Be Thou Not Weary in Well-Doing

Okay, I acknowledge that most of you have had unusually cold, snowy winters.  My whining probably won’t move you in sympathy – it will probably only start a “one up-manship” contest.  (For my Ukrainian friends, that means a contest of who can tell the worst story).  But wow, has it been cold here in Kiev (Kyiv)!   It is noon as I write this and it is minus 13 degrees Celsius (8 degrees Fahrenheit) and it will be considerably colder as the day nears its end.  Yesterday was colder.  Now don’t get me wrong, we are not miserable.  We have a wonderful warm apartment.  It is just that getting out and about is very, very difficult.  It is not only the cold.  It is the condition of the streets and sidewalks and steps into buildings. How I miss Utah’s state of the art snow-clearing equipment!  How I miss snow blowers (operated by kind neighbors)!    Some of the streets are semi-cleared by old, rusty ploughs, but not all of them.  Given the depressed economy, that they have any snow-ploughs at all is wonderful!  The snow is pushed up onto the sides of the streets (often onto the sidewalks).  When someone clears a sidewalk, which doesn’t seem to be very often, they push the snow toward the street.  What results is a wall of dirty snow and ice between the buildings and street – walls that are impassible for most, and certainly impassible for Howard, who is not steady on his feet.   Getting up and down snow-covered steps is truly impossible without a strong man on each side.  To top it all off, the temple has been closed for two weeks.  As a result, we feel quite snow-bound and quite frankly, weary.   The weariness has come in feeling like we aren’t accomplishing what we came to do at the pace we desire.

Both Howard and I have done some writing during this period of seeming inactivity (some is included below), and we’ve been active in communicating with people both here and back home via the internet.  These are all things that we don’t need to be in Ukraine to do.  In the meantime, there are things that we could be doing at home that would help members our family who are having difficulties.  We have wondered if perhaps we should go home, take care of things there, including have a hernia surgery needed by Howard, and then come back.  We could continue to do our online ministry from there.   We carefully considered this option, figured how we would accomplish it and then prayed about it.   The answer was to stay in place.  We accepted the Lord’s direction, in spite of the fact that we miss and worry about family.  And then an amazing thing happened.  We were flooded with the Spirit, with inspiration and ideas, with a feeling of happiness and peace.  I’m sure you have noticed that the Lord blesses us so abundantly after a trial of our faith.

I wrote all of the above about three weeks ago.  We have been so very busy ever since, that writing this blog post was put aside.  We have just recently talked with our mission president, our bishop, our stake presidency and with our ward mission leader.  We have a revised and improved plan for going forward and feel energized and anxious to be about the Lord’s work.  The temple has opened again and we had marvelous spiritually uplifting days there.  We often lie in bed and count our blessings to one another and to the Lord.

All of this reminds me of Lehi’s dream of the tree of life.  Remember the mists of darkness?  These are the temptations of the devil. They really do come into every life.  In ours, discouragement is a big tool used by our adversary.  The key is to push through the mists, holding ever tightly to the word of God, sometimes for what seems to be a very long time.  But when we do, the beautiful vision of the tree of life eventually comes fully into view.   It is a beautiful vision of the pure love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It can also be felt in our hearts and brings such joy!

We have been holding small group meetings in our apartment, each consisting of a set of young missionaries and a few members, both those who we see each week in our Sunday meetings, and also others who have lost their way in the mists of darkness.  We invite a different group each time.  During these meetings, those attending are encouraged to share their “dukhovny raskaz” or spiritual journey.  In other words, we share with one another our conversion stories.  We always feel the Holy Spirit in great abundance during these times.  We have seen reconversions come from this spiritual sharing.  What joy we feel during these and when we see the results!

