What's the Sacrifice?

In the most recent general conference Elder Teixeira referred to a sacrifice made by Portuguese members of the church. He recounted, “In 1975, as a result of a civil war, Arnaldo and Eugenia Teles Grilo and their children had to leave behind their home and all that they had built through decades of hard work. Back in their native country of Portugal, Brother and Sister Teles Grilo faced the challenge of starting all over again. But years later, after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they said, ‘We lost everything we had, but it was a good thing because it compelled us to consider the importance of eternal blessings.’” I looked up more information about this family in a 1987 article that Elder Teixeira referenced. It gives this additional information on Arnaldo: “Involved in banking in Angola, he had owned four houses and several cars. Now he and his wife, Eugenia, live in a small apartment in a suburb of Lisbon. They have a few artworks as mementos of Africa and, in one corner, a small portion of the fine library they once owned. ‘Life was very hard here when we returned from Africa, because we lost so much,’ Brother Teles Grilo says. But, he explains, their situation compelled them to consider the greater importance of eternal blessings when the missionaries taught them the gospel.” So they had fled Angola because of a Civil War, leaving behind much of their wealth, and in their relative poverty back in Portugal they found the gospel of Jesus Christ. Surely that is the kind of path we all must take as we seek to find our “way back home” to the Lord. Without being willing to sacrifice the things of our “earthly home” we cannot find “the way back to [our] heavenly home.” Their story confirms these words of the Savior: “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).   

               In this same article it recounts how the family was able to be sealed in the Swiss Temple. It continues, “[Brother Teles Grilos] dreams of the day when there could be a temple in Portugal. The cost and the rigors of the trip now keep some worthy Portuguese from traveling to Switzerland to partake of sacred ordinances in the temple there. It is approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles), and the trip takes two days and a night on the bus. ‘But at the end of the journey, when we saw the temple,’ Brother Teles Grilo says, remembering their feelings, ‘what’s the sacrifice? What’s the journey?’” His desired for a temple was ultimately realized when President Monson announced a temple to be built in Lisbon in 2010. It was dedicated two years ago and the sacrifices of this couple and so many other faithful saints there surely prepared the way for the Lord to bless that country with a house of the Lord. We too must learn to sacrifice in order to receive His greatest blessings. The Savior declared that in our dispensation: “Verily it is a day of sacrifice, and a day for the tithing of my people” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:23). The Lord requires us to “observe [our] covenants by sacrifice” and we will be accepted of Him (Doctrine and Covenants 97:8). Ultimately all sacrifices will be worth it that lead us to the Savior and back to our Heavenly Father. Paul put it this way: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Elder Teixeira invited us in these words: “Whatever you must leave behind to follow the path to your heavenly home will one day seem like no sacrifice at all.”