April 2024

[U]ltimate, celestial belonging is not freely given to all of God’s children. It is freely offered, but the gift of eternal life is reserved for those who accept the offer by keeping covenants made in the house of the Lord.

D. Todd Christofferson

Important Dates

The temple will be closed:

• Saturday, April 6 - for General Conference

• Monday, April 15 - Monday, April 22 - for cleaning

Distribution Services Store:

According to Sister Gardner, the new store is in the basement of the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters. It will be open Monday - Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, except for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day holidays. White clothing, garments, and ceremonial clothing will be available for sale, as well as items from a small bookstore.

Because of the early spring storms, the opening date has been moved from April 1 to April 15. Phone numbers will be available following installation.

It's part of a larger worldwide effort to bring the temple closer to the Saints worldwide. Bishop Gerard Caussé discusses that effort here. The article also has pictures of the the new Global Services Distribution Center.

Training Reminder

Didn't get a chance to view the Leadership Training yet?

If not, follow the links below. These are very good discussions that will help you answer the questions that you get from RS and EQ presidents. They will help you to generate new ideas for training opportunities, too.

RootsTech

Here is a list of some of the new things that were featured at the RootsTech 2024 conference:

• Marco Polo. It's a video messenger app that is kid-safe and kid-friendly. According to CEO Vlada Bortnik, citing a Harvard University longitudinal study of 80 years "relationships are the only things that matter in life." Close relationships in particular make for happier and healthier people. 

• FamilySearch has developed "Coumputer-Genterated Trees (CGT) - family trees built in specific locales around the world for richly indexed historical records. Andy Gold, from FamilySearch said "CGTs build the necessary scaffolding to house all the data necessary in tree form." Data are pulled from millions of different types of records.

• Storied - a site that helps people start a tree from scratch or upoad their family tree from another site, and then using AI to generate a draft from a few details input by the user.

• KinSame - identify family relationships or kinships from images. Looking at two photos, the software uses algorithms and machine learning to compare facial features to suggest family connections

• GENXT - a data service which can allow member DNA service providers to find relatives for their customers on each other's databases without data disclosure

• Ericsson - augmented reality and virtual reality in storytelling.

• Synium Software introduce the MacFamilyTree app for the Apple universe. It has FamilyTree integration. and photo and document enhancement capabilities

• MyHeritage now features an "AI Time Machine" which can, from a photo of a person, produce imaginary renderings of the person in different periods of history.

To find more about these and other fascinating developments around FamilySearch, please go to the RootsTech site.

Strength In Covenants

Elder Renlund addressed students at a BYU devotional on March 5, 2024. During his talk, he defined the "covenant path" and demonstrated associated negative effects of some risk factors which could impede or halt progress on the path.

By means of exercise bands binding the wrists of three volunteers from the audience, Sister Renlund demonstrated how multiple loops strengthened the bond - three loops around the wrists of one volunteer bound those wrists much more securely than the wrists of another volunteer whose wrists were bound by a single loop. Similarly, multiple covenants bind a disciple of Jesus Christ more securely to the promises of eternal life, that is, there is less risk that the disciple's progress along the covenant path will fail.

Here are some highlights from the talk, followed by its link and the YouTube video: 

The covenants God established are based on eternal, unchanging law. There is only one way to return to live with God, and it is designated as the covenant path. The phrase covenant path refers to the series of covenants through which we come unto Christ and connect to Him and our Heavenly Father. Making and keeping covenants is how we reconcile ourselves to God. These covenants are nonnegotiable. They transform, save, and exalt us. We make them by participating in priesthood ordinances. In return for keeping these covenants, God guarantees us certain blessings. A covenant is a pledge that we should prepare for, clearly understand, and absolutely honor.

Why are multiple covenants needed? It is because the multiple covenants are not only sequential but are also additive and even synergistic in our relationship with God. Each covenant adds a bond, drawing us closer to and strengthening our connection with God.

As our discipleship matures, we add the covenants of the endowment to our baptismal covenant. That binds us more strongly to God. Then, if the blessing comes of being sealed to a spouse, the covenant bond can become even stronger.

Please remember, though, that risk factors are not determinative. You and I know individuals who have not been endowed who are remarkably faithful disciples of Christ, and we know those who have been sealed to a spouse who are not. Faithfulness is an individual choice about how we live the covenants we have made. Not being sealed to a spouse does not halt your progression in your discipleship to the Savior. As you continue being valiant to your testimony of Jesus Christ, your progression continues.

