Upon hearing the announcement this morning in the 178th LDS General Conference, this is no surprise.
I have been to Rome.
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Upon hearing the announcement this morning in the 178th LDS General Conference, this is no surprise.
I have been to Rome.
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
What do you mean by that?
1. Rome is ecumenical.
2. Rome loves money.
Some things have changed since Luther. Some things have not.
3. Rome has enough people willing to listen to and accept a Gospel message that requires, at times, significant life changes.
(Maybe that’s the surprise.)
I lived in Naples for 4 years and attended the branch there. The branch consisted of a few Americans and many more Italians. Some of the Italians had been members since WWII. Some were new converts. If we wanted to go to the temple we had to take a 18 hr bus trip to Switzerland taking our food with us. ( The Italians couldn’t afford the prices in Switzerland). We would stay for a week because the trip was so diffucult and expensive.
With a temple it Rome the members will be able to visit whenever they want. It will be such a blessing for them. Some scoff at the idea of a temple in Rome because the simple design might not complement the Baroque style of the Catholic churchs. They miss the point.
It has nothing to do with style. It has everything to do with providing the Italian saints with the blessings of a temple.
In institute class (adult gospel doctrine taught outside of the normal Sunday meetings), we were recently studying the Abrahamic covenant and the importance of making and keeping covenants with God. The Lord promised Abraham that he would multiply his seed as the sands of the sea and bless the world through his seed. (3 Nephi 20:25-46)
It appears that the world today has lost this concept of making and keeping covenants with God. Those temple blessings mentioned by Sandy are the ability to make covenants with God and receive the promises of exaltation if we keep our covenants.
The temples across the world are bringing about the gathering of lost tribes of Israel and the righteous of the world that are willing to enter into covenants and receive the blessings promised to Abraham and his seed.
Hi Sandy. I don’t know which is more beautiful – Italy or Switzerland. I would like to go back.
Rob, you mentioned the “gathering of lost tribes of Israel” through temples. Explain this to me biblically.
Hi Todd,
Italy, no doubt about it. There is a spirit there that I can’t begin to discribe. I get weepy when I think my time there.
I’m going to leave it to Rob to explain to you what he was talking about. He had been studying this topic in his Institue class so he’s better for that.
I will tell you what I know and how I feel.
How do I explain a matter of faith? I believe that I am a decendent of the tribe of Ephraim. I am called by my faith to identify as many of my anscestors as I can and when I go to the Temple I do work there that links me eternally with all those ancestors. When I do this I am helping to “gather” these people in. We are linked (sealed) for eternity. We are a family for eternity. They know me and I will know them. For eternity.
As I type these words I am feeled with such deep emotion to know that I am loved so much by so many people and that we are all children of our Heavenly Father.
I realize that I’m not providing you with biblical references but this is my feeble attempt to tell you what it means to me to go to the temple to help in this work. It truly is a blessing.
Todd,
Through the ordinances in the temples, husbands and wives and families can be linked together in eternal bonds together with their ancestors and their posterity. This is the fulfilling of the prophecy in Malachi that says “he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6, D&C 98:16-17,D&C 138:46-48, 3 Nephi 25:5-6, D&C 110:13-16)
For more information about the doctrine of the scattering and gathering of the tribes of Israel, you can see chapter 24 of the following “Doctrines of the Gospel” student manual:
http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/doc-gosp/manualindex.asp
“Now, the gathering of Israel consists of joining the true church and their coming to a knowledge of the true God. . . Any person, therefore, who has accepted the restored gospel, and who now seeks to worship the Lord in his own tongue and with the Saints in the nations where he lives, has complied with the law of the gathering of Israel and is heir to all of the blessings promised the Saints in these last days” (Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 438–39).