Technology for Family History & Temple Work

W. Jeffrey Marsh

Cars, planes, telephones, computers, and so forth enable us to do so much more than ever before. But they can also distract us from doing what, eternally, really matters most. Susa Young Gates once asked her father, President Brigham Young, how it would ever be possible to accomplish the great amount of temple work that needed to be done. “He told her there would be many inventions of labor-saving devices, so that our daily duties could be performed in a short time, leaving us more and more time for temple work. The inventions have come, and are still coming, but many simply divert the time gained to other channels, and not for the purpose intended by the Lord.” (“Training from the Old Testament: Moroni’s Lessons for a Prophet,” Ensign, Aug. 1998, 10 quoting (Archibald F. Bennett, “Put On Thy Strength, O Zion!” Improvement Era, Oct. 1952, 720))

Boyd K. Packer

As we proceed, we are joined at the crossroads by those who have been prepared to help us. They come with skills and abilities precisely suited to our needs. And we find provisions: information, inventions, help of various kinds, set along the way waiting for us to take them up. It is as though someone knew we would be traveling that way. We see the invisible hand of the Almighty providing for us. Elder LeGrand Richards said: “Brethren, the Lord has inspired men to invent these great tools. Now, if We don’t use them to teach His gospel, Satan will use them to lead the people astray.” We must get the vision of this, for where there is no vision the people perish, and the dead go unredeemed. (The Holy Temple, 239)