Brothers and sisters, in 2013, President Thomas S. Monson
announced: "Now is the time for members and missionaries
to come together, to work together,
to labor in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls unto Him.
He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel
in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors
if we will act in faith to fulfill His work."
Perhaps a demonstration will help show
why members and missionaries must work together.
I've asked my wife, Ruth, to help me
with a demonstration using chopsticks.
One chopstick represents members,
and the other chopstick represents missionaries.
These candy gumdrops represent the souls
of Heavenly Father's children.
Ruth, pick a chopstick.
OK.
Now using that chopstick, will you pick up a gumdrop
and put it in the jar?
Now dear, Ruth, why don't you set higher goals?
[LAUGHING]
Dear, dear, dear, why don't you exercise your faith more?
No, no, maybe we should change.
Why don't you use that one?
But now focus more.
[TAPPING]
I can't get one.
[TAPPING]
[LAUGHING]
[LAUGHS] I guess we can't save that one.
No.
[LAUGHING]
Now, Ruth, why don't you actually use both chopsticks
and see what you can do?
Ah, that looks a little better.
Yes, indeed.
Now, as you're doing that, which chopstick do you think
is more important?
Really?
[CHUCKLES]
Both of them together.
Yeah.
OK, I'll give you more.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Clearly, two chopsticks can get gumdrops into a jar--into
a safe jar, into a gumdrop garner--when one chopstick
alone cannot.
The other thing is that with both working together
and the right tools, Ruth actually
can focus on those gumdrops.
And because she can focus, she can exercise greater faith.
And because of that increased faith,
she can set and achieve higher goals.
Thanks.
Now let's consider something else
President Monson shared in 2014: "The Lord
has never, to my knowledge, indicated that His work is
confined to mortality.
Rather, His work embraces eternity.
I believe He is hastening His work in the spirit world.
I also believe that the Lord, through His servants
there, is preparing many spirits to receive the gospel.
Our job is to search out our dead and then go to the temple
and perform the sacred ordinances that
will bring to those beyond the veil
the same opportunities we have."
One way members and missionaries come together
in the work of salvation is in temple and family history work.
Whether living or dead, individuals
who do not harden their hearts will
be saved in the kingdom of God.
Members and missionaries work together
like chopsticks to accomplish this work.
If they don't, we lose more than gumdrops.
A booklet, Families and Temples, is now
being used by missionaries to teach investigators
and new converts the eternal nature
of the family and the ordinances and covenants
necessary to return to our Heavenly Father.
Thus missionaries teach the purpose of temples:
baptism for deceased ancestors, the endowment,
and temple sealing.
The importance of family history becomes obvious,
and missionaries help individuals begin.
Missionaries encourage new converts to go to the temple
as soon after baptism as possible
to be baptized for their deceased ancestors.
For this to happen, members and missionaries
need to work together as directed by President Monson.
As early as 2004, the First Presidency said:
"A new member's transition into the Church requires a friend,
a responsibility, and nourishment from the word
of God. ...
New members may be invited to gather and record family
history information about parents, grandparents,
and great-grandparents, drawing [on] their own memories
and seeking information from others in the extended family.
...
These simple suggestions will prepare the new member
to subsequently receive his or her own temple endowment
and complete ordinance work for deceased family members."
Now, things have changed since 2004.
We have 36 more temples.
We have the booklet My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together.
We have thousands of ward temple and family history consultants
who will be trained by their stake counterparts.
Online tools such as FamilySearch to help
build family trees.
We have family baptistry days in temples.
We have individual limited-use recommends.
And we have online tools to help priesthood leaders
strategically deploy temple and family history consultants.
For example, we have new reports to assist leaders
as they prayerfully consider which
individuals and families to invite
to complete their family trees.
These reports assist in monitoring
progress in family history activity,
including building family trees.
Using new one-on-one and small-workshop methods,
temple and family history consultants
can make members' first experiences joyful
and lead them quickly to the temple.
Convert participation in temple and family history work
is positively correlated with retention at one year.
In our research, new converts consistently
disclose that when they are vicariously
baptized for their deceased ancestors
or make new discoveries in their family history,
they reexperience the same feelings they initially
felt as investigators.
These feelings and memories build a defense
against the challenges they face during their first year
in the Church.
Stake and ward councils work with the missionaries
to help new converts learn the doctrine of turning
their hearts to their fathers and the blessings of temple
attendance.
New converts begin their lifelong pursuit
of family history the same way that multigenerational families
have always started family history work:
by talking to living family members
and recording what they remember.
Then they'll go beyond the memories of the living
by finding family names and preserved records.
That's how many of these new converts
will quickly become family history competent.
Experience has shown that new converts
become zealous missionaries.
If we do this correctly, they'll become zealous missionaries
with effect on both sides of the veil.
And they will endure to the end and qualify
for their own exaltation.
When members and missionaries work together,
great things happen.
Two chopsticks working together can simply accomplish what one
chopstick cannot.
And brothers and sisters, as we thrust our chopsticks
in with our might, we lay up in store
and bring salvation to our own souls.
I know that this is the Savior's work.
I know that He has set it in motion.
And it requires our efforts to help
Him gather all of Heavenly Father's children, including
and especially our families, into the garners.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Amen.