Welcome:

Joseph: Everyone, welcome! Welcome, welcome to the Family of Yeshua's Summer Conference of 2022, and we would like a volunteer, who would like to volunteer to say an opening prayer? Do we have somebody, like in the Rockwell family there, I know there is a bunch of you there just holding your hands up who would like to offer and opening prayer?

Opening Prayer: Kevin

Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful as we assemble in this conference this special day. We are grateful to the Father for the understanding and insight and inspiration that Thou has given to us. We are grateful, Father, for thy Holy Son, the Lord Yeshua. We pray that thou would bless those who speak to us today, that they may feel of the influence of thy Spirit and that we may feel thy Spirit and that we might both be edified and learn from Thee as we do so. We are grateful, Father, for Thy patience and Thy love for us and pray that Thou would continue to bless us in all that we do and invite Thy Spirit to protect us at this time. In the name of Yeshua Messiah, Amen.

Joseph: Thank you. We are still waiting for one of our visitors to arrive, if he shows up, that would be great and I suppose, I would like to just introduce a little bit about the purpose of this conference. As everybody knows, the gospel has many different aspects and it has many deeper teachings as well, deeper teachings that would help us to get to the Saviour and help us to obtain personal revelation for ourselves and our families and today, we would like to talk about some of those things that will help us. A lot of those things are found, they are taught in the temple. The temple is a sacred place where those things can be shared and people can learn a little bit deeper knowledge and how to apply that knowledge. So today is the last conference in a series of the basic beliefs, the basic doctrines that the Lord is willing to share with us. So, to get started here, Bill, would like to take the first time slot?

Bill: Sure, that would be good, thank you.

I'm gonna talk… and let me know if sometimes my computer wasn't coming through as loud, but can everybody hear me okay?

Group: Yes, yes, coming in great, coming in great here too.

The Temple As The House Of The Lord:

Bill: I was gonna talk a little bit about the temple as the House of the Lord and sometimes if you see a big temple, at least here in the United States, you'll see that characterization, it will actually say on the temple, The House of the Lord, and so I thought a little bit about that and can explain some of that just to give a little background. I know some of you guys in the Philippines, if I talk a little slow, I hope that helps you understand what I am saying, maybe, maybe not, but I will do that, hopefully that you can understand some of this, because I know English is not your first language obviously.

I was raised in a good LDS family, that's The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, strong traditions, both sides of the family had really a longstanding activity with historically going back a long time, and part of the tradition was to be involved in what's called the temple, temple worship, temples are these houses of the Lord. And so, I was kind of raised with that obsession, to try and figure it out, figure out about the temple, and when I was a young man, I went on an LDS mission, and prior to doing that, you go through the temple and you have some understanding about the things that take place in the temple. And so, it's always been a little bit of a puzzle to me, which has been solved in the past few years since I have been involved with this group, The Family of Yeshua Messiah, because we, as the church, have a lot of these answers. We have guys that know a lot of the inner workings about the temple and temple worship and so it has been a great blessing for my life to have some of these longstanding questions I've had for many, many years answered.

I'm gonna give a little history of about, from the scriptures we have, different temples that are noted. When Moses took the children of Israel and they fled Egypt and then he went out to the desert and he wandered for a long time, and Moses went up to a mountain and he received instructions from the Lord and he came down and he built what was called a tabernacle. It's like a temple, and he could do things in the tabernacle to worship the Lord. And so, Moses had the tabernacle and then he also learned how to build an ark of the covenant and that was like Raiders of the Lost Ark, that movie, that's what they're talking about, except Raiders of the Lost Ark obviously is just a Hollywood production kind of telling that kind of a story. So Moses had a tabernacle and he had the ark of the covenant. In this visitation when Moses talked to God, the Lord said to Moses, and this is from Exodus chapter 25, verse 8, "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." This is the children of Israel, the Lord wanted this tabernacle to be a sanctuary so that he could dwell with the children of Israel, and this was literal, and the purpose of the tabernacle was so that the Lord could come and dwell among them. Literally, it would be the idea that this would become his house. And so that's the first temple I wanted to mention is the tabernacle in the wilderness with Moses and the children of Israel.

And then we had a temple which was called Solomon's Temple, it's talked about in 1 Kings chapter 6, and this is 480 years later, after the children of Israel had came out of the land of Egypt, it was the 4th year of the reign of Solomon over Israel and he began to build the house of the Lord, a temple, and he finished it and he covered it with beams and with boards of cedar. And so this is the next revelation of this house of the Lord and in 1st Kings, chapter 6, it says, verses 11-13, "And the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgements and keep all of my commandments to walk in them, then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David, thy father: And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel." So here is another temple, the Temple of Solomon, and the Lord says directly, I'm gonna use that to dwell among my people. So that's kind of interesting. And then, during the dedicatory prayer, when Solomon dedicated the building as a temple, Solomon says this, "I have surely built Thee (talking to the Lord) an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever.

