Quotes About Technology and Family History
"We must redeem the dead, all of them, for we are commanded to do it. When the servants of the Lord determine to do as he commands, we move ahead. As we proceed, we are joined at the crossroads by those who have been prepared to help us. They come with skills and abilities precisely suited to our needs...For instance, inventions in the fields of travel and communication have come along just as we were ready for them...When we are ready, there will be revealed whatever we need–we will find it waiting at the crossroads."
Elder Boyd K. Packer - That They May Be Redeemed, p. 3
"Sister Susa Young Gates...once asked her father [Brigham Young] how it would ever be possible to accomplish the great amount of temple work that must be done, if all are given a full opportunity for exaltation. He told her there would be many inventors of labor-saving devices, so that our daily duties could be performed in a short time, leaving us more and more time for temple work. The inventions have come, and are still coming, but many simply divert the time gained to other channels, and not for the purpose intended by the Lord."
Archibald F. Bennett - Improvement Era, Oct. 1952, p. 720
"If temple ordinances are an essential part of the restored gospel, and I testify that they are, then we must provide the means by which they can be accomplished. All of our vast family history endeavor is directed to temple work. There is no other purpose for it. The temple ordinances become the crowning blessing the church has to offer. Going hand in hand with this increased temple activity is an increase in our family history work. The computer in its various ramifications is accelerating the work, and people are taking advantage of the new techniques being offered to them. How can one escape the conclusion that the Lord is in all of this? As computer facilities improve, the number of temples grows to accommodate the accelerated family history work."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, November 1999, 4-5
With regard to temple and family history work, I have one overriding message: This work must hasten. The work waiting to be done is staggering and escapes human comprehension. Last year we performed proxy temple endowments for about five and a half million persons, but during that year about fifty million persons died. This might suggest futility in the work that lies before us, but we cannot think of futility. Surely the Lord will support us if we use our best efforts in carrying out the commandment to do family history research and temple work. The great work of the temples and all that supports it must expand. It is imperative!
In recent years we have begun using information technology to hasten the sacred work of providing ordinances for the deceased. The role of technology in this work has been accelerated by the Lord himself, who has had a guiding hand in its development and will continue to do so. However, we stand only on the threshold of what we can do with these tools. I feel that our most enthusiastic projections can capture only a tiny glimpse of how these tools can help us—and of the eternal consequences of these efforts.
The objective of family history work is to make the blessings of the temple available to all people, both living and dead.
Howard W. Hunter, "We Have a Work to Do," Ensign, Mar 1995, 64–65
"The Lord has had a hand in bringing forth technology to accelerate family history work. In recent years we have begun using information technology to hasten the sacred work of providing ordinances for the deceased. The role of technology in this work has been accelerated by the Lord himself, who has had a guiding hand in its developments and will continue to do so. However, we stand only on the threshold of what we can do with these tools. I feel that our most enthusiastic projections can capture only a tiny glimpse of how these tools can help us and of the eternal consequences of these efforts."
The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter [1997], 65
"Technology provides significant support to the ongoing mission of the Church. I am certain the Lord expects us to apply it to the advancement of His purposes and the blessing of mankind."
President James E. Faust, "This Is Our Day," Ensign, May 1999, 19
"It is unlikely that we can accomplish the temple work that must be done if we continue to rely upon individual research alone. In recent years we have moved into the computer age. New technology is progressing rapidly. The time has come for us to take advantage of this remarkable mechanism which the Lord has made available to us."
Royden G. Derrick, "The Heritage of Royal Families," Ensign, May 1979, 26
The Lord has poured out His Spirit upon His children—which is manifest in new technology, simplified procedures, and expanding resources, which enable us to accelerate our progress in the redemption of the dead.
David B. Haight, "Personal Temple Worship," Ensign, May 1993, 23
"Today the information highway, with all of its means of communication, affords an opportunity for us to carry the mission with a thousandfold greater speed and ease than Peter, James, and John and the other intrepid disciples."
President James E. Faust - Ensign, May 1999, 18-19
"One of the most troublesome aspects of our temple activity is that as we get more and more temples scattered across the earth there is duplication of effort in proxy work. People in various nations simultaneously work on the same family lines and come up with the same names. They do not know that those in other areas are doing the same thing. We, therefore, have been engaged for some time in a very difficult undertaking. To avoid such duplication, the solution lies in complex computer technology. Preliminary indications are that it will work, and if this is so, it will be a truly remarkable thing with worldwide implications."
President Gordon B. Hinckley "Opening Remarks," Ensign, November 2005, 5-6
"Your opportunities and the obligations they create are remarkable in the whole history of the world. There are more temples across the earth than there have ever been. More people in all the world have felt the Spirit of Elijah move them to record the identities and facts of their ancestors' lives. There are more resources to search out your ancestors than there ever have been in the history of the world. The Lord has poured out knowledge about how to make that information available worldwide through technology that a few years ago would have seemed a miracle."
Henry B. Eyring, "Hearts Bound Together," Ensign, May 2005, p. 79
"It is unlikely that we can accomplish the temple work that must be done if we continue to rely upon individual research alone. In recent years we have moved into the computer age. New technology is progressing rapidly. The time has come for us to take advantage of this remarkable mechanism which the Lord has made available to us."
Royden G. Derrick, "The Heritage of Royal Families," Ensign, May 1979, p. 27
"After that small seed of genealogical interest in our ancestors was planted by Elijah, it began to grow until now, as a result of skills, tools, and computer technology, which have been provided by the Lord, the lowly seed has become a beautiful, fruit-bearing tree."
Elder Earl C. Tingey, "Redemption of the Dead," Ensign, May 1991, p. 27