Today I really felt that I should write about the temple, and what we have been told about how important our attendance is, by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Isn’t it amazing that temples are becoming more and more assessable.  When I was born in 1968, yes, I am old!  Anyway, there were only 13 temples around the world.  In1987, the year that I graduated from high school, there were 41.  When my son was born in 1993 there were 45.  In 2000, when my daughter was born, it shot up to 102!   Four years later, when my youngest was born, 117 temples were on the earth.  As of October 2022, there are 168 operating temples and another 68 announced, 41 under construction and five undergoing renovations.

Our current president, and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Russell M. Nelson, has announced 118 temples just since 2018!  Can you believe that?  Just in my lifetime, 155 more temples dot the earth, and more to come!  What an amazing time to be alive!  It’s just amazing to hear all the temples announced in each general conference!  The work is indeed hastening on both sides of the vail!  What a blessing it is to be a part of that hastening!

There are specific promised blessings associated with attending the temple on a consistent basis.  We have also been told that we will learn things in the temple that we can only learn there.

I would like to go through these promised blessings and share with you some of my personal experiences and testimony of attending the temple. I would LOVE to hear from you all and your testimonies as well.

“I testify that there is hope and peace in Christ.  He can carry us today through difficult times.  He did it for the early pioneers and He will do it now for each one of us.”  M. Russell Ballard Oct. 2022

I would like to share with you why I chose this quote today.

I’m going through a difficult time right now.  How grateful I am that I can feel peace and hope in Christ. I can feel Him carrying me right now, through the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  What a wonderful blessing that is!

I have also felt Him, through the leadership of His church!  As I have met with my bishop, I have been spiritually up lifted, and “carried”.  My bishop gave me a priesthood blessing that reminded me once again that my Heavenly Father loves me and is very aware of me and my needs.

Yesterday at church, I was looking at some of the hymns and reading the scripture references at the bottom of each hymn, and the first two that I read, were about peace!  Psalm 29:11, and John 14:27.  I KNOW that this was not just a coincidence.  I know that I was led to read those verses on that day, at that time.  I needed to remember that I can have peace, the peace that can only come from the Prince of Peace, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The difficult time is still going on, but I don’t feel so weighed down by it.  I do have hope that better times are ahead, and the peace that all will be made right through the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  His yoke is indeed easy, and His burden is light.

What a wonderful conference weekend we just had!  What a privilege it was to be able to listen to prophets, seers, revelators, and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints speak to us about the things the Lord wants us to know on “this day”.

There are so many great quotes that came from this conference, just as there as been from other conferences.  It is hard to pick one or two to start off with.

I think that I should start with a quote from our prophet, and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,

Russel M. Nelson,

“I EXHORT YOU TO

study the messages of this conference frequently

even repeatedly during the next six months.”

I feel like whenever the prophet of the Lord uses the word EXHORT, that we should pay special attention to what comes next.  In this quote he is exhorting us to study the messages of this conference repeatedly over the next six months.  Not just read but to STUDY.  I think that has we do this we will be blessed with the power we need to overcome the trials and tribulations in this fallen world, and even find that peace we long for.

I know that if we fallow the prophet and all those who lead and guide the church, that we will be blessed to be on the covenant path, and not be lead off onto strange roads.  Like the primary song states, follow the prophet he knows the way, and we will not be lead astray!

To help follow what president Nelson has said here, we will be looking at quotes from this past conference, and I will share with you my thoughts, and I would love for you to share your thoughts!  That way we can learn from each other.    I look forward to learning from you!

This coming weekend, October 1st-2nd,2022, we will have an opportunity to listen to the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve apostles, and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  All the members of the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve apostles, are all called to be prophets, seers, revelators.  As we listen to them speak, we should listen as if the Lord was speaking, because the fact is that He is!  “Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same ” Doctrine and Covenants 1:38).  This is such a blessing!  How blessed are we to be living at such a time where we can listen, or read the words of the Lord’s servants, whenever we want!  I’m excited to hear what the Lord wants us to know at this time!

Every day I look at Facebook, and I see so many amazing quotes from President Nelson, and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, that I save on my phone.  I bet that if you look at your phone that you, too, have a few saved quotes, as well.

I have to say that even though I have saved so many great quotes that, I hardly look at them, if ever. They just sit there in my photo albums taking up space.  I would bet that it is the same for most, if not all of us.

This is why I’ve decided to take one quote a day, and share my thoughts about it, and would like to get comments from you, and get some insights on what we can gain from words of the prophets, and other leaders of the church.

