MORONI - Sacrament Talk by Sister Karen Giles

I would like to begin by asking you all to think about the ICON standing aloft and alone high above the spire on the Preston Temple. Most of us know that the figure we speak of is a solitary figure – even the Angel Moroni. Indeed, being alone and on one’s own, was painfully familiar to Moroni.

We belong to a Family church, yet the Lord chose to use an unmarried teenager, to restore the Gospel in its fullness and, with the help from Moroni, (who visited him and tutored him from both sides of the veil), this young boy was able to accomplish, all things, the Lord asked of that boy, who would later be called by God, to be His First Prophet of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, namely, Joseph Smith.

So who was this ‘Angel Moroni’ and why does he stand alone atop most of The Lord’s Holy Temples, throughout the world. I obviously do not have time to speak of his Biography. I shall leave that for you to study, if you so choose.

Moroni spent around 20 of his last remaining years, very much alone. Also, Moroni was a Single Adult, who spent those difficult years, of loneliness, wandering aimlessly for his own protection and safety. He had seen almost the whole of his people, including friends and family, killed in battles as both the Nephites and the Lamanites, fought to do nothing else but kill, kill and more killing. Moroni’s wonderful Father, Mormon, was killed in such a battle, and, subsequently, Moroni survived, and he was the last member of the Nephite nation to live, as they were obliterated by the ferocious and war-mongering Lamanites (the remnant of whom are known today as the American Indian nations in the whole American continent.

Indeed, Moroni then did his best work, when he was a Single Adult (which a lot of members today can relate to, I feel sure). In other words, married people in the church, do not have a monopoly on the ability to use their God-given talents and skills to help others and to learn from their own experiences. Neither do Single adults have a monopoly on loneliness. Our ability to survive the turbulent times of our own day, is not dependent upon our marital status and nor does it change what the Lord expects of us.

I have been married 3 times, and yet my loneliest periods of my life have been through the 4 walls of being a married person. Thankfully, my soulmate, Steven and I are happy together and are forever sealed in the Temple of our Lord.

Nevertheless, the loneliness I have alluded to, is not contingent upon my relationship with Steven, but on my relationship with the Saviour of mankind. If I remain unable to communicate adequately with Him, the great lessons of life will pass me by, and my loneliness will exacerbate. Ultimately, I will be a lost soul, if I let this happen.

It was incumbent upon Moroni to survive many hours, weeks, months and years, wandering alone and suffering many harrowing experiences, as the Lamanites exacerbated their killing spree against all Nephites, who would not deny Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer.

Moroni’s life at this point, must have felt very strange. Think also about that 20+ years of being without family or friends to have a chat with, or send a text to! Or, better still, receive a text from xxxxx How many of you people, have also felt alone or isolated as this dreadful Pandemic has overwhelmed our global world. So far, of course, our major global lockdown, commenced just a mere two years ago. It has waxed and waned ever since and yet, we know two special things about this Pandemic:-

1. It may well be an indication of the ‘Signs of the Times’ prophesied by Jesus Christ and through His servants the Prophets, revealed to us many times throughout all the scriptures, that the Lord will do all that is necessary, in the Latter-Days, to separate the “wheat from the tares”! Which are we?

2. This ‘Lockdown’ with its two year isolation from friends and family, has been the best opportunity we could have ever asked for, to draw us closer to our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. To help us to grow a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Him, so that we learn HOW TO BE TOTALLY RELIANT ON HIM FOR EVERYTHING.

It took Moroni 20+ years, before his mindset and Spirituality was strong enough, to achieve this. We are only just beginning this process too, and our progenitors will do battle with their own demons (which will be different from ours), but equally as threatening to their eternal salvation, as bothThe Saviour and Moroni have well demonstrated. Our own battles are unique, and so are our challenges/demons/frustrations/ and thus our lives are perpetuated for posterity to learn from.

This then brings me now to the Mission and Calling of Moroni and how it relates to ourselves today. I shall be drawing heavily on some of my own journey through life to expound what I am trying to say.

Prior to the start of the Pandemic, I was finding it harder and harder to do things, that had previously been easy for me. I was becoming more and more isolated, and spending a lot of time on my own in my bedroom. I am, by nature, quite a shy person, but put me on the phone to anyone and I could talk, talk and talk, usually to listen to others’ struggles and difficulties during that period, and I would rarely venture down the nitty, gritty road, of sharing my own struggles. I usually would devote myself to a listening role, so that others could lay bear their souls, if they so wished, to me.

