[MUSIC PLAYING]
Our Father's plan
is about families, symbolized by a great tree. In order for a tree
to live and grow, it needs both
roots and branches. We likewise need to be connected
both to our roots--our parents, grandparents, and
other ancestors--and to our branches--our
children, grandchildren, and other descendants. Several poignant
scriptures use the analogy of a tree with
roots and branches representing the family. The prophet Malachi, in the
last book of the Old Testament, prophesied of a time when
Elijah the prophet would return to the earth before the "great
and dreadful day of the Lord ... [to] turn the heart of the
fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest [He] come and smite
the earth with a curse." Only through modern revelation
is Elijah's complete role revealed. He was the last prophet
to hold the sealing power of the Melchizedek Priesthood
before the time of Jesus Christ. With Moses, he appeared
to Jesus Christ and Peter, James, and John on
the Mount of Transfiguration in the meridian of time. As a seminal element
of the Restoration, Elijah again appeared to
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in 1836 in the Kirtland Temple. He restored the keys
of the sealing power once again for the
sealing of families in this dispensation
in fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy. Because Elijah was sent
in this dispensation, the fullness of salvation is
available to both the living and the dead. Elijah's mission is facilitated
by what is sometimes called the spirit of Elijah,
which, as Elder Russell M. Nelson has taught, is "a
manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the
divine nature of the family." That is why we often
call the manifestations of the Holy Ghost associated
with family history and temple work the spirit of Elijah. We read in Doctrine and
Covenants 128:18 of those who have passed on before us, that
"we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they
without us be made perfect." What does this mean? We find this answer
in scripture: "And now, my dearly beloved
brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these
are principles in relation to the dead and the living that
cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary
and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the
fathers--that they without us cannot be made perfect--neither
can we without our dead be made perfect." "Their salvation is
necessary and essential to our salvation." This means that the salvation
of the whole human family is interdependent and
interconnected--like the roots and branches of a great tree.