God Holds Each Of Us Responsible For Saving Our Own Kindred

Mesa Arizona Temple - © Stuart Gardner

“What is our obligation then? Each one of us—if we pretend to obey the gospel at all—must search out our dead and have these saving ordinances performed for them.

“Many suppose that they are discharging their responsibilities by simply ‘going to the temple.’ But that is not wholly true. We must go to the temple, of course, and often. If we do not as yet have the records of our own dead kindred, then while we search for them, by all means let us help others with theirs.

“But be it understood that if we go to the temple, and not for our own dead, we are performing only a part of our duty, because we are also required to go there specifically to save our own dead relatives and bind the various generations together by the power of the holy priesthood.

“We must disabuse our minds of the idea that merely ‘going to the temple’ discharges our full responsibility, because it does not. That is not enough.

“We must get down to specifics and do the work for our own dead progenitors.

“God holds each of us responsible for saving our own kindred—specifically our own.” 

– Elder Mark E. Petersen, “The Message of Elijah”, LDS General Conference, April 1976.