My dear brothers and sisters, some of you
were invited to this meeting by missionaries
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Those missionaries may have already invited
you to make the choice of covenanting with God
by being baptized.
Others of you are listening because you accepted
the invitation of a parent, a wife, or perhaps a child,
extended to you in the hopes that you
will choose to put the covenants you've already
made with God back into the center of your lives.
Some of you who are listening have already
made the choice to return to follow the Savior
and are feeling today the joy of His welcome.
Whoever you are and wherever you may be, you hold in your hands
the happiness of more people than you can now imagine.
Every day and every hour, you can
choose to make or keep a covenant with God.
Wherever you are on the path to inherit
the gift of eternal life, you have the opportunity
to show many people the way to greater happiness.
When you choose whether to make or keep a covenant with God,
you choose whether you will leave an inheritance of hope
to those who might follow your example.
You and I have been blessed with the promise
of such an inheritance.
I owe much of my happiness in life
to a man I never met in mortal life.
He was an orphan who became one of my great-grandparents.
He left me a priceless heritage of hope.
Let me tell you some of the part he
played in creating that inheritance for me.
His name was Heinrich Eyring.
He was born into great wealth.
His father had a large estate in Coburg, in what is now Germany.
His mother was the Countess Charlotte Von Blomberg.
Her father was the keeper of the lands of the king of Prussia.
Heinrich was Charlotte and Edward's first son.
Charlotte died at the age of 31 after the birth
of her third child.
Edward died soon thereafter, having lost all his property
and wealth in a failed investment.
He was only 40 years of age.
He left three orphaned children.
Heinrich, my great-grandfather, had
lost both of his parents and a great worldly inheritance.
He was penniless.
He recorded in his history that he
felt his best hope lay in going to America.
Although he had neither family nor friends there,
he had a feeling of hope about going to America.
He first went to New York City.
Later he moved with his younger sister to St. Louis, Missouri.
In St. Louis one of his co-workers
was a Latter-day Saint.
From him he obtained a copy of a pamphlet
written by Elder Parley P. Pratt.
He read it and then studied every word
he could obtain about the Latter-day Saints.
He prayed to know if there really
were angels that appeared to men, whether there was a living
prophet, and whether he had found
a true and revealed religion.
After two months of careful study and prayer,
Heinrich had a dream in which he was told he was to be baptized.
A man whose name and priesthood I hold in sacred memory, Elder
William Brown, was to perform the ordinance.
Heinrich was baptized in a pool of rainwater
on March 11, 1855, at 7:30 in the morning.
I believe that Heinrich Eyring knew then
that what I am teaching you today is true.
He knew that the happiness of eternal life
comes through family bonds which continue forever.
Even when he had so recently found the Lord's plan
of happiness, he knew that his hope for eternal joy
depended on the free choices of others to follow his example.
His hope of eternal happiness depended
on people not yet born.
As a part of our family's inheritance of hope,
he left a history to his descendants.
In that history I can feel his love
for those of us who would follow him.
In his words I feel his hope that his descendants
might choose to follow him on the path back
to our heavenly home.
He knew it would not be one great choice to make,
to do, but many small choices.
I quote from his history (quote):
"From the time I first heard Elder Andrus speak ...
I have always attended the meeting of the Latter-day
Saints and the instances are very rare indeed,
when I have failed to go to meeting, it being
at the same time my duty to do so.
I name this in my history that my children
may imitate my example and never neglect this important duty
to assemble with the Saints" (close quote).
Heinrich knew that in sacrament meetings
we could renew our promise to always remember the Savior
and have His Spirit to be with us.
It was that Spirit that sustained him
on the mission to which he was called only a few months
after accepting the baptismal covenant.
He left as his heritage his example
of staying faithful to his mission for six
years in what was then called the Indian Territories.
To receive his release from his mission,
he walked from Oklahoma to Salt Lake City,
a distance of approximately 1,100 miles.
