What I didn't think I'd learned from stake conference

Stake conference was last weekend. For some reason, I really struggled throughout the whole ordeal. I felt like the bum-hurting vs. spiritual edification ratio was too high to call it an enjoyable experience. However, I knew that blessings would follow as the week progressed.

It turns out that everyday since the conference I have applied something that I didn't realize that I had picked up from just being at the meetings:

On Sunday, I crashed a bachelor party for my home teachee, Ryan Smith. His roommate and my EQP, Biz, planned an elaborate evening focused on gratitude and spiritual bonding instead of the tradition, dancing and booze. As part of the recreation, Biz had each of us share experiences we've shared with Ryan and also give him a piece of marriage advice. (Bear in mind, all of the guests in attendance were still single save one, Ryan's cousin who had tied the knot only 3 months previous.)

For my part, I drew upon some words given by Brother Deign of the Provo Temple Presidency. He shared a few gems Saturday evening that I think are worth repeating. (Remember, I didn't write these down so I may be a little off on some of the details):

-The experience I shared with Ryan was a special hometeaching visit where Ryan shared with me the secret of how he found his Emily after years of struggling through singledom. He told me that one day, he realized that he couldn't do it alone. So he turned to the Lord in regular, meaningful prayer to help him prepare himself and be able to identify that special someone. To make a long but beautiful story short, the Lord did bless him to recognize the feelings inside of him that led to his engagement to Emily.

In telling that story, I recalled something Brother Deign, one of the conference speakers, said, "When you find a whole in your life, share your concern with Lord in meaningful personal prayer and He will help you become whole." I don't think that piece has a better application than the eternal union of two people.

-Brother Deign also taught, "A marriage partner cannot progress beyond or faster than his [her] spouse... Your job is to make your spouse happy, not better. If she [he] is happy, she [he] will become better."

On Monday night, my roommate and I missed FHE so I thought it would be mutually beneficial if I shared with him some of what I remembered from conference since he wasn't able to attend that either.

I searched my memory and pulled out a recurring theme that Elder Pollcock brought up in both his Saturday evening and Sunday morning talks. Amongst the many topics he spoke on, Christ's Atonement was the one that I found to be most meaningful. A lot of LDS people think that the Savior suffering that the Savior endured in Gethsemane and again on the cross was one, big conglomerate of pain that equaled the incomprehensible sum of human suffering. Alma 34:10 supports this idea, "For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice." [italics added] However, this is not so.


Elder Pollcock taught that, in a sense, the Savior's Atonement was not a catholic suffering [meaning universal, not the religious denomination.] As we can see from his pattern of teaching the individual and revealing himself to the Nephites, one-by-one (3 Nephi 18:36), Christ also suffered for each of God's children one at a time. For that reason, the Savior knows precisely how to come to our aid when we are in need. He intimately know our personal struggles and has the power to help us perfectly.

Today, I surprised myself again when I recalled something else from those painful hours endured on the hard, wooden, conference bleachers. While I was at the temple, I made a new discovery. Until today, I understood the progression of the endowment to represent our ascent towards heaven, in the sense that once we crossed the veil of the temple into the Celestial room we would symbolically have died. I don't think that is true anymore; like Moses (Moses 1:2) we are quite literally blessed to be in the presence of God while yet in the flesh. I looked it up after I got home and found this clear reference on the subject. [See the classic comment of Oliver Cowdery (but attributed to Joseph Smith) in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 51; and David O. McKay, cited by Truman G. Madsen, “House of Glory,” 10-Stake Fireside Address, March 1972, reprinted in The Highest in Us (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1978), 103]

I came to this realization when I was welcomed to the temple by one of the temple workers. "Welcome Brother Tanner. Thank you for coming to the temple." It was that moment that realized that we were living in a very present moment and that this was the Holy House of the Lord where he could visit His people.

Specifically, it was the the phrase, "Come to the temple" that caught my ear. I heard it pervassively throughout stake conference. "Come to the Temple." "Come to the temple." Next to reading the scriptures and praying, this seemed to be offered as the solution to all of our spiritual woes. It was like it was being pressed as the new religious catch-phrase. Then I made the connection. "Come unto Me" was the catch-phrase and theme of the New Testament.

-The Beatitudes, "Therefore come unto me and be ye saved" (3 Nephi 12:20).

-Matt 11: 28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you crest."

The temple is synonymous to Christ. When we come unto the temple, we come unto Christ, literally.

Now in the Celestial room, instead of thinking, "this is going to be what it feels like when I die," I think, "What a privilege to it is to come into a heavenly presence and of being instructed in the things of eternity--realtime!" I know the temple is a place of revelation. It is a place where worthy latter day saints can leave the distractions and temptations of the world and pause to await the promptings and premonitions of the Comforter.

My purpose in sharing this is not to suppose to know any specific interpretation of the symbols of the temple, but rather to offer a new insight and motivation to attend the temple more regularly.