Come to the Lord in His Holy House

Build Eternal Families Through Covenant Commitment

Heavenly Father’s work and glory centers on our return to Him, united as families in eternal happiness. Temple marriage rests on covenant commitment, sacrifice, and consecration rather than temporary convenience or attraction. Regular spiritual nourishment strengthens and sanctifies marriages and family relationships.

Heavenly Father’s work and glory is for us to return to Him, united as families, happy and forever.

Temple marriages are meant to last forever.

Covenant belonging unites a husband, wife, and children, not until death do we part, not until convenience or attraction fade, but by covenant commitment, sacrifice, and consecration.

Consistent spiritual nourishment through prayer, scripture, church attendance, service, etc. blesses and sanctifies our marriages and relationships.

• The temple teaches Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness and prepares us to return to Him.
• Eternal family relationships depend on covenant commitment rather than changing feelings or convenience.
• Sacrifice and consecration express love within covenant relationships.
• Prayer, scripture study, church attendance, and service provide ongoing spiritual nourishment.

• What family experience illustrates how prayer or scripture study strengthens a relationship?
• What example of sacrifice or covenant commitment helps you understand enduring love?
• How does the promise of eternal families influence your daily priorities?
• What experience helps you see the temple as preparation to return to Heavenly Father?

Choose Christ’s Healing Through Agency and Repentance

Moral agency is central to Heavenly Father’s plan, including our choices about eternal relationships. Jesus Christ’s Atonement makes repentance, forgiveness, and change possible. Temple service for family members can soften hearts and bring healing where relationships are difficult.

God will not require a woman or man to be sealed or live in an eternal relationship he or she does not choose.

Agency, faith and repentance, and Jesus Christ’s Atonement make change and forgiveness possible.

Temple service evokes our Savior’s Atonement. It softens hearts on both sides of the veil.

We find hope and healing when we perform temple ordinances for family members with whom we may earlier have had difficult relationships.

Please do not deliberately delay the spiritual peace and joyful freedom Jesus Christ wants you to have now.

• We choose Heavenly Father’s plan and learn through our own experience.
• Jesus Christ redeems us from sin, physical death, and spiritual separation.
• God respects agency in eternal relationships; sealing does not erase personal choice.
• Faith, repentance, and the Savior’s Atonement allow relationships and hearts to change.
• Family temple service can invite forgiveness, freedom from bitterness, and peace.
• The Savior offers spiritual peace now, so repentance deserves immediate attention.

• What experience helps you recognize Jesus Christ’s power to soften your heart?
• How does family history or temple service influence your feelings toward a family member?
• What experience illustrates the peace that comes through choosing repentance?
• What appropriate example can you share about forgiveness without exposing another person’s private struggles?

Honor Covenants and Invite the Spirit’s Confirmation

The Holy Spirit of Promise confirms the efficacy of ordinances and covenants as we faithfully honor them. Through this divine confirmation, covenant relationships become binding in time and eternity. Elder Gong emphasizes that ordinances are not a substitute for willing, faithful covenant living.

When the Holy Spirit of Promise witnesses and confirms the efficacy of ordinances and covenants, they become binding in time and eternity.

As we honor our covenants, the Holy Spirit of Promise seals our relationships with “efficacy, virtue, [and] force.”

In contrast, we would not expect ordinances and covenants we do not honor in faith or action, do not choose or desire, or perhaps even disregard or mock to be binding upon us on earth or in heaven.

• The Holy Ghost serves in the sacred role of the Holy Spirit of Promise.
• The Spirit witnesses that saving ordinances are properly performed and their associated covenants are kept.
• Covenant faithfulness matters both in belief and in action.
• God’s eternal promises respect our genuine choices and desires.
• Temple worship invites a continuing life of discipleship, not merely participation in an ordinance.

• How does a covenant influence a decision you face in daily life?
• What experience helps you distinguish making a covenant from consistently honoring it?
• When do you recognize the Holy Ghost encouraging greater faithfulness?
• What ordinary habit helps you keep the Savior and your covenants central in your life?

Treat Temple Dedication as a Beginning

A temple announcement, construction, and dedication are meaningful milestones, but dedication begins a continuing opportunity for worship. Elder Gong encourages us to treasure the spiritual blessings of temples even more than their physical beauty.

First, a temple dedication is a beginning.

We are naturally excited when a temple is announced, groundbreaking and construction occur, and dedication takes place. Each is a milestone.

But please, while we are grateful our temples and everything in them are physically beautiful, let us celebrate and treasure even more the spiritual blessings temples bring.

• Temple dedication opens opportunities for sustained worship and covenant service.
• Physical beauty points toward blessings that matter more than architecture.
• Excitement about a temple can grow into lasting devotion to the Lord.
• A personal temple culture develops through ongoing participation rather than milestone celebrations alone.

• How does a temple announcement or dedication influence your desire to worship?
• What spiritual blessing helps you appreciate a temple beyond its appearance?
• What practice helps you turn excitement about a temple into continuing discipleship?

