Family History Quotes 2
"Now let me say something to all who can worthily go to the house of the Lord. When you attend the temple and perform the ordinances that pertain to the house of the Lord, certain blessings will come to you: You will receive the spirit of Elijah, which will turn your hearts to your spouse, to your children, and to your forebears. You will love your family with a deeper love than you have loved before. You will be endowed with power from on high as the Lord has promised."
Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 254
"In this Church we are not hobbyists in genealogy work. We do family history work in order to provide the ordinances of salvation for the living and the dead."
Dallin H. Oaks "Family History: 'In Wisdom and in Order,'" Ensign, June 1989, p. 6
"When we put God's purposes first, He will give us miracles. If we pray to know what he would have us do next, He will mutiply the effects of what we do in such a way that time seems to be expanded."
Henry B. Eyring - Education for Real Life, CES Broadcast 6 May 2001
"We are a covenant-making people. These eternal blessings are for all who wish to worthily receive of them, both the living and the dead. In the mercy of God we are privileged to receive these blessings by proxy for our deceased ancestors who did not have this privilege in life. They, of course, may choose whether to accept these blessings. Our duty is to search out our forebears and give them the opportunity to accept and receive these blessings. As the Prophet Joseph Smith said, 'The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.'"
James E. Faust "Eternity Lies before Us," April 1997 General Conference
"Often Church members suffer from a lack of perspective, perhaps understandably, as to the vastness and intensity of the Lord's work in the spirit world. The scope is enormous! Demographers estimate that some sixty to seventy billion peple have lived on this planet thus far. Without diminishing in any way the importance of the absolutely vital and tandem work on this side of the veil, we do need a better grasp of 'things as they really will be' (Jacob 4:13). Otherwise, we can so easily come to regard family history as a quaint hobby and its resulting temple work as something we will get around to later. "Not only does the word vastness characterize the work there, but so does intensity."
Neal A. Maxwell – book: The Promise of Discipleship (2001) – p. 105
"The objective of family history work is to make the blessings of the temple available to all people, both living and dead. As we attend the temple and perform work for the dead, we accomplish a deep sense of alliance with God and a better understanding of his plan for the salvation of the human race. We learn to love our neighbors as ourselves. Truly there is no work equal to that done in the temple
"In addition to the blessings we receive from doing work for the dead, we receive personal blessings as we attend the temple."
(Howard W. Hunter, "We Have a Work to Do," Ensign, Mar. 1995, 65)
Topic: Malachi 4:5-6
"It is tremendously significant to me that this declaration, this repetition of the wondrous words of Malachi concerning the work for the dead was given to the boy Joseph four years before he was allowed to take the plates from the hill. It was given before he received either the Aaronic or Melchizedek Priesthood, before he was baptized and well before the Church was organized. It says much concerning the priority of this work in the plan of the Lord."
Gordon B. Hinckley, Address given at the 100th anniversary of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 13 November 1994
"Every thought or word or act we direct at this sacred work is pleasing to the Lord. Every hour spent on genealogical research, however unproductive it appears, is worthwhile. It is pleasing to the Lord. It is our testimony to Him that we accept the doctrine of the resurrection and the plan of salvation. It draws us close to those who have gone before. It welds eternal links in family associations and draws us closer to Him who is our Lord."
Elder Boyd K. Packer - The Holy Temple p. 255
"I wish many times that the veil were lifted off the face of the Latter-day Saints. I wish we could see and know the things of God as they do who are laboring for the salvation of the human family who are in the spirit world; for if this were so, this whole people, with very few, if any, exceptions, would lose all interest in the riches of the world, and instead thereof their whole desires and labors would be directed to redeem their dead."
Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 152
Genealogy: A search for the Greatest Treasures——-Our Ancestors!
"We are responsible for the blessing, the eternal blessing, of all who have lived upon the earth, the uncounted unnumbered generations of men and women who have lived upon the earth, all who today live upon the earth, and all who will yet live upon the earth. How great is our responsibility. We must stand a little taller and work a little harder to accomplish it."
Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 640
"The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future."
