Family History & Temple Work

My Book of Mormon project this semester is to go to the temple for at least an hour each week. I have recently brought family names to do baptisms for the dead. I personally did not do all the family history work to find these names, but my aunt has been working hard to find these names for me to take to the temple. I love bringing names to then have a record of those I've been baptized for.

Recently my aunt emailed me an experience she had, and permitted me to share the story:

"Well, it has been quite a day.  I have had a wonderful spiritual experience today with Josephine Smith.  I had a prompting to review a particular set of records but when I looked at them I couldn’t see why as their work appeared already complete.  But.. Josephine wasn’t going to let it go that easily.  She was one of the most persistent angels that I have had the fortune to experience.  SO… I listened and started looking and very quickly I found her marriage record I could truly feel Josephine's joy as I attached them together… but she wasn’t letting me go so quickly she promptly led me down another path and soon I had several children and even a few of her grandchildren.  I was feeling pretty good about this but she wouldn’t leave me yet. I kept having this uneasy feeling that I wasn’t done.  I moved on to work on her brother but Josephine by now is distraught and pestering me to keep looking.  So… I did and I found one more child.  He had died at a young age. Young children are often very hard to find   But she lead me to her last son.  The feeling then was one of PURE JOY that filled my home.  Her family could now be together forever.  I will keep researching her other brothers and sister but in a few day you will receive a bunch of Smith names and I know Josephine will be right there with you in the temple making sure it is all done right!  She is an amazing mother that just can’t wait for her family to be together forever.  I am sure you will feel her joy too."

In amazement and excitement I talked with my aunt further. Although Josephine's baptism was completed she sent me all the other girl baptisms in the family. Then my aunt concluded, "before she let me go I had found probably 60+ names of her family.  She is a lovely and persistent angel." I'm planning to go to the temple tomorrow to start working on more of these family names.

I'm extremely grateful to help be an instrument in God's hands to help others. I found a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants chapter 127, verse 7 that states, "that in all your recordings it may be recorded in heaven; whatsoever you bind on earth, may be bound in heaven; whatsoever you loose on earth, may be loosed in heaven;" I love these principles that are taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



I love the temple and the opportunity given to us through the ordinances performed there. I know that families are eternal! Through family history and temple work we can help other families join the church and be sealed for time and all eternity.

Know that you're loved!
Love! Inspire! Smile!
Melissa Longhurst

Finding Your Spiritual Pulse!

In my Book of Mormon class, my professor asked us all to find our pulse within 5 seconds. This task wasn't too hard, but then he asked us to find our spiritual pulse. In response, many of us didn't know where to turn to and discover our spiritual pulse. Those 5 seconds rolled by without a good thought on how to discover my spirituality at that time. My professor had us turn to Alma 5. He revealed unto us that this chapter contained more questions than anywhere else.

To find our spiritual pulse we needed to reflect on the rhetorical questions asked in Alma 5. I method to track our pulse through these verses is to answer each question from 1 to 10. Then you can graph your responses for your self to recognize the areas that need the most improvement and focus at this time.

I challenge you to try it. It was shared in class that the Book of Mormon is not a quote book but a handbook for life, so don't just read it like a history of others life that is separate from our own. Instead apply it to your daily interactions, challenges and situations it can truly bless your life.

Thank you for reading, and don't forget God loves you!

Love! Inspire! Smile!
Melissa Longhurst

Teachings about Christ

I've learned many things from studying the Book of Mormon this year in my class at BYU. Here are a few of the things I've learned or have studied once again...

1. Christ in Isaiah! If you simply skim through Isaiah and don't get much out of the teachings but a few abstract symbols you have missed the point, because "if you missed Christ in Isaiah you missed Isaiah." I am no expert, but I have begun to understand Isaiah through his patterns and repetition. I've learned to understand more each day by understanding that Isaiah is set up in symbolic repetition.

