Rochester First Ward – 2012
Elijah’s History and Mission: Elijah was the last Old Testament prophet to hold the sealing power of the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is the same priesthood held by Peter, James and John, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (Doctrine & Covenants 128:17-18). Malachi taught that it involved the ‘turning of hearts’ as taught in Malachi 4:5-6. It is the only reference found in all four of the standard works of scripture. It is therefore a necessary welding link. Genealogy work is part of this and so is taking names to the temple. What is the curse spoken of in these scriptures? It is that without this work, the family is without organization by means of the priesthood. President Spencer W. Kimball taught that we need to dissolve the artificial boundary between missionary work and temple work. As we think about all those who died before the gospel was restored, we can ask ourselves, “Does not Heavenly Father love them as much as He loves us?” What might the dead say?
In my patriarchal blessing, it says I will be doing much missionary work in my own family. I’m the only member. I have nonmember relatives, but over the years I realized that a lot of work was work for the dead. It all falls on me. Not only do members of the church feel the Spirit of Elijah, there are those who do it without understanding why. An aunt of my father did many generations back. On my mother’s side, three generations back go to Lithuania, a part of Russia. My sister, Judy, who is not a member of the church, has done much on Mom’s line and shared it with me. My oldest grandson, Chris, who is 12, is preparing to go to the Nashville Temple. I had 40 family names and he was going to do the male baptisms. I could feel the individual spirits there – that they were pleased. Chris had really caught the Spirit of Elijah. They are waiting. Their hearts are already turned toward the children. Now it is up to us.