Now the third temple I wanna mention is a vision that Ezekiel had of a future temple, and this might be a temple during the millennium, but the prophet Ezekiel had this vision and it's in Ezekiel, chapters 40 through 47. Ezekiel sees in vision a holy city where the temple is in chapter 40. He sees the temple with the Holy of Holies in chapter 41. He sees the chamber for the priest in chapter 42. And this temple is the temple where the Lord dwells in the midst of the children of Israel, apparently during the millennium, this is in Ezekiel chapter 43. So Ezekiel describes this in chapter 43, he says, "So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever." So here God is telling Ezekiel that this temple you're seeing in vision, this is where I'm gonna actually dwell, I'm gonna live there.

So, the fourth temple that has this idea in it is a temple in Kirtland, Ohio, which was built by the early Mormon Church and the Kirtland Temple was dedicated in 1836. This is Doctrine and Covenants section 109, which is the dedicatory prayer for that temple, and these are some of the things that were said. It said that the Kirtland Temple was built so that the "Son of man", Yeshua, might have a place to manifest himself to his people and that Thy Holy presence may be continually in this house. Now, the dedicatory prayer calls it Thy house, meaning it's God's house, 5 times. So this is the fourth temple that really says that this is where God will dwell, when He's here, He will dwell in this temple.

Now, keep in mind be it the tabernacle Moses had with the children of Israel, King Solomon's Temple, Ezekiel's future temple he sees in vision, and the Kirtland, Ohio Temple. Now there's other temples in scripture that we're not going to refer to here, King Herod had a temple in Jerusalem and that is one Christ went to and had to drive the money changers out of, and then there's some other temples, there are a lot of church groups now have temples, but for our purpose, we are going to look at these, and then the last one, the fifth one that I wanna talk about, is called the Nauvoo Temple. And what happened to the Mormon Church, they were driven from Ohio to Missouri, which is another state, and then from the state of Missouri, they were driven to a state called Illinois, and in Illinois, there's Nauvoo, which is a city that they fled to, and in that city, they attempted to build this other temple we're talking about, Nauvoo Temple. This is from section 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it's a revelation given to the prophet Joseph Smith at Nauvoo on January 19, 1841, and the Lord directed that all of my saints shall come from afar "and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein." So the fifth time here, the Lord is saying, temples are for me to dwell in, and He's being serious about this.

Now this fifth temple we're talking about, the Nauvoo Temple, there's a little thing that we have to mention in this revelation where the Lord is explaining what's gonna happen, because in the Kirtland Temple, this is the one in Ohio, and it had this marvellous dedicatory celebration where the Lord showed up and the presence of God was felt and wonderful things happened, but you know, some of the church members were a little bit naughty, and so they had some bad feelings, they had some mischief they were up to, and so even though the Lord had accepted that house, in quite a bit of glory, the problem was that the priesthood of God was there and yet because there were so many people that were out of harmony with what they should have been doing, the whole thing kind of ended up not so great. And so, this is what the Lord starts talking about in section 124, because there was a loss of authority when the people misbehaved up in the Kirtland Temple after the dedication. And so now, when they are building this new fifth building we're talking about, the Lord says this, this is Doctrine and Covenants section 124, verse 28, "There is not a place found on earth that he (God) may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood." And so, what he's talking about, in Kirtland, Ohio, there had been this beautiful temple and because of the apostasy, which is kind of the bad conduct, the falling away of the saints from true belief, that priesthood was lost, that fullness of priesthood no longer existed, so the Lord had said, we're gonna build this last temple, the one in Nauvoo, so that I have a place I can come and restore those things that were lost. And so that's what was being discussed.

Now section 124 says some things that are important to understand about temples. It says that Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith were two who held the keys of the office of priesthood and patriarch, so whatsoever they would bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever they shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. This is called the sealing power. Hyrum Smith became a prophet and a seer and a revelator and a patriarch to the church along with Joseph Smith. The fullness of the priesthood which had been held by the Church at the time of the Kirtland Temple would not be restored because of the wickedness of the saints. Now the fullness always occurs when the Father is physically able to come and bless his people and be with his people, that's the fullness, and so when they talk about the ability to come and restore that fullness, it's an important thing. That's one thing to keep in mind.

Now, when we talk about a temple, there is various things that come to mind. Obviously, it's a big building, it's a nice building, but there's a scripture that we have to consider, and it says, this is 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is within you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" Your body is a temple. So there's a big, beautiful building that's a temple, and also, we have this body that's a temple. And remember when Yeshua was baptised by John the Baptist, that they saw the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descended in the sign of a dove and was present on Jesus Christ, on Yeshua, and so, that becomes when Yeshua became a temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, I mean if you think of it that way. And then it says in scripture, when Yeshua died, he yielded up the Ghost, so we have kind of this idea, but that's the idea that our body can become this temple, and should become this temple.

And so, when we read about these dedicatory prayers, these prayers that are said, like when Solomon dedicated Solomon's Temple, he got on his knees and he raised his hands to the heavens and he called down these blessings to be upon his people and the Lord blessed his people. And so that's a dedication of the temple.

The purpose of a temple, what is the purpose of a temple. The purpose is so that we can regain and enter back into the presence of the Lord. It's quite simple. By ritual and by instruction and by ordinance in the temple symbolically, we are just returning to His presence. It's a set of instructions and a set of symbols and ordinances that help us be able to meet directly with our Father, Heavenly Father, and with his Son, Yeshua. So these are simple concepts that we need temples to do this, and we need to sanctify our own temple, our own body, by obedience and some things that it talks about in these dedicatory prayers, so that we qualify to receive that from the Lord.