Another thing that we have sought to do during our ministry here is to rekindle and increase the Spirit of Elijah.  I wrote in a previous post of our Christmas dinner in December where we invited all of the latter-day saints who traveled on the first three temple trips to Germany in 1992-1993. We have established a facebook group of these dear friends and post messages in the group, as well as send messages to them via email.  We have also expanded our reach to other latter-day saints here, encouraging an increase in temple worship and family history research.  We have discussed our desires with the stake presidency which has authorized us to give firesides in each ward and branch on these subjects.  Since then, the stake has invited a specialist in Slavic family history to give a fireside, the visiting high council members have given talks on the subject and one ward (whose bishop is among the group who attended our dinner) has held a special temple day.  A short time ago, there were days when there were more ordinance workers at the temple than patrons.  However, we have recently seen a real increase in temple attendance and enthusiasm concerning the work of salvation. For example, just last Saturday, every session at the temple was full.  Many people, besides us, are now being moved by the Spirit of Elijah. 

In essence, we are beginning to realize that we are making a difference.  We can already see the blessings that are resulting in the lives of these choice people whom we love so very much.   Yes, it is easy to become weary (maybe that’s why the Lord addressed it, do you think?).  We, too, have experienced it, but we can testify that as we press forward with faith in Christ, we will come to feel the love and approval of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This is especially true as we seek to serve His children, but it is also true in our individual lives as we are faithful to the covenants we have made, in spite of set-backs and discouragement.  Let us not be weary in well doing.  We are promised that if we press forward in faith, we will receive eternal life.

I now attach messages that Howard and I have written to members here to encourage temple and family history service:

“A Voice of Gladness for the Living and the Dead”

By HOWARD L. BIDDULPH

A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead.  A temple is a place where the Lord may come, and in fact is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth.  Whenever the Lord has had a people on the earth who will obey His word, they have been commanded to build temples in which the ordinances of the gospel and other spiritual manifestations that pertain to eternal life may be administered.  Examples of temple worship are found in The Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants. (See Bible Dictionary). 

Those Latter-day Saints who have the “Spirit of Elijah” have “planted in their hearts the promises (of salvation) made to the fathers (their ancestors) and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.” (D.&C. 2:2). Those Latter-day Saints who enjoy the “Spirit of Elijah” not only desire the temple blessings and covenants of eternal life for themselves, but deeply desire these same blessings for their relatives who wait in the Spirit World for their descendants to perform the temple ordinances on the earth that will grant them eternal life together with their families.  This is the meaning of Malachi’s promise that Elijah would be sent in the latter days to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” (Malachi: 4:5-6). These keys were given to the Prophet Joseph Smith by the Prophet Elijah on April 3, 1836 in the Kirtland Ohio Temple. (D&C 110:13-16).  The Prophet Joseph referred to the Spirit of Elijah as “a voice of gladness for the living and the dead.” (D&C 128:19).

The first three excursions of Latter-day Saints from Kyiv to the temple in Freiberg Germany in 1992-1993, were not only the first from Ukraine to do so, but the first organized LDS groups from Eastern Europe and Eurasia to conduct a “spiritual pilgrimage” to the “House of The Lord.”  Many of you brothers and sisters who were part of that great pilgrimage are honored today in the History of the Church as Pioneers of Temple Service.  We honor you first, for the great sacrifices you made to inaugurate this high and holy work of salvation for the living and for the dead.  Your sacrifices are a great inspiration to us.  Second, your spiritual pilgrimage inspired your fellow Latter-day Saints in Kyiv, in Donetsk, in Kharkov, in Odessa, in Simfiropol, in L’viv, and other places in Ukraine, as well as in Russia, Belarus, and other countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia with the Spirit of Elijah. This spirit has inspired them to unite their families and ancestors in the sacred ordinances of salvation found in the temple.    Your spiritual pilgrimage pioneered temple worship in this entire geographical region as other Latter-day Saints followed your example.

This resulted in the erection of the first Temple of the Lord in Kyiv, as prophesied by an apostle of God Boyd K. Packer in his dedication of Ukraine in 1991.  On August 29, 2010, the Prophet of God, President Thomas S. Monson, dedicated the Kyiv Temple to serve the Latter-day Saints of nine countries in Eastern Europe and Eurasia: Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan.  As Pioneers of Temple Service it is the special responsibility of Kyiv Latter-day Saints to lead the way in sharing with others the Spirit of Elijah, through encouraging members of the Church to hold valid temple recommends, to increase significantly their own family history research of the names of their kindred dead, and to increase their temple attendance to perform ordinances for those who wait in the Spirit World for salvation.

Part of the Spirit of Elijah involves learning about our kindred dead.  Ukrainian Latter-day Saints have a noble heritage.  Your Patriarchal Blessings will identify each of you with one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Ten Tribes of which were led to the “lands to the North” of ancient Israel.  Almost all of these choice Tribes have been identified in the Patriarchal Blessings of Ukrainian Latter-day Saints.  Some of your ancestors founded ancient Kyiv, the political, cultural, religious and economic center of the first Eastern Slavic country of Rus,’ that ruled the territories that would later become Ukraine, Belarus, and European Russia.

Your ancestors faced terrible afflictions and suffering at the hands of the Mongols, the Turks, the Russians, the Austro-Hungarian and Polish Kingdoms, Stalin’s Holodymyr, Hitler’s Babiy Yar and the many millions who perished in the World Wars.  Many of your ancestors have sat in darkness of the Spirit Prison, waiting through centuries for the promised Great Light of the gospel to break forth in their homeland, waiting for you, their beloved descendants, to accept the covenants of eternal life, and then in a wonderful Temple of God in Kyiv to perform the saving ordinances that would liberate them from the Prison House!  Can you imagine how they are rejoicing in you, how they love you?!!

It was wonderful to host you at the special dinner for Temple Pioneers on December 19.  Thank you for coming!  Thank you for accepting our invitation to go together on another Temple Excursion, this time to the Kyiv Temple on Saturday, August 12, 2017.  Remember that you must see your Bishop right away to prepare for a temple recommend, unless you already have a recommend that will still be valid on August 12. If you already have a valid recommend please start increasing your temple attendance now, but plan to be with us on August 12 also.

Second, start praying to decide who among your kindred dead you should do the baptism, endowment, and marriage sealing for on August 12.  Ask Heavenly Father to reveal to you the name of a spiritual ancestor who has prepared himself or herself for the temple ordinances of eternal life.  That person will become very close to you as you both prepare for the temple. 

Third, we will soon announce a special course for you at the Rustaveli Family History Library to help you find ancestors and prepare them for Temple ordinances.  You are asked to learn all you can about their lives and to share brief biographies with us and other temple pioneers.

Finally, each of us as Temple Pioneers should make some special sacrifices of time to increase our temple attendance, and the work of the temple will grow to wonderful proportions.  I promise you that you will be personally blessed, temporally and spiritually for your increased temple service.  Ukraine, as a country, is presently facing critically serious national and international problems.  I believe that Heavenly Father will bless, prosper, and protect this land through the great work we do in the Temple of God for our own salvation and that of our kindred dead.  There will be a great legion of our ancestors from the Unseen World to help us.

“A Beacon of Peace”

By LAUREL C.  BIDDULPH

The temple is a beacon of peace in a troubled world. During the time of one particularly devastating adversity in my own life, the temple was the source of peace, stability and comfort for me.  My world had been rocked completely off its axis.  I wasn’t sure that I could function properly so devastating was what had been thrust upon me.  Work was impossible; sleep elusive.  Bouts of anguished sobbing engulfed me.  My only peace could be found in the temple.  There I felt a loving Father’s arms surround me; there I received revelation; there my heart found solace.   I would emerge strengthened and fortified, ready to face for a few more days a reality drastically altered.  And then, my strength again spent, I needed to return to my Father’s house.  I returned once a week, sometimes more often, until I was healed and whole again  - Stronger -  Wiser -  Ready to forgive -  Ready to serve more compassionately - Remolded more closely in my Savior’s image.  (I am still working on that image).

