3 Nephi 25

Temple and Family History Work

Have you ever explained to someone why we have temples or do family history work? How important are family history and temple work to you? While teaching the Nephites, Jesus quoted a message He originally shared with Malachi that included the return of Elijah and his important role in temple and family history work. This lesson is intended to help you participate in family history and temple work.

Helping students take effective, righteous action. Building faith and becoming Christlike does not happen in one brief class. As you invite those you teach to act on true doctrine, you help them extend the learning experience into their homes and daily lives (see Doctrine and Covenants 43:8–10).

Student preparation: Invite students to prepare to share about a living or deceased individual they have learned about in their family history. It may be useful for students to speak with a parent or grandparent or use the FamilySearch app.

Possible Learning Activities

Your ancestors

Consider distributing copies of the following chart to each student and inviting them to fill out as much information as they can.

Reflect on what you know and feel about the lives of your loved ones, what you may like to know, and how they have impacted your life.

• Why is it important that we seek to know more about our ancestors?

  Determine if it would be best for students to share their responses to the following, do an anonymous poll, or just silently evaluate for themselves.

• On a scale of 1–10 (1 = not interested, 10 = extremely interested), how interested are you in knowing your ancestors? In participating in temple and family history work? Why?

As you study, look for insights that may help motivate you to participate more in this work.

“Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord”

Using the rich imagery and symbolic words recorded by the Old Testament prophet Malachi, Jesus taught the people of the Americas about His Second Coming to the earth and prophesied about temple and family history work.

Read 3 Nephi 25:1–2, looking for what the Savior taught will happen when He returns to earth. The following definitions and interpretations of symbols may be useful.

Consider displaying the following:

• Stubble: Stubs of plants remaining in a field after harvest that a farmer would burn away

• Roots: Ancestors

• Branches: Posterity

• Healing in His wings: Healing and protective power of the Lord and of His Atonement

• Calves in stall: Israel will be well-treated and provided for like animals in a stall

• How would you explain what will happen at His Second Coming according to these verses? What will happen to the wicked?

  If needed, explain that at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the wicked will experience destruction and will be cut off from ancestry and posterity (see 3 Nephi 25:1).

• What do you learn from these symbols about the Savior and His blessings to those who follow Him?

Read 3 Nephi 25:5–6 and consider marking what the Savior would do to help the families of the world before His Second Coming. One of the meanings of the word “turn” is to bind, or seal (see Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 472). The footnotes in your scriptures can also help you understand these verses better.

You may want to point out that this prophecy is repeated in each of the standard works. You could invite students to see if they can find each of these four occasions or share with them the following verses: Malachi 4:5–6; Luke 1:17; Doctrine and Covenants 110:15–16; Joseph Smith—History 1:38–39.

Consider asking students what they know about Elijah and the keys he held. Based on student responses, share the following paragraphs (or the parts needed).

Elijah, an ancient prophet, held the keys of the sealing power. The sealing power makes valid in heaven the ordinances performed by priesthood authority on earth (Guide to the Scriptures, “Seal, Sealing,” scriptures.ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

Read Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16 to see what happened in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 involving Elijah, Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery.

Because of the restored sealing power, we can do temple work both for ourselves and our deceased ancestors.

• What have you learned from 3 Nephi 25 and Doctrine and Covenants 110?

  Some truths students may identify include the following: Through the prophet Elijah, Jesus Christ restored the sealing keys for temple and family history work. As we participate in temple and family history work, we prepare ourselves and our family for the Savior’s Second Coming.

• What are some specific ways youth can participate in temple and family history work?

• How can participating in temple and family history work help someone prepare for the Savior’s Second Coming?

It is essential to realize that not only did the Savior restore the sealing keys, but it is only through His Atonement that we and those in our families can be redeemed, purified, and receive eternal ordinances and blessings including the sealing ordinance.