Now section 109 in the Doctrine and Covenants is the dedicatory prayer for the Kirtland Temple, this is the one up in Kirtland, Ohio. This is 1836 and it's a prayer that tells us some things that are required in order for us to, you know, get along nicely in this temple. It's what the temple is all about. And so, in section 109, here's some interesting things I noted, the first 4 verses in that revelation refer to Thy servants, that is, the Lord's servants. The phrase Thy servant or servants is referred to in that revelation 21 times. The word people is referred to 28 times. The phrase Thy people is used 16 times. So is this a revelation about a building, when he keeps talking about Thy servants and the servants and Thy people. You see, these are revelations that deal with temples, but they're really telling us what we need to do to belong to the temple and to meet with God in the temple.

It makes one conclude that the idea? (33:38) of a temple dedication is not just about the building, but it is about helping us become His people and His servants by complying with His order. You see, there's an order in the temple, an order of instruction, an order of progression, and it allows us to keep his commandments so that we can enter into His presence, and in fact, that's what happens in the ritual of the temple, you receive instruction, you receive ordinances, you make covenants, so that you can actually abide in the presence of the Lord and that you can meet the Lord and be with the Lord.

Now, this is, you know, when Joseph Smith dedicated the Kirtland Temple, it's obviously important to have a holy place, it's important to have a sacred place, a sacred space, dedicated for a holy purpose, so you can go there and reflect and obey and reflect on how you're doing as you're trying to meet the Lord. When the dedicatory prayer happens, these are some of the words that are said, Joseph Smith says, "We ask thee, O Lord, to accept of this house, the workmanship of our hands." Well, this could mean the building, or it could mean us, you see it has a dual meaning, a dual purpose. "We have given of our substance to build a house to thy name, that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to His people." We have been directed to call a solemn assembly as he has commanded us.

And then, in this revelation, the dedicatory prayer of this Kirtland beautiful temple, it says these are some things we have to do. Now this is what we have to do to be worthy to go to the temple building, these are changes we have to make in our minds and in our hearts, in our words, in our acts, all of our conduct. We are directed to teach one another out of the best books, to seek wisdom, learning by study, and also by faith. We are directed to organize ourselves, prepare every needful thing, and establish a house of prayer, fasting, faith, learning, glory, order, a house of God. So a temple has to be a holy building, but it also must be filled with holy people, and that's our part.

We are told, in this revelation, section 109, that all our incomings and our outgoings are in the name of the Lord, that our salutations are in the name of the Lord. With uplifted hands, again just like Solomon, to the Lord, calling down the Lord's blessings. Section 109, verse 10, we must ask our Holy Father to assist us in calling our solemn assembly, be done to His honour and to His divine acceptance, we ask for His glory to rest down upon His people and upon Thy house. This house is dedicated to Thee, it is sanctified, it is to be consecrated, to be holy, that Thy holy presence may be continually in this house. And these things also apply to those who intend to go to the house.

So, building a temple is not about building a fancy building. There's a whole lot of fancy buildings throughout the world that the Lord is not very pleased with. These things that are discussed in the Kirtland dedicatory prayer are given, and it says this in verse 15, they are given that we may grow up in Thee and receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to Thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing.

Now, there's some questions that this kind of thought makes me ask myself and it's the same question that the Lord asked King Solomon when he was talking to him about the temple. "Concerning this house, which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes and execute my judgements and keep all my commandments to walk in them, then will I perform my work with thee, which I spake unto David, thy father." So He expects us to obey His statutes, His judgements, keep all of the commandments, so some more questions I have to ask myself, and these are questions I do ask myself, am I walking in a sacred way, am I following a holy path, am I holding fast to the iron rod, the word of God, am I living in a manner and preparing in a way to enter into the presence of the Lord. And then one I like to ask, am I playing nicely with others, because part of the ritual of the temple is that you have to gather together in a circle and you have to try and rise up together. It is not an individual race where you're gonna say, I'm gonna go meet the Lord first, it's like, let's do this together, let's encourage each other, let's hold each other and help us become more faithful and obedient, because this is the pattern that the Lord actually wants and of course, it doesn't always apply, because a lot of the prophets, you know, are the ones that are showing us how to do this.

Now, in section 124, verse 27, again the Lord directs us to "Build a house to my name for the Most High to dwell therein," and so we have to apply that to ourselves and we have to apply that to our body, to our thoughts, our acts.

And then here is this final temple question, are we prepared to rely upon the promise the Lord gave Moses and Solomon and Ezekiel and the saints in Kirtland and the saints at Nauvoo, for the Lord said, "I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel." That is the Lord's promise and it is my prayer that I and we can do what the Lord directs to accomplish these things in His holy name.

Joseph, back to you.

Joseph: Well, let us see here. Thank you very much.

Mission of Elijah:

Joseph: You know, this is a pretty amazing topic here; and the temple is such an important part of our reaching toward the heavens, and actually obtaining the heavens.

