Why the Endowment?

It would probably be useful to indicate why I spend so much thought on the endowment.

The scriptures are full of what are termed theophanies.  Other terms are Redemption,  receiving the Second Comforter and such. In short, it is when you meet Christ and are testified to, by Him, that your sins are forgiven and you are accepted back into His presence.  This will also include an offer of something that you desire (i.e. Solomon requesting wisdom) and a commission to represent Him to others.  This is how prophets are called by God.

As part of this experience, you are given an explanation of how things are organized and what your place in all of this is.  We have part of this experience captured in the Book of Moses, in the Pearl of Great Price.  The endowment is the Reader's Digest version of this experience, tailored for our weakness and mostly protected by symbolism.  Doing work for the dead, gives you an opportunity to review things as your own experiences give you more insight with which to puzzle out the things of God.

The Grand Key for understanding the endowment comes about half way through when you are instructed to consider your selves as though you were Adam or Eve.  This story is your story, told symbolically through the lives of our first parents.

Now, why does this matter?  This life is designed to be a place where evil can seem to have equal footing with good.  Your life will be one of encountering evil, and it's effects, and good and it's effects.  As you begin to orient your life towards the good, evil will become more compelling.  It is meant to be this way.  It must be a struggle.  Within the endowment, in the form of the covenants, are the "correct" choices if you want to return from where we fell.  That they are the right answers will not necessarily be obvious, but that obscurity is important to the struggle which is this life.

Your own theophany will be when you have sufficiently integrated correct living into your being.  You will still do stupid things, out of ignorance, or misdiagnosing a situation, but your character will be sufficiently Godlike for you to be welcomed home.  Yes, you will still need to be forgiven, we all do.  As long as you remain in mortality, you will still periodically do stupid stuff, requiring you to be forgiven again, and again (see Joseph in the D&C).  The caveat here is that willful disobedience will not receive forgiveness until you've paid the full price, once the Lord has welcomed you Home.

Willful disobedience after receiving your Second Comforter/Redmption is nearly impossible to return from, not because it is really impossible, but because you have already dismissed that life, knowing it intimately. This is what is captured in the story of Cain, who did all that was required to return home, and then decided he wanted something else instead. It is also how Satan fell from his previously high station.