Qualify for the Blessings of the Temple
S&I Annual Training Broadcast 2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Brother Chad H Webb: I’m very grateful for this training on the Life Preparation lessons. I think we can all appreciate just how relevant these lessons will be for our youth. And as we watched the video, I was reminded just how Christ-centered these lessons can be. Using the perfect example of the Savior living these gospel principles and discussing how He is able to help our students in their circumstances was really powerful.
I also love that the lessons are rooted in the word of God, both using examples from the scriptures and from the teachings of modern prophets. I believe the same methods that help us effectively teach the scriptures can be adapted to effectively teach the inspired messages of Church leaders. Thank you for that wonderful model and outstanding training.
Now, I’d like to shift gears and move to another topic that has been weighing on my mind and heart. We’ve all been blessed by the teachings and ministry of President Russell M. Nelson. I’m so grateful for him and bear testimony that he is the Lord’s chosen prophet. I’m thankful to the Lord for preserving him and for the knowledge, direction, and strength I have personally received through the inspiration that has come from the Lord to President Nelson.
One of the invitations President Nelson has repeated often is for us to learn to access the power of the Lord through covenants and temples. So in our most recent Area Directors Convention, we decided to begin each morning studying what President Nelson and other Church leaders have taught about covenants and the house of the Lord. I was so deeply touched by that experience that I asked some of the participants to share what they learned.
Brother: As President Nelson has taught what it means to be in a covenant with God, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t view Him as a CEO or corporate executive in heaven that is waiting for me to maybe break a contract. But rather it’s a covenantal relationship with a loving Father, and because of that He will never tire in His efforts to support me and I will never exhaust His merciful patience. Because I’ve learned that due to the covenant, I have a special place in God’s heart. It has changed the way that I view things like my prayers, where rather than feeling like I’m going to kneel down at the end of the day and repent and it will be a burden to Him, I am drawn towards Him, and I want to speak to Him, and I know that everything else I want to do is to reciprocate the love that He’s shown to me.
Sister: When I think of covenants, I think of what President Nelson has taught us, that everything we believe and every promise God has made to His covenant people come together in the temple. I cannot separate the temple from my covenants because it is there that I learn the meaning of those covenants that I’ve made with Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. It’s through those covenantal promises made in the temple that all the blessings of heaven will be granted to me as a daughter of God. And that has increased over the years as I’ve come to better understand the endowment and that very special gift from our Heavenly Father to us.
Brother: So I learned from President Nelson that once we make a covenant with our Heavenly Father, our relationship with Him changes forever. And that’s significant to me because I know that Heavenly Father loves me, and the fact that He has created a path whereby I’ll be able to draw closer to Him, get to know Him better, and eventually have the potential to be like Him. The thing about covenants is that no matter what you are going through in life, Heavenly Father is with you, He’s walking next to you, He’s holding your hand, He’s leading you along the path. And that’s all because of the covenants.
Brother: I feel so grateful for the blessings of having a prophet. Through his teachings I have a better understanding of the special love that God has for those who have entered into covenant with Him. And that fact that He will never abandon that relationship; moreover, He will never cease to give us opportunities to repent and change. Knowing the nature of God has been a band of hope and healing to my heart.
Brother: When we’re bound to Christ, which President Nelson has truly taught, we go where He goes, we do what He does. If I’m yoked to Him and He’s the senior oxen, for example, then I am going where He goes, I am saying what He says, I’m doing what He does—eventually. And hopefully that association will help me be what He is. More than anything in my life I want to please Him. I want to get to the point where, in my own life and heart, all that I do please Him. I don’t know how to repay the Savior for what He’s done for me, other than to do what He’s asked me to do.
Brother: When I’ve listened to President Nelson, I’ve heard that when we enter into a covenantal relationship with our Heavenly Father, that we are given additional power in our lives. It’s a tangible power. It’s something that can bring us hope and healing and faith and can be something that lifts us in our most difficult moments. The beautiful part about this covenantal bond is that we have a Heavenly Father who will never abandon us. When we struggle with doubt, He will help us replace that with faith. When we struggle with addiction, He will help us replace that with freedom. When we struggle with despair, He will help fill our souls with light. The miracle of the Savior Jesus Christ is that He offers us a special kind of love and mercy that is always drawing us back to Him.
Brother Webb: You probably have many of President Nelson’s teachings or specific statements that have become your personal favorites. For example, you may remember that in his first press conference as President of the Church in 2018, President Nelson asked us to begin with the end in mind. Speaking from the Salt Lake Temple, he said, “The end for which each of us strives is to be endowed with power in the house of the Lord.”
In 2021 he said, “The safest place to be spiritually is living inside your covenants.”
In 2024 he taught, “Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple. … Nothing will protect you more. … Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more.”
During his most recent General Conference address he said, “Here is my promise to you: Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple.”