You know, the Lord said in the Book of Mormon, as well as at the end of the Old Testament, He said:

"Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the Fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

It says it a little bit different, that is from the Book of Mormon, 3rd Nephi, chapter 7, but it did say it a little bit different in the end of the Old Testament, but the basic premise is the same.

So, who are the Fathers? Who are these Fathers that Elijah is going to turn their hearts to the children? And who are the children? Who are the children that are being spoken of that Elijah is going to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers?

And then He says lest I come and smite the earth with a curse, or the whole earth would be wasted; you know, the purpose of this earth would be wasted. So the whole purpose of this earth is actually for us, for the children, to get to the Fathers, to turn their hearts to the Fathers and the hearts of the Fathers to the children.

So the Fathers are those who have gone on before us, and they succeeded in gaining immortality and eternal life; everyone from Father Adam down through all the prophets and all the holy men throughout all the ages of the earth; all those who have actually acquired the covenant of the Fathers and lived up to it.

But who are the children? We are not talking genetic children, we are talking the children of the covenant, those who actually,… The children are all those who turn their hearts to God, and they seek out the covenant of the Fathers; their hearts are in the same place as the Fathers; and they go forward to obtain the covenants of the Fathers themselves. Because, how can you really be an heir of that covenant, unless you live up to that covenant yourself?

So, why are the hearts of the Fathers turned to the children? What makes the Fathers’ hearts turn to the children? If we can look here now upon the earth, you know, all the fathers here or the mothers here, what makes your heart turn toward your children? Why would they not be in the first place? What makes the children's hearts turn back to the parents? If the children were so disobedient and so bad that they actually decided to go forth and be quite wicked, that pains us as parents. But, when the children turn back to family, and to being good, and to try and help each other and help their siblings, and help their parents, that touches our hearts, and turns our hearts to them. So, the Fathers, as this scripture says, they can turn their hearts to the children as the children turn their hearts back to God, back to the Fathers, because Heavenly Father is our father. And the children learning correct doctrine about Heavenly Father, learning that He is love, learning that He wants them to become like Him, learning how to become like Him; the children seeing that Heavenly Father pours out all His knowledge of how to become like Him, and the children therefore turn their hearts to Him, and the Fathers turn their hearts therefore to the children, and they see the children living in the proper way, and the covenant of the Fathers is extended! And so this is the point and purpose of the earth, as it says in the scriptures. So as the children seek and live according to the covenant of the Fathers, they therefore then start to obtain that covenant themselves, for themselves.

So Elijah is supposed to come, from this scripture we learn that Elijah is supposed to come, and he is supposed to teach us correct doctrine, true doctrine of the Fathers and the children will love it and live it. And, as the children live it, the Fathers see that the children love correct doctrine, that they live correct doctrine, and they will then claim those children, you know, the people here upon the earth who live that way, they will claim them as children, and extend that covenant of the Fathers to them as well, and therefore fulfilling the purpose of the earth.

So these are the doctrines that are taught in the temple, the doctrines that Elijah has come to share, and these are taught in the temple so that people can learn how to talk directly to God, how to hear His actual voice as he talks back to us, these are the things that are taught in the temple, and how many of us here would not love to have a direct line, you know, how many of us here would not love to pick up our cell phones and be able to talk to Heavenly Father right now and actually hear His voice, actually get an answer. You know, I think everybody here would like that, and I think this is the whole point of the temple and this was what Bill referred to as the fullness where the Lord can come and dwell right there in the temple, where people can come to the temple and speak with Him face to face, as one man speaks to another man. This is the fullness. The fullness, you can only possibly even have the fullness while in the presence of God. As soon as you leave that presence, is not part of the fullness gone?

So we can argue semantics all we want, but the bottom line is still the same: If we do not have the result, then the doctrine is not correct. That is all there is to it. And for anyone who would argue against whether they like the doctrine, whether they agree with it or do not agree with it, or anything like that: If you do not have the result, then what good does it matter if you like one doctrine over the other that does not give you the fullness? Then the only thing you are doing is disagreeing with correct doctrine. So it is important to look at the bottom line, it is important if it does not bear results, if it cannot be duplicated, then maybe it is time to examine the doctrine and to learn correct doctrine, and that is the mission of Elijah.

The mission of Elijah is to return the correct doctrine so that the children can see that correct doctrine and live that correct doctrine, that the hearts of the Fathers will be turned to the children and the hearts of the children will be turned to the Fathers, and this is the point and purpose of the holy temple. So, as Bill said, the fullness of, you know, when they dedicated the Kirtland Temple, the Lord came to that temple and He dwelt there for a short time.

But a little bit of history of course, that temple was built in Kirtland, Ohio, it was in the United States, that temple was accepted by the Lord and He did promise that He would dwell there as long as the temple was not defiled. Then, unfortunately, when Joseph Smith was put in prison, he was a ways away in prison, and even at the same time, Joseph's dad, Joseph Senior, was actually put in prison, he was in jail too, because they were trying to divide the family, and then while they were in jail, they went after their families.