Express Temple Sacrifice Through Service and Family History

Faithful members demonstrate great sacrifice when temples are distant. As temples become more accessible in many places, that same spirit of sacrifice finds expression through more frequent worship, family history work, and service as patrons or ordinance workers. Elder Gong acknowledges that opportunities vary with the seasons of our lives.

Today, as temples come closer in many places, we can manifest the precious spirit of temple sacrifice in new ways.

We can come to the temple more often.

We can search and bring more family names to bless deceased loved ones.

As the seasons of our lives allow, we can regularly serve in the Lord’s house, both as temple patron and as temple ordinance worker.

• Greater temple access invites renewed sacrifice rather than diminished reverence.
• Family history work connects temple worship with service to deceased loved ones.
• Both patrons and ordinance workers contribute to the work of the Lord’s house.
• Appropriate patterns of participation reflect individual circumstances and seasons of life.
• Sacrifice can include offering time, preparation, effort, and attention.

• What sacrifice helps you make room for temple worship or family history?
• How does learning about an ancestor deepen your desire to serve in the temple?
• What experience shows how temple service fits a particular season of your life?
• What example of another person’s faithful temple sacrifice inspires you?

Recognize Jesus Christ in Every Temple

Each temple reflects its location and culture, yet every temple testifies of Jesus Christ. Temple leaders and workers focus on serving those who come to worship, and ordinances are performed and recorded under the Lord’s authority. Elder Gong reassures patrons that their service is acceptable to the Lord when they do their best.

While each temple uniquely fits its place, culture, and circumstance, everything in each temple testifies of Jesus Christ.

Temple leaders unitedly love the Lord and focus on temple patrons and workers.

In each temple, by authority and in the name of the Lord, ordinances and covenants are truly and faithfully performed and properly recorded.

When patrons do their best, our service is acceptable to the Lord.

• Jesus Christ remains the center of temple worship in every location.
• Differences in design and setting do not change the divine purpose of temples.
• Priesthood authority and faithful administration matter in temple ordinances.
• The Lord accepts sincere effort as patrons do their best.
• Love for the Lord motivates service to temple patrons and workers.

• What appropriate experience helps you see Jesus Christ as the center of temple worship?
• How does kindness from a temple worker help you feel the Savior’s love?
• What experience helps you trust that the Lord accepts your sincere effort?
• How do temples in different places help you recognize unity in the gospel?

Receive Temple Blessings With Gratitude and Belonging

Temple worship is a sacred privilege rather than an entitlement. Elder Gong invites gratitude for every temple, patience with those who serve, and appreciation for eternal blessings regardless of a building’s size or ornamentation. Family history and temple ordinances also strengthen belonging across generations and both sides of the veil.

Temple sacrifice and temple service include a spirit of gratitude.

Ordinances are not big or small. Covenants are not big or small.

Please let us never speak of a temple as big or small, elaborate or plain. Let us always only speak with love and gratitude for ‘Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord.’

Some new converts feel alone. But you are part of Heavenly Father’s family.

Whatever generation you are in the Church, in the chain of your eternal family, please be a strong link.

• Gratitude helps us receive temple worship as a sacred privilege.
• Patience and understanding honor the efforts of temple workers.
• The value of ordinances and covenants does not depend on a temple’s size or appearance.
• Every member belongs to Heavenly Father’s family, including those who feel alone.
• Family history and temple work connect generations on both sides of the veil.
• Each person can become a strong link in an eternal family.

• What experience helps you replace an expectation with gratitude during temple worship?
• How does patience with someone who serves help you feel greater peace?
• What family history discovery strengthens your sense of belonging?
• How do you seek to become a strong link in your family without comparing your circumstances with others?

Show Reverence Through Caring for Temple Clothing

Where circumstances permit, Elder Gong encourages members to save for and purchase their own ceremonial temple clothing. Reverent care and use of that clothing can show children and grandchildren love for the Lord and temple covenants. His account of a widowed mother illustrates how this practice expresses devotion and hope in the Resurrection.

Fifth, where possible, please consider saving for and buying your own ceremonial temple clothes—cap or veil, robe, sash, and apron.

As we reverently care for and use our own temple clothes, our children and grandchildren can see we love the Lord and our temple covenants.

• The invitation to purchase personal temple clothing applies where circumstances make it possible.
• Reverent care for temple clothing expresses respect for sacred covenants.
• Visible habits of reverence can strengthen faith across generations.
• Elder Gong’s family example connects temple devotion with preparation for eternity and hope in the Resurrection.
• Personal temple culture includes simple, practical expressions of love for the Lord.

• What simple practice communicates your reverence for temple covenants?
• How does a parent’s or grandparent’s example help you understand love for the temple?
• What experience with preparing for temple worship teaches you care and reverence?
• How does hope in the Resurrection influence the way you think about temple promises?