Elder Tad R. Callister, Area President - April 2010

Recently I visited Samoa and American Samoa. I saw the devastation caused by the recent tsunami, the heartbroken families who lost loved ones, the families who lost homes and belongings in one erratic sweep of a giant wave. I heard heroic stories of those who saved others, and the tragic stories about those not so fortunate.

In the midst of all this tragedy, I attended the graveside service of two little children who were taken; I spoke with a mother who had lost her child—while we were conversing the grave was being dug but 10 feet from their front door; I visited the camps of those who no longer had homes.

Tragedy had struck and left an unmistakable trail of carnage, yet there was a resiliency and faith and hope that God would help them rebuild their homes and replace their belongings.
But there was a far greater tragedy than the tsunami, which loomed in the background. As I visited each home where a loved one was lost, I would ask the hopeful question, "But are you sealed in the temple?" In the vast majority of the cases heads would hang, then the chilling response would come, "No, not yet."

The tsunami was a terrible tragedy, but its effects are only temporary. With all its mighty force it cannot prevent those loved ones who were lost from being resurrected, nor can it break the sealing powers with loved ones for those who have been to the Temple.

The real tragedy is not the tsunami. Its devastating force cannot destroy anyone's eternal home or life; the greater tragedy is the failure of husbands and wives and families to be sealed for eternity. When that failure occurs, then the tragedy of the tsunami converts a temporary separation to a permanent one—a physical tragedy to a spiritual one.

Spiritual tsunamis come in many forms. They are those waves of temptation that keep us from the temple. But, unlike physical tsunamis they are self imposed, not externally driven.

There is no external force, whether it be tsunami, earthquake, terminal disease or otherwise that can rob us of our families or our exaltation. Once the Saviour performed His atonement, we were put in the driver's seat as to our eternal destiny.

The prime purpose of the gospel is not just to save us in the Celestial Kingdom, but to exalt us with our families forever. President John Taylor once said, "The Kingdom of God or nothing." Perhaps our battle-cry in this day should be, "The Temple or nothing." There can be no exaltation without it—no sealing of loved ones in its absence—no crowning prize of the atonement when it is missing. It must be the pressing priority of our lives.

If we have not yet been to the temple, perhaps it is time to ask some soul-searching questions: "What means more to me, my cigarettes and alcohol or to have my wife and family for eternity? What means more to me—to have an extra tenth by taking it from the Lord, or to have my wife and family for eternity? What means more to me—to watch my rugby games on Sunday instead of attending Church, or to have my wife and family for eternity?" Someday these soul-searching questions will be asked of us. And there will be no dodging them. All excuses will fall by the wayside. How much better to ask and resolve them now than to "procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end... then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labour performed." (Alma 34:33).

We never know when the tsunamis of life will come. Temples of God are our defense against them. True love is making the individual sacrifices necessary now to take our family to the temple because when all is said and done, it is "the Temple or nothing."