And there were some people among the church at that time who decided they liked a different doctrine better, and so they entered the temple and took over the temple. As they took over the temple, the Lord left, and the Lord was no longer there in that temple; all because these people said: I do not like that doctrine; I like this other doctrine better. And so they took over the temple and the Lord left. The temple was defiled. They entered into new doctrine in that temple.

And so the temple was defiled and the Lord left. And the Lord gave them a promise if they would go forth and build another temple and this time, do not defile it, He will come there and they would have the fullness restored.

So the fullness is that presence of God, where a person can go there and speak with God, where they can learn correct doctrine that actually allows people to have this experience where they can talk directly to God. So many people did work very hard at trying to build that temple and have the fullness returned, but they did not really value it. They were pretty happy, you know, arguing and contending among themselves which doctrine that they actually liked and which one they preferred and they did not really care about whether it worked or whether it did not work. So eventually, that contention grew and Joseph Smith Jr. was martyred and the fullness was not restored and so this was lost.

The fullness was lost for a very long time, you know, a couple hundred years or thereabouts, and we have been waiting, we have been waiting for that information to be restored to us so that people can once again enter into the presence of God. They would know then how to develop their own temples, their own selves, in order to enter back into the presence of God, to speak with God, to hear Him, to actually hear His voice and have an answer to our questions.

And so this information has been restored and I will tell you a few experiences:

Many years ago, there was a young boy who had a few spiritual gifts, was born with them, and could see that there was something missing. And this boy could often see the future, he called them memories, because it was like he could remember what was going to happen next, and so people thought him a little odd. And he would do weird things, you know, like go out barefoot in the sand all the time and connect down to the ground all the time; would be walking among the oldest trees all the time and listening to the sounds that they made, and connecting to the wisdom that was there available.

To translate this, it means this boy had the gift of prophecy and it means this boy could speak with the animals and with the trees and could actually understand what was being said.

As this boy grew, he got to the point where he felt a drive to get to the Saviour, to actually find out what was going on and why people were so lost. And as he approached the Lord, he prayed and followed the scriptures very much. He made a list of everything that all the prophets in the scriptures did and wrote down those things that were in common among them all and did them. He decided to change his life and live them. At first it did not work, but then he started reaching out for a particular God. In other words, he believed in his forefathers that had gone before him. And he believed in this father that went before him, that actually lived here upon the earth and had overcome all things and knew what it was like to live like this. And he reached out to that being, that father, and that father came; and that father came and showed up in front of him and began to teach him.

The first thing He taught was correct doctrine about Himself and what His goals were, what His desires were and how He would accomplish those things, what the point and purpose of the earth was. And He started to teach and expound all those things. As He continued to pay a visit to this boy often, and as he continued to pay a visit to the boy, He started to teach the boy the doctrine of how to actually get into the presence of the Saviour. These doctrines were a little bit different than what the boy had been taught previous.

So, as I was taught these things,… I was taught and had them expounded. And eventually, after that, I went to an LDS temple. And as I went to an LDS temple, I found that the doctrines were still very different, were quite different than what I was taught. And the people there did not believe that a person could reach the fullness; in other words, get into the presence of God, to speak with the Lord face to face, to hear his voice, to get actual face to face information, talking, revelation. And the reason they could not understand it was because they could not do it; it was not a normal thing. They believed in incorrect doctrine and therefore, could not manage to actually see the Lord.

And so I was taught by the Saviour, I learned the temple teachings from Him. I learned so that the temple could be set up again, and the fullness restored to the temple; the information of how to get to God, correct doctrine that actually bears results; so no excuses, no justifications, just the actual results. In other words, so the Lord can talk to His people in person again. So this is because the Lords wants so much to talk to each of us. He loves each of us; He loves each of you. And He wants you to learn how to become a temple and how to purify your temple for the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in, to dwell in each of us, just like it dwells in Him; He wants us to have that connection to Him, that fullness.

So to teach these ways in the temple, the Lord has provided us with ceremonies, ordinances, that would teach us the key to be able, to be able to make ourselves clean; in which the Holy Spirit may dwell, and then, of course, that God may come. All of these ordinance are given to exalt people, to help us become as he is, so that someday, we may dwell with God; and all of these ordinances are necessary if we want that fullness. Now if we are happy with less than the fullness, we are happy without God, then these ordinances are not really needed, then if we are happy without God. But if we are the type of people who want to get to our Heavenly Father, who want to reach that fullness, that fullness of salvation, then we need all of the ordinances. So all of the ordinances are absolutely necessary, we cannot be saved without going, not the fullness of salvation anyways, as Joseph Smith said, we cannot be saved, the fullness of salvation, without all the ordinances.

So there are many scriptures in the Book of Mormon that back this all up. The fullness at one time was prophesied; after the Lord died, He prophesied that the fullness would go to the gentiles and that the gentiles would have that opportunity. And then He prophesied that the gentiles may decide to give it up. And He prophesied in that case, it would then go to the descendents of the covenant people, the descendents of the Lamanites, the descendents of the Jews, the descendents of the Nephites and those people who were in the Book of Mormon. So the Lord has sent to those people and given correct doctrine and now this correct doctrine that actually gets people into the presence of God.

