Chaprayil Family

Chaprayil Family

Time to bare our Testimony   -   Chaprayil Family

John Chaprayil, New Delhi, India

John Chaprayil

In 2008 one of our family friends introduced us to missionaries and we began as a family to investigate the church. We were three members at that time, I John, (wife) Silvy and (son) Emmanuel .The person who introduced the gospel to us was Suku Thakappan and his wife. Their life influenced our family.

As we studied the truth, we became closer to Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. We also learned about the Book of Mormon which helped us come close to the Lord. As we joined, we became missionaries within our branch. We would go with missionaries to help more people have the same spiritual experiences we experienced. In 2010 our son served as branch missionary in New Delhi and later he served as a fulltime missionary in the India Bangalore Mission. We felt blessed by Heavenly Father; He bestowed great blessings upon our life. In 2013 our son was married with a church member. She was also an active member in church. They planned to go to temple and be sealed but due to a passport issue it took a bit longer. We all applied for passport and we got it. We then planned to go as a family to the temple. We departed 24th Feb 2015. It was a wonderful experience to go together. Emmanuel and Lavanya and my wife and I were sealed. We also did temple work for our ancestors. We felt like this effort reached heaven.

God’s work is very wonderful, we thought to ourselves as we arrived in Hong Kong. We felt we arrived on the day that Heavenly Father wanted us to arrive. We were sealed the day we arrived. We also had the chance to meet Apostle, Elder M. Russel Ballard and his wife as they were in Hong Kong at that time. My son also met his mission president, Elder Randy D. Funk and Sister Funk. We attended a devotional with them. We also met the temple President Wong and Sister Wong. The temple is a place of grace and blessings. We felt so peaceful and blessed. We love this church and we love temple work. I know that heavenly father lives and loves us. I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can gain salvation. Joseph Smith restored this church. Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet and revelator, he is leading and guiding this church in this dispensation. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sister Boka Lavanya

I take this opportunity to share our experience of temple. It is really a great pleasure for us to attend temple, when I joined the church I used to pay attention towards words like gratitude for the gospel, temple covenants and eternal marriage. These words remain engraved in my mind. Since I joined church, I learned increasing faith, and being strong in gospel from Church leaders. It is really a great pleasure to serve in church callings. I used to learn many things from primary children. I love children. I need to thank Visakhapatnam India district presidency for giving me opportunity to serve as a district primary president.

Since I got married, I was trying for passport, but I did not receive it, then one church member (Adari Chinna) helped me to get birth certificate and passport, right after I received my passport, we started our preparation for the temple. Meanwhile, we started to follow the gospel more spiritually by reading temple preparation book, keeping family home evening and reading general conference talks. While reading general conference talks one quote touched our hearts which our beloved, Apostle, Elder M Russell Ballard said “Every council… should be working together on ways to be more effective in preparing ourselves to enjoy all the blessings of church and the temple.” Patience, following commandments, having Christ like attributes had prepared us to go to the temple. My husband used to give me good commitments and challenges, he promised me while dating that he will take me to temple. I used to have desire to go on mission but my parents did not permit but my husband said “we will serve as couple missionaries” that impressed me a lot.  But I am thankful for my parents because at least they allowed me to get married to a church member. When I am discouraged in my life my husband used to tell me every time “if we place a little more patience in the process and greater amount of faith in the lord, our challenges will find their way towards successful conclusion.” then I used to feel comforted in my heart, As we try to do what the savior wants us to do, the quiet goodness of our lives will strengthen, comfort and inspire our family members, neighbors and friends.

Finally, without further trials we reached temple. When we entered inside the temple, we felt that we were in heaven with angels surrounding us. When we were getting ready for endowment, all of our memories were refreshed during the course of the endowment session, we forgot all our worldly things.  After the session, we felt that there is a great purpose to do in this life that is nothing but Missionary Work, to bring the gospel into people’s life. 

Missionary Work,

I still feel that I took the right decision to marry a church member that too a returned missionary. If I had not married a church member I would have been a less active member by now. When I and my husband were getting sealed in temple we felt that our relationship should not break, we should love and share all the memories and we should be together for eternity. When we were giving proxy baptism for our ancestors, we felt that our whole family were enjoying in the Lord’s kingdom. I saw my in-laws face they were so happy and felt happy the whole time. After finishing all the proxy baptism, we felt that we were in correct path. Day by day, during our endowment sessions we used to learn new things. We felt that we took right decision to go to temple. We got opportunity to attend devotional at Hong Kong during our temple visit and we saw our beloved, Apostle, Elder M Russell Ballard and Asia Area Presidency, especially my husband was very happy to see his mission President Randy D Funk and Sister Funk. While returning back from temple we carried all the cherished moments from temple, the talks from devotional and beautiful Hong Kong buildings.

Brothers and Sisters, going to temple is easy but after coming back also we will get so many temptations which will make us to break relationship with our spouse by having arguments, we may even feel to leave the gospel and be attracted towards worldly things, that’s why we need to listen to the general conference talks and apply those principles in our life and listen to the promptings of holy ghost , making choices consistent with eternal truth, will develop righteous character and increase our faith and gives strength to resist temptations. We need to seek Heavenly Father’s help every day, and then only we will be qualified to be led by the spirit to choose the correct path. It will warn us of temptations we might not otherwise recognize.

In temple, we make eternal covenants with our Father in Heaven. We make promises to him and in return He makes extraordinary promises to us. So next time when you go to temple whether for yourself or your kindred dead, please pay attention to the promises God makes to you, His daughter and His son. In every part of temple the hallowed halls of God’s house are filled with comforting covenants, personal and intimate assurance of his eternal love. We encourage everyone to join together to do your part to prepare every family, adults, youth, child to ultimately be worthy to receive every temple blessings the gospel provides.

We really enjoyed the Lord’s spirit by being to the temple, hope to visit again soon. We know gospel is true, it is the hope of the world, we know Jesus died for our sins and Joseph Smith restored the gospel and we sustain our living prophet Thomas S Monson, and the quorum of twelve apostles and Seventies are chosen by God who are leading and guiding us in this last dispensation. We bare testimony in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.