Each Sunday during Sacrament Meeting (one of the three hours of church I attend each Sunday), different speakers stand up and give their remarks. They are not paid, not schooled in religion, and often don’t like speaking in public. They have varying degrees of education, a multitude of careers, and come from all walks of life. They are regular, ordinary, average, members of the congregation, just like you and me.

Actually, this week it IS me standing up to give remarks. Actually if you want to be down with the Mormon lingo you would call it a “talk”. I’ll be speaking to approximately 300 people at 11:30 am CST, basing my remarks off of this talk by Elder Scott. I thought you all might enjoy reading through my talk and pretending you were sitting in the pew staring up at me along with everyone else. I’m copying and pasting here exactly as it is written (although I had to censor out our last name for privacys sake). It is written for an LDS audience, whereas Sunday Posts here on That Wife are written mainly for a non-LDS audience, so there may be phrases that don’t make sense. Also, please keep in mind that this is a talk written for a one time event, never really intended (or proofed appropriately!) to be preserved for all time here on the Internet. Also it’s 4 am and I’m just adding in the last paragraph. :)

I’m supposed to speak for 15 minutes and I’m worried I don’t have enough material. Guess I’ll just talk slow and hope it goes okay (or just leave extra time for That Husband to fill! Sorry honey!)

Please feel free to ask for clarifications in the comments.

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As Sister Bennett did a few weeks ago, I am going to take it upon myself to begin by introducing us as a couple. We are the B______, a Polish last name I can’t even say correctly. Look at my husbands face when I say it again: B_______. Did he smile? It’s because I butcher it every time I say it. He’s from Poland (hence the crazy difficult last name), I’m from central Washington, and we met at BYU. We moved into the ward after we were married in October and we don’t currently have any children, although we are thinking about upgrading in the near future.

Back when I was a student at BYU I worked for the best employer on campus, BYU Catering. My favorite part about this job, aside from the refrigerator full of free food, was how frequently it brought us into contact with the General Authorities of the Church. One evening we began swapping “General Authority Encounter” stories when someone spoke up and told of a female friend who had been put in charge of monitoring the door for a banquet in the Wilkinson Center. The banquet was just about to begin when one last guest came to the door. “Your name please,” the employee behind the table asked, list in hand, ready to make sure the man at the door was meant to walk inside. There was a slight pause, and then the answer came. “My name is Richard G. Scott.” Of course no other introduction was necessary, and the embarrassed girl jumped to her feet to escort one of the guests of honor to the head table.

Though this anecdote has nothing to with the topic of my talk today, I was reminded of this humorous encounter when I was given a talk by Elder Scott entitled “Truth Restored” as a reference for my remarks. Based on the title I expected this talk to detail the events of the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, but I found the subject matter to be a much more personal than that. The tagline for this talk is “The Father’s plan of salvation and happiness … will help you overcome every challenge in life.” After reading through his words, and then going back to the tagline once more I realized that this talk is an attempt by Elder Scott to help us see how we can utilize our knowledge of the Restored Gospel to find happiness. As we begin to truly understand who we are, where we’ve been, and the means which our Father has provided for us to return to Him, we will know how to keep our second estate as detailed in Abraham 3:26

And they who akeep their first bestate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second cestate shall have dglory added upon their heads for ever and ever.

There are two estates mentioned in this scripture, and I’ve got great news for you: Every single person on the planet has kept their first estate already. The decision to keep this estate was made back during our days in the pre-mortal life when we chose the Plan of Salvation presented by Heavenly Father instead of the plan devoid of agency presented by Satan. The verse in Abraham lets us know that there are only two estates to keep, we’ve already kept the first, and by my calculations this means we’ve done 50% of the work already.

Now what about this second estate? I, for one, want to make sure I understand exactly what this second estate is because keeping it equals eternal glory, something I definitely don’t want to miss out on. A little bit of digging led me to a talk by Elder Marion G. Romney, in which he was kind enough to add a little bit of clarification to the verse I just quoted from Abraham.

“And they who keep their first estate [the spirit estate in which we then were] shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate [this estate where we are, this mortal period] shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.”

[There are three estates. Pre-morta life, moral life, and eternal life after that]. Abraham calls these phases “estates”: we had the premortal state when we lived as spirit children of God; we have our “second estate,” which is the mortality we are now experiencing and our sojourn in the spirit world following death; and in the future we will have a reuniting of the soul into a state of immortality through the Resurrection [this is the third estate].

Thanks to Elder Romney we now understand that the estates are essentially the different phases of the Plan of Salvation. I realized after reading Elder Romney’s remarks that the emphasis in this scripture from Abraham should be on the word “keep”.  We have already entered into our second estate or phase, which occurred when we came to earth and gained a body of flesh and bones. But keeping that estate is predicated upon our ability to accept Jesus as the Christ and obey all of His commandments.

Unfortunately we can’t remember all the work we did in the pre-mortal life in keeping our first estate, so sometimes it feels like we are slogging through the mud without getting anywhere. These are the times when it is most important for us to remember the purpose of our mortal lives, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the Restoration of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot be like those who have forgotten or abandoned their second estate. Elder Scott warned:

While this precious, vital message has been proclaimed across the world, Satan has been most effective in causing people to ignore it or to look in the wrong places for it. The vast majority of Father’s children have not only forgotten their Father in Heaven and the purpose of mortal life, but they rarely even think of Him nor ponder for what purpose they are here in mortality. They have been led to be absorbed by mundane things that distract them from the essential ones. Don’t you make that mistake.

It might just be because I am a ward missionary, but Elder Scotts warning to not make the same mistake as those of the world who have forgotten their second estate got me thinking about missionary work. Our purpose in coming to earth was to gain and keep our second estate, and once we have the tools necessary to do so it becomes our responsibility to help others remember how to keep theirs as well. After mankind sank into a period absent of Truth (which we refer to as the Dark Ages), God took action as never before. To quote Elder Scott:

The scriptures record that throughout history, on occasions of exceptional importance, God the Father’s voice has been heard. On repeated occasions Jesus Christ has personally appeared to select individuals. Yet there is only one supernal, singular instance of which we have knowledge that God the Father Himself appeared in person. This was done with His precious Holy Son, Jesus Christ, to an audience of one.  Our benevolent Father came from His vast creations to this earth to clarify truth, to disperse the intense clouds of spiritual darkness, to establish His true identity, to restore a fulness of truth, and to provide the only way to obtain secure, spiritual guidance.

The Restoration brought forth the long-lost knowledge which is necessary to keep our second estate. The Lord knew that a powerful testimony of the Restoration may not be enough for some, and so He inspired His prophets to keep a record which we would come to know as the Book of Mormon.

The way to confirm the reality of the Restoration is described in its pages according to Elder Scott. As I embark on my own missionary efforts, I at times begin to feel frustrated by my inability to convince people of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even when I open myself up and share my testimony straight from my heart and soul. Elder Scotts remarks reminded me that God knew that even the most sincere testimony from one person may not be enough. I do not have to rely on my testimony alone. I can use the powerful testimonies of prophets of God such as Nephi, Alma, Helaman, and Moroni found within the Book of Mormon. This book is truly Another Witness of Jesus Christ, and to quote Elder Scott once again The way to confirm the reality of the Restoration is described in its pages. I won’t make the mistake of abandoning my second estate, and the scriptures are key to convince others to partake in the necessary ordinances to keep theirs as well.

May we each strive to keep our second estate, and also work to spread the knowledge of how to do so to others, that we may be everlastingly rewarded throughout eternal life, the third estate. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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