 

I have been pondering about angels for a while now, and this is why.

On December 11, 2019, my 21 year old nephew was told that the treatments he had been doing for his cancerous brain tumor, a glioblastoma weren’t working and that there was no more to be done, and that me may only have 2 months to live.

This news of course was devastating not only to him, and his wife but to his whole family.  We all came together as soon as we could.

We had just all spent a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Austin had been doing really good.  I have video of him being able to dance and play a catch game that day.

Now only 2 weeks later, he had declined so much.  He was rapidly losing the use of his left side.  He could hardly walk without falling much less dance like he had on Thanksgiving.

It was so hard to watch and I KNOW it had to have been much harder on him.  I can’t even imagine how it is to know that you have such a short time to live, especially at such a young age.

Even though two months wouldn’t of been that long, I think we all knew that there would be no way that he would last two more months, just by how much he had declined in just two short weeks.

People from both sides of Austin’s family gathered.  It was wonderful to see all the love and support there was for Austin.  How grateful I am for families.

Austin’s aunt Dawn and uncle Jason and their family had to go back home, and before they left his Uncle Jason gave him a priesthood blessing.  The blessing was beautiful, and there were many tears shed, because of the sweet spirit that was there, a tender mercy from our loving Heavenly Father.

In the blessing Austin was reminded that there are angels all around him and his family.  These words sunk deep into my heart.  What a wonderful thing to know that we are never alone!  There ARE angels all around us, to help support us during our most trying times, and to rejoice with us during our joyful times.

Like I said, this really sunk deep into my heart, and was truly a comfort to me as we watch Austin leave this earth in just  16 short days after his was told he may of two months.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a very sad difficult time, but I could feel that help that was coming from the both sides of the vail.

Since this experience just over a year ago, I have been pulled towards angels, and wanting to learn more about them.  I will be writing about the things that I have learned.  I want everyone to be able to know what I know, that there are angels all arounds us. and that they are a blessing from our loving,  and kind Heavenly Father.

 

Everyone took their turns giving my son a welcome home hug. I am so happy that I had a photographer, so that I didn’t have to worry about getting the pictures taken, and just enjoy watching the joy!

After we left the airport we had an appointment with our stake president to have my son released as a missionary.

We met at the stake president’s home. My mom, and my daughters were there with us. The stake president asked my son about his mission and a few other questions. He then asked him to bare his testimony. I can’t describe the pride I was feeling as I listened to my son answer the stake president’s questions, and then bare his testimony.

The stake president then asked if he could see my son’s name tag. My son handed him the missionary name tag that he had worn the past two years. Then after saying a few thoughts, the stake president said he was released at a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints. My son then started to cry, and so did I. I have heard from many returned missionaries that this is very difficult, taking off the name tag and being released as a missionary. They look forward to coming home, but not leaving the work, and the people they have come to love. Just be prepared for that.

We then met everyone at a local restaurant to have a welcome home dinner. That was a wonderful dinner, probably the best dinner of my life. It felt surreal, sitting there having my son right next to me. It was a dream come true. A dream that I had since I knew I was having a boy. I will always be grateful that I was able to be a missionary mom, an honor I will always be proud of, and will miss.

I have shared these experiences to help any mother out there that may be having a difficult time as a missionary mom, or just needs some ideas, some things I wished I had known before sending my son on his mission. I am willing to answer any questions anyone may have to the best of my ability.

Thank you for reading!

There is a video online that I have watched at least a million times, and every time I would cry. It is called LDS Missionaries Coming Home, if you haven’t seen it you should, I highly recommend it! A friend of mine showed to me before my son left for his mission. I remember watching it the night before we left to drop him off at the MTC and crying, and crying!

Every time I watched that video, I would picture, and dream about how it was going to be for me when MY missionary comes home and I would be able to hug him again!

Here is the time I had been dreaming about for two plus years! About one month before my elder’s schedule time to return, I received an email letting me know the itinerary for my son’s return! I read that email over and over and over again, getting more and more excited every time I read it. I actually had a day, time, and all the stops that he will be making on his way home.

Like I said in my last post that last month couldn’t have gone any slower! Each week would drag by slower than the one before it. I was more excited than a child waiting for Christmas morning!

