Clothed With Power

“I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10). I thought of this verse last night as I had the opportunity with others in my ward to help clean the Bountiful Temple. I was grateful for the unique chance to get into the font and clean it after thousands of baptisms were performed there that day, and it was a greater privilege to have a “day in thy courts” than “a thousand [elsewhere]” as the psalmist wrote. It amazes me to think of the incredible amount of work that happens in temples across the world everywhere with surely tens of thousands of ordinances performed for our ancestors every day. What drives so many to the house of the Lord to do this great work? Elder Benjamín De Hoyos explained recently in general conference, “Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, appeared before the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and said: ‘Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah] [the prophet] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come— To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse—Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands.’” He continued, “After the Lord restored the sealing keys to Joseph Smith, the work of salvation on both sides of the veil began in our dispensation. President Boyd K. Packer taught that ‘this signal event went unheeded by the world, but it would influence the destiny of every soul who has ever lived or will live. Things began quietly to happen. The Church became a temple-building church. In the world there emerged here and there, in a way thought to be spontaneous, people and organizations and societies interested in tracing genealogies. This has all taken place since the appearance of Elijah in the Kirtland Temple…. From that very day, April 3, 1836, the hearts of the children began to turn to their fathers.’” Indeed, since that beginning, genealogy work across the world has become incredibly important for millions as the spirit of Elijah gently nudges them to find out who there ancestors were.    

                When the Savior accepted the Kirtland Temple, the same day that Elijah came, He said this: “And the fame of this house shall spread to foreign lands; and this is the beginning of the blessing which shall be poured out upon the heads of my people” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:10). I was once shown an article published in France in the late 1800s which spoke about the Saints and their temples, and I saw it as part of the fulfillment of this promise. Perhaps now that I consider the verse again, the prophecy continues to be fulfilled by the temples built in foreign lands. The word fame can mean “public eminence”, and as temple after temple has popped up in foreign lands, they have indeed gained public eminence. So not just the knowledge of the Kirtland Temple in particular has traveled to foreign lands, but the fame of the latter-day temple in general has spread across the nations as so many have been built throughout the four corners of the world. And through those temples we have found the “blessing which shall be poured out upon the heads of my people” given to covenant-making Latter-day Saints everywhere. As Elder De Hoyos quoted President Nelson, “His essential ordinances bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power.” I know that we do find strength and power in the ordinances of the temple. When I went to the temple yesterday, I changed my clothes six times: twice for the endowment, twice for the clothing used to clean in, and twice for the clothes to go in the font to clean that. I guess it should be a reminder to me that through the work of the temple I can be “clothed with power” and “clothed with salvation” as I keep the covenants that I have made there (Doctrine and Covenants 109:80, 138:30). When the Savior comes again He will be “clothed with power and great glory,” and we too can come out with His power as we participate in the ordinances of His house (Doctrine and Covenants 45:44).