And lastly in his Liahona article called “The Everlasting Covenant,” he taught, “Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. … He will continue to work with them and offer them opportunities to change. He will forgive them when they repent. And should they stray, He will help them find their way back to Him. … Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us.”
Not only had President Nelson taught about the temple and covenants as the President of the Church, but more than 15 years ago as we wrestled over the language for a new S&I objective statement, it was Elder Russell M. Nelson, then serving as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Education, that encouraged us to include the second phrase of our objective, which says that “We are to help youth and young adults qualify for the blessings of the temple.”
I wonder if in our efforts to abbreviate our objective statement we’ve talked only in terms of deepening conversion? While the progress we’re making is wonderful, and that emphasis should continue, I believe there is more we can do to also emphasize the second part of our objective and help more youth and young adults qualify for the blessings of the temple. I’m not suggesting you all write a new lesson or create new programs, but I am asking you to be thoughtful, even prayerful, about what more you can personally do within the context of what you are already doing.
As I’ve been asking people this question, I’ve heard many great responses. Among them are these suggestions: One, be current with prophetic emphases and teachings regarding covenants and the house of the Lord. Two, be intentional in connecting our love for and faith in Jesus Christ to qualifying for the blessings of the temple. Three, refer to the temple recommend questions when appropriate. Four, refer to the specific covenants as we teach gospel principles, helping students understand the doctrine of the covenants. And five, share our own love and appreciation for the temple and help students recognize the blessings that have come into their lives by keeping their covenants. You will have many other ideas; please continue to discuss this as faculties and inservice groups and share what you are learning.
By way of example of what I believe can and will happen, I’d like to share with you just one recent development. A few years ago, I was in Guam with our area and regional directors from Asia and the Pacific. In one of the meetings, we discussed how we could help more students qualify for the blessings of the temple. After those meetings, our area director in the Philippines, Julius Barrientos, met with his Region Directors Council, and they determined they would work more closely with Church leaders to help more youth and young adults hold a current temple recommend. They were encouraged by their Area Presidency, who already had a goal to increase temple recommends as part of their area plan. S&I leaders and coordinators also met with local Church leaders on all levels, and together they discussed their efforts and reported their progress.
I want to be clear on this point: they did not act independently of Church leaders. They assisted the leaders who already had a goal and a plan and who were following the direction of their Area Presidency. But S&I did help by focusing on covenants and the temple by teaching these things naturally at every opportunity and by talking often of the blessings of the temple.
In three years, with the combined efforts of Church leaders, parents, and S&I teachers, the number of youth recommend holders in the Philippines has increased by 277 percent. But the blessing is not found in mere numbers, the impact on the youth and their families has been tremendous. Such as it has been for the Topyador family from the Bayambang Stake, pictured here. Like many other families in the Philippines, the Topyadors now frequently attend the temple together. The blessing of a family going to the temple together has eternal significance and is central to what the Lord wants for His children. I believe that through our efforts to focus on the blessings of the house of the Lord, we can help more youth and young adults all over the world make and keep covenants with the Lord.
In closing, I would like to share a simple object lesson. I’ve been thinking about the power of covenants and how we might explain this so clearly that even a child can understand. As I did, I was reminded of an object lesson that some of you have seen. I think I first saw Brother Chad Wilkinson use it.
If I were to ask someone to come up and break this pencil, any of you would be able to do that. But what if I took a pencil and taped it to this baseball bat? Now, would you be able to break the pencil? In this simple illustration, what or who is the pencil? What or who is the bat? And what is the tape? The object lesson is suggesting that the pencil represents you and me, the bat represents the Savior Jesus Christ, and the tape symbolizes our covenants.
The power of covenants is that they bind us to Jesus Christ. Remember, nothing will protect you more. The safest place to be is living inside our covenants. And the more we renew our covenants, the stronger the bond becomes. And even if the pencil is broken, through covenants, the Savior can heal us. And if two people want to be together forever, covenants will bind them together and to the Lord.
I’m so grateful that the Lord loves us enough to bless us with covenants. May we be covenant keepers, and may we help ever more youth and young adults to qualify for the blessings of the house of the Lord, where every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
It is now my privilege to introduce Elder Clark G. Gilbert. Elder Gilbert was called as a General Authority Seventy in 2021. He currently serves as the Commissioner of the Church Educational System. He received degrees from BYU, Stanford, and Harvard and started his career as a professor at Harvard University. He was the chief executive officer of Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media. He also served as the President of BYU–Idaho and BYU–Pathway. He’s married to Christine Calder, and they are the parents of eight children.
I’m grateful for Elder Gilbert. He’s been a remarkable mentor. He cares deeply about the work of Seminaries and Institutes. I appreciate how aligned he is with President Nelson and other Church leaders and how he always looks for opportunities to amplify their teachings. He loves the Lord and works tirelessly to serve Him and takes every opportunity to testify of the Savior Jesus Christ. I’m excited and grateful today for the opportunity to learn from him.