Yesterday, I heard Mr. Packer defending the Church.
Afterward, I heard another Authority. I don’t have my scribbled notations in front of me (I am at the house); but if I can recall correctly, he said something like this around 2:30 pm:
The most noble aspirations of a human are to hope for a marriage that endures after death.
Do you remember that? What were the exact words again?
Here is my thought: the authority actually didn’t speak of the greatest marriage after death. Was he an apostle? I can’t remember. I don’t think he spoke on the true eternal marriage anywhere throughout the whole session.
The last thing I want is my wife hanging continually around me in heaven. Excitingly, I get to present her to the true Bridegroom. I am just a friend.
I didn’t do anything to help purchase her bridal garments. Her Groom purchased by his own blood Kristie’s wedding dress.
I can’t wait to see beyond the earthly pictures of our own wedding to the real, eternal marriage with the One who is perfect Light. Perfect Love.
Now that is a marriage made in heaven.
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
President Packer’s talk was actually about how the early Saints taught and lived the principles taught by Christ rather than seeking revenge, even though they were greatly persecuted and treated so unfairly. He concluded by saying that as Saints today we must live and teach those same principles of Christ regardless of the persecution that will surely come.
The second talk was given by Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His exact words you were trying to quote were:
“The noblest yearning of the human heart is for a marriage that can endure beyond death.”
Elder Nelson was referring to an eternal marriage between a husband and wife, not of the upcoming wedding feast when the Savior comes again. Those who are prepared at the time of the Second Coming and have “won the wedding garment (i.e. robes of righteousness) will be permitted to eat and drink in the presence of the Bridegroom” (see History of the Church 2:5, Revelations 19:7-9)
In this world today, Satan is working hard to attack, destroy, and create confusion and debate over the definition of marriage. Why do you think that is the case? Do you think Satan knows that marriage and the family are the basic and most important institution in this life?
As a called apostle and special witness of Jesus Christ, Elder Nelson declared that God has ordained marriage as between a man and a woman. Within marriage, the family unit can be established and through the authority of the priesthood of God, the marriage and the family can be given the promise to endure after death. This he says is the “noblest yearning of the human heart”.
What is the purpose of marriage in this life if it can’t last and continue after death?
How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father that speaks to his children today through living prophets and apostles so that we can understand the great “Plan of Salvation” and know that as husband and wife, our love and family can endure beyond this mortal test.
BTW, you can re-watch any of the talks from General Conference at the following link:
http://lds.org/move/index.html?type=conference&event=178&lang=english
Where do you get this stuff from? It looks to me like great leaps of inference from a few scattered phrases in the Bible. I feel sorry for your wife that you don’t want to be one with her throughout the eternities. Through your marriage you are not two but one. God is going to split you in half in heaven?
The oneness will be far greater than anything on this earth.
Don’t feel sorry for me, John F.
Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Sorry Todd, the idea of being assimilated into the vast happy, genderless, distinctionless collective-otherwise-known-as-God just doesn’t really excite me much.
I’m grateful for the knowledge we have in the Restored Gospel that God is our Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our Savior whose Atonement will allow us to become joint-heirs with Christ in the presence of God. To look forward to this goal unified with a spouse to whom you are sealed through binding, authorized priesthood power is a truly remarkable thing. To become a joint-heir with Christ together with your spouse and spend eternity assisting God in his works is an amazing prospect.
Who said Jesus doesn’t have any gender?
Who said Jesus is distinctionless?
To be around Jesus Christ is heaven for me, guys. I don’t make heaven really heaven. (laughing) My wife knows that. And on the other side, my wife, Kristie, will not make heaven really heaven.
It is the LORD.
Who said Jesus doesn’t have any gender?
Who said Jesus is distinctionless?
To be around Jesus Christ is heaven for me, guys. I don’t make heaven really heaven. (laughing) My wife knows that. And on the other side, my wife, Kristie, will not make heaven really heaven.
It is the LORD.
“To look forward to this goal unified with a spouse to whom you are sealed through binding, authorized priesthood power is a truly remarkable thing. To become a joint-heir with Christ together with your spouse and spend eternity assisting God in his works is an amazing prospect.”
Well a few problems with that whole spiel. although it sounds nice in mormon-speak.
First, the “priesthood” has not been restored, because the priesthood of humans has been made obsolete (Heb 8:13). There is no mention of the apostles holding anything resembling the mormon priesthood and the priesthood of Aaron was eliminated because the need for it was fulfilled on the cross. There is no correlation between the priesthood of Aaron & the High Priesthood of Melchizidek found in the Bible and the mormon “priesthood”, other than the same name. The priesthood needed no restoration because in place of sinful, human priests we have one great High Priest, Jesus Christ.
My wife and I will spend eternity together as brother and sister in Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. I would expect to spend that eternity with Todd and his wife as well, also as brothers and sisters, adopted by God through the blood of His Son. We will enter that heaven by the blood of the Lamb, not by secret handshakes. It is a very personal heaven, with all the elect of God gathered together in the fellowship with our Lord that was lost in the garden. The need for and the result of marriage is no longer needed, because woman was created that man not be alone (and we won’t be, because we will be with Christ) and there is no need to be fruitful and multiply.
Being a joint-heir with Christ has nothing to do with the mormon notion of exaltation, of becoming gods. God doesn’t need our “assistance” in His work, His Son completed all the work needed when He atoned for the sins of His sheep on the cross. God no more needs your help now than He did when He created the universe.
If you get beyond the bullet points and mormon talking points, and look at what the Bible says you might see how far astray mormonism has gone.