Quotes on Family History Work  -  1
 
Elder Boyd K. Packer:

        “No work is more of a protection to this Church than temple work and the genealogical research which supports it.   No work is more spiritually refining.  No work we do gives us more power.   No work requires a higher standard of righteousness.

        Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people.”

From his Book:  The Holy Temple,   p.  265

Ezra Taft Benson:

    "In this work we cannot fail if we do our part.  The Lord will not permit us to fail.  This is His work.  He will open doors in our genealogical research.  He will bless us as we come to the temple.  No, we cannot fail."

The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 163


Joseph Fielding Smith:

    "The Lord expects of us all that we do what we can for ourselves and for our dead.  He wants us to make the search for our ancestry because he does not do for us what we can do for ourselves.  And after we have done all we can, then means will be furnished, or the way will be opened for the finishing of the information which we are unable to discover."

Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 2:149

Ezra Taft Benson:

    "The Lord is in this work.  He wants it to prosper.  He wants us to be successful in our efforts.  While living with my grandmother, Louise Ballif Benson, in Logan as a student, I knew she had been working very hard on her research.  She kept referring to the fact that there was a gap that she couldn't fill and it worried her.  She prayed about it fervently.  One day she received a package addressed just 'Benson Family, Utah.'  The package contained a printed book which had come from a man in Syracuse, New York, who had done research independently--not as a member of the Church.  You can imagine the joy that filled my grandmother's heart when she found that this not only filled the gap, but did much more than that.  Her prayers had been answered.  Yes, there are many ways to help get the job done."

Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 164

"Only a genealogist regards a step backwards as progress!"

         "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?"

 Cicero- The Orator

        "Another most significant way to enhance your capacity to understand and live eternal truth is through temple worship.  Only by receiving the fullness of temple ordinances and living the covenants made there can you enter into the highest degree of glory and receive the greatest measure of happiness eternally.  Temple attendance has a calming, settling, consoling influence that distills peace and contentment.  The accompanying family history work to identify ancestors to receive those ordinances yields similar blessings."

Richard G. Scott
BYU Education Week, 19 August 1997

D & C institute manual, p. 446

        "Righteous spirits, those who have been converted to the gospel in the spirit prison, are still held in the spirit prison until the ordinance work is done  (see Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:230).  These loyal believers are not able to fully progress because, while they can have faith and repent in their spiritual state, such ordinances as baptism and confirmation must be done in mortality, if not by themselves, then by proxies.  They too await a day of deliverance.  Speaking on this delay President Spencer W. Kimball said:
        "Some of us have had occasion to wait for someone or something for a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or even a year.  Can you imagine how our progenitors must feel, some of whom have perhaps been waiting for decades and even centuries for the temple work to be done for them?"

"The Things of Eternity - Stand We in Jeopardy?" Ensign, Jan. 1977, p.7.

        "I don't need to tell you the details of where to go and who to see.  When you determine you are going to succeed, you will find a way.  You will discover those who can help you.  I promise you the Lord will bless you in your efforts, for this is His work, and He will guide your prayerful efforts to bring the ordinances and covenants to your ancestors."

Richard G. Scott, Nov. 1990 Ensign, "Redemption, the Harvest of Love"


"When the full measure of Elijah's mission is understood-­that the hearts of the children will be turned to the fathers, and the fathers to the children-­it applies just as much on this side of the veil as it does to the other side of the veil (see Malachi 4:5-6). If we neglect our families here in having family home night and we fail in our responsibility here, how would heaven look if we lost some of those through our own neglect? Heaven would not be heaven until we have done everything we can to save those whom the Lord has sent through our lineage. So, the hearts of you fathers and mothers must be turned to your children right now, if you have the true Spirit of Elijah, and not think that it applies merely to those who are beyond the veil. Let your hearts be turned to your children, and teach your children; but you must do it when they are young enough to be schooled. And if you are neglecting your family home evening, you are neglecting the beginning of the mission of Elijah just as certainly as if you were neglecting your research work of genealogy."
 "Teachings of Harold B. Lee," p. 281

 

"Those only who have shared with us in the temple ordinances know for themselves the satisfaction there is in realizing that we are indeed co-workers with our Lord and Savior; that we bear a humble part in the great work of salvation; that we have the privilege of receiving and obeying the truth, and of securing to ourselves that happiness which the Gospel alone affords; and not only of performing these ordinances for ourselves, but of doing the necessary work for our parents and forefathers who have slept without the Gospel, that they may partake also of the waters of life, and be judged according to men in the flesh [see 1 Peter 4:6]. This is a privilege, a blessing, which no one can sense unless he is in possession of it. We are happy to know by our faith and feelings through the spirit of revelation within us that our labors have been accepted of the Lord. We have enjoyed ourselves exceedingly in the society of each other; the aged, the middle-aged and the youth have rejoiced and been made glad in this glorious work."
Brigham Young, in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 300-301