The temple endowment can be a source of strength in an increasingly complex and troubled world. The following are excerpts from the text of a talk given by Anthony Sweat, Associate professor of Church history and doctrine, on April 5, 2022, at a BYU devotional (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/anthony-sweat/we-need-an-endowment/):
In the recorded remarks of his sermon to the Twelve, Joseph noted that “darkness prevails at this time [the same] as it was at the time Jesus Christ was about to be crucified.”3
Does that sound familiar?
Joseph then proceeded to instruct them on something that he said was “calculated to unite our hearts, . . . that our faith may be strong, so that Satan cannot overthrow us nor have any power over us.”4
What was this?
I imagine him giving this next line in a way that was emphatic and to the point, expressing what he felt was needed to conquer the spiritual challenges of their day. The Prophet said, “You need an endowment . . . in order that you may be prepared and able to overcome all things.”5
That was the key for them, and I believe it can be the key for us.
When Joseph Smith said we need an endowment to overcome the spiritual challenges we face, he wasn’t just saying we need a religious ceremony. What he meant was that we need an endowment of spiritual power, or a heavenly gift of divine knowledge, experience, capacity, and ability.6 That’s how he and the scriptures often described endowment—as a heavenly bestowal of spiritual power.7
The concepts and covenants of the temple endowment ceremony lay out a pattern of divine living to help bring about these and other spiritual powers. The temple is a modern School of the Prophets in which we enter into a covenant order of future priests and priestesses. As we participate in the temple endowment ceremony, we experience and reenact a symbolic upward journey that takes each one of us, as a fallen person, to being taught about the great plan of redemption, being empowered by knowledge and covenants, and ultimately being brought into the presence of God to become an heir of eternal life. The ceremony suggests growth and progression from glory to glory as we increase in light and truth and make priesthood covenants to guide us in living a holy life.
Or, in the more recent words of President Russell M. Nelson, “As we keep our covenants, [God] endows us with His . . . power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead.”9
[Brother Sweat continues by enumerating and explaining the higher laws presented in the endowment ceremony: Obedience; Sacrifice; The Law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; Chastity; and Consecration. He continues with the following challenge:]
When you leave the temple, be a diligent student and consciously strive to practice those covenants and concepts in everyday life. Put in the work—practice, start again, realign, increase in your precision—and don’t you ever give up. God does not give up on you. Don’t you give up on Him.
As we act in faith, God promises to truly endow us with His power, even the power necessary to overcome the spiritual challenges of our day so that we can enter into the presence of God and receive a fullness of His exalted blessings. Let us go forth and truly receive our endowment—even our endowment of increased spiritual power.
In a BYU Devotional talk from April 11, 2023, Elder Gong used three examples of three recent transformative technologies that have had a profound impact on civilization.
The first example was ChatGPT. Artificial intelligence is making certain types of thought work much faster and scalable, and digital storage provides a home for untold numbers of documents and audio/video recordings.
Second, the Wright brother’s experiments with manned flight have led to a vast transformation in the way that people connect physically with one another through air and space travel.
Third, the Panama canal has provided a great reduction in the time that physical goods require to reach targeted markets, connecting shipping lanes throughout the world.
These transformative technologies have led the world’s citizens to reevaluate, and in many cases, to redefine who they are and how they relate to their environment. Such redefinition and its accompanying confusion is evidenced by worldwide unrest, destabilized institutions, loss of trust in national and local governance, and general malaise and despair. In the midst of these problems, there are those things that do not change, and in those things we can have hope. In fact, the transformative technologies of which he spoke can also advance our understanding of eternal immutable core principles. For instance, in addition to the digital scriptures which the Church has provided, along with tens of thousands of study materials, commentaries, research materials, and historical records, we have very convenient access to FamilySearch, with its huge digital database of records, memories, documents, pictures. FamilySearch has transformed the way that we understand “turning the hearts of the children to their fathers” by turning what not long ago was a laborious chore requiring hours of time per sitting, to what now is doable in five minutes. Now it is almost too easy to keep this part of our sacred covenantal relationships as we write “our own best story!”
Here is my transcription of “Video Highlights” of Elder Gong’s speech (available, along with the full video, from https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/gerrit-w-gong/our-own-best-story/):
However much our external physical environment may change, that which matters most spiritually does not change. As the profit Alma declares, “there is one thing which is more important than them all.” Of all the many things that beckon for our attention, that which ultimately matters most does not change: who we are spiritually - our spiritual identity; whose we are - covenant belonging; and how we use our God-given agency to discover and become our own best story. Today, thanks to modern technology (I’m holding my phone), we can hold in our hands and carry with us our own brass plates: the scriptures; the words of the prophets; our living family records. We can contribute to our living memories and family records so they never perish nor are dimmed anymore by time. Revelatory experiences with our own brass plates can repeatedly guide our journey toward our promised land. Our own best story transcends narrow self-interest and mortality-blindered understanding. It encompasses our legacy of faith, our trust that God knows who we are and cares about us in matters large and small. Of course none of us is perfect, we all make mistakes, move away from him at times, but his light is always on. Please recast any feeling of superiority or guilt that may be separating you from God or his restored Church, as an invitation to come and experience again Jesus Christ’s love.