So, you know, we have operated a little temple here for a while where we can instruct and teach people how to get into the presence of God. This is a challenging endeavour, but because a few more people, you know, we are growing, the church is growing, we are renovating the temple, making it a little larger, bigger for to be able, handle a little bit larger of an audience. And so, this is happening right now, the temple is under construction of course, a renovation, and I guess it should be ready this summer sometime and dedicated and ready to go, so we are all looking forward that day as well, which will be announced of course.

So, I would like to share my experience, my testimony, for those with a Mormon background. I can tell you, for absolute certain, that the Lord is real, I have seen Him myself, I have touched the prints of the nails in His hands, you know, and His wrist, everywhere. I can tell you how the scars are even shaped in His hands there. He is real, and He actually wants to speak with all of us. And just like His disciples saw Him after He was resurrected, I have seen Him also after He is resurrected; He is a real person. There is no difference; He is still the same today as he was then. And He is looking for everyone here to also gain His presence, reach that fullness. And so, for that, I am eternally grateful. And honestly, if I did not experience a lot of these things myself, I would have a hard time understanding them. But, these things have been restored for the purpose of restoring the people to the temple; they have been restored to the temple to teach the people, so the hearts of the Fathers are turned again to the children, to try again. Now will the children turn their hearts to the Fathers? So this is the question, will we turn our hearts, since they have turned their hearts to us and restored this information to us, are we ready to turn our hearts to them? Are you ready to turn your hearts to God and follow the doctrine that He has revealed, so that you can obtain this fullness, the covenant of the Fathers?

So, these are my thoughts; and I, with all due diligence, I extend them to you in the name of Messiah, of course.

Our next speaker here will be John.

John: Hello! Well nobody said hello back, I am kind of nervous now. (Various hellos in the background.)

Ordinance Work For Our Ancestors:

John: I would actually like to talk about the ordinance work in the temple and specifically about the ordinance work for those who have already passed on. So I would first like to go over, because I think most people here know what baptism for the dead is, but I would like to also go over the fact that we have to do other ordinances for the dead as well, in fact, every ordinance that is required of us to be saved, which is all of them, is required of everyone to be saved, even if they did not do them while on the earth.

First, I will start with what is baptism for the dead. Just like we get baptized now for a remission of our sins, those of us who have family or friends who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel or never had the opportunity to be baptized, there is still a priesthood in the next life, and it is even more active than the priesthood in this life, that is organized to teaching and preaching to the people there as well. The scriptures say that Yeshua, when he died, he went preaching in the spirit world until he came back again 40 days later. During that time, he was preaching to the people who either did not hear or did not have a chance to repent while on earth, or people who had just decided that they wanted to repent and start doing good, and those people he preached to also had to have their ordinances done by people who were on earth. So, of course we love our families and we know that they would accept the gospel if they heard it and we know that the priesthood is still active and there are still priests preaching in the next life, so that when they are taught, they could be baptized, but of course, while they are in the spirit, they have no physical body to do the ordinances with, so instead, we can actually do the ordinances for them in proxy. We can be baptized for them, we can be anointed for them, so that they may receive the fullness of the ordinances so that we can be saved together, as a family.

There is often a question asked that can we be saved without going through all of the ordinances and the answer is no, we will only be saved to the degree that we keep the commandments and follow the ordinances and the teachings. If we do not keep them to the fullness, then we will not be saved in the fullness. To live in the highest glory, then we must abide by the highest law, and by the entirety of it.

Ordinances instituted in heaven before the foundation of the world in the priesthood for the salvation of man are not to be altered or changed, all must be saved on the same principle. If man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God, or if man is to get a fullness of the priesthood of God, he has to get it in the same way that Yeshua got it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the House of the Lord. So that answers how we get it.

It is for the same purpose that God gathers together His people in the last days, to build unto the Lord a house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings, etc. This is when it will happen, is when people are gathered together, because God has a plan and He has ordained to save the dead and to that purpose, he is gathering people together.

There is a quote from Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants 108, verse 15, says "And now my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let us assure that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over as pertaining to our salvation, for their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers, that they without us cannot be made perfect neither we without our dead may be made perfect." Just as Joseph said that the hearts of the children must be turned to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers must be turned to the children, but we also must learn to love each other with the same devotion that the fathers love us, and that includes doing the work of the priesthood, which is to save one another, to serve God in his work, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

So, why should we gather together? The main reason to gather together was to build a place unto the Lord whereby he could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom and teach the people the way of salvation, for there are certain ordinances and principles that when they are taught, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose, and that is where the temples and the tabernacles come in, is the only place where we can receive and do these ordinances and receive these teachings and is also the only place where we can do these ordinances for the dead as well. God ordained that he would save the dead and would do it by gathering His people together.

In the book, The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, it says, "In the temple, we give the elders of Israel their washings and anointings and attend to those last and most impressive ordinances without which we cannot obtain celestial thrones, but there must be a holy place prepared for that purpose. All men who want to save their dead, can some and bring their families, do their work by being baptized and attending to the other ordinances for their dead."

