Elder Mark A. Bragg on how temple and family history unify families in Christ [15:05-20:05]

look like. I love that. I like that. And I looked like my grandma. And I was so happy. How great is that? I loved her. Oh, well, lucky. My mind wasn't as flattering as that. But, um, but here's, you know, so we do some things like that to make it interesting. But again, and I, I learned this from present Irene. Let's, let's not take our focus off the, the really important part of this and the really important part of this. The fun things are great. And it may be it'll bring you in, but the important thing is, is, is developing, is having our hearts turned, having our hearts turned to, to our ancestors. And I, I'll tell you this, I guarantee you, I guarantee you, their hearts are already turned to us. They're thinking about us. They're praying for us. You think of a, of an individual, and you, you've heard this a lot, our good friend Paul, who's in the room. He's a convert to the church, right? Only one in his family. And you see this all through the world. Only one in their family. Well, I am convinced that it's ancestors on the other side of the veil, praying for the missionaries or for the members to talk to someone that they know has an open heart, and they'll accept the gospel so that they will do their work in the temple. You know, it's, we, we're in an unprecedented time of, of baptisms, contra baptisms, right? But every mission president, every missionary can set a baptismal date. It's, you can do it, and, and you can be pretty much guaranteed. You can go use the font anytime. You just set it anytime, any date, and you'll get it done. Those on the other side of the veil are waiting for us. They cannot set their own baptismal date. We have to do that for them. This is why I, I know their hearts are turned to us. We don't have to worry about that. We just need to make sure our hearts are turned to them and, and find them, and love them, and accompany them to the house of the Lord. Yes. My son on his mission in Bolivia, I think when he would speak to people about our church and the gospel and covenants and ceilings, that really, really spoke to their hearts. I don't, you think there's just something, like you said, it's the spirit touching them. This is truth, and I want to be a part of this. Yeah, I, I will never forget. It was either the first or second general authority, or not general authority, excuse me, leadership meeting that around general conference that he had as, as profit of the church, president of the church, and he made a comment something like the ultimate reason, the real reason why anyone would want to join the church of Jesus Christ of Larry Saints is to be sealed to their family forever for eternity. And, and, and that hit me. That's the real reason. And we talk about other things, and, but in the voice of a profit, the real reason, if we explained it properly, the main reason why anyone would want to join the church would be so that they could be sealed to their family for eternity. And that's powerful. So, of course, if that's the, if that's the highest desire of the profit, you know it's the highest desire of the Savior and, and our Heavenly Father. So when you speak that truth, like you just said, when you speak that truth, it, it resonates. It is impactful. And, and it, it changes lives. Yeah. This is so beautiful because I think about how everything you've been talking about, but, but I'll ask it to you, I guess, formally, how does everything ultimately tie to the Savior and making covenants with him and the Heavenly Father? Well, it, it, it all ultimately ties there because everything that we do directs people to the house of the Lord, to the temple. So, everything that we do, in President Oaks' last conference talk, it starts by saying the purpose of the, of the church is to exalt families. It is all, and the profits always point us to the temple. We, we, we, we had a, we have to realize what that means, that everything that we do should lead us to gathering in Israel on both sides of the bail, and that's always going to lead you to the temple. So, what I learned, I was, you and I had a couple of opportunities to work together and, and as President of the North America West area, I had this beautiful opportunity for four years to work with Elder Bednar. And, and Elder Bednar, I, I remember I, I was going to do the, oh, the media day at the Feather River Temple. And, and so I had a, I had an assignment with him the, the weekend before, and, and then this was on Tuesday, the following Tuesday. So, I was just going to stamp in the Bay Area and, and do this in, in the U of the City. And, uh, I asked him, what, what should I say? You know, give me some counsel. And he said, the best thing you can do is that when you're giving