Sunday Speakings

Well here we are again! Another post another day, I say that like I post everyday and we all know that clearly I don't. My post today isn't going to be the usual Sunday catch up post or about our weekend. But about the fact that Andy and I had the opportunity to speak in church today. I've never really minded speaking in church or preparing a talk because its never really been that hard for me to do, but when we got asked to speak i suddenly became very nervous and really didn't want to. i mean after all this is our first married ward and its HUGE and there are people who know a lot about the gospel so how could I possibly give them insight and let them feel the spirit when i barely know what I am talking about. We also were asked to pick our own topic and that is another thing that was hard for me to think about doing, I've always been assigned a topic and known what to search and pray about so that the congregation would be able to love my talk. After talking with Andy I came to realize its just another talk I can do it and I would know what to speak on through our loving Heavenly Father guiding me in the right direction. After I had felt what I needed to write my talk on I realized that I had already written a talk on the same thing back in my singles ward over a year ago so this was cake i could just use the same talk! After some procrastination I finally texted my mom asking her to email me the talk only to find out that she wouldn't be home until about 10:30 Saturday night 11:30 our time. I thought well not a big deal if I'm using the same talk it doesn't matter when she emails it as long as i get it before Sunday morning. When I got the email I had be waiting for I read that talk I had written over a year ago and thought well this is garbage I cant use this, this isn't what I'm supposed to say. So come 12:30 am about 8 hours before I was supposed to speak I started writing my talk. I went to bed at 2 am feeling confidant and most of all feeling the spirit from all the learning I had just taught myself while writing. This morning when I walked into church I felt a little nervous, mostly calm, but hoped someone would feel the spirit. Little did I know that writing this talk would have such an impact on the ward and myself. After I was finished I knew I spoke on the right thing and said exactly what someone needed to hear because the spirit while I was speaking was so strong I actually cried while giving my talk. For those that know me I don't like to cry in public I don't even like crying in front of my own husband, but the only time I cant control it is when I feel the Spirit of our loving and forgiving Heavenly Father. You guys, our Heavenly Father loves us so much and he would do anything for us that's why he sent down his son to atone for our sins and feel every pain we have ever felt. He lives and I know that with all my heart and would never deny Him.I am so grateful I got to speak in church today, I'm pretty sure it was a lesson for mostly me as long as whoever else needed to hear it. So here it is and I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did writing it. And I hope you will be able to take away from it the way I did.

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,  for those that don’t know me I’m Sam Sargent and I am married to Andy Sargent we got married three months ago in the Los Angeles California Temple and we are currently living in Andy’s parents basement. When Andy and I got asked to speak and to pick our own topic I became pretty nervous because usually I am assigned one so I know exactly what to say, but Andy assured me not to worry because since I get to go first I get to talk about us for half my talk but in all honesty I really don’t think we are that cool but since I’m going first I guess you need to know who we are so I’ll give you a quick run through. I grew up in Thousand Oaks California; it’s about forty five minutes north of Los Angeles. I moved up to Utah in August of two thousand twelve just to be with my friends and to work as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home. I no longer work in a nursing home, instead I nanny for the cutest five month old twins and I love it. Andy works at America First Credit Union in Orem as a teller with plans to finish up school and study psychology and criminal justice. Andy and I met almost a year ago through a mutual group of friends; we all came up here to salt lake for dinner and the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It was basically love at first sight with us we had so much in common and I loved talking to him so naturally I tried to get him to ask for my number, but apparently I wasn’t as obvious as I thought I was because we exchanged numbers a few days later over facebook. It was pretty adorable. After our first date we have never been apart except for a week when I went home for Christmas Break last year and then the ten days before our wedding in August. We couldn’t picture life without each other and we wouldn’t want to. Marriage for us has been so much fun, we absolutely love it.

Surprisingly coming up with a topic to speak on wasn’t really that hard for me, it became pretty clear to me what I needed to say and who to say it to. So for my talk I’ve decided to mostly speak to the youth of the ward about how to prepare to enter into the temple and how sacred and special the temple is. Now for most of you the temple seems so far away I mean a lot of you are beehives and deacons, and I can honestly say that when I was that age I know I was thinking well that’s a long time from now so I don’t really need to worry about it until I get older. But the truth is you really do. Because life isn’t easy life is actually pretty difficult but when you have the temple as your main goal and know that it will always be your goal and you reach for it every day, life gets just a little bit easier every day until one day you’re standing outside the temple about to enter the Lords House and make covenants with him. And then it becomes real and all the trials you went through seem so worth it.

You need to start preparing now to one day enter into the Lords house. Now I could give the simple seminary and Sunday school answers like say your prayers read your scriptures or follow the commandments. But those are the things you already know you should be doing. We must be worthy before we go to the temple. There are restrictions and conditions set. They were established by the Lord. And, the Lord has every right and authority to direct that matters relating to the temple be kept sacred and confidential. All who are worthy and qualify in every way may enter the temple, there to be introduced to the sacred rites and ordinances. Once you have some feeling for the value of temple blessings and for the sacredness of the ordinances performed in the temple, you would be hesitant to question the high standards set by the Lord for entrance into the holy temple. Because let’s be honest, our Heavenly Father has set very high standards for us and sometimes we think how can we do this it’s too hard I can’t handle it but really you can handle it because remember that He will never give us something that is too hard for us to handle especially if by making the right decision will get you one step closer to making those sacred covenants with Him in His holy house. You must possess a current recommend to be admitted to the temple. This recommend must be signed by the bishop of your ward and the president of your stake. The bishop has the responsibility of making inquiries into our personal worthiness. This interview is of great importance to you as a member of the Church, for it is an occasion to explore with an ordained servant of the Lord the pattern of your life. If anything is amiss in your life, the bishop will be able to help you resolve it. Through this procedure, as you counsel with the common judge in Israel, you can declare or can be helped to establish your worthiness to enter the temple with the Lord’s approval. The interview for a temple recommend is conducted privately between the bishop and the Church member concerned. Here the member is asked searching questions about his or her personal conduct, worthiness, and loyalty to the Church and its officers. The person must certify that he or she is morally clean and is keeping the Word of Wisdom, paying a full tithing, living in harmony with the teachings of the Church, and not maintaining any affiliation or sympathy with apostate groups. The bishop is instructed that confidentiality in handling these matters with each interviewee is of the utmost importance. Acceptable answers to the bishop’s questions will ordinarily establish the worthiness of an individual to receive a temple recommend. If an applicant is not keeping the commandments or there is something unsettled about his or her life that needs to be put in order, it will be necessary for that individual to demonstrate true repentance before a temple recommend is issued. Heavenly Father has set up the atonement exactly for this purpose, we need to use it and apply it into our life. By using the atonement we will be able to step into the temple and not feel any guilt or judgment but only feel the blessings that are poured upon you. And the Spirit is so incredibly strong; it is not something you want to miss out on. It’s the best feeling in the whole world to be inside the house of the Lord and make sacred covenants with Him. If you are going to the temple for the first time it is quite normal for you to be a little unsettled. We are naturally anxious about the unknown. We often become nervous over new experiences. I know that on the drive to the temple with my mom and my best friends mom I was so nervous because people tend to tell you some crazy things so I had no idea what to expect and I remember getting off the exit and I rolled down my window and stuck my head out of the car to feel the cool breeze run across my face and my mom looked at me so weird and all I said was I think I’m going to throw up, she just laughed and my friends mom looked at me hugged me and said you will absolutely love it, she was right. The second I got out of the car and stepped onto temple grounds I was no longer nervous all that feeling of not knowing what to expect went away and I knew I was doing the right thing. So when you decide to go to the temple don’t be nervous or scared be at peace. You are going to the temple. You will have someone to assist you at every turn. You will be carefully guided—be at peace. By preparing now to enter into the temple you will have so much joy and happiness along the way and you will love every second of it as your testimony grows stronger and stronger. Brothers and Sisters find a way to set the Temple as your main goal, reach for it and strive for it every single day of your life and I promise you that you will never be unhappy and the blessings will flow and your testimony will get stronger. All you have to do is Trust in the Lord and work for it.

Love, 

the sargents