on the wall: a talk by Bruce Nilsson
One of the Branch Presidents at the MTC gave this talk this week. I loved it so much! It changed my perspective from wanting to be exactly obedient to wanting to become something even greater!
On the wall
What is a culture? What am I my doing on December 25 at 8 AM? Opening presents right? It's Christmas! Does anyone need to send me a written notice or a law of some sort informing me that I need open my presents on December 25? The reason is because it's part of our culture is it on December 25 we open presents and that culture is stronger than any law. I don't have to think about it. it's automatic in my behavior. A culture brings strength and power.
A law imposed upon ta culture fails. A law that is derived from a culture is embraced
Here in the MTC and as missionaries for the god we have a culture as well it's called the culture of righteousness. What would a culture of righteousness be?
When I look at culture righteousness I see an acronym COR. When I see that I think of the word core. As a football coach and throughout all athletics and performance arts a strong core is essential to producing power. Singers strengthen their core and that's where there's the strength of their note comes from. Athletes get explosion and power out of their core, hence they do extensive core workouts and exercises. In athletics your core equals power. I suggest that for a missionary the culture of righteousness COR, is your spiritual core and where as with an athlete it produces power with a missionary it gives you power. A missionary who lives his life in the culture of righteousness is a powerful missionary.
Obviously we're talking about rules and obedience here, right? With regards to missionaries,there is no substitute for obedience. Elder Holland said obedience is the first law of everything! I think that is very important. As in all things though, with regards to obedience there are different levels of obedience. Lets look at Elder Oaks talk from conference that talks about good, better, best with regards to obedience. What would we consider to be a good effort at obedience? I believe that the best word to describe a good effort for obedience is trying. It's not bad to try. If we ask our investigators to read the book of Mormon and they say I'll try that's not a bad thing that's a good thing. Trying is good and if we try and are successful we will get blessings for that obedience.
The next level is better, what would be a better effort than trying with regards to obedience? The answer is, exact obedience. That is the step up from trying, actually doing it! Now I can see the confusion in your eyes! You have been told by your mom and dad, brother and sister, Bishop, stake president, high councilman, seminary teacher and 5000 times since you got to the MTC that exact obedience was the pinnacle. That's what you were setting as your goal, Exact obedience! Now Brother Nilsson comes along and he tells you that exact obedience is better not best? Am I losing my marbles here? You have been told that exact obedience brings miracles not just blessings! And that is correct! If this is true it leaves you with one question, what is best then?
Open your missionary handbook with me to the introduction. If you read the first line of the missionary handbook introduction it says this book contains the basic standards for missionary behavior as set forth by the first presidency and the 12. Did you catch that? These are basic standards! These are not elevated standards. These are not exceptional standards. These are basic standards and you were told previously that exact obedience to these basic standards brings miracles.
How many of you missionaries came on your mission to be basic missionaries? Not one of you! You came on your mission to be an exceptional missionary, a next level missionary not a basic missionary. As you read on down in this paragraph you see those miracles. They are miracles of protection, safety and salvation for yourself and other people. These are great miracles!
Read the next line after that where it says "seek to learn and live the higher law". The higher law? Are they telling me that there is a higher law other than these basic standards? That this higher law is not written in this book that I'm supposed to be exactly obedient to? That I am to find it and live it? The answer is yes! I am telling you now that finding this higher law and living this higher law is how you change from a better missionary, a basic missionary, to a next level missionary, a culture of righteousness missionary with power.
Let me explain a little bit how this works. If I am a home teacher and I do my home teaching on the 31st of every month at 10:30 PM, am I exactly obedient? The answer is yes! Do I have any power really? No. In doctrine and covenants 121 verse 41 it says no power and authority can be maintained through the priesthood or priesthood callings but by patience and long-suffering and love. On the 31st of every month at 10:30 PM it is very difficult to have power. That Home Teacher is not in the culture of righteousness, he is exactly obedient.
If however I home teach on the second Sunday of every month, and drop by the families home three or four times During the month, know the children's names and bring cookies on birthdays, how much better is that! Do I have power with that family? Yes! That is culture of righteousness home teaching. It's not just a checklist.
