ENDOWMENT CHANGES INSPIRED

Sometimes people struggle with change.  Sometimes, it rocks their world.

I just ask the Lord to verify that any change is of Him - and then I just roll on.  Sometimes, I question things - but NEVER make a snap judgment and hold a final opinion for sometimes decades until the Lord shows the "proof in the pudding" (after things set up).

When there was a watershed change in the Church as Joseph Smith was martyred, along with the "heir apparent", Hyrum Smith (Joseph Smith, Sr was already dead at that point), people were at a massive crossroads in their religious observance.  There were many vying for the "prize" including Emma (and her son, Joseph), Sydney Rigdon, Joseph Strang and so many others.  It was a crisis which left so many wandering the years.  To this day, we still have proof of the fallout of this singular event on June 27, 1844.  It has taken well over 150 years for the proof to emerge of that pudding experiment.

Many followed the RLDS path - and it has been an unmitigated disaster for many there.  Many followed Brigham west into a frightening uncertainty - and it appears that they won.  In the smugness and luxury of retrospect, we are able to sit back and make the call as to which direction it was supposed to go - simply armed with the data based on outcomes.  Surely, we have all the proof we need.

In 1890, we had yet another watershed moment.  Many splinters - many varied outcomes.  One clear choice as to which one was right.

On a much lesser scale, we had another watershed moment in 1978 with the proofs being the explosion of the gospel in Africa and, on a personal note, the amazing life of my mission president, Helvecio Martins and his family.

On an even lesser note, there were minor changes made to the endowment made in 1989, some of which have caused people to stumble.  Again - we are either led by revelation by those who, possibly not seeing all the impacts of decisions, but who follow commands with exactness, are doing the will of the Lord.  I found this on FB as an answer to my prayer the previous night.  God works in mysterious ways to help His children who struggle (not me, someone I love):

This story was told by a friend of mine in our ward. He used to work for the Prophet and Quorum of the Twelve directly. He told this in a talk last week. It gave me some good food for thought...
He said that when the temple movie changed back in the late 80's (not the new changes in the past few years), they had to translate it into several different languages before it became available. He was responsible for the bulk of that project. He was given a list of languages that it was to be translated into. Each translation involved flying people from different countries to SLC, where they would be here for two weeks doing the work. The work could not be "outsourced," but had to be done in Salt Lake. The entire process was scheduled out for eighteen months. When he received the list, he noticed that there were several eastern bloc countries on it. He went to President Benson and told him that it would be impossible for him to get people from these countries to SLC. President Benson told him to keep moving forward on the schedule, and all would be well. So he put everything into motion. Shortly thereafter, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union opened up, and one by one, countries began to declare their independence from the Soviet Union. The brother in our ward noticed that the countries breaking from the Soviet Union came in the precise order that they were scheduled on his temple language project. He began to predict (to his wife only) which one would fall next. He was always right.
He was able to schedule people from each country to come to SLC to do the temple translation in the exact order that the prophet had given him.
This man bore testimony of the divine calling of the prophet. He said (this was his sense only) that he felt that the prophet was following the directive of the Father in this project to exactness, but did not necessarily know how it was to be accomplished, only that it would be, because the Lord would prepare a way. It reminded me of Nephi, who went forward, being led by the Spirit, not knowing exactly how the plates would be gotten.
Anyway, perhaps the prophet knows what is coming, but does not know exactly the manner it will manifest. Like President Benson, he is following the Lord's directions with exactness. Perhaps those directions include just one step at a time. Perhaps events will unfold that will make sense in hindsight to him and to all of us. I don't know. I know that he is a seer and a revelator. If it is important for him to know all, I have no doubt that he will or has. I just thought this was a cool story, and wanted to share it.