2.  Almost all things are through Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ delegates to Christ. He is our redeemer, light, life, cornerstone, teacher, etc. Nearly everything leads us to Christ, but it's crucial to recognize that one thing is reserved for our God. We begin our prayers with something around the lines of "Dear Heavenly Father..." The prayers we offer are in the name of Jesus Christ, but we are talking with God our Heavenly Father creating an open line of communication between us.

3. Jesus is our Father! This might raise confusion and suspicion in the beginning but stay with me. A father helps create or gives the opportunity of a new life. Let's go through the fathers in each of our lives: Heavenly father gives a new spirit life in the beginning and your earthly father helps give you a new body creating a new life. Finally Jesus Christ gives you new life through the resurrection creating the opportunity for eternal life and a spiritual rebirth. Jesus Christ ultimately eternalizes our relationships with our earthly father (dad) and Heavenly Father.

4. Christ is always there for us. He's our brother, friend, comforter, father, etc. Christ understands each challenge you struggle with, temptation you face, and the overwhelming joy you can feel through the atonement. Talk with him, learn of him, and preach of his words and example. Help others find the joys in the gospel and the benefits and comfort felt from Jesus Christ.

"Love is the very essence of the gospel 

  and Jesus Christ is our exemplar"

I love you all! 

Melissa Longhurst

Gethsemane

The Atonement is for each one of us. For our sorrows, weaknesses, challenges, but also our pleasures, joys and simple delights. Children across the world have heard of the song "Gethsemane" in primary. This teaches simple truths and truly touches my heart.

My youngest brother, Eric, heard this song while visiting a different wards primary while on a trip. He loved the song, and after returning home he requested to sing it in primary by telling the primary chorister. This became a tender mercy in the lives of my family. For when Eric passed away recently after this experience my family was unaware of this song, "Gethsemane" and his interest in it. Informed shortly after, my older brother Kyle and I prepared to sing a duet of this song at the funeral with my sister-in-law at the piano.

This song brings comfort and love along with a greater understanding of Christ's sacrifice and suffering in the garden. "Gethsemane" brings a visual picture and story to accompany Jesus to the garden where he would bleed from every pore and suffer for the sins of all mankind. Through this process Christ creates the opportunity for us to return home to our father in heaven and see our loved ones again. Families are eternal!

Love, Melissa

P.S. Here's the lyrics and after there's a quote from the church website about "Gethsemane"

Jesus climbed the hill
To the garden still
His steps were heavy and slow
Love and a prayer
Took Him there
To the place only He could go

Gethsemane
Jesus loves me
So He went willingly
To Gethsemane

He felt all that was sad, wicked or bad
All the pain we would ever know
While His friends were asleep
He fought to keep
His promise made long ago

Gethsemane
Jesus loves me
So He went willingly
To Gethsemane

The hardest thing that ever was done
The greatest pain that ever was known
The biggest battle that ever was won
This was done by Jesus
The fight was won by Jesus

Gethsemane
Jesus loves me
So He gave His gift to me
In Gethsemane

Gethsemane
Jesus loves me
So He gives His gift to me
From Gethsemane

"Gethsemane lay still and dark; creation watched in silent awe

As Jesus suffered His Father’s will to satisfy unyielding law.

He knelt in earnest prayer alone. His friends, o’ercome with sorrow, slept.

Beneath the burden of grief, He groaned; beneath the weight of sin he wept,

And with his blood so freely spent, He bought my soul; He paid my debt.

What work of love was wrought for me in the stillness of Gethsemane!

“This bitter cup wilt thou remove? Yet not my will, but Thine be done.”

Behold His anguish, and weep anew for love of Christ, the sinless one.

With His wounds my own are healed; my ev’ry pain o’ercome in His,

My shame, my weakness, my grief untold find ranson in His priceless gift.

For with his blood so freely spent, He bought my soul; He paid my debt.

What work of love was wrought for me in the stillness of Gethsemane!"

https://www.lds.org/music/text/other/gethsemane?lang=eng