In the culture of righteousness, sure we obey the rules! Everyone of them! It is so ingrained in us that we would never think or consider to be disobedient. Obedience becomes like opening your presents on December 25, of course I am going to open my presents on December 25, of course I'm going to be obedient that's not even a discussion.
Once we get to that level of obedience our service becomes less of a checklist and more of a quest to do whatever it takes to please our father in heaven. Your success in your calling or assignment becomes determined by your ability to please your father in heaven and be his hands. At this point you receive additional commandments, we know them as whisperings of the Spirit. Obedience to those promptings becomes your rules/Commandments and you become a next level missionary. You become a culture of righteousness missionary. Every person who has ever served a mission knows missionaries who were exactly obedient yet were not great missionaries. No one knows a missionary who is in the culture of righteousness who was not an exceptional missionary.
Samuel the Lamanite was one of these missionaries. He had been called to the Zarahemla Mexico mission. When he got there they didn't want anything to do with what he had to say. They beat him up and they tossed him out of town. He was walking home, I assume very dejected and sad when the voice of the Lord came to him. In Helaman 13:3. It says that as he was going home the voice of the Lord came to him and said go back and preach the words I whispered to your heart. I want to make point of saying that no one showed up and handed him a list of things to say. He was told to go back and preach the words that came to his heart. Today we call that teaching by the Spirit. Samuel was called to go and preach the gospel by the Spirit.
Have you looked at your preach my gospel lately? Elder Anderson of the 12, about a year and a half ago was here at the MTC. He picked up a copy of preach my gospel and said this book was going to be called preach my gospel by the Spirit. That title was too long for the cover and they didn't like the way it looked so they shortened it to preach my gospel.
They then they inserted this scripture D&C 54:10 underneath pel of Gospel. If you look the Scripture up it says preach my gospel by the Spirit. He then held that book high in the air and said "this is your charge, to preach the gospel by the Spirit ". So what is your charge? To preach the gospel by the spirit! What was Samuel's charge? To preach the gospel by the Spirit. They are the same! That makes you all Samuel The Lamanite. You have the same charge from God. You have the same responsibility, to preach the gospel by the Spirit.
And what did he do with it? Verse 4, He went back to the city and again he was rebuffed so he climbed on the wall dodging arrows and rocks and open his mouth and said the words the Lord put into his heart.
It is important to me to realize that he didn't have a peaceful quiet place to here the spirit. It was anything but peaceful. But he was still able to hear the whisperings of the spirit to his heart through the commotion and noise of life. My mission president taught us something that I think Samuel knew.
He said that every morning when you finish your prayers with your companions before you leave for the day, start another prayer and keep it going all day. Always be on your knees in your heart. When you are teaching, pray. When you are walking, pray. Always be praying. It is like having a wifi hotspot in your heart with constant connectivity with God. That way he can send you messages and cut through the noise and emotions of the day. With your hotspot you can hear God always and do his will.
Samuel was on his news in his heart and his Hotspot working well and God was able to speak to his heart. He said that Jesus would be born in five years, that, that day there would be a day and a night and a day where the sun would go down yet it would not get dark. He also said there would be a new star in the sky.
I look at Samual on the wall as the greatest analogy to successful missionary work ever! Samuel was on the wall in the culture of righteousness. Up there on that wall in the culture of righteousness Samuel said the things that the Lord whispered to his heart he taught by the Spirit and he prophesied by the Spirit. He didn't need an angel or someone to give him a list of things to say or what order to say them in because he said the things the Lord whispered to his heart. He was on that level he was a next level missionary he was in the culture of righteousness on that wall. That's the kind of missionaries we need you to be! That's the kind of missionaries you are called to be! That's the missionary you are charged to be, a missionary who is on the wall in the culture of righteousness. Will you commit to me right now to serve your mission on the wall like Samuel?!
