Time Experience Thoughts

By Scott L. Vanatter Learning and Teaching in the Home and the Church (2014 Auxiliary Training) In our daily ministries as we participate in all the broad aspects of Hastening the Work  TRUTH  Dear brothers and sisters: Truth exists and can be known. Truth is beautiful. Truth is powerful. “Truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (DC 84:45) Jesus, of course, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Think of the meaning and implications following Doctrines: The First Vision, The Book of Mormon, The Plan of Salvation, Eternal Progression. Temples wherein sacred truths are taught, and powerful ordinances performed; where Families Are Forever. Taken together as “one great whole,” there is nothing like it -- unique in all Christendom, unique in all religions of the world. All this is made real and efficacious by the power and reach of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He is not only our Savior and Redeemer, but our Exemplar and Friend,...

In The Beginning By Scott L. Vanatter, January 1, 2015 (Poem for our 39th wedding anniversary, January 2, 2015) I Long ago now We saw enough We knew enough Then, waking up   Slumbering   No longer   Easily, actively we choose   One another II The idea Planted, buried Deep in our hearts Clear in our minds   We journey   Through life together An adventure III Encountering A sometimes lonely world A sometimes dreary world   We wend our way as beloved companions   Enjoying a lively shared   Endeavor Engaging . . . Innocence and awareness Wonders and puzzles Disappointments Accomplishments Darkness and light Dim shades gray and brilliant gradations of white Pleasure and pain Loss and gain Sickness Sorrow Sadness   And gladness Heights Depths   And breadths In the clamor and commotion Shadows cower Darknesses flee   Peace and tranquility   Calmness and serenity...

Following the Prophets in Unity In this there is safety, peace By Scott L. Vanatter, Reston Ward, July 20, 2014 INTRO Please return with me to my senior year in high school over forty years ago. It was just prior to my  receiving a testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The foundational truths of the Restoration revealed by God through the Prophet Joseph Smith were about to be made known to me. At the time I was ignorantly, blissfully satisfied existing in the world without a belief in God. While others found truth and solace in religion, I was compelled to reject what I saw as the false, double predestination of automatically consigning most of humankind to eternal damnation. This very narrow sliver of philosophy, to me, seemed to infect most of the Christian churches I had encountered. I couldn’t conceive that, if there was a God, this plan was what he or she or it designed and set in motion. If there was a God, this world could not have begun as a major acciden...

The Things of Mom On the occasion of her moving out of her home, and giving up and giving away the stuff of her life’s accumulations Things   Whether “dust collector,” simply useful, or family treasure. . .     Impossible to measure. Memories   Regrets? (“Too few to mention.”) Overcome and offset     By a thousand beautiful memories . . . impossible to forget. Reach   An Eternal chain of new “Dollybabes” are the results of her instinctive divine maternal impulses. . .     Impossible to number. Her Soul   The depth and breadth of the tears she wept     on behalf of loved ones here grieved   Echo in the eternal realm and are felt     by dear ones who long before us have left    This frail existence, but who now know where they are what we must here accept     to appreciate thereby the heights with them later to be received.       Her joys and glories and ...

Sounding Joy I. She speaks! Really she never ceased. II. Her boundless voice of love now echoes not only in Time, but Eternity. With all the angels she shouts, and even dances. More than ever, she is there for us. No, she is here for us. III. Into all the Eternities, she beckons us. (Yes, we can hear her.) Finally, her communication is again Sounding and heard by her dear ones there (and here), Vibrant, clear and audibly brilliant for them (and us) Till that Great Day when all shall hear clearly. IV. Embracing her mother , with all of Heaven’s Family welcoming her home, She stops to think of us, and whispers to us, We are not alone. One day we shall behold her shining face again, She will look deep within our eyes, and in a moment, into our very souls. We yearn to talk and walk with her – looking forward with her to Eternal possibilities. In our deepest trials, her voice will sound in our ears The silence of our night will be broken Punctuated with a ...

Family History and Temple Worship Scott L. Vanatter, May 18, 2014, Chantilly Ward #A1. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE As a convert, Nauvoo the city Joseph Smith founded and named in 1839, has always held a special place in my mind and heart. I have been fascinated and inspired by Nauvoo -- the name, its Hebrew meaning, even its sound, its history, and more importantly, the doctrine revealed there -- the ultimate in Mormon theology. The ennobling doctrine that we can be sealed to our loved ones in the Temple as part of God’s whole family in heaven. ##1 Sacred Experience (Nauvoo Temple) We were fortunate to be able to serve as patrons in the Nauvoo Temple the very first week it opened in 2002. I had several Vanatter family names with me so we could do all aspects of temple ordinances, from baptisms for the dead, confirmations, and ordinations, to initiatory, endowment, and sealings -- sealings of spouses, and sealing of children to parents. Actually, it was my mother and one of my sist...