HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS! SEVEN DAYS TILL WE'RE ALL TOGETHER!

I am so glad that all of you are using this blog. I love signing on and the first thing I see his Marianne smiling at me.
Last night I went with Annie and the Young Women to the temple. While there I met a friend of Marianne and I who had grown up with Marianne. We went on a couple of double dates with he and his wife when we were engaged.
Well he hadn’t heard about Marianne and I had to kind of go over everything. When I got home later that night I had a really hard time. I just really missed your Mom. It seems that every time this happens Marianne shows me something. The last time was when I read the book “Adversity”. Remember she had left notes outlining five stories that she wanted me to read. This time I start reading where I left off in Nibley’s Old Testament and Related Studies. There was hardly any underlining by Marianne in this book, but last night I read a couple of pages that she had underlined. And somehow I knew that she knew I was reading it.
The thing that makes Nibley so interesting is his ability in ancient languages. This has enabled him to study the Apocrypha and the Dead Sea Scrolls which contain a great many additional scriptures that verify some of the unique doctrines of the Restored Gospel (i.e. the Preexistence, the Apostasy, the Restoration, the temple ordinances, Joseph Smith’s translations of the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price).
Anyway he is talking about a scripture from the Aprocrypha called the Hymn of the Pearl from the Acts of the Apostle Thomas.
(When the Savior was resurrected he spent forty days with His disciples, teaching them the doctrines of His Kingdom. Some of the Apocrypha is a record of His teaching.

Excerpt: page 178
In coming to earth each man leaves his particular treasure or his share of the Treasure, in heaven safely kept in trust (“under God’s Throne”) awaiting his return. One has here below the opportunity of enhancing one’s treasure by meritorious actions, and also risk losing it entirely by neglecting it in his search for earthly treasure. Hence the passionate appeals to men to remember their tremendous stake on the other side and “not to defraud themselves of the glory that awaits them” by seeking the things of the world. To make the “treasure” test a fair one, the two treasures are placed before us on an equal footing (the Doctrine of the Two Ways), their two natures being mingled in exactly equal portions in every human being. To neutralize that would otherwise be the overpowering appeal of the heavenly treasure, the memory of its former glories has been erased from the mind of man, which is thus in a state of equilibrium, enjoying by “the ancient law of liberty” complete freedom to choose whatever it will. In this state, whatever choice is made represents the true heart and mind of the one who makes it. What conditions the Elect to make the right choice is no unfair advantage of instruction---for all men are aware of the issues involved---but a besetting nostalgia, a constant vague yearning for one’s distant treasure and happy heavenly home. This theme, akin to the Platonic ( Marianne loves Plato) doctrine of anamnesis, runs through all the Apocrypha and scriptures; it is beautifully expressed in the Hymn of the Pearl from the Acts of the Apostle Thomas.

In this classic tale, a king’s son has come down to earth to find a pearl which he is to return to its heavenly depository; here below he becomes defiled with the things of the world until a letter from heaven, signed by the Great and Mighty Ones, recalls to him his true heritage and his purpose in coming to earth, whereupon he casts off his earthly garments and with the pearl returns to the waiting arms of his loved ones in the royal courts on high and to his robe of glory that has been carefully kept for him in the Treasury. Our various “treasure” texts consistently refer to going to heaven as a return, a joyful homecoming, in which one follows the steps of Adam “back to the Treasury of Life from which he came forth.” A great deal is said about a garment that one changes in passing from one stage to another, the final garment of glory being often equated in Treasure itself.
This garment introduces us to the very important ritual aspect of the treasure story, for it is generally understood that one can return to one’s heavenly treasure only by the careful observance of certain rites and ordinances, which provide the means both of receiving instruction and demonstrating obedience.
...........These ordinances, imported directly from the Treasury of Light to which they alone offer the means of return, are types of what is done above; through them “souls are led to the Treasury of Light.....Between us and the Great King of the Treasury of Light are many steps and veils,” and it is only by giving the proper replies to the “Guardians” that one is able to approach and finally enter the Treasury of Light. The ordinances are most secret (they are usually caolled “mysteries”), and it is through their scrupulous observance that every man “put his own treasure in order.”

end of excerpt.

There are many references to the preexistence, the restoration of the gospel, our mortal probation, and the temple ordinances which will enable us to return to our Treasure or Treasury.
I know that Marianne(Mom) is helping us realize that our Treasure has been left behind with our Heavenly Father. I believe that we really have no idea who we really are. We literally are royalty. We have to realize where our Treasure is to return to it. It is through obedience to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the ordinances of the temple that we return to the Treasury we left in safekeeping with our Heavenly Father. I know with all my heart that part of Marianne’s(Mom’s) mission is to assist us to this end.

In one of President Faust last talks within the last year he said,

I would like to say a word about the ministering of angels. In ancient and modern times angels have appeared and given instruction, warnings, and direction, which benefited the people they visited. WE DO NOT CONSCIOUSLY REALIZE the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives. President Joseph F. Smith said, “In like manner our fathers and MOTHERS, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.” Many of us feel that we have had this experience. Their ministry has been and is an important part of the gospel. Angels ministered to Joseph Smith as he reestablished the gospel in its fulness.

I can’t explain how I know it, but Marianne is with us. It has been easier for me because I go to the temple so often. Whenever I am there I ask Heavenly Father to allow Marianne to be with you guys. I look back at the things I have tried to do and I realize that it is exactly what Marianne would want me to have done. That's how I know she is helping me. When I pray I always ask Heavenly Father to let her know how much I and you miss her and want to feel that she is around.

I don’t know how this works, but I feel that we will all someday realize that this will have been a great blessing to our lives and it has to do with how much our Heavenly Father loves our family. This is part of Heavenly Father's plan for us and it won't surprise me if we knew this as a family before we came to this earth.

Anyway it's 1:30 am and I probably have said enough. Richard is right we are strong. We are also blessed. Remember where our Treasure is. Satan tries to show us treasures all the time, but they are false treasures (actually more like snares and traps). I hope you will refer to that which Marianne underlined often. It is really beautiful the way the Plan of Salvation is presented. I hope we consider what a beautiful Treasure we can reclaim through the love of our Heavenly Father. And your Mom will be waiting their for each one us! One thing I have been blessed with is the knowledge that my time on earth without Marianne will pass quickly. I am sure I will live to be an old man. Neil Maxwell talked about Jacob having to wait all those years to marry Rebecca, but because of his love for her it seemed as only a few days.

What a blessing it is that your Mom can watch over us:

With what tenderness of love, with what solicitude of affection will they watch over our slumbers, hang about our pillow, and seek to communicate with our spirits, to warn of dangers or temptation, to comfort and soothe our sorrow or to ward off the ills that might befall us, or perchance to give us some kind of token of remembrance of undying love!
Parley P. Pratt

Love you,

DAD