Then when he finishes, he kind of goes away and we don't hear very much more about him. Do you suppose that when Samuel finished his mission he ever got off the wall really? When I think of Samuel I think of someone who always stayed on that wall. I think of a father in who's home Scriptures were read every morning. I think of a home teacher that always home taught the second Sunday of the month and knew his families well. He exercised priesthood power in their behalf. I think of a young men's president who reached out with his heart to each one of his young men. He did it to please God! He didn't do it because he was doing the bare minimum or basic level of service he went to the next level. That's who I think Samuel was I think he stayed on the wall for the rest of his life. Do you know people who have served a mission, and when they come home they are the shining sword of truth! They're testimonies are strong and you feel the spirit in their presence. Then they take that sword of truth, put it on the shelf and forget about it. Two years later you don't even know that they went on a mission.
These missionaries did not stay on the wall!
I promise you that if you will seek to stay on that wall once you return from your mission, the lord will put people in your path the rest of your days. I promise you that if you stay on the wall where the whisperings of the Lord become your commandments you will be God's chosen instruments in his work and you will bring salvation to many people. How many of you here today will commit to me to stay on that wall for the rest of your life!
How many of you know people who have baptized more people after their mission then they did during their mission? Could that be you? If you stay on the wall it will be you. I have a little story about a time in my church service where I was on the wall. This happened to me as I was serving in my capacity as a home teacher, on the wall!
José Is a good friend of mine. When we first moved to our ward in Orem they assigned me to home teach him because I spoke Spanish. He was from Peru and had been offended by some church leaders because they would not let him baptize his daughter when she turned eight.
He had been given them melchesidek priesthood in Peru but none of the paperwork concerning his priesthood Aaronic or Melchizedek had been properly filed. The church had no record of his priesthood. He had been told that he had to start again being ordained a priest in the aaronic priesthood then later become an elder. This greatly offended him and even more offended his wife Rosa.
They were upset and for years had been out of the church because of it. When I first went to their house, the reception was cold. Bit by bit they warmed up to me. They became great friends especially Jose. Rosa was a friend as well but would not participate in any of the gospel discussion we had.
Finally Jose decided to come to church and work to get his life right. He made this determination after a trip to the movie the Testaments in Salt Lake. The spirit hit him so hard he sat there crying and said I just need to do what it takes to be with God.
From that time forward Jose started going to church. He was given the aaronic priesthood then blessed and pass the sacrament. We did some genealogy and went to the temple. He was able to be baptized for his ancestors. This was a great blessing.
While he was doing this he realized that he wanted more. He decided that he wanted to do what it took to get the Melchizedek priesthood and take his family to the temple to be sealed.
He went to the bishop and started that process. The sad thing was that his wife Rosa wanted nothing to do with it. She would not even discuss going to church.
Finally the day came when the bishop felt like José was ready to be ordained an elder and go through the temple to have his endowment. He was so happy and very excited. The Sunday before he sat there with me and read his patriarchal blessing and mentioned that he wanted to make sure he lived worthy of every blessing.
His temple visit for his endowment was scheduled for Thursday of that week. I was traveling in California that week and on Tuesday received a call from Rosa. She was hysterical and said that her husband had been in an accident.
He was crossing a highway in his Toyota pick up and was T-boned by an 18 wheel semi truck. His pick up was flipped six times and he was thrown 60 feet and Jose landed on his head. He was life flighted to the hospital which is where he was when I was able to get to him. He was in a coma and not responsive at all. I gave him a blessing and in that blessing I felt by the Spirit to say that he would be sealed with his family in the temple.
Following that blessing I took a step back and in my mind I thought that this blessing might come to pass in the next life not in this one for him.
Two months later he was still in the hospital, still in the coma, showing no progress to the doctors. I went over to his house on a Saturday and knocked on the door. Rosa was inside the house and could be her crying.
I open the door and said "Rosa, are you okay ". She answered that the doctors had told her that her husband was dead! That his brain was dead and that his lungs and heart would quit if he weren't kept alive by machines. Rosa was told that they would give her 48 hours to decide when to unplug her husband and let him finish dying.
She was hysterical and sobbing uncontrollably. At that moment I felt the spirit of the Lord whisper to my heart and give me words to say. I said "Rosa, The greatest desire of José's heart was to go with you to the temple and be sealed to you and your children ". " To this point you have wanted nothing to do with this and would not even go to church ". "I promise you that if you will go to church tomorrow, and make a serious covenant with your father in heaven that you will take your family to church and that with your family you will prepare to go to the temple, I promise you that when you go to the hospital after church your husband will wake up out of his coma and be fine". She looked surprised but obviously touched by the Spirit in the room.
I left the house and went out to my car and said a prayer realizing the profound thing that I just promised in the name of the Lord.
The next day was Sunday and when church started, there was Rosa, attending all of her meetings. I shook her hand, gave her a hug and told her I would pray for her. After the meeting, Rosa went to the hospital. Not long after, I received a phone call of joy. José had come out of his coma and he would be fine.
Eight months later the family went to the temple together. The parents received their endowment and were sealed. Then the children were brought in and were sealed to the parents.
The spirit was really strong and testified of the absolute miracle that we had witnessed. I knew that it was the voice of God that had told me what to say.
That day in the temple was there was another miracle. The Morenos have a 17-year-old daughter named Kenny. She was mentally disabled and had the mentality of a three-year-old child. It was impossible to carry on a conversation with her and you couldn't understand her most of the time.
When she came in the sealing room the disability was taken from her. Her face and eyes cleared up and looked normal. Kenny went around the room and held adult conversations with several of the women in attendance including Heather, my wife.
Truly the heavens were parted angels were amongst us and we got to see that beautiful daughter of God as he sees her for that period of time while they were in the celestial room. This was a great testimony of the power of God and how his spirit abides in the temple.
It is an example of the kind of things that can happen when you are worthy of the power of God because you were on the wall. I testify to you that it if you will seek to be on the wall you will be blessed to serve many people. There is a saying in the church that when we understand obedience and are obedient we will pray that God will give us more Commandments so that we can be obedient to them. If you're on the wall you get your commandments daily and sometimes hourly. When you hear that prompting, you do it now! You say that thing! You do that thing and you do it now.
This is being Samuel; this is being in the culture of righteousness and on the wall. Not just on your mission but throughout your life do not settle for being a basic missionary do not settle for being a basic member you are being next level missionaries and next level members next level fathers and mothers, on the wall in the culture of righteousness.
On the wall
What is a culture? What am I my doing on December 25 at 8 AM? Opening presents right? It's Christmas! Does anyone need to send me a written notice or a law of some sort informing me that I need open my presents on December 25? The reason is because it's part of our culture is it on December 25 we open presents and that culture is stronger than any law. I don't have to think about it. it's automatic in my behavior. A culture brings strength and power.
A law imposed upon ta culture fails. A law that is derived from a culture is embraced
Here in the MTC and as missionaries for the god we have a culture as well it's called the culture of righteousness. What would a culture of righteousness be?
When I look at culture righteousness I see an acronym COR. When I see that I think of the word core. As a football coach and throughout all athletics and performance arts a strong core is essential to producing power. Singers strengthen their core and that's where there's the strength of their note comes from. Athletes get explosion and power out of their core, hence they do extensive core workouts and exercises. In athletics your core equals power. I suggest that for a missionary the culture of righteousness COR, is your spiritual core and where as with an athlete it produces power with a missionary it gives you power. A missionary who lives his life in the culture of righteousness is a powerful missionary.
Obviously we're talking about rules and obedience here, right? With regards to missionaries,there is no substitute for obedience. Elder Holland said obedience is the first law of everything! I think that is very important. As in all things though, with regards to obedience there are different levels of obedience. Lets look at Elder Oaks talk from conference that talks about good, better, best with regards to obedience. What would we consider to be a good effort at obedience? I believe that the best word to describe a good effort for obedience is trying. It's not bad to try. If we ask our investigators to read the book of Mormon and they say I'll try that's not a bad thing that's a good thing. Trying is good and if we try and are successful we will get blessings for that obedience.