So, we know that the temple is where we do these things, but, you know, what exactly is necessary? It is necessary that for man to be saved, ordinances must be done, therefore, those who have died without them can have them done by proxy. It is not only necessary that you should be baptized for your dead, but you will have to go through all of the ordinances for them, the same as you have gone through to save yourself. So go forward, go forward and make your calling and election sure because without doing the ordinances for yourself and for the dead, your calling and election is not made sure. Kings and priests unto the Most High, their whole time will be taken up with things pertaining to the house of God.

All men who become heirs of God and joint heirs with Yeshua will have to receive the fullness of the ordinances and those who will not receive all the ordinances, will come short of the fullness of that glory of being an heir to the kingdom of God. So, we do know that it is necessary that we receive all the ordinances and we do know that it is necessary for everyone to receive them, that is why it is so important that we actually do this work. For men to be baptized for their dead, for every man who wishes to save his father, mother, brothers, sisters and friends, must go through all the ordinances for each one of them separately, the same as he goes through them for himself, from baptism to ordination, washing and anointings, and receive all the keys and powers of the priesthood, the same as for himself.

Thank you.

Updates:

Joseph: Alright, thank you very much. Before we have our final speaker for this conference, I would like to update everybody a little bit on a couple of the projects that are going on within the church. Okay, one is we were expecting to have a church website up and running by now, but it will still take us a little bit longer, we are still trying to understand and figure everything out with that, and until then though, everybody is welcome to join us on social media, like on Facebook and on the forum for updates and conversations and things like that. The ministry part of the church, as far as feeding the poor and needy and taking care of people is going along slowly, but it is going along well. The church does try to help whenever we can and we definitely would like to thank everybody who gives of their means to help those in need. The temple, construction on the temple I have already mentioned a little earlier, but construction on the temple is moving forward slowly. We have had a very great deal of rain here and everything is just mud. It is very difficult to move construction forward a little bit, but we are expecting everything to be ready for dedication before Sukkot, before the fall festival.

Let us see, the Book of Mormon project is moving along, but again, it is moving along slowly. For those who do not know, we are preparing a Book of Mormon manuscript for printing. This manuscript is prepared from the original handwritten manuscript that was revealed through the prophet Joseph Smith and any exigent parts are going to be filled in with the printer's manuscript and anything missing from there will be filled in by the 1830 edition. So, this is to provide the church with an accurate text, as close to the original text as possible so that we can actually have access to correct doctrine.

Because we are all volunteers here, the projects move along very slowly, you know, we have to fit in everything, like any volunteers, we fit in between work and family schedules, and we try our very best to get as much done as we can, so if anyone would like to get involved, please feel free to volunteer. We are very grateful and thank you for all of your patience and we will be keeping everyone updated on all of these things. The various projects, we do post them a little bit online, on the forum, and a little bit on Facebook. We do invite all to come and check them out and see if they can help a little bit.

For anybody in the know, did I miss any announcements that I should have said? Okay, I think that is all we needed to announce this time, at the moment. So our final speaker for the evening will be Ted.

Ted: Howdy! (various howdy responses) I got a better greeting than John did!

In The Service Of Your Fellows:

Ted: Well, I am going to start by reading Mosiah, a piece of King Benjamin's speech, in the LDS Book of Mormon, it is Mosiah 2:17-22. In the 1830 version, it is paragraph 7, page 157.

The lesson here being, to be servants to one another, just like King Benjamin worked hard, like, you know, very hard as far as we know, to keep his folks and his people in living free and happy and that they might do as they please and he also took every chance he could to allow them to learn everything they wanted to learn. But the key word here is service, or servitude, or, you know, being a servant to your fellow man.

To do this wholly and with a perfect likeness of God, it is called selflessness. It is to put everyone before you, it is to put, you know, your neighbours need before your own need, it is to put your family's need, it is to put people you have never even know before, to make sure they have the opportunity to have freedom. To be so selfless, that you would put everyone else before yourself so oft it might seem like a grand idea or a completely unreachable point, but the trick is just to start simple, to start with a single moment in your life, just a single thing you notice in your life where in an instant, you help someone without any thanks or without expecting anything in return. Notice that, realize it, and repeat it ... rinse, wash, and repeat ... wash, rinse and repeat! Find that moment and take the time to repeat it and more often than not, you will find yourself, you also end up happier than you were when seeking the happiness of others.

You will eventually find yourself taking time out of your day to help other people all the time, and suddenly, that goal of being completely selfless is certainly not as far off as it seemed. "He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it." Matthew 10:39. That pretty much sums it up in all simpleness. Selflessness can only cause more selflessness.

So then, let us go forward with this selflessness. If we are willing to go forward and gain these temple blessings as was mentioned before, for ourselves, wouldn't it be the greatest of love and the greatest of service, servitude, to gain it for our ancestors by proxy, so that they can enjoy these blessings as well.

Well, that is all I had. Thank you very much for listening as I stuttered about, did not go as smoothly as I planned, life seldom does. Back to you.

Conclusion:

Joseph: Alright, thank you very much. Okay, so, I think we have covered the material quite well. Everything did fit well together, so I think that everything went smoothly. I certainly would like to thank everybody for coming. I appreciate everybody here. I see we have a visitor, Pastor Ezra has joined us and we do have several people from other countries, so it has been a very nice conference so far. We have definitely heard many things today that should touch our hearts and give us lots to pray about and try to figure everything out. We definitely will get a transcript up of everything. We are trying the recorder here on Zoom to see if that will work, so that we can get the link out to everybody. We will be keeping everyone updated on everything as well. So, I think that is pretty much everything for our conference. Did I miss anything? Anybody know anything that I may have missed? Okay.

