We're going to have a
discussion, a family discussion. It'll be just a bit more
formal because we've invited 14,000 friends. And here are my
great-grandparents, your grandparents, Dad. Yes. On the day we met in 1963
I had just turned 11. Lena Sophia, my
grandmother, was 87. In 1917 my grandfather
Leander died of tuberculosis, leaving Lena Sophia a widow and
pregnant with their 10th child. Think about the
strength and comfort Lena Sophia must have
gained from knowing about the sealing power, that
that power is given direction as we research and learn
about our ancestors. This kind of reminds me of some
of the history of explosives. In 1847 the Italian
chemist Ascanio Sobrero concocted a completely
new explosive material, nitroglycerin. But it is incredibly unstable. A few decades later
Alfred Nobel found that he could absorb
liquid nitroglycerine into a stabilizing
material called kieselguhr and he named the new
material dynamite. Dynamite wasn't the
discovery of a new material but it involved putting two
known materials together to make them safer, more
effective and more useful. Without family history,
the sealing authority can't get where it
needs to be to be used. And the true value
of family history is only realized because
of the sealing authority. Both can be meaningful
in our lives but just like nitroglycerine
and kieselguhr, the real power comes when
we combine family history with the blessings
of the temple. Do either of you
remember the challenge that Elder Neil L. Anderson
gave at RootsTech two years ago? His apostolic temple challenge
continued to grow this year. Brothers and sisters, I
promise you protection for you and your family
as you take this challenge to find as many names
to take to the temple as ordinances you
perform in the temple, and teach others to do the same. So it's not just baptisms. That's right, not just baptisms
but all temple ordinances. Sounds like nobody's
off the hook. Nobody's off the hook. And if you accept
this challenge, blessings will begin to
flow to you and your family. You'll find not only protection
from the temptation and ills of this world, but you'll 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 together and heal that which needs healing.