Soon thereafter he was called by the prophet of God
to move to southern Utah.
From there he answered another call
to serve a mission in his native Germany.
He then accepted the invitation of an Apostle of the Lord Jesus
Christ to help build up the Latter-day Saint colonies
in Northern Mexico.
From there he was called to Mexico City
as a full-time missionary again.
He honored those calls.
He lies buried in a small cemetery
in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
I recite these facts not to claim greatness
for him or for what he did or for his descendants.
I recite those facts to honor him
for the example of faith and hope that was in his heart
as he served Jesus Christ, who called him.
He accepted those calls because of his faith
that the resurrected Christ and our Heavenly Father
had appeared to Joseph Smith in a grove of trees
in the state of New York.
He accepted them because he had faith
that the priesthood keys in the Lord's Church
had been restored with the power to seal families forever,
if only they had sufficient faith to keep their covenants.
Like Heinrich Eyring, my ancestor,
you may be the first in your family
to lead the way to eternal life along the path
of sacred covenants made and kept with diligence and faith.
Each covenant brings with it duties and promises.
For all of us, as they were for Heinrich,
those duties are sometimes simple but are often difficult.
But remember, the duties must sometimes be difficult
because their purpose is to move us along the path
to live forever with Heavenly Father and His Beloved
Son, Jesus Christ, in families.
You remember the words from the book of Abraham (quote):
"And there stood one among them that was like unto God,
and he said unto those who were with him:
We will go down, for there is space there,
and we will take of these materials,
and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
and we will prove them herewith, to see
if they will do all things whatsoever
the Lord their God shall command them;
and they who keep their first estate shall be added upon;
and they who keep not their first estate shall not
have glory in the same kingdom with those
who keep their first estate;
and they who keep their second estate shall have glory
added upon their heads for ever and ever" (close quote).
Keeping our second estate depends on our making
covenants with God and faithfully performing
the duties they require of us.
It takes faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior
to keep sacred covenants for a lifetime.
Because Adam and Eve did fall, we
have temptation, trials, and death
as our universal inheritance.
However, our loving Heavenly Father
gave us the gift of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ,
as our Savior.
That great gift and blessing of the Atonement of Jesus Christ
brings a universal inheritance: the promise of the resurrection
and the possibility of eternal life to all who are born.
The greatest of all the blessings of God, eternal life,
will come to us only as we make covenants offered
in the true Church of Jesus Christ
by His authorized servants.
Because of the Fall, we all need the cleansing effects
of baptism and the laying on of hands
to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
These ordinances must be performed
by those who possess the proper priesthood authority.
Then, with the help of the Spirit
of Christ and the Holy Ghost, we can
keep all the covenants we make with God,
especially those offered in His temples.
Only in that way and with that help
can anyone claim his or her rightful inheritance
as a child of God in a family forever.
To some listening to me, that may
seem a nearly hopeless dream.
You have seen faithful parents sorrow
over children who have rejected or have chosen
to break their covenants with God.
But those parents can take heart and hope
from other parental experiences.
Alma and King Mosiah's sons returned from fierce rebellion
against the covenants and the commandments of God.
Alma the Younger saw his son Corianton turn from gross sin
to faithful service.
The Book of Mormon also records the miracle of the Lamanites
putting aside traditions of hating righteousness
to covenanting to die to maintain peace.
An angel was sent to the young Alma and the sons of Mosiah.
The angel came because of the faith and prayers
of their fathers and of God's people.
From those examples of the power of the Atonement
working in human hearts, you can receive courage and comfort.
The Lord has given us all the source of hope
as we struggle to help those we love
accept their eternal inheritance.
He has made promises to us as we keep trying to gather people
to Him, even when they resist His invitation to do so.
Their resistance saddens Him, but He does not quit;
nor should we.
He sets the perfect example for us with His persistent love.
OPEN QUOTE: "And again, how oft I would have gathered you
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, who have fallen;
yea, O ye people of the house of Israel,
ye that dwell at Jerusalem, as ye that have fallen;
yea, how oft would I have gathered you
as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not"
(close quote).
We can depend on that unfailing desire of the Savior
to bring all of Heavenly Father's spirit children back
to their home with Him.
Every faithful parent, grandparent,
and great-grandparent shares in that desire.
Heavenly Father and the Savior are our perfect examples
of what we can and must do.
They never force righteousness, because righteousness
must be chosen.
They make righteousness discernible to us,
and They let us see that its fruits are delicious.
Every person born into the world receives the Light
of Christ, which helps us see and feel what is right
and what is wrong.
God has sent mortal servants who can, by the Holy Ghost,
help us recognize what He would have us do and what He forbids.
God makes it attractive to choose the right by letting
us feel the effects of our choices.
If we choose the right, we will find happiness in time.
If we choose evil, there come sorrow and regret in time.
Those effects are sure.
Yet they are often delayed for a purpose.
If the blessings were immediate, choosing the right
would not build faith.
And since sorrow is also sometimes greatly delayed,
it takes faith to feel the need to seek forgiveness
for sin early rather than after we
feel its sorrowful and painful effects.
Father Lehi sorrowed over the choices
made by some of his sons and their families.
He was a great and good man, a prophet of God.
He often testified of our Savior Jesus Christ to them.
He was an example of obedience and service
when the Lord called him to leave all his worldly
possessions to spare his family from destruction.
At the very end of his life, he was still
testifying to his children.
Like the Savior--and despite his power to discern their hearts
and to see the future both sad and wonderful--Lehi kept his
arms outstretched to draw his family toward salvation.
Today millions of the descendants of Father Lehi
are justifying his hope for them.
What can you and I do to draw from Lehi's example?
You can do it by studying scripture prayerfully
and by observation.
I suggest that you take both the short and the long view
as you try to give the inheritance of hope
to your family.
In the short run, there will be troubles and Satan will roar.
And there are things to wait for patiently in faith,
knowing that the Lord acts in His own time
and in His own way.
There are things you can do early,
when those you love are young.
Remember that daily family prayer, family scripture study,
and sharing our testimony in sacrament meeting
are easier and more effective when children are young.
Young children are often more sensitive to the Spirit
than we realize.
When they're older, they will remember
the hymns they sang with you.
Even more than music, they will remember
the words of scripture and testimony.
The Holy Ghost can bring all things to their remembrance,
but the words of scriptures and hymns will last the longest.
Those memories will exert a pull that may bring them back
when they wander for a time, possibly for years,
from the pathway home to eternal life.
We will need the long view when those
we love feel the pull of the world and the cloud of doubt
seems to overwhelm their faith.
We have faith, hope, and charity to guide us
and to strengthen them.
I have seen that as a counselor to two living prophets of God.
They are individuals with unique personalities,
yet they seem to share a consistent optimism.
When someone raises an alarm about something in the Church,
their most frequent response is (quote)
"Oh, things will work out" (close quote).
They generally know more about the problem
than the people sounding the alarm.
They also know the way of the Lord,
and so they are always hopeful about His kingdom.
They know He is at its head.
He is all-powerful, and He cares.
If you let Him be the leader of your family,
things will work out.
Some of Heinrich Eyring's descendants
have seemed to wander.
But many of his great-grandchildren
go to the temples of God at 6:00 in the morning
to perform ordinances for ancestors they have never met.
They go out of the heritage of hope he left.
He left an inheritance that is being
claimed by many of his descendants.
After all we can do in faith, the Lord
will justify our hopes for greater blessings
for our families than we can imagine.
He wants the best for them and for us as His children.
We are all children of a living God.
Jesus of Nazareth is His Beloved Son and our resurrected Savior.
This is His Church.
In it are the keys of the priesthood,
and so families can be forever.
This is our priceless heritage of hope.
I testify that it is true, in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, amen.