Good news in Brazil
By Geoffrey Biddulph
2003 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Anybody who reads my articles regularly knows I spend a lot of time worrying about things that are alarming or wrong in the world. But let me concentrate today on something that is completely and entirely right in the world: temple work in Brazil.
There is Good News in Brazil, and it has to do with the growth of the Gospel and important work that is being done. On Saturday, we had our first ward temple activity in many years, and almost 40 of the about 90 active members of our ward participated. They left Friday night for an eight-hour bus ride from Rio de Janeiro to the Campinas temple. We spent most of the day at the temple and then took the bus eight hours back to Rio Saturday night. Some of them will be excused for straggling in late on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. after the marathon outing.
Seven people received their endowments. Three families were sealed for time and eternity. Fifteen young people – the future of our ward – performed baptisms for the dead for the first time ever. We performed proxy baptisms and confirmations for almost 300 people.
It is difficult to overstate how wonderful and important this event was. It was the highlight of the year for me to walk around the temple and see so many people from my ward there.
At the baptismal font, young people dressed in white sat reverently watching their friends being baptized. They began to learn the principle of selflessly acting for others, who are hopefully anxiously awaiting their baptisms and celebrating in the Spirit World.
The seven people who received their endowments were awed by the experience. Many of them were openly weeping for joy during parts of the ceremony.
Most of the ward watched as the three families were sealed. People felt that the Spirit of God filled the room and those present beamed with delight throughout the ceremonies.
Temple Preparation
The bishop planned the activity well. The people receiving their endowments attended classes for two months before going so they were able to understand the seriousness of the undertaking. Some of the people who went to the classes were not ready to go to the temple and ended up dropping out of the trip at the last minute.
In our experience, people who are not ready to go to the temple and who go for the wrong reasons often end up becoming inactive. We have learned through sad experience that some people feel that going to the temple is like going to the Empire State Building. They feel they will be awed by the view once they get there, but if they are not spiritually prepared, the view is much less than they expected. If they are spiritually prepared, the view is much grander and very different than they expected.
Sacred Events
It has always been a bit frustrating for me to read the journals of the pioneers who witnessed some of the greatest events of the Restoration. People describing the majestic events at the Kirtland temple will write things that are very mild and not very descriptive like, “the Spirit was felt by all.” I’ve always wished that people would give me more details. What was it like to be in the Kirtland temple when people saw angels and heard sounds like rushing wind and waters? How exactly did people respond to having the Spirit felt? What exactly did it feel like?
Over time, I’ve come to understand that some of these experiences are too personal and sacred for detailed descriptions. Sometimes it’s impossible to put these events into words. Given the sacredness of the things that happen in the temple, it’s perhaps best to describe the experience by concentrating on a few small but pointed details.
The morning before we gathered at the temple, I received a strong confirmation that I am here in Brazil for a reason, that my life has meaning and that my Father in Heaven is pleased in how I am trying my best to magnify my calling. As I was pondering our trip to the temple, an image came into my mind that I had been set apart for important work and that I was fulfilling part of that work. I prayed and broke down and cried for several minutes and “what rapture filled my bosom.” I felt light and at peace.
Still awash with this feeling, I gathered with my friends from the ward at the temple. Seeing them all dressed in white, and serious and reverent, I got a strong feeling that I would see them again in the Spirit World, and they would be marvelous. We would all be happy, busy and filled with a strong desire to do God’s work.
It’s difficult to overstate how proud I was to see the young people of our ward spending a Saturday doing work for others rather than concentrating on their own pleasures. It’s a work that I was not mature enough to do when I was their age, and I had so many more advantages than they. But here were 15 young people, many of them extremely poor by U.S. standards, devoting their time to service and doing it happily. Maybe that’s why missionaries seem so happy all the time: it truly does bring ecstasy to serve others.
There was a key moment in the temple during the endowment ceremony when several people in our ward literally wept with joy, and the Spirit was so strong that the person leading the ceremony began to cry as well. The feeling from that experience will always stay with me.
The Spirit Lingers
But the highlight for me was going to church on Sunday. The ward has a new feeling, a feeling of unity and light. I wandered around looking in on people in the different classes. The people who had received their endowments were in a class with their teacher discussing their experiences in the temple. The couples who had been sealed together were sitting next to each other, holding hands, looking like they never wanted to let go of their new eternal partners. I was drawn to the class like a moth to a light bulb. I went in and sat down.
Everybody in the class was beaming. “I should have gone to the temple years ago,” said one woman. “It was so special,” said another. There seemed to be a glow among the people. All of the negative feelings of the world had been sucked out of the room. There was only space for love and generosity and togetherness.
None of us wanted that class to end. We hung on until the last moment, and then straggled out to sacrament meeting. But the Spirit stayed with us, and the sacrament meeting was one of the best I have sat through in more than three years in the ward.
Looking back on this experience, I recall a scene from the movie, “God’s Army.” The two missionaries had just had a great day of work in the field where they healed a man who could not walk, and one of them turns to the other and says, “Elder, we did some good today.” That’s exactly how I felt. We – all of us in the ward – did some good going to the temple, and all is right in the world. It feels pretty darned good.
