<Ol> <Li> Endowment: Referred to as a gift of "power from on high" by Joseph Smith, the purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during his lifetime . After 1842, the endowment usually consists of two phases: (1) an initiation, and (2) an instructional and testing phase . The initiation consisted of the washing and anointing, culminating in the clothing of the patron in a "Garment of the Holy Priesthood". The instructional and testing phase of the endowment consisted of a scripted reenactment of Adam and Eve's experience in the Garden of Eden . The instruction is punctuated with personal covenants, gestures, and a prayer circle around an altar . At the end of instruction, the initiate's knowledge of symbolic gestures and key - words is tested at a "veil", a symbolic final frontier for the initiate to face the judgement of Jesus, before entering the presence of God in the Celestial Kingdom . </Li> <Li> Marriage and sealing: An ordinance where individuals are married and sealed as husband and wife as an eternal family . Any children the couple may already have are sealed to the family and any children born into this marriage after sealing are also sealed into that family which will live together forever, if obedient to God's commandments . Children that are brought into the family later, though not born into the family such as via Adoption, can be sealed to the family later in a sealing ceremony without the need for the marriage portion . This ordinance is particularly performed by the LDS Church and branches of Mormon fundamentalism . </Li> <Li> Sealing to parents: For children born before a marriage and sealing is performed or who have been adopted into a family, this ordinance seals them into that family as if they had been born into a sealed family . </Li> </Ol> <Li> Endowment: Referred to as a gift of "power from on high" by Joseph Smith, the purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during his lifetime . After 1842, the endowment usually consists of two phases: (1) an initiation, and (2) an instructional and testing phase . The initiation consisted of the washing and anointing, culminating in the clothing of the patron in a "Garment of the Holy Priesthood". The instructional and testing phase of the endowment consisted of a scripted reenactment of Adam and Eve's experience in the Garden of Eden . The instruction is punctuated with personal covenants, gestures, and a prayer circle around an altar . At the end of instruction, the initiate's knowledge of symbolic gestures and key - words is tested at a "veil", a symbolic final frontier for the initiate to face the judgement of Jesus, before entering the presence of God in the Celestial Kingdom . </Li> <Li> Marriage and sealing: An ordinance where individuals are married and sealed as husband and wife as an eternal family . Any children the couple may already have are sealed to the family and any children born into this marriage after sealing are also sealed into that family which will live together forever, if obedient to God's commandments . Children that are brought into the family later, though not born into the family such as via Adoption, can be sealed to the family later in a sealing ceremony without the need for the marriage portion . This ordinance is particularly performed by the LDS Church and branches of Mormon fundamentalism . </Li> <Li> Sealing to parents: For children born before a marriage and sealing is performed or who have been adopted into a family, this ordinance seals them into that family as if they had been born into a sealed family . </Li>

Ordinances of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints