Read or Summarize 3 Nephi 25:5-6
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord;
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Discuss
Who is Elijah and what power does he have?
In his day, Elijah ministered in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He had great faith in the Lord and is noted for many miracles. The Prophet Joseph Smith said that Elijah held the sealing power of the Melchizedek Priesthood and was the last prophet to do so before the time of Jesus Christ. He appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and conferred the keys of the priesthood on Peter, James, and John (Matt. 17:3). He appeared again, with Moses and others, on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Ohio Temple and conferred the same keys upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (D&C 110:13–16). All of this was in preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord, as spoken of in Malachi 4:5–6.
The power of Elijah is the sealing power of the priesthood by which things that are bound or loosed on earth are bound or loosed in heaven. Chosen servants of the Lord on earth today have this sealing power and perform the saving ordinances of the gospel for the living and the dead (D&C 128:8).
Why is the sealing power important?
To make valid in heaven the ordinances performed by priesthood authority on earth. Ordinances are sealed when they receive the approval of the Holy Spirit of Promise, which is the Holy Ghost. This means that as we gather our ancestors and those we loved on earth, we bind them to us. Think of this bond as the links in a chain. Each family member you find and seal to you, gets added to the chain. Only this chain is not a chain that gets broken when we die. The Holy Ghost seals those bonds beyond death, so that we will never be separated again. Families are meant to be eternal. We are meant to be together forever.
What do we have to do to be sealed to our ancestors?
Visit familysearch.org. This is a free website that anyone can enjoy. Type in the name of at least one of your known ancestors who have passed away. One cool note is that if people have discovered this ancestor before you, they may have added pictures and stories about them. If you have pictures and stories, you can add these treasures for other people to find. For a guide on how to build your tree, go here.
Continue searching and working backwards to expand your family tree and to discover ancestors who do not have their temple work done for them.
Print their ordinance card.
Give this card to a person who holds a temple recommend, or if you do, take this card with you to the temple.
In the temple, you can perform the ordinances of baptism, confirmation, initiatories, endowments, and sealings on behalf of your relatives.
Your relatives will have the opportunity to decide if they want to accept or reject the ordinances that you performed (Agency is eternal!).
Your eternal family just got bigger!
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