Happy Sabbath everyone! I hope this message finds you well and that you are enjoying the redeeming love of our Savior Jesus Christ. This week’s priesthood lesson comes from this last general conference, from the talk “A Good Foundation against the Time to Come” by Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He starts off the talk talking about President Young entering the Salt Lake Valley and choosing the spot for the Salt Lake Temple. About 10 years after the first cornerstones were laid President Brigham Young offered the following prophetic insight at general conference in October 1863:
“I want to see [the] temple built in a manner that it will endure through the millennium. This is not the only temple we shall build; there will be hundreds of them built and dedicated to the Lord. This temple will be known as the first temple built in the mountains by the Latter-Day Saints. … I want that temple … to stand as a proud monument of the faith, perseverance and industry of the saints of God in the mountains.”
In order for this to happen one thing needed to be strong and sure, that thing is the foundation. Shortly after the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple was laid the saints in the Salt Lake Valley faced the challenge of the US government sending troops to valley. To prepare for this the foundation of the temple needed to be covered. After the challenge had past, the saints uncovered the foundation to discover that there were cracks and it was not made of a suitable material. They were ordered to pull up the entire foundation and replace it so it could withstand any problems and stand the test of time. As a side note I learned this summer that my 3rd great grandfather James Farmer supervised the replacement of the foundation and building of the new one. The foundation is so important that at this moment the foundation of the temple is being upgraded with state of the art technology to make it even stronger.
If the foundation of temple is worth this much work how much more important are our own foundations? Though the temple is closed, it does not mean the spiritual blessings are closed too. Elder Stevenson said he envisions “it more as a time of renewal rather than a time of closure! In a similar way, we might ask ourselves, “How could this extensive renewal of the Salt Lake Temple inspire us to undergo our own spiritual renewal, reconstruction, rebirth, revitalization, or restoration?”
Elder Stevenson goes on with a list of questions we could ask ourselves to assess our foundation.
“What does my foundation look like?”
“What comprises the thick-walled, stable, strong cornerstones that are part of my personal foundation, upon which my testimony rests?”
“What are the foundational elements of my spiritual and emotional character that will allow me and my family to remain steadfast and immovable, even to withstand the earthshaking and tumultuous seismic events that will surely take place in our lives?”
Over the past few months many of us have experienced what could be classified as earth shaking, seismic events. Covid-19 has brought about many challenges and they have been different for each of us and it’s not over yet. This is just one example however of the challenges we have faced and will face throughout our life.
So, what can we do to strengthen, fix, renovate, or whatever it is we need to do to our foundation? Remember the wiseman built his house upon the rock. What is that rock? Obviously, it is the gospel of our savior Jesus Christ that our foundation should be built on. However, within the gospel we each have our own needs and possibly weaknesses that need attention. Elder Stevenson gives a few examples “What might spiritual cornerstones of our personal and family lives be? They may be the simple, plain, and precious principles of gospel living—family prayer; scripture study, including the Book of Mormon; temple attendance; and gospel learning through Come, Follow Me and home evening. Other helpful resources to strengthen your spiritual foundation may include the Articles of Faith, the family proclamation, and “The Living Christ.”
Elder Stevenson then compares our spiritual foundations to the temple and what is necessary to attend the temple, a temple recommend. If we can answer the temple recommend questions we are on good gospel footings. Here are those questions:
- Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost?
- Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of His role as your Savior and Redeemer?
- Do you have a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
- Do you sustain the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer, and revelator and as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys?
“Can you see how you might consider these questions as valuable elements in your personal foundation to help you build and reinforce it? Paul taught the Ephesians of a church which was “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
I want to close today with the beautiful story and example Elder Stevenson tells.
“To display this on a more personal level, I recently spoke at the funeral of a beautiful, vibrant young wife and mother (also a family friend of ours). She was a scrappy Division 1 soccer player when she met and married her dental student husband. They were blessed with a beautiful, precocious daughter. She valiantly battled with various forms of cancer for six challenging years. Despite the ever-present emotional and physical distress that she experienced, she trusted in her loving Heavenly Father and was often quoted widely by her social media followers for her famous saying: “God is in the details.”
On one of her social media posts, she wrote that someone had asked her, “How do you still have faith with all the heartache that surrounds you?” She replied firmly with these words: “Because faith is what gets me through these dark times. Having faith doesn’t mean nothing bad is going to happen. Having faith allows me to believe that there will be light again. And that light will be even brighter because I have walked through the dark. As much darkness as I have witnessed over the years, I have witnessed far more light. I have seen miracles. I have felt angels. I have known that my Heavenly Father was carrying me. None of that would have been experienced if life was easy. The future of this life may be unknown, but my faith is not. If I choose to not have faith then I choose to only walk in darkness. Because without faith, darkness is all that is left.”
It is my testimony that as we live the gospel principles in our daily lives, build maintain and restore our foundations, and love our fellow mankind, we can have the ability to withstand the storms and earthquakes of life whatever they may be. The Lord will not forsake us, He is knocking waiting for us to let Him into our lives if we will let Him. He loves us, our Heavenly Father loves us and they want us to not only have joy in this life but eternal joy. We the Elders Quorum presidency want you to know you are loved and we are here for you. I leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Riverdale 7th Ward 
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