The Power of the Temple

Our stake president has felt very strongly the need for the members to engage in family history and temple work, so for the past 3 years at the beginning of January, stake goals have been set and members encouraged to help reach a certain amount of names indexed and work done in the temples.  This year the focus has become more personal and we have been asked to seek out and do the work for our own ancestors.  I will admit that I have been slow in my excitement over past goals and have dragged my feet a little bit.  The common complaint/excuse among many members, and ones that I have shared, are that it is one more thing to add to our lists, that we don't have time, and that our concern should be looking after and saving our living instead.  Well, because of my involvement in ward council and my responsibility to encourage the sisters as part of my calling I spent the last year really trying to help meet indexing goals and making sure that AP and AJ became involved in that, and just so you know, for the most part, they didn't participate happily or willingly.  But I will testify to the truth of Boyd K. Packer's words when he said (in regards to Family History and Temple work), "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 will cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people."  There are so many other Prophets and apostles I could quote and so much I could say about the blessings of this work, but to keep it short, and somewhat simple, I will just say that in order to save the living, we must save our dead, and it is worth the time and effort you put forth.  If you have a struggling child, a struggling marriage, a struggling testimony, or if you need to be strengthened engaging in family history and temple work will bring healing.  I am seeing the truth of this in my own family and if you take a look at some of the stories and videos on lds.org you will be inspired by how it has changed other people's lives (here is the link: https://www.lds.org/topics/family-history?lang=eng).