POSITION STATEMENT FOR MISSIONARY WORK TOPIC
My family has the highest priority in my life. My son and my husband are the best gift from God. I have received a confirmation from the Spirit that we can live as eternal families one day, the hope to see my family again after this life is my moving force to endure and continue with faith doing the best I can. My love also is extended to my close relative, my mom, my sisters and so on. I want to live with them some day. The promises of being eternal and live with our families forever has given direction in my life and has set priorities in my personal life. When we strengthen our families, we strength our society and our communities.
"The Church has established two special times for families to be together. The first is centered around the proper observance of the Sabbath day. This is the time we are to attend our regular meetings together, study the life and teachings of the Savior and of the prophets. “Other appropriate Sunday activities include (1) writing personal and family journals, (2) holding family councils, (3) establishing and maintaining family organizations for the immediate and extended family, (4) personal interviews between parents and children, (5) writing to relatives and missionaries, (6) genealogy, (7) visiting relatives and those who are ill or lonely, (8) missionary work (9) reading stories to children, and (10) singing Church hymns. The second time is Monday night. We are to teach our children in a well-organized, regular family home evening. No other activities should involve our family members on Monday night. This designated time is to be with our families."
Elder M. Russell Ballard, "What Matters Most Is What Last Longest"
"Because of the importance of the family to the eternal plan of happiness, Satan makes a major effort to destroy the sanctity of the family, demean the importance of the role of men and women, encourage moral uncleanliness and violations of the sacred law of chastity, and to discourage parents from placing the bearing and rearing of children as one of their highest priorities. So fundamental is the family unit to the plan of salvation that God has declared a warning that those “individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God [their maker]. … The disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets”.
Elder Robert D. Hales "The Eternal Family"
"The home is where we are nurtured and where we prepare ourselves for living in mortality. It is also where we prepare ourselves for death and for immortality because of our belief and understanding that there is life after death, not only for the individual but also for the family. Some of the greatest lessons of gospel principles about the eternal nature of the family are learned as we observe how members of the Church, when faced with adversity, apply gospel principles in their lives and in their homes. In the past year I have witnessed the blessings of joy which come to those who honor and revere the gospel teaching of the eternal family during times of adversity in their lives".
Elder Robert D. Hales "The Eternal Family"
"One of the great messages of the gospel is the doctrine of the eternal nature of the family unit. We declare to the world the value and importance of family life, but much of the confusion and difficulty we find existing in the world today is being traced to the deterioration of the family. Home experiences where children are taught and trained by loving parents are diminishing. Family life, where children and parents communicate together in study, play, and work, has been replaced by a quick, individual, microwaved dinner and an evening in front of the TV set. In 1991 the National Association of Counties, meeting in Salt Lake City, thought that the lack of home influence had reached such a point of becoming a crisis in our nation and spent time in their meetings discussing their concerns. They identified five basic concepts that could increase every family’s chances for success".
Elder L. Tom Perry, "Therefore I Was Taught"
"That old enemy of all mankind has found as many devices as he can think of to scatter tares far and wide.He has found ways to have them penetrate even the sanctity of our own homes. The wicked and worldly ways have become so widespread there seems to be no real way of weeding them out. They come by wire and through the air into the very devices we have developed to educate and entertain us. The wheat and the tare shave grown close together. A steward managing the field must, with all his or her power, nourish that which is good and make it so strong and beautiful the tares will have no appeal either to the eye or the ear. How blessed are we as members of the Lord’s Church to have the precious gospel of our Lord and Savior as a foundation on which we can build our lives".
Elder Tom L. Perry, "The Importance of the Family,"
“Even so, everyone has gifts; everyone has talents; everyone can contribute to the unfolding of the divine plan in each generation. Much that is good, much that is essential—even sometimes all that is necessary for now—can be achieved in less than ideal circumstances. So many of you are doing your very best. And when you who bear the heaviest burdens of mortality stand up in defense of God’s plan to exalt His children, we are all ready to march. With confidence we testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has anticipated and, in the end, will compensate all deprivation and loss for those who turn to Him. No one is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for His children.”
Elder Todd D. Christofferson, "Why Marriage, Why Family"
"In the Church, our belief in the overriding importance of families is rooted in restored doctrine. We know of the sanctity of families in both directions of our eternal existence. We know that before this life we lived with our Heavenly Father as part of His family, and we know that family relationships can endure beyond death. If we live and act upon this knowledge, we will attract the world to us. Parents who place a high priority on their families will gravitate to the Church because it offers the family structure, values, doctrine, and eternal perspective that they seek and cannot find elsewhere. Our family-centered perspective should make Latter-day Saints strive to be the best parents in the world. It should give us enormous respect for our children, who truly are our spiritual siblings, and it should cause us to devote whatever time is necessary to strengthen our families. Indeed, nothing is more critically connected to happiness—both our own and that of our children—than how well we love and support one another within the family".
Elder L. Tom Perry, "Finding Lasting Peace and Building Eternal Families"
"It is because of our belief that marriages and families are eternal that we, as a church, want to be a leader and a participant in worldwide movements to strengthen them. We know that it is not only those who are actively religious who share common values and priorities of lasting marriages and strong family relationships. A great number of secular people have concluded that a committed marriage and family lifestyle is the most sensible, the most economical, and the happiest way to live. No one has ever come up with a more efficient way to raise the next generation than a household of married parents with children".
Elder L. Tom Perry, "Why Marriage and Family Matter Everywhere in the World"
"Many in our worried society understand that the disintegration of the family will bring only sorrow and hopelessness into a troubled world. As members of the Church, we have the responsibility to preserve and protect the family as the basic unit of society and eternity. The prophets have warned and fore warned about the inevitable and destructive consequence of a deterioration of family values".
Elder L. Tom Perry, "Why Marriage and Family Matter Everywhere in the World"
"A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. A critical mass of families built on such marriages is vital for societies to survive and flourish. That is why communities and nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage and the family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the love and happiness of adults."
WALK APPLICATION PORTION
I decided to work on "Marriage". As I have mentioned probably hundreds of times in my assignments and posts, I have only one son and he is serving a mission in Lima, Peru. He left 10 months ago on September 2014; when he left, my husband and I felt so much emptiness in our house, I guess this is what happens in every family, but we are very young, and still empty-nesters. We went through a period of though adjustments because we were so used to involving our son in almost every decisions we made. We decided we had to do improve our relationship and get closer to each other every day.
When I was preparing my practicum and trying to decide what to work on, I came across with a quote from Pte. Packer which reads, "Marriage is the shelter where families are created. That society which puts low value on marriage sows the wind and, in time, will reap the whirlwind—and thereafter, unless they repent, bring upon themselves a holocaust! Some think that every marriage must expect to end in unhappiness and divorce, with the hopes and dreams predestined to end in a broken, sad wreck of things. Some marriages do bend, and some will break, but we must not, because of this, lose faith in marriage nor become afraid of it."
I could not and I would not lose faith in marriage. We started to pray every day together. We started to attend the temple more often. We laughed much more and spend great time together gardening, as a matter of fact, we fire our gardener and purchase our tools to work together beautifying our garden. This exercise has helped us feel great about each other. I feel like at the end of all these weeks, we are better friends, we are so much in love with each other, and we enjoy each other's company so much. We have noticed that our son's service has helped us enjoy great peace at home, even though we both miss him, we have been strengthen by his service. The Lord has prepared us during this time for an eternal marriage.
My husband is my best friend, he has always been. At the end of all these weeks working together and praying together, I can say that our marriage has been strengthen greatly. Next month is my 25 anniversary, I can say with great certainty than these 25 years have been the happiest of my life.
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