Elder Allan F. Packer speaks of our Spiritual Passport

At this year's RootsTech Conference held in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah, Elder Allan F. Packer of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave an extraordinary presentation entitled "Spiritual Passport." If you log in to LDS.org, you can view the presentation on video or read the transcription.  Since that presentation at RootsTech 2014, there have been many Conference talks and at least one and sometimes two articles in the Ensign and other Church publications about family history. Here are some links to some of those talks and articles:

• Roots and Branches, Elder Quentin L. Cook, April 2014 General Conference
• Live True to the Faith, Elder William R. Walker, April 2014 General Conference
• Wanted: Hands and Hearts to Hasten the Work, Sister Linda K. Burton, April 2014 General Conference
• Spiritual Whirlwinds, Elder Neil L. Andersen, April 2014 General Conference
• Protection from Pornography—a Christ-Focused Home, Sister Linda S. Reeves, April 2014 General Conference
• A Priceless Heritage of Hope, President Henry B. Eyring, April 2014 General Conference
• Are You Sleeping through the Restoration? President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2014 General Conference
• Keeping a Journal Your Way, Tara Walker, July 2014 Ensign
• Touched by the Spirit of Elijah, Carol Brennan Moss, June 2014 Ensign
• Know Your Stories, June 2014 Ensign

I could go on and on, but perhaps you can get the message. Family history and searching our our ancestors is a top priority topic for the Church as a whole. Are you missing the boat? Don't you understand that as Elder Packer points out in his presentation:

Hastening the Work of Salvation is the call of the Prophets to leaders and members in our day. To hasten is “to move or act swiftly, to cause to hurry, to speed up; accelerate.”[i] It also means “to cause (something) to happen more quickly.”[ii] The work of Salvation is “to help individuals and families qualify for exaltation”.

There are four divinely appointed responsibilities for us to work out our exaltation as explained in Handbook 2[iii]. One of them is to help “enabl[e] the salvation of the dead by building temples and performing vicarious ordinances.”[iv]

There is presently no excuse for ignoring this vital part of the mission of the Church. We have the tools and we have the time during our mortal probation to do the work.