In a RootsTech presentation, Alice Childs taught about how to use tools and techniques that are available to beginning genealogists. The syllabus for the presentation is here: https://cms-b-assets.familysearch.org/86/fc/6df7187f42e13ed03681f03d1c12/research101-syllabus.pdf. I found the syllabus to be very helpful in focusing my own research under the framework of an effective methodology. I wish that I had had this instruction years ago! It would have saved me time and frustration! The full presentation is about an hour. She takes the viewer on a tour of six steps guided by an acronym. That acronym is “FAMILY.” Here’s a brief high-level rundown:
F: Find a person to research
A: Analyze what is already known about that family member
M: Map and timeline (FamilySearch has a map and timeline feature)
I: Instant records (FamilySearch provides Record Hints and Research Help)
L: Look for additional records (Record Finder and Research WIKI)
Y: You Did It! (Go to New Discovery Page to see an automatically generated life summary)
Last Sunday, our 5th Sunday lesson was about Family History and what it can mean to each of us. The bishop and his 2nd counselor bore testimony of what stories of their ancestors had meant to them individually, especially in terms of the inspiring legacies those ancestors had left. The bishop then shared some pretty great statistics about our ward members’ participation in taking names to the temple, using FamilySearch, and other measures available on the Family History Activity Report. In my mind, I questioned where in the world these numbers were coming from, until he admitted to us that he had massaged the data - they reflected only the activity of 77 people. 77 out of about 900! That sounded more like it.
Our TFH Leader took the remainder of the time then and demonstrated on his computer (connected to a large screen TV) some of the great things that are available on FamilySearch, how he used those things, and so forth. At the end of his presentation, there were several questions from the brothers and sisters in the group, again, from that “active” group of 77. Most of these were “how to” questions about passwords and the best way to breach those brick walls that we encounter in research.
I visited with him after the presentation. He asked me how I thought he could get more people excited about doing this work. He knows how to use FamilySearch. His fan chart is full. He has five TFH Consultants to work with in the ward. He has the apparent support of the bishop and his counselors. What was missing? I responded that it generally works best if the training comes from the top down. “You mean from the Ward Council?” he said. Yes! I thought. Yes! He is getting the big picture!
That big picture is what the Brethren have taught us since 2017 concerning temple and family history work. That is, the priesthood structure that supports temple and family history work relies in large part upon Ward Council involvement in not only the TFH Plan, but in the integrated use of TFH principles in all that takes place in the ward, including activities, teaching, lesson plans, sacrament meeting talks, ministering visits, and missionary work. As you know, the TFH consultants can be valuable ministers in the work of lifting ward members and pointing them toward our shared goal of becoming a covenant people.
I think that when we take President Nelson’s advice to “begin with the end in mind” (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson/begin-end-mind/) we should see that, in relation to our covenants, the temple is, in this life, an end worthy of our intentional and persistent focus. The temple is the only place on this earth, that I know, where we can fully realize what it means to be bound to the Father and the Son by sacred covenant. Everything that we do in our individual ministries really points to that - the covenant becomes that yoke that is easy and that burden that is light. The covenant life really is more important than the consumer life, or, where your treasure is, your heart will be also.
We thought that it might be helpful to give some thought to the process of getting a temple recommend ready for presentation at the temple. The interview process is covered in the General Handbook of Instructions in section 26.3.1. Here are some additional things to keep in mind to help the process to go more smoothly as records are verified by temple office workers.
It is vital that Branch President, Bishops and Stake Presidents check with the member during his or her temple recommend interview to ensure the accuracy of all pertinent records in the membership database (LCR). Be sure to check that records for baptism, confirmation, and, for males, priesthood ordinances, are up to date.
Please also check for accuracy of the names of the candidate's father and mother, and to make sure that this information is recorded in the relevant records.
Please remember that the performance of any sealing which includes the participation of a living person does require that an appointment be made by emailing winte-off@churchofjesuschrist.org. For example, a Child to Deceased Parent Sealing does need an appointment made in this way.
We have both enjoyed and grown from our association with Elder Jones, and wish him the best as he prepares for his new assignment as mission president. We are also looking forward to serving under the direction of Elder Hutchins. How wonderful it is to be able to serve in this great work with such dedicated and inspired leaders! We are grateful to be able to count each of you stake presidents and high councilors among that group, and sustain and pray for you.
Jo & Bill Fankhauser