Thursday, October 27, 2016

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

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Thank you for this beautiful account. We continually pray for Ukraine and you are helping to answer those prayers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We pray every day for this country. We wish you were here with you!

      Delete
  2. Yes, when I was there we learned and taught in Russian. I learned just a little Ukrainian on the side. I read an interesting article recently that showed closer similarities between Ukrainian and ancient Slavic than between Russian and ancient Slavic. They are different enough that Ukrainians outside of Kiev sometimes had a hard time understanding my Russian. That's a nice Temple story. Thanx for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Rex. As I've learned more about the history of Ukraine, I realize that Kiev was the enter of ancient Russ, not Moscow. That might account for the differences you mention.

      Delete
  3. This is very joyous and uplifting to read, and eloquently expressed. The Spirit of the Lord can be felt in your words. All I can say is Hosanna!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are my best fan, Vaughn. Love you brother!

      Delete