Ponder why temple and family history work matters in your life. As you ponder, you may want to watch the video “The Promised Blessings of Family History 2” (4:04), available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Consider inviting students to discuss the following in pairs or small groups before sharing responses as a class.

• What experiences have you had with temples and family history?

• What blessings have you noticed in your life as a result?

Participating in temple and family history work

To help you participate in temple and family history work, do one or two of the following. You may also consider doing something else related to temple and family history work that you feel guided to do by the Spirit.

The following is intended to create an opportunity for students to participate in temple and family history work in class. You can focus on one activity as a class or allow students to pick an activity and work individually. If useful, and with the approval of your priesthood leader, consider inviting your ward or stake family history consultant to your class to help.

• Using your ChurchofJesusChrist.org account, log in to FamilySearch.org. Explore resources to learn about one of your ancestors. Consider beginning with “How do you want to get started?”

• Text, call, or set up a time to talk to parents, grandparents, or other relatives to learn more about their lives, histories, or conversions to the gospel. Consider making a record of what you learn.

• Participate in indexing. For help understanding what this is and how to start, consider first watching the video “FamilySearch Indexing—How it Works” (1:48), available at FamilySearch.org.

• Find names of deceased ancestors that need to have ordinance work performed in the temple on the FamilySearch app or at FamilySearch.org. Consider beginning with “How do you want to get started?”

After students have had time to have some in-class experience with temple and family history work, consider inviting them to share their experiences. The following questions could help you conclude the lesson.

• What is something you feel the Lord would have you do to continue participating in temple and family history work? What difference will this make in your life?

As you seek to continue participating in family history and temple work, remember this statement from President Russell M. Nelson:

Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. (Russell M. Nelson and Wendy W. Nelson, “Hope of Israel” [worldwide youth devotional, June 3, 2018], ChurchofJesusChrist.org)

Testify or invite students to testify of the importance of temple and family history work.

Commentary and Background Information

What are some of the blessings of participating in temple and family history work?

Sister Wendy W. Nelson taught:

So, if you’d like a little more joy in your life, a little more meaning, more heart-to-heart connections, more focus, energy, motivation, more of so many wonderful things, make time to help those on the other side make covenants with God. The power of God will flow into your life as you do. (Wendy W. Nelson, “… My Soul Delighteth in the Covenants of the Lord” [address given at Brigham Young University Women’s Conference, Apr. 30, 2015])

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared:

You will find not only protection from the temptation and ills of the world, but you will also find personal power—power to change, power to repent, power to learn, power to be sanctified, and power to turn the hearts of your family members to each other and heal that which needs healing. (Dale G. Renlund, “Family History and Temple Blessings,” Ensign, Feb. 2017, 31)

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternate beginning to the lesson

Consider displaying an image of a branch and a tree or bringing in a small branch and directing students’ attention to a tree outside. Invite students to think of as many similarities and differences as they can between the branch and the tree. Invite them to think about how these things might be compared to us and our families. Explain that in the scriptures, the Lord often uses the metaphor of a tree with roots and branches to teach about family. Roots are like our family that has gone on before us and the branches are like us and our posterity who comes from us. Invite students to consider what they can do to allow the Savior to strengthen and preserve the roots, trunk, and branches of your family tree as they study 3 Nephi 25.

3 Nephi 26. As we believe and act on what God has revealed, we prepare ourselves to receive greater revelation.

In 3 Nephi 26, Jesus Christ expounded the scriptures, and Mormon taught what must be done to receive greater things revealed by the Savior. Students could read 3 Nephi 26:6–8 looking for how many of Jesus’s teachings were recorded in the Book of Mormon and 3 Nephi 26:9–11 looking for why not all of His teachings were included. Promise students that as they faithfully study and apply the principles in the Book of Mormon, they will receive increased understanding of the gospel. Consider questions like the following: “What are you doing in your life that demonstrates your belief in the Book of Mormon?” “How has reading the Book of Mormon with real intent led you to receive personal revelation?”