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“While temple and family history work has the power to bless those beyond the veil, it has an equal power to bless the living. It has a refining influence on those who are engaged in it. They are literally helping to exalt their families.”

Russell M. Nelson

“In [an] epistle, written one hundred and fifty years ago, Joseph Smith stated: ‘The Saints have the privilege of being baptized for . . . their relatives who are dead . . . who have received the gospel in the spirit . . . through . . . those who have been commissioned to preach to them. . . . Those saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation.’ (History of the Church, 4:231; italics added.)

“The prophet Elijah committed the keys for vicarious work to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple (see D&C 110:13–16) to fulfill the Lord’s promise that ‘he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers’ (D&C 2:2).

“Through further revelation to Joseph Smith and subsequent prophets, there has come an understanding of and provision for temple work and the family history effort that supports it. Every prophet since Joseph Smith has emphasized the imperative need to provide all ordinances for ourselves and our deceased ancestors.”

Richard G. Scott, “Redemption: The Harvest of Love, Ensign,” Nov. 1990, 5

“I quote a letter dated January the 17th, 1889. . . . It concerns my great-grandfather, who was the first of our line in the Church, and who died a few days later, Jonathan Taylor Packer. This letter was written by a daughter-in-law to the family.

“After describing the distress and difficulty he had suffered for several weeks, she wrote:

” ‘But I will do all I can for him for I consider it my duty. I will do for him as I would like someone to do for my dear mother, for I am afraid I shall never see her again in this world.’

“And then she wrote this: ‘Your father says for you all to be faithful to the principles of the gospel and asks the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob upon you all, and bids you all goodbye until he meets you in the morning of the resurrection.

” ‘Well, Martha, I can’t hardly see the lines for tears, so I will stop writing. From your loving sister, Mary Ann Packer.’

“I know that I shall see this great-grandfather beyond the veil, and my grandfather, and my father. And I know that I shall there also meet those of my ancestors who lived when the fulness of the gospel was not upon the earth; those who lived and died without ever hearing His name, nor having the invitation to be baptized.”

Boyd K. Packer, “The Redemption of the Dead,” Ensign, Nov. 1975, 99

“Inspiring stories and anecdotes from our past punctuate [President Gordon B. Hinckley's] writings and sermons. As our living prophet, he consciously emphasizes the past and the future to help us live more righteously in the present. Because of his teachings, we understand that remembering enables us to see God’s hand in our past, just as prophecy and faith assure us of God’s hand in our future. President Hinckley reminds us how members of the early Church faced their challenges so we, through the grace of God, can more faithfully face our own. By keeping our past alive, he connects us to the people, places, and events that make up our spiritual heritage and, in so doing, motivates us to greater service, faith, and kindness.”

Martin K. Jensen

“Among the first in this dispensation to sow seeds of interest in family history were the brothers Orson and Parley P. Pratt, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Their efforts resulted in a Pratt family genealogy and the performance of temple ordinances for about 3,000 of their ancestors.

“Yet there were many Church members who did not fully understand the responsibility for their own kindred. President Wilford Woodruff was so concerned that he made the issue a matter of fervent prayer. Then, at April 1894 general conference, he presented a revelation to the membership of the Church. From it I quote: ‘We want the Latter-day Saints from this time to trace their genealogies as far as they can, and to be sealed to their fathers and mothers. Have children sealed to their parents, and run this chain through as far as you can get it. . . . This is the will of the Lord to his people’ (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, sel. G. Homer Durham [1946], 157).”

Russell M. Nelson