President Monson said, “As I think of temples, my thoughts turn to the many blessings we receive therein.  As we enter through the doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the world.  Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order.  There is rest for our souls and a respite from the cares of our lives. As we attend the temple, there can come to us a dimension of spirituality and a feeling of peace which will transcend any other feeling which could come into the human heart.  We will grasp the true meaning of the words of the Savior when He said ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’  Such peace can permeate any heart – hearts that are troubled, hearts that are burdened down with grief, hearts that feel confusion, hearts that plead for help.”

I testify that the words of our prophet are true, for I have experienced that peace for myself.  I have experienced it every time I enter the sacred doors of the temple.  I have experienced it in times of trouble and in times of great joy.  What I beautiful blessing is the temple in our lives!   The Lord pleads with His children to come to His holy house and meet Him there so that He can bless us with peace.  

A Voice of Gladness!

This past week I learned that my beloved step-father’s 21 year-old great-granddaughter, Anna (Annie) Schmidt, has been missing since she embarked upon a hike in Oregon almost two weeks ago. I also learned that the wife of a very dear friend (best man at my first wedding) is not expected to live more than for a few more days. Perhaps she is already gone.  This friend and his wife also lost their daughter to cancer just last year.  To lose those closest to us seems almost unbearable. This I know personally.  As I’ve thought about family relationships - relationships which can and should be so loving that we ache to the very center of our being to be separated - I’ve also reflected upon our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness for His children. The good news, the glad news, the joyful truth is that it is a plan of happiness precisely because it is a plan for creating and nurturing and bonding families – forever! 

Our stake conference was a beautiful family experience.  We rejoiced in the families we saw there.  Where once there were few families and many single persons, we saw family after family, some of three generations sitting together.  We arrived early to find a good seat in the large hall rented for the morning. A sweet sister who had been saving an entire long row for her family insisted, as she moved coats, that we sit with and be a part of her family.  She stretched out both of her arms indicating the entire room of people and said, “We are all family!” As her married children and their families arrived, she waved them over to “her” row, greeted each and every child and grandchild with a big hug and introduced them to us – children, children-in-law and grandchildren.  Such happy demonstrations of love!  And yes, they filled the entire long row of seats. Talks of that session and the night before were inspired and moving.  I thought about how each one of them was designed to help us be better sons and daughters of God, and better family members within our earthly families, all of which brings us joy.  A beautiful musical number was performed by teenagers who filled the stage Sunday morning as they sang.  (BTW I love teenagers).  I thought, “The gospel in Ukraine is secure – the Ukrainian church will be in good hands as these young people assume positions of leadership!”

The joyous message that families are meant to be together forever is to be declared to the entire human family, which is to say to all of our Heavenly Father’s children who dwell upon the earth. Revelation 14:6: And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people.  Not only shall it reach each nation, but it will be preached in the language of each nation.  Alma 29: 8:  For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, or their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have…..”  During the Sunday morning session of Stake Conference we heard talks by our dear friends, Vyacheslav and Zoya Gulko.  They were critically important in bringing the Gospel to the Ukrainian people in the Ukrainian language.   

When Howard served as mission president here, the gospel was taught exclusively in Russian because there were no scriptures or other gospel materials in Ukrainian.  There was a great desire on the part of the brethren to translate these things into the Ukrainian language.  The first thing to be translated was the Book of Mormon. The brethren insisted that the translator be a member of the church so that he or she would have the gift of the Holy Ghost to assist.  Howard soon realized that there was no member in Ukraine qualified for such a task so he and the missionaries prayed in faith, and then they were directed by their mission president to go and find and baptize the right person.  The missionaries found a Jewish couple, Vyacheslav and Zoya Gulko.  He was a nuclear physicist and she was an English teacher.  Just two and 1/2 months after their baptism, Zoya was called to be the translator of the Book of Mormon.  She was very humbled by the task which was beyond her capabilities, but she had faith and the Holy Ghost helped her as she worked every night after working at her regular job all day.  All of her holidays and weekends were devoted to the translation as well.  The translation was finished in January 1994, only 18 months after it was started.  This translation was more rapidly accomplished than almost any other translation, except for Joseph Smith’s own translation.  The Ukrainian Book of Mormon was printed in 1997.  This is an especially beautiful and literary translation of the scriptures. Brother Gulko then led a translation team to translate the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, the Liahona, other missionary materials and the hymn book.  Having materials, especially the scriptures, in the Ukrainian language has been an especially important step in establishing an Ukrainian identity in the church in these latter-days.  This permitted the Gospel to go forth with power into western Ukraine, which is now directed by the L’viv Mission of the Church.  The Gulko family is another example of the blessings the gospel brings to families.  Their daughter, Kyra, who has a strong marriage sealed for eternity has three children – making three living generations so blessed.

