2023-10 Oct - Why Prepare Our New Temple?

Oct 7, 2023 family history workflow

Read time: Summary 0.2 minutes | Expanded section: 4.2 minutes | Entire message 5.5 minutes

From your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants:

Why Prepare for Our New Temple?

Summary

• Use the fast-approaching new Temple to focus first on the Savior
• The time has fully come
• Enumerated blessings of temple service
• Frequent temple visits, made possible by proximity, blessed our lives
• Church data shows that when ward leaders participate in submitting names to the temple, similar participation by ward members increased

Expanded Message

• May we use the coming of the Temple to our local area to, as Elder Bednar has emphasized in 2023, focus first on the Savior, then on the covenants and ordinances that bind us to and with Him — the sacred ordinances and covenants in the temple.”
  • How can we avoid getting caught up in the busy work of the Church by focusing on Christ? “We testify of Christ, we preach of Christ, we rejoice in Christ.”

“The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all of our affairs. We will be eligible to have the Lord take an interest in our affairs both spiritual and temporal. Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people. As you prepare your family history and take names to the temple for your ancestors, you will feel the influence of the Holy Ghost more powerfully in your life. You will be strengthened to do this work and the other tasks of your life more efficiently. As you do the work of the Lord, you will know Him better and become more like Him.” Boyd K. Packer (emphasis added)

• We have a temple coming soon. - On April 2, 2023, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to construct the Temple at the April 2023 General Conference.

  • Our temple of God will be one of the most sacred place of worship in the world — a place where heaven touches the earth, a place where marvelous blessings are bestowed, and a place where we can feel closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as we strive to become more like Them.
  • The Temple is currently in the planning stages.
  • The Temple is different from the Stake Center, with more specific purposes.

• Church data shows that when ward leaders participate in submitting names to the temple, similar participation by ward members increased.

• “One of the simplest ways a leader can actually help people come to the temple and participate is by participating themselves.” (from March 2023 Temple & Family History Leadership Instruction meeting)

“Elijah came not only to stimulate research for ancestors. He also enabled families to be eternally linked beyond the bounds of mortality.” Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Apr, 1998

• When Elijah appeared to the Prophet Joseph, he said, “Behold, the time has fully come … to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers.”

• After construction and a public open house, the Temple will be dedicated as a sacred place on Earth.

  • We will all need a Temple Recommend for the Temple dedication and to use the Temple as a patron.
  • If you don’t currently have a recommend, talk with our Bishop about a plan apply the atonement of our Savior so you can prepare to go to the Temple, and get a recommend. Start now. The Lord’s way is not the World’s perfectionism. Get on the right trajectory as soon as you can.

• We can serve others in the Temple without having to drive far.

  • When I worked in Dallas a couple of miles from the temple there, I often stopped by on the home from work. Frequent temple visits, made possible by proximity, blessed my life and can similarly bless your life.

• Receiving temple ordinances and keeping covenants unites families together for eternity.

  • In the Temple and others, these ordinances are also performed by us on behalf of those who have died without the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Help each other use Ordinances Ready on FamilySearch.org or the Family Tree app.

“We naturally come to those we hold most dear and precious in our lives, and that there are things specifically we can do to unite our families, to unite them for time and eternity in the house of the Lord, and that each of us will find whatever the next step is for us and for those with whom we serve, to come to our Savior, by covenant and bringing our family with us.” Elder Merritt Gong

“Because Jesus Christ is at the center of everything we do in the temple, as you think more about the temple, you will be thinking more about Him.” President Russell M. Nelson, taught in the April 2020 general conference

• (repeat) Aspiration & Inspiration, NOT guilt trips.

  • The intent of these messages is invitation, not as a guilt trip. A reminder of the grandeur of the vision and scope of the work God asks of his children now, in this dispensation, as we prepare for the Savior’s second coming, and the urgency our Prophets have indicated. With our hand in the Lord’s hand, all things are possible as we keep trying and practicing Christlike love and service, uniting families through family history and temple work.

• See Families and Temples for more information.

Reminder. Current Workflow for Family History:

1. Historical people’s information first has to be digitized (others do this).
2. We index people’s digitized information so the image can be associated with text, which can be found in computer searches.
3. We link families' data together in FamilySearch.org (each member’s initial target is 4-Generations found and linked. Later we work cousin lines too.)
4. We link people’s information (source data) to the right person to help us and others to get to know them better.
5. Finally, we can get names to take to the temple and offer them the choice of being linked to their families for eternity in our own pattern of regular temple attendance.

As Ward Temple & Family History Consultants we are called to help you with HOW to do these things.

Sincerely, Your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants,