Honoring Temple Covenants Can Be ‘Wonderfully Satisfying,’ Elder Andersen Says

Church President Russell M. Nelson has promised, “Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple” and that Latter-day Saints can access God’s power through temple ordinances and covenants.

Members of the Church’s Temple and Family History Executive Council — including two Apostles — counsel together and offer insights to local leaders on those topics in the 2025 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction, an annual training video that is now available online in Gospel Library.

“We cherish our covenants. It is not just attending the temple, it is letting the covenants and ordinances of the temple come into us. As that happens, these covenants do not become burdensome. They become wonderfully satisfying as we know we are doing our part,” said Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in this year’s presentation.

“Perhaps the greatest gift of the house of the Lord is that the Holy Ghost testifies that Jesus is the Christ, that He lives, and this is my witness to you — He is our Savior and Redeemer.”

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Elder Andersen was joined by the following Church leaders in the 32-minute instruction session:

• Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
• President Susan H. Porter, Primary General President
• Sister Kristin M. Yee, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency
• Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Church’s Family History Department
• Elder Kevin R. Duncan, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Church’s Temple Department

Restoration of Keys

To provide a foundation for the discussion, Elder Andersen referenced President Nelson’s April 2024 general conference talk, where he spoke of the temple and encouraged members to study Doctrine and Covenants section 109, the prayer offered by Joseph Smith at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple on March 27, 1836. President Nelson also noted a series of remarkable events on April 3, 1836, when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received visitations in the temple from the Savior, Jesus Christ, followed by Old Testament prophets Moses, Elias and Elijah.

President Nelson said, “The significance of these keys being returned to the earth by three heavenly messengers under the direction of the Lord cannot be overstated.”

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Reflecting on these events, Elder Kearon said: “When we talk about accessing God’s power through temple ordinances and covenants, I think of it as a journey of discovery. We will all be at different points in understanding what this means or what it can mean to us and our loved ones.”

Sister Yee said priesthood keys are evidence of God’s love for His children. “He wants to bless us with that sealing power to be with our families, to receive all that He has through covenants and ordinances,” she said. “What a gift it is. It’s a sign of his love.”

Referencing verse 22 in section 109, Elder Hamilton said, “Everything we do in the temple arms us with His power and gives us this sense of having angels around us to buoy us up and support us.”

Accessing God’s Power

How do members access God’s power through temple ordinances and covenants?

President Porter said it begins with obedience and sacrifice. Seeking “to obey His voice and sacrifice — just starting with those two — opens our heart to receive His Spirit and His power,” she said.

Elder Duncan has learned from President Nelson that the temple offers unique insights and understanding that cannot be gained elsewhere. “As we go to the temple, not just one time but over and over again, that knowledge and understanding really begins to unfold in our hearts and our minds,” Elder Duncan said.

Elder Kearon said some blessings will come only as members go to the house of the Lord. “We have to act,” he said. “We have to go to the temple. We have to seek our ancestors. And then the forces of heaven and earth come together, and it is beautiful.”

During the training, Church leaders watched a few short videos featuring interviews with members in multiple languages and locations as they reflected on their temple experiences. One video showed the members discussing how they access God’s power through temple worship.

After watching one of the videos, Sister Yee commented, “As we keep our covenants, the fact that we can receive that strength, wherever we are, is so valuable to us because we find ourselves in so many diverse challenges and complexities, and we need help in our families, callings, homes and work.”

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The Prophet’s Promise

Elder Andersen read the following promise from President Nelson’s April 2024 talk: “Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!”

As temples become more accessible globally, Elder Hamilton emphasized, members will increasingly attend the temple to deepen their understanding and receive blessings.

“It’s only in the temple that you really start to piece it all together,” he said. “I like to think of the doctrines of the priesthood distilling a little bit by little bit over a lifetime of faithful, dedicated temple attendance.”

President Porter suggested that members without nearby temples can regularly reflect on their covenants to receive “compensatory blessings.”

Added Elder Duncan, “The Spirit is so strong in the temple that when you are there, the beautiful thing is the Spirit is the one teaching us, … and [the Spirit] knows exactly what each and every one of us needs to overcome these challenges.”

Discovering Ancestors to Access God’s Power

Elder Hamilton underscored the associated work and emphasis of temples and family history — “they are hand in glove,” he said. With tools such as Ordinances Ready and Family Name Assist, FamilySearch is making it simple for members to take family names to the house of the Lord.

“The experience of taking a family-related name to the temple is a different experience than just going to the temple and worshipping for someone that you maybe don’t know,” he said. “It is a unique offer that the Latter-day Saints can make … as they find their ancestors and submit those names to the temple. Very powerful.”

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President Porter said family history work can have a healing effect on families.

“Sometimes when you are doing your family history, you realize there was maybe some trauma, some difficulty in the past, and you know that offering the temple ordinances and covenants to your family will help heal hearts and mend relationships. It’s a great gift,” she said.

“How powerful it is if we can help our children feel and understand the increased access they have to God’s power from their baptism and encourage them to look forward to receiving even more covenants and access to His power.”

Added Sister Yee: “Every time I’m feeling in a place of distress or anxiety or whatever might be happening — great challenges or heavy burdens — I often find myself doing a little bit of family history work. I can feel the Spirit pour into my life and bring clarity, hope and help and a connection to those I love and to my Savior.”

Elder Andersen asked Elder Kearon, who joined the Church in his late 20s, what it was like to be the first in his family to perform temple ordinances for deceased ancestors.

“There are no words to describe that. There are no words,” said Elder Kearon, starting with “beautiful” and “wonderful” and then adding, “but they are not words that really get close to the feelings that you have, that we have, all of us, when we are involved in this. It is a very sweet thing that is beyond description.”

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Who Should Watch — and Where and How?

While the annual instruction targets members who serve in leadership and callings related to temple and family history, all Latter-day Saints are invited to watch it online.

Those with callings and responsibilities to assist with temple and family history efforts and those who attend temple and family history coordination meetings are specifically invited to view the session. They include:

• Area temple and family history advisers
• Stake, mission and district presidencies
• Members of the stake, ward, district and branch councils and their presidencies
• Ward and branch mission leaders and missionaries
• Ward and branch temple and family history leaders
• Stake, district, ward and branch temple and family history consultants
• Young Women class presidencies
• Aaronic Priesthood quorum presidencies

To help facilitate discussions, members are encouraged to view the training video together. A discussion guide is available, and the video can be viewed on the Gospel Library app and online at ChurchofJesusChrist.org and FamilySearch.org.

The broadcast is available in the following languages: American Sign Language, Cantonese, Cebuano, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Malay, Mandarin, Mongolian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, Urdu and Vietnamese.