FINALLY the day I had been waiting for was here! I was so worried that one of his flights would be delayed, but to my great surprise, not one of the three planes were delayed! Since he was flying all the way from the Philippines, it took almost 24 hours to get home! I had downloaded an app I could use to track his planes. That did help me to see where he was! I was so excited to see when he had landed in Seattle, WA. and I knew that he was now back in the USA!

It is a little over an hour drive for us to drive to the airport. The time was finally here for me, and my family to make our way down to the airport.

One thing that I did, that I would recommend. I hired a photographer friend to come to the airport to take the pictures, so that someone who isn’t wanting to be apart of all the hugging, and sign holding to take all the pictures. That way they wont be distracted, and you will get some really nice pictures. I also handed my niece my phone to take a video of my first hug from my son in two years.

I of course left way early, just to make sure I would be at the airport in plenty of time, plus just sitting at home waiting for time to pass was almost unbearable!

I kept looking at the app following his plane, and what joy it was to see that he was now at the airport, the same airport I was! Now time to stare at the escalator he would soon be coming up! I had quite a few family members that were there waiting with me.

Then I heard my nephew yell, there he is!!! I knew that soon I would be able to hug my missionary, my SON! I could hardly keep it together!

After a crowd of people came up the escalator, there he was, my son! The hug was everything I had dreamt of and more! The best hug ever! I could of held onto him forever! I never wanted to let him go! He held me so tight, as did I him! The only thing that made me let go was my mom insisting that it was her turn to get her hug!

The last time I got to hug my son was eighteen months ago today.       Eighteen months ago today, I hugged my son for the last time for two years, and two years seemed like a very long time.  I couldn’t hardly think about how I was going to be able to handle two whole years!  I had just one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, say goodbye to my son for two years.  At the time two years seemed like forever!

Now here it is eighteen months later and two years doesn’t seem all that long. It almost feels like not long enough because of all the amazing blessings and all the growing I have seen in my son’s and in my testimony!  I almost don’t want his mission to end.

I said ALMOST.  Of course I miss my son so much, and I am so excited to have him home. I am so looking forward to hugging my son again, and  I just know that I will miss being a missionary mom, it has been one of the best things of my life. I also love seeing all the good and wonderful changes in my son.   I can’t believe how fast these eighteen months have gone!

Time will go by fast is what so many people would tell me, and I didn’t believe them.  The thing is, there was times when the time seemed to stop, and move at a snail’s pace!  Then there were times where it felt like I couldn’t believe that another month had past!  The last month went by the slowest!  Three weeks seemed like forever, I could hardly take it!

For some moms the time does seem to fly by, and for others it can crawl so slow, and  then there can be a mixture of both.  Either way, it reminds me of pregnancy , its different for everyone.

“Sister Lodwig, this is president Lopez, Elder Farner’s mission president.  I need to talk to you about Elder Farner.  I will call you back soon.”  A voice mail that brought fear to my heart!  Why did I have to miss that call, and now I have to wait for his mission president to call me back, because I had no way of calling the Philippines!

All kinds of thoughts were going through my mind!  What happened?  I knew that for the mission president to call me all the way from the Philippines it had to be something very important!  I couldn’t wait for him to call me back.  I think it was only a few minutes, but it felt more like forever!  I can’t speak for all missionary moms, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t a missionary mom that would be happy to get a call from their child’s mission president.  We all know that they usually only call with bad news.

FINALLY  he called back!  He needed to tell me that my son had a medical problem that would require surgery!  He reassured me that it wasn’t anything really bad, and that he could have the surgery there in Manila, and return back to the mission field as soon as me recovers.

My first thought was gratitude for it not being so bad.  Then my next thought was, is it ok to have surgery in the Philippines?  That’s where faith comes in.   I have to remember that our Heavenly Father is watching over His missionaries, and what ever happens, it will be for the best.

Not every missionaries will need to have surgery, or anything like that, but that never stops a mom from worrying.  We don’t like not being able to talk to our kids whenever we want, and just look forward to the emails once a week, and the two phone calls a year.

Even though you may worry( you will worry, that’s normal), I hope that you don’t let that worry overtake the joy that certainly can come as being a missionary mom.  Remember that your child, or children are being prayed for by so many, and besides the leaders of the church, the missionaries are the most prayed for people on this earth!

There will be things to worry about, besides the surgery my son had, he also had to deal with one of the most dangerous typhoons that have ever been on this earth, plus all of the other things no one ever let’s us know about.  I just had the peace that came to me that I know that our Heavenly Father is in charge and your child is exactly where they are supposed to be.  All will be well!  Don’t let the worry rob your JOY!