Area Leadership Message
The Eternal Family and the Plan of Happiness
Church television advertisements about the importance of the family
When I was a child, from 1976 to 1980, I was very struck by the advertisements presented on television in Puerto Rico for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No one in my house was a member of the Church. I noticed that all the announcements were positive and always highlighted the importance of family. I really liked the ads because in each of them there was a message for me and my family.
It wasn’t until about 25 years later that a friend invited my wife and me to visit his church. My friend was an exemplary person, and I gave him my word that I would attend. When I got there, I read a sign at the entrance that read, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” I immediately told my wife, “This is the Church of positive messages and family.” We asked ourselves, what awaits us inside the Church? Heavenly Father had a plan for us. Everything was cordial and we were treated as if we were part of the Church family. The missionaries taught us, we had a confirmation that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true Church in the world, and we were baptized.
What We Learned About the Heavenly Family
As soon as we were baptized, we were sent to take classes for the new members. The teacher gave us a manual entitled Gospel Principles. In one of the chapters, he taught us about our heavenly family. It says, “God is not only our Ruler and Creator; He is also our Heavenly Father. All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of God. ‘Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal [physical] body.’
“Every person who was ever born on earth is our spirit brother or sister. Because we are the spirit children of God, we have inherited the potential to develop His divine qualities. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can become like our Heavenly Father and receive a fulness of joy.”1
This teaching changed my life, for I now know where I came from and where I have the potential to go with my family, if I strive in this life to follow the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ. In the Bible, Hebrews 12:9 says, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”
The Plan for Progress
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ decreed a plan for our progress before this world was formed (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:11–26). It is in this life that we must prepare to receive again the blessings promised to those who keep God’s commandments.
Family Can Be Eternal
Heavenly Father sent us to earth to be part of a family. After Heavenly Father united Adam and Eve in marriage, He commanded them to have children (see Genesis 1:28). He revealed that one of the purposes of marriage is to provide earthly bodies for His spirit children. We are partners with our Heavenly Father in this work. When we obey this commandment, we help Heavenly Father carry out His plan.
I love the hymn “Families Can Be Together Forever” (see Hymns no. 300). We are taught how families can be eternal through the divine plan. We should strive to be worthy before God to make covenants in the Lord’s temple. To enjoy this blessing, we must be married in the temple. When couples marry outside the temple, that marriage ends when one of the spouses dies. When we are married in the temple through the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood, by a temple sealer, we are married for this life and for eternity. If we keep the covenants we have made with the Lord, our families will remain together forever as husband, wife, and children, and death cannot separate us.
When I was newly called as an Area Seventy, I participated in a radio interview in Puerto Rico with different ecclesiastical leaders of various religions. Among them was a leader who held a doctoral degree in theology. He asked me why Mormons, referring to members of the Church, believe that in heaven we will be married. He indicated that our belief of eternal families was incorrect since the Holy Bible, in the book of Matthew 22:30 indicated that, “For in the resurrection, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”
I answered clearly, simply and with love. I explained that at that moment Jesus Christ was answering people who did not even believe in the Resurrection, let alone all the saving truths as indicated in the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon, another witness of Jesus Christ. Those who live according to the way of the world, if they do not repent and come to the truth, will not be worthy of obtaining the fullness of the reward in the hereafter. I explained that in the same Holy Bible, the Lord through the Apostle Paul teaches us in Ephesians 3:14–15, that there are families in heaven and on earth, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
“Of whom every family in heaven and earth is named.”
No doubt there are families in heaven.
I testify that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. They want us to be joint heirs of all things. It is in this life that we must strive to have an eternal family. He has a place prepared for us to live with Him and our families for time and for eternity.