Visiting Teaching Message:

Building Family Unity through Temple and Family History Work

“The purpose of mortal families,” says Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “is to bring children into the world, to teach them what is right, and to prepare all family members for exaltation in eternal family relationships” (“Weightier Matters,” Liahona, March 2000, 16). Our families are strengthened as we become one in purpose with our Heavenly Father, seeking the exaltation of all family members—past, present, and future.

The Mission of Elijah

In 1836 Elijah appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple. He came to “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal. 4:6; see also D&C 2) and to restore the keys of the sealing power, which enables families to be eternally bound together. Elijah’s coming has increased concern for family history work (see D&C 110:13–16).

Each of us can participate in some aspect of temple and family history work. The Holy Ghost will guide us as we prayerfully seek to know when and how to fulfill these responsibilities. We can begin by receiving our own temple ordinances and helping immediate family members receive them. We can identify ancestors using our own information—together with family and other records. We can submit our ancestors’ names to the temple and, where possible, perform ordinances in their behalf. We can draw generations together by sharing family histories with our children and grandchildren. Those who follow us will be grateful if we keep a record of the important dates and experiences in our lives.

Journals and Personal Histories

Family bonds can even be strengthened with posterity yet to be born. Sometimes this bond develops as we keep a journal and write a personal history. Our words may have the power to fortify future generations when we make a record of God’s dealings in our own lives.

One sister writes: “At age 21 I was stricken with a mental illness that, I learned, would be a lifelong problem. Through priesthood blessings, I was promised I would be healed according to my faith. Maintaining faith became my greatest challenge. During a particularly troubling time, my mother gave me the personal history of my great-grandmother.

“As a young girl in Switzerland, she was afflicted with an incurable illness. As she lay ill, she read pamphlets about the priesthood and about men who could heal the sick as Jesus had done.”

After joining the Church, her great-grandmother prayed with faith to be healed. Following one of many priesthood blessings, she recorded: “I want to tell … all my grandchildren … that there are not words in any language to describe the feeling that came over me when I was healed. I really could feel it from the top of my head to my feet, and from that time on I was healed.”

Those words spoke powerfully to this sister. “My faith was strengthened,” she says, “and I knew in the Lord’s time I, too, would be healed.”

As we labor to forge eternal family links in these and other ways, our families will be blessed with a unifying power that will span generations and reach into eternity.

Illustrated by Sheri Lynn Boyer Doty