The Pandemic taught me what a wasted life I had led, inasmuch as I was able to understand about my mission or role or purpose, but, in one particular sense, I needed to learn, as do we all, what our Lord and Saviour wants us to ‘become’ - on our journey through mortality. Through my own isolation, I began to understand a little bit more each day, whether I was on the right track, and was my Saviour close enough to me, inasmuch as my Spiritual relationship with Him, was confirmed, as I prayed and studied over subsequent years and, especially, during this latter-day Pandemic experience. I discovered for myself my own Moroni experience. I am still on that journey, and will be, until I am called home.

This is not easy to share for me. I had great difficulty understanding, as well as becoming one with the Lord, again which we all are required to do. I am not 100% certain that I am there yet, but of one thing I am 100% certain, and, it took someone, not of our faith, to help me, in this regard.

Our Lord and Master, stands on the other side of a metaphorical doorway, which, He wants us to open and welcome him inside. He loves us so much that he needs us to understand, through our own smaller Gethsemane experience, that we do not need to go through the loneliness of that scenario. He did it for us. He suffered all He suffered, so that we do not need to put ourselves through those same agonising experiences. We need to understand, therefore, that, not only is He a closed door away from us, but He is just as desperate for us to open that door, as He is to venture through it to help us, through His incredible love for each of us.

What then is our mission in life, our role, our purpose for being here at this time.

I am a Spiritual Daughter of God. That defines me first and foremost. In knowing this fact, I never need to be reticent about asking the Saviour to be a significant part of my life. He is very much a part of my life, and for the 53 years of my membership in His True Church, the fact that He is a real, tangible person, who loves me and I love Him, has kept me going through all my many difficult situations and experiences.

I am a wife to Steven whom I love so much. You will not know this but Steven is a giant of a man, with a heart akin to the Saviour. Our 14 years of marriage has not been easy for either of us. It has mostly been defined by constant physical and mental health issues, whereby it has been difficult to lift one another, sometimes, because we have been unable to lift ourselves. Hence, we each have struggled to make the best of a bad situation. The Saviour lifts us on those occasions when we are unable to lift ourselves or each other. Again though, it is always dependent upon us opening that door to let Him help us.

I am a Matriarch to my children and my grandchildren. My purpose here is to be the example to my 2 children and 6 grandchildren, as I emulate the Saviour in my comings and going’s. Other extended family members are also included herein. Because the Lockdown cut me off from seeing my family, I was unable to act within the bounds of a matriarchal family. My children became more and more independent (which was good) and worked hard to care for their family.

How then, would I be able to leave a legacy for them all, especially the grandchildren, if I could no longer visit with them?

The Lord blessed me with an ability to use my skills at writing, to use for the benefit of my posterity. In latter times, the telephone and writing have been my lifeline to have been an influence for good, that they would wish to emulate. A cute little story for you now – my son, called Rhys, took his 3 young sons to Blackpool for the day, on Tuesday, this last week. When I saw them again (the next day), my middle grandson, Max, who is 10, was proud to present to me a lovely Teddy Bear, which he had won at one of the stalls he went to. The object of the exercise, was to shoot at something, get enough points and thereby win the prize. Apparently, he got quite obsessed about winning this Teddy Bear, because he was desperate to ‘win it for his Grandma’!! He parted with about £10 in his precious money, in order to give that to me. His dad and brothers were fully engaged as he ploughed more and more money and effort into obtaining this for me. Max knows my worth to him, bless him and I know his worth to me and the Lord. I have, therefore, been fully engrossed in providing a legacy for each of them, which they will have access to, whenever the Lord sees fit to call me home.

We are all pioneers for each of our families. As Moroni had a responsibility to finish what his father started, by concentrating on leaving his words of wisdom, to the whole world, and to us, we too are specifically required to leave our legacy to our individual families. How we do so is personal to us and the Lord, because he helps us to know what we need to do.

I leave you with a solid testimony, that I know God lives, and that Heavenly Father and His precious son, Jesus Christ, are living, breathing people, having gone through mortality and then the Resurrection process, to provide us with all the tools necessary, to make our way back to them, holding firm to the iron Rod, and realising that the tree of life is closer and brighter than we can imagine, if we continue to work to that goal, and thus spend eternity, not only as families, but linked back in historical ways, to Abraham and his sons by fulfilling all the promises we have made and which, we remind ourselves of each and every Sunday.