Sunday afternoon we had the great privilege of attending the baptism of Irina Osipenko at which Howard had been asked to speak. With or without a speaking invitation, we would have been there with “rings on our fingers and bells on our toes!”  Such a joyous day, one for which her son waited for 25 years!  Irina is the mother of Vasil Osipenko, an early convert to the church and one of the “stripling warriors” sent by Howard to Odessa to take the place of the foreign missionaries who had to leave the country. Howard later sent Vasil on a full-time mission.  Vasil knows the sorrow of losing a spouse to death.  He and his lovely second wife flew in from the US for the occasion and Vasil was able to perform the ordinance. We wept with joy. Irina’s face literally glowed with the Spirit of God as she bore her testimony. In his testimony, Vasil explained how his father, then not a church member, had supported his decision to serve an LDS mission and give up his career as a professional tennis player. After his father’s death, Vasil performed the saving ordinances for him in the holy temple of God.  It was after these ordinances were performed for the father, that Vasil’s mother began her own spiritual journey which started with a yearning to be an eternal family with her husband and children.  Next year temple sealing ordinances can be performed to bind this family together forever.  

During our temple service, last Thursday, we participated in temple ordinances to bind families together for eternity.  What a blessing the restoration of the Priesthood and the sealing power has been! What happy news! The whole world needs these glad tidings! Through the atonement of our Savior and the exercise of His keys of authority to bind on earth and in Heaven, our loved ones are not lost to God’s family or to our own families.  Our stake president, Kirill Pokhilko, brought with him into the sealing room, the names of his own ancestors, for whom proxy baptisms had been done earlier.  He knelt at the altar to act as proxy for many of his ancestors as husbands were sealed to wives and children sealed to husbands. Howard was so aware of the presence of these people who had lived on the earth before our day.  The room was filled with them as they attended as a family this important event in their eternal destiny.  The feeling of joy was palpable.  Howard was so keenly aware of these wonderful people that he could declare that they were a choice people of the Lord who had waited for centuries for the gospel to come to their land, and then for a temple to be built where these sacred ordinances could occur.  How happy they were for the wonderful son they had in Kirill, who really epitomizes the gospel promise.  He is raising a righteous family in the gospel who will continue for generations to come; he is helping other families do the same thing; he is also connecting his present family with his family generations back so all can rejoice together in the kingdom of our Lord.  Malachi 5 - 6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heat of the children to their fathers …..”

Yes, we all have and will continue to experience heartache and loss.  But, such grief is temporary and the Spirit whispers peace.  We can look forward to the day when the Lord will wipe the tears from our eyes and we will rejoice with our families with Him forever.  I end with a portion of the beautiful testimony of Annie Schmidt.  “He [our Heavenly Father] has never and will never have a single selfish motive. Everything He does is for others. God is joy. The human soul yearns for acceptance, connection, to be loved, to be recognized, to be admired, to be accepted. The human soul yearns for family, eternal family. God is constantly reaching outward, connecting, -humble, trusting, trustworthy, sacrificing His all for the ones he loves - you and me, His family, His eternal family. God is love.  I promise He is waiting for you. Oh how He loves you! How beautiful the day will be when we see Him, dance with and kiss Him. Sing! And when we sing, praise and rejoice together as an eternal family.  Lovers of goodness, peace, love, and joy, lovers of God, let us rise up and play our part in this grand plan of our Heavenly Father.”

From left to right: 

Liz Osipenko, Vasil Osipenko, Irina Osipenko, Howard Biddulph, Laurel Biddulph