Herbert Spencer
"As far as I know, no other people on the face of the earth do the things that have been revealed unto this people in the house of the Lord. It requires unselfishness of a consummate kind to go to the house of the Lord, to act in behalf of someone you have never met, you've never known. . . . You go there in his or her behalf. But something will happen to you when you do that. I make you a promise that every time you go to the temple, you will leave a better man or woman than you were when you went inside the doors of the temple."
President Gordon B. Hinckley - From regional conference, St. George, Utah, Nov. 24, 2002 (Church News - July 2, 2005)
"Yet there is an abundance of role models who can be found much closer and who can have much deeper influence upon each one of us. Most of us, with relatively little effort and much less cost, can provide for our families a veritable list of important role models. This list can be created from a modest search into the lives of our ancestors."
Monte J. Brough, "Search for Identity," Ensign, May 1995, p. 41
"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"
Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 B.C.-43 B.C.
"At the dedication of the lower story of the St. George Utah Temple, on January 1, 1877—the very year that President Brigham Young died—he said:
"What do you suppose the fathers would say if they could speak from the dead? Would they not say, 'We have lain here thousands of years, here in this prison house, waiting for this dispensation to come?'... What would they whisper in our ears? Why, if they had the power the very thunders of heaven would be in our ears, if we could realize the importance of the work we are engaged in. All the angels in heaven are looking at this little handful of people, and stimulating them to the salvation of the human family.... When I think upon this subject, I want the tongues of seven thunders to wake up the people.'"
Elder Nelson continued,
"The purpose of family history work is to obtain the names and data of our ancestors so that temple ordinances can be performed in their behalf."
Russell M. Nelson, "Young Adults and the Temple," Ensign, Feb. 2006, p. 15
"Family history builds bridges to the temple. Family history work leads us to the temple. Family history and temple work are one work. The words family history should probably never be said without attaching the word temple to them. Family history research should be the primary source of names for temple ordinances, and temple ordinances are the primary reason for family history research."
Dennis B. Neuenschwander, "Bridges and Eternal Keepsakes," Ensign, May 1999, p. 84-85
"The process of finding our ancestors one by one can be challengine but also exciting and rewarding. We often feel spiritual guidance as we go to the sources which identify them. Because this is a very spiritual work, we can expect help from the other side of the veil. We feel a pull from our relatives who are waiting for us to find them so their ordinance work can be done. This is a Christlike service because we are doing something for them that they cannot do for themselves."
President James E. Faust, "The Phenomenon That Is You," Ensign, November 2003, p. 55-56
President Lorenzo Snow taught:
“When the Gospel is preached to the spirits in prison, the success attending that preaching will be far greater than that attending the preaching of our Elders in this life. I believe there will be very few indeed of those spirits who will not gladly receive the Gospel when it is carried to them. The circumstances there will be a thousand times more favorable.”
(Cited in Brian H. Stuy, comp. Collected Discourses Delivered by President Wilford Woodruff, His Two Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, five vols. Burbank, California, B.H.S. Publishing, 1987-92, 3:363, as cited by Alonzo L. Gaskill in: Odds Are You Are Going to be Exalted, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008: p. 38)
Patriarch Charles Woodbury recorded this experience that validates the quote above by Lorenzo Snow:
“As I witnessed baptism one day in the Manti Temple, when the first name was called out for baptism, a voice said to me, ‘This person has had the gospel taught to him, has accepted it, and desires baptism.’ “As the second name was read, the voice said: ‘This person has not heard the gospel yet.’ “Another name was called, and I was told, ‘This person has heard the gospel and was not converted.’
“I witnessed 300 baptisms, each time being advised by the voice as to those who accepted of their baptism, and those who did not. Twenty-five of the 300 whose baptism had been done for them were not ready for it; they had as yet not been converted to the gospel. The remaining 275 were prepared, and rejoiced that their work was being done.”
(Charles Woodbury, “This Person Has Accepted the Gospel,” In “Faith Promoting Experiences of Patriarch Charles R. Woodbury,” Manuscript, Utah State University Library, Logan, Utah, as cited by Alonzo L. Gaskill in: Odds Are You Are Going to be Exalted, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008: pp. 38-39)