The next level is better, what would be a better effort than trying with regards to obedience? The answer is, exact obedience. That is the step up from trying, actually doing it! Now I can see the confusion in your eyes! You have been told by your mom and dad, brother and sister, Bishop, stake president, high councilman, seminary teacher and 5000 times since you got to the MTC that exact obedience was the pinnacle. That's what you were setting as your goal, Exact obedience! Now Brother Nilsson comes along and he tells you that exact obedience is better not best? Am I losing my marbles here? You have been told that exact obedience brings miracles not just blessings! And that is correct! If this is true it leaves you with one question, what is best then?
Open your missionary handbook with me to the introduction. If you read the first line of the missionary handbook introduction it says this book contains the basic standards for missionary behavior as set forth by the first presidency and the 12. Did you catch that? These are basic standards! These are not elevated standards. These are not exceptional standards. These are basic standards and you were told previously that exact obedience to these basic standards brings miracles.
How many of you missionaries came on your mission to be basic missionaries? Not one of you! You came on your mission to be an exceptional missionary, a next level missionary not a basic missionary. As you read on down in this paragraph you see those miracles. They are miracles of protection, safety and salvation for yourself and other people. These are great miracles!
Read the next line after that where it says "seek to learn and live the higher law". The higher law? Are they telling me that there is a higher law other than these basic standards? That this higher law is not written in this book that I'm supposed to be exactly obedient to? That I am to find it and live it? The answer is yes! I am telling you now that finding this higher law and living this higher law is how you change from a better missionary, a basic missionary, to a next level missionary, a culture of righteousness missionary with power.
Let me explain a little bit how this works. If I am a home teacher and I do my home teaching on the 31st of every month at 10:30 PM, am I exactly obedient? The answer is yes! Do I have any power really? No. In doctrine and covenants 121 verse 41 it says no power and authority can be maintained through the priesthood or priesthood callings but by patience and long-suffering and love. On the 31st of every month at 10:30 PM it is very difficult to have power. That Home Teacher is not in the culture of righteousness, he is exactly obedient.
If however I home teach on the second Sunday of every month, and drop by the families home three or four times During the month, know the children's names and bring cookies on birthdays, how much better is that! Do I have power with that family? Yes! That is culture of righteousness home teaching. It's not just a checklist.
In the culture of righteousness, sure we obey the rules! Everyone of them! It is so ingrained in us that we would never think or consider to be disobedient. Obedience becomes like opening your presents on December 25, of course I am going to open my presents on December 25, of course I'm going to be obedient that's not even a discussion.
Once we get to that level of obedience our service becomes less of a checklist and more of a quest to do whatever it takes to please our father in heaven. Your success in your calling or assignment becomes determined by your ability to please your father in heaven and be his hands. At this point you receive additional commandments, we know them as whisperings of the Spirit. Obedience to those promptings becomes your rules/Commandments and you become a next level missionary. You become a culture of righteousness missionary. Every person who has ever served a mission knows missionaries who were exactly obedient yet were not great missionaries. No one knows a missionary who is in the culture of righteousness who was not an exceptional missionary.
Samuel the Lamanite was one of these missionaries. He had been called to the Zarahemla Mexico mission. When he got there they didn't want anything to do with what he had to say. They beat him up and they tossed him out of town. He was walking home, I assume very dejected and sad when the voice of the Lord came to him. In Helaman 13:3. It says that as he was going home the voice of the Lord came to him and said go back and preach the words I whispered to your heart. I want to make point of saying that no one showed up and handed him a list of things to say. He was told to go back and preach the words that came to his heart. Today we call that teaching by the Spirit. Samuel was called to go and preach the gospel by the Spirit.
Have you looked at your preach my gospel lately? Elder Anderson of the 12, about a year and a half ago was here at the MTC. He picked up a copy of preach my gospel and said this book was going to be called preach my gospel by the Spirit. That title was too long for the cover and they didn't like the way it looked so they shortened it to preach my gospel.
They then they inserted this scripture D&C 54:10 underneath pel of Gospel. If you look the Scripture up it says preach my gospel by the Spirit. He then held that book high in the air and said "this is your charge, to preach the gospel by the Spirit ". So what is your charge? To preach the gospel by the spirit! What was Samuel's charge? To preach the gospel by the Spirit. They are the same! That makes you all Samuel The Lamanite. You have the same charge from God. You have the same responsibility, to preach the gospel by the Spirit.
And what did he do with it? Verse 4, He went back to the city and again he was rebuffed so he climbed on the wall dodging arrows and rocks and open his mouth and said the words the Lord put into his heart.
It is important to me to realize that he didn't have a peaceful quiet place to here the spirit. It was anything but peaceful. But he was still able to hear the whisperings of the spirit to his heart through the commotion and noise of life. My mission president taught us something that I think Samuel knew.
He said that every morning when you finish your prayers with your companions before you leave for the day, start another prayer and keep it going all day. Always be on your knees in your heart. When you are teaching, pray. When you are walking, pray. Always be praying. It is like having a wifi hotspot in your heart with constant connectivity with God. That way he can send you messages and cut through the noise and emotions of the day. With your hotspot you can hear God always and do his will.
Samuel was on his news in his heart and his Hotspot working well and God was able to speak to his heart. He said that Jesus would be born in five years, that, that day there would be a day and a night and a day where the sun would go down yet it would not get dark. He also said there would be a new star in the sky.
I look at Samual on the wall as the greatest analogy to successful missionary work ever! Samuel was on the wall in the culture of righteousness. Up there on that wall in the culture of righteousness Samuel said the things that the Lord whispered to his heart he taught by the Spirit and he prophesied by the Spirit. He didn't need an angel or someone to give him a list of things to say or what order to say them in because he said the things the Lord whispered to his heart. He was on that level he was a next level missionary he was in the culture of righteousness on that wall. That's the kind of missionaries we need you to be! That's the kind of missionaries you are called to be! That's the missionary you are charged to be, a missionary who is on the wall in the culture of righteousness. Will you commit to me right now to serve your mission on the wall like Samuel?!
Then when he finishes, he kind of goes away and we don't hear very much more about him. Do you suppose that when Samuel finished his mission he ever got off the wall really? When I think of Samuel I think of someone who always stayed on that wall. I think of a father in who's home Scriptures were read every morning. I think of a home teacher that always home taught the second Sunday of the month and knew his families well. He exercised priesthood power in their behalf. I think of a young men's president who reached out with his heart to each one of his young men. He did it to please God! He didn't do it because he was doing the bare minimum or basic level of service he went to the next level. That's who I think Samuel was I think he stayed on the wall for the rest of his life. Do you know people who have served a mission, and when they come home they are the shining sword of truth! They're testimonies are strong and you feel the spirit in their presence. Then they take that sword of truth, put it on the shelf and forget about it. Two years later you don't even know that they went on a mission.
These missionaries did not stay on the wall!
I promise you that if you will seek to stay on that wall once you return from your mission, the lord will put people in your path the rest of your days. I promise you that if you stay on the wall where the whisperings of the Lord become your commandments you will be God's chosen instruments in his work and you will bring salvation to many people. How many of you here today will commit to me to stay on that wall for the rest of your life!
How many of you know people who have baptized more people after their mission then they did during their mission? Could that be you? If you stay on the wall it will be you. I have a little story about a time in my church service where I was on the wall. This happened to me as I was serving in my capacity as a home teacher, on the wall!
José Is a good friend of mine. When we first moved to our ward in Orem they assigned me to home teach him because I spoke Spanish. He was from Peru and had been offended by some church leaders because they would not let him baptize his daughter when she turned eight.
He had been given them melchesidek priesthood in Peru but none of the paperwork concerning his priesthood Aaronic or Melchizedek had been properly filed. The church had no record of his priesthood. He had been told that he had to start again being ordained a priest in the aaronic priesthood then later become an elder. This greatly offended him and even more offended his wife Rosa.
They were upset and for years had been out of the church because of it. When I first went to their house, the reception was cold. Bit by bit they warmed up to me. They became great friends especially Jose. Rosa was a friend as well but would not participate in any of the gospel discussion we had.
Finally Jose decided to come to church and work to get his life right. He made this determination after a trip to the movie the Testaments in Salt Lake. The spirit hit him so hard he sat there crying and said I just need to do what it takes to be with God.
From that time forward Jose started going to church. He was given the aaronic priesthood then blessed and pass the sacrament. We did some genealogy and went to the temple. He was able to be baptized for his ancestors. This was a great blessing.
While he was doing this he realized that he wanted more. He decided that he wanted to do what it took to get the Melchizedek priesthood and take his family to the temple to be sealed.
He went to the bishop and started that process. The sad thing was that his wife Rosa wanted nothing to do with it. She would not even discuss going to church.
Finally the day came when the bishop felt like José was ready to be ordained an elder and go through the temple to have his endowment. He was so happy and very excited. The Sunday before he sat there with me and read his patriarchal blessing and mentioned that he wanted to make sure he lived worthy of every blessing.
His temple visit for his endowment was scheduled for Thursday of that week. I was traveling in California that week and on Tuesday received a call from Rosa. She was hysterical and said that her husband had been in an accident.
He was crossing a highway in his Toyota pick up and was T-boned by an 18 wheel semi truck. His pick up was flipped six times and he was thrown 60 feet and Jose landed on his head. He was life flighted to the hospital which is where he was when I was able to get to him. He was in a coma and not responsive at all. I gave him a blessing and in that blessing I felt by the Spirit to say that he would be sealed with his family in the temple.
Following that blessing I took a step back and in my mind I thought that this blessing might come to pass in the next life not in this one for him.
Two months later he was still in the hospital, still in the coma, showing no progress to the doctors. I went over to his house on a Saturday and knocked on the door. Rosa was inside the house and could be her crying.
I open the door and said "Rosa, are you okay ". She answered that the doctors had told her that her husband was dead! That his brain was dead and that his lungs and heart would quit if he weren't kept alive by machines. Rosa was told that they would give her 48 hours to decide when to unplug her husband and let him finish dying.
She was hysterical and sobbing uncontrollably. At that moment I felt the spirit of the Lord whisper to my heart and give me words to say. I said "Rosa, The greatest desire of José's heart was to go with you to the temple and be sealed to you and your children ". " To this point you have wanted nothing to do with this and would not even go to church ". "I promise you that if you will go to church tomorrow, and make a serious covenant with your father in heaven that you will take your family to church and that with your family you will prepare to go to the temple, I promise you that when you go to the hospital after church your husband will wake up out of his coma and be fine". She looked surprised but obviously touched by the Spirit in the room.
I left the house and went out to my car and said a prayer realizing the profound thing that I just promised in the name of the Lord.
The next day was Sunday and when church started, there was Rosa, attending all of her meetings. I shook her hand, gave her a hug and told her I would pray for her. After the meeting, Rosa went to the hospital. Not long after, I received a phone call of joy. José had come out of his coma and he would be fine.
Eight months later the family went to the temple together. The parents received their endowment and were sealed. Then the children were brought in and were sealed to the parents.
The spirit was really strong and testified of the absolute miracle that we had witnessed. I knew that it was the voice of God that had told me what to say.
That day in the temple was there was another miracle. The Morenos have a 17-year-old daughter named Kenny. She was mentally disabled and had the mentality of a three-year-old child. It was impossible to carry on a conversation with her and you couldn't understand her most of the time.
When she came in the sealing room the disability was taken from her. Her face and eyes cleared up and looked normal. Kenny went around the room and held adult conversations with several of the women in attendance including Heather, my wife.
Truly the heavens were parted angels were amongst us and we got to see that beautiful daughter of God as he sees her for that period of time while they were in the celestial room. This was a great testimony of the power of God and how his spirit abides in the temple.
It is an example of the kind of things that can happen when you are worthy of the power of God because you were on the wall. I testify to you that it if you will seek to be on the wall you will be blessed to serve many people. There is a saying in the church that when we understand obedience and are obedient we will pray that God will give us more Commandments so that we can be obedient to them. If you're on the wall you get your commandments daily and sometimes hourly. When you hear that prompting, you do it now! You say that thing! You do that thing and you do it now.
This is being Samuel; this is being in the culture of righteousness and on the wall. Not just on your mission but throughout your life do not settle for being a basic missionary do not settle for being a basic member you are being next level missionaries and next level members next level fathers and mothers, on the wall in the culture of righteousness.
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