Mormon Lives Matter

In the temple when we are listening to the instructions as part of the endowment (aka gift of sacred power), the person tells us to: consider yourselves to be like Adam and Eve. I always wondered why that was so important. Here's something that was extremely helpful!  "We first learn the temple’s teachings about marriage in the story of Adam and Eve—the primal story of the temple. A friend once asked me, “If Christ is at the center of the gospel and the temple, why doesn’t the temple endowment teach the story of Christ’s life? What’s all this about Adam and Eve?”     I have come to feel that the life of Christ is the story of giving the Atonement. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the Atonement, amid the sometimes-formidable oppositions of mortality.     Adam and Eve were the first people to receive the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They were also the first parents to know the love a new child brings, the soul-stretching sacrifices of raising a child, and the a

Me: Two statements by the Joseph Smith that appear contradictory, in fact, highlight the focal point of helping people come to Christ on both sides of the veil.  David Bednar: The lessons Joseph Smith learned from Moroni influenced every aspect of his ministry. For example, at a solemn assembly held in the Kirtland Temple on April 6, 1837, the Prophet declared, “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel.”     Almost precisely seven years later, on April 7, 1844, Joseph Smith delivered a sermon known today as the King Follett Discourse. He declared in that address, “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.”     But how can preaching the gospel and seeking after our dead both be the single greatest duty and responsibility God has placed upon us? I believe the Prophet Joseph Smith was emphasizing in both statements the fundamental truth that covenants, entered into through au