Well, everyone, it has been great seeing you again and even though a lot of videos are turned off, it is wonderful that you are here and to hear your voices and actually, this conference is about the 5th in a series that concludes all the basic conference material that we were supposed to give and now, I cannot wait to find out what the Lord has in store for us next. So, if anybody does have questions, feel free to write in or call or whatever it may be, about the topics at hand and we will do our best to answer them. So, everybody done here? Does anyone else have anything? Bill?

Bill: Nope.

Joseph: Kevin?

Kevin: All good.

Joseph: Jim?

Jim: It's all good.

Bill: Good stuff!

Joseph: Ezra, would you like to say hello? I think you are muted right now.

Ezra: Praise the Lord evermore.

Jim: Back at ya!

Ezra: Praise the Lord evermore.

Joseph: Absolutely. It is nice to see you.

Ezra: ????? me to join you this morning, though I came late, but I have learned something, and I have found God whenever ????? this family so that you can grow together spiritually. Keep us in a prayer as we also keep you in a prayer. I thank you, and that's what I had to say.

Joseph: Yeah, you are welcome. Would anyone else with hidden videos like to say hi? Anyone in the Philippines like to say hi? (Various people saying hello.) So we have got some guys over here in the Philippines, hi everybody! Where is Kobe? I do not see the little guy. Hi Riza. (More people saying hello.) Hi everybody. Everybody is seeing everybody now, that is good. This way, everybody can learn who each other are and not be so shy, it is great stuff. You guys want to say hi? (More hellos.) That is the best part you know, I mean there is no sense belonging to a family if you do not know each other.

Bill: That's true.

Joseph: So it is always good to know. Well, this is good. And we heard Aurelio's voice a little earlier on, and some of his children a little earlier on, so that was good.

Aurelio: I'm still here, I'm a little sick, but I'm still here, enjoying the meeting.

Joseph: It is great to see your picture. Oh, hi Zia. (more hellos) Oh, I saw Kobe waving. (More chatter) For those of you who do not know, this is my little niece over here and the nephew was there somewhere, I do not know where he went now, but, they call me Uncle Sam, because Sam is my first name, Joseph is my middle name, so they call me Uncle Sam, just in case anybody does not know, wonder who they are talking about. Alright.

Aurelio: Well thank you for the conference, I really enjoyed it guys, appreciate it.

Joseph: Well you are welcome Aurelio, I am very happy that you could make it, you know, especially after just getting back from your trip and feeling a little bit under the weather, it is amazing that you arrived.

Aurelio: Under the weather, I am not feeling, but it is good to hear this brother, thank you, and everything else. So I really appreciate it.

Joseph: Of course, we will keep you in our prayers too for sure.

Aurelio: Thank you, same here brother, thank you.

Joseph: Okay, I do not know what else to say. Anyone want to sing a song? No? Anybody? (singing) There is sunshine in my soul today. That is one of my favourites.

Okay, well then, thank you all very much for coming, we have definitely enjoyed giving the last of this information that we were supposed to give for everyone, so that now we have covered, if I could speak just a little bit in more of my own language a little bit, I mean, I will still use English, but our own terminology a little bit, we have covered all the directions of the sacred circle and we have covered the alter and we have covered now the sacred circle itself, and all of these ceremonies are available for everyone if they would like to pursue that. To live this lifestyle is a great blessing and it connects us with those who have gone on before, with our ancestors, and down through the lines and connects that line from parent to child all the way through the generations and by walking the sacred circle, we can actually gain that covenant as, you know, as the Book of Mormon quoted about Elijah coming to teach the people how so that they can connect once again. So we do want to be connected to our ancestors, we do love them and want to be a part of them. We do want that association with them in the next life and beyond and we can care about our families, even those who have passed on, we can care about them so very much that we can connect to them and I can promise you that as you follow the sacred path, you will be able to walk with them and even talk with them, seeing them from time to time, in reality, not just imagination, but for real. So, we need to look forward and walk that path which means, in modern English, it means that we have to live correctly and if we live our life correctly, then we too will gain that connection with them and they with us, and the fathers hearts will be turned to the children and the children's hearts will be turned to the fathers and we may all be connected. So, it is up to us to learn to live that way. Heavenly Father does understand and does know where everybody belongs and what family everybody belongs in. The problem is, are we willing to actually love them enough to keep it, so it is up to us.

Thank you very much everyone for coming and we hope to see you next time. We would like a volunteer for a closing prayer. Would anybody like to volunteer? We hear the Jeopardy theme. Oh, Jim, Jim...

Jim: I will.

Joseph: Thank you.

Closing Prayer: Jim

Our Heavenly Father, we give thee thanks for the blessings of this conference and for all who have been able to participate. We are grateful for the speakers and for the presence of the Spirit and we ask that we may ponder the things that have been spoken, in the name of Yeshua the Messiah, Amen. (Various amens)

Joseph: Thank you everyone!