That said, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have invitations for each of you. My invitation for those who have been baptized but who are not yet endowed is that you prepare for and receive your endowment. The decision to receive the endowment is personal and should be made prayerfully. It depends only on your agency—no one else’s. Further, it is not the role of anyone else—leaders, friends, peer groups, family, or me—to decide this for you or unduly influence you to do so. For most of you listening to me today, you meet all the criteria to be endowed if you feel a desire to receive and honor sacred temple covenants throughout your life.

Until you are ready, continue to prepare. This includes doing family history work and qualifying for and using a temple recommend for proxy baptisms and confirmations. Also, focus intently on the covenant you have already made. Conscientiously partake of the sacrament weekly. If you choose to miss sacrament meeting when you could attend, you place yourself in spiritual jeopardy. Continue to faithfully live the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you accept this invitation, it will have the metaphorical effect of shrinking the red exercise band, drawing you closer to God.

Let us turn to those who have been baptized and endowed but who are not sealed to a spouse. We all know that being sealed to a spouse involves someone else’s agency. You do not determine this step solely on your own. My invitation focuses on what you can do.

Remember, eternal life is not a question of current marital status but of discipleship; that is, being “valiant in the testimony of Jesus.”33 You receive access to the grace of Christ through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. Additionally, I invite you to focus on the covenants you have made. Go to the temple often and participate in family history work. Conscientiously partake of the sacrament weekly. As you do, you will strengthen your connection with Jesus Christ.

For those who have been sealed to a spouse, this sealing is a milestone in your life, not a bookend. You need to press forward and focus on the covenants you have made, just as I have encouraged the others to do: conscientiously partaking of the sacrament, worshipping in the temple, and doing family history work.

God established multiple covenants to bless us, not condemn us. Focusing intently on the covenants we have made and preparing for the next one is the best way to prepare to receive all that Heavenly Father has. It is how we “think celestial.”

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dale-g-renlund/stronger-and-closer-connection-to-god-through-multiple-covenants/

Elder Renlund's table below shows interesting covenantal interrelationships that might be helpful to a new convert or to someone in a temple prep class.

Think Celestial!

The highest and holiest manifestation of the sealing power is in the eternal union of a man and a woman in marriage and the linking of humankind through all their generations. Because the authority to officiate in these ordinances is so sacred, the President of the Church personally oversees its delegation to others.

Without the sealings that create eternal families and link generations here and hereafter, we would be left in eternity with neither roots nor branches—that is, neither ancestry nor posterity. It is this free-floating, disconnected state of individuals, on the one hand, or connections that defy the marriage and family relations God has appointed, on the other hand, that would frustrate the very purpose of the earth’s creation. Were that to become the norm, it would be tantamount to the earth being smitten with a curse or “utterly wasted” at the Lord’s coming.

Not long ago, my wife and I joined a dear friend in a sealing room of the Bountiful Utah Temple...This is a scene taking place constantly all over the world in temples. This is the ultimate step in gathering the covenant people. It is the highest privilege of your membership in the Church of Jesus Christ. I promise that as you faithfully seek that privilege, in time or eternity it will surely be yours.

-- Elder D. Todd Christofferson, "The Sealing Power."

Temple Stories

From a talk given by Elder Evan A Schmutz, of the Seventy:

Some years ago, in my earliest days as a General Authority, I was given an opportunity to accompany and observe President M. Russell Ballard as he officiated at a sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. President Ballard knew the groom’s family. The couple being sealed appeared to be in their late thirties, and one or both had been previously married.

Before we went into the sealing room, President Ballard told me not to expect many words from him, saying, “It is hard to offer more truth or eloquence than the words of the ordinance themselves.”

During the sealing, President Ballard shared a single scripture: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

As President Ballard recited this scripture, the groom became visibly emotional. Tears began to run down his cheeks. Following the sealing, as the company began to reverently express their love to the couple and file out of the sealing room, a man quietly came to me and informed me he was the groom’s best friend. In a whisper, he asked if I had noticed the groom’s emotion.

As I nodded, the man continued: “Will you please let President Ballard know that for reasons I don’t have time to tell you, the scripture he recited has been instrumental in the groom’s long and difficult return to faith and worthiness to be in the temple today? To hear President Ballard quote that scripture was a confirmation from heaven that God is pleased with him.”

As President Ballard and I walked from the sealing room, I told him of my conversation. He stopped, thought for a moment, and, smiling softly, said, “I had not planned to use that scripture. Now I know why it came to me.”