a family with three of our then young children. When all were already in place except for some needed allowance for contingencies, unexpectedly, a check almost equivalent to my one month salary was received from a generous benefactor. Finally, on December 13, 1986, we received all the necessary ordinances and were together sealed as a family for time and all eternity. 

Temple Patron Housing Lobby

I should admit that during that time when I first received my temple ordinances, I have never truly understood all that had been conveyed and presented, except for a few memories of the promised blessings. All my wishes to return to the temple were in vain because of the distance and financial requirements. It took me several years before I was able to go back to the Manila Philippines Temple, until a more nearer temple was completed. At the Cebu Philippines Temple, recalling and renewing our covenants regularly became a reality. Our regular temple worship then, at least once every year has become a source of better understanding of the covenants and promises that the temple provides. 

Temple Patron Housing

In our last temple trip on September 26-29, 2018, I carry with me these thoughts from S. Michael Wilcox: "Sometimes the world is like a hot summer's day beating down on us. There are no clouds in the sky and no relief in sight. We search anxiously for a place of shade to shield us from the burning heat of the sun. When the world's heat becomes oppressive the Lord says to us: "Come into the shade of my house. Be refreshed. Be renewed. No burning heat will reach you here. Drink from my fountain. Swim in my river, and you will be able to return to the challenges of life, prepared to meet them."" (House of Glory, p. 58, Deseret Book.)

If I may be privileged to travel every year during the remaining years of my mortal journey to visit the most beautiful and special places in the world, the temple will be the only place that I would want to go. It is the House of the Lord where His holiness is felt. To me it is the place where heaven and earth meet.