Area Leadership Message
Faith in Him, Faith to Receive
Faith in Jesus Christ leads individuals to receive ordinances and make covenants in the house of the Lord.
One of the area focus goals for 2025 is to gather individuals and families to the temple. Key indicators include youth with a current temple recommend, adults receiving their endowments, couples and families being sealed, and adults with a current temple recommend.
In 2024, 18,746 youth had temple recommends—2,000 more than in 2023—demonstrating their reliance on Jesus Christ. That same year, 4,484 members received their endowment, and over 600 individuals were sealed to a spouse.
Temple recommend questions begin with: “Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost? Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of His role as your Savior and Redeemer?” Everything begins with faith.
Many youth living near temples enjoy participating in baptisms for their ancestors weekly. This helps them feel connected to loved ones and “think celestial.” Within the next four years, more youth in the Pacific will live near temples currently under construction in Port Vila, Vanuatu; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Neiafu, Tonga; Tarawa, Kiribati; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
Sealed in the House of the Lord
In January, I sealed Kara and Mafi in the Hamilton New Zealand Temple, where they made covenants with each other and with God. The event was witnessed by Mafi’s mother, Kara’s parents (who are serving as mission leaders in Perth), and others who served with them in the mission field. Sealing as a couple or family is the fifth ordinance of salvation and exaltation. Faith in Jesus Christ helped Kara and Mafi receive ordinances and make covenants in the house of the Lord.
When individuals enter the covenant of marriage in the temple, they make covenants with both God and their spouse. Spouses promise faithfulness to each other and to God and are promised exaltation and eternal family relationships (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:19–20). Children born to sealed parents, or who are later sealed to them, have the right to be part of an eternal family.
It was the same with the Haraga family, who came to the Hamilton Temple in April 2024. The parents received their endowment and were sealed to each other, and their daughter, Barbara, was sealed to them. Brother Haraga was also sealed to his deceased parents.
Brother Haraga was the first in his family to embrace the restored gospel when he was baptized in 2011. His wife and daughters joined him in 2015.
The Haraga family’s greatest desire was to attend the temple together to become an eternal family. Their dream became a reality in April 2024 when they entered the Hamilton Temple to be endowed and sealed. Faith in Jesus Christ led them to receive ordinances and make covenants in the house of the Lord.
Why Is Temple Marriage Important?
President Russell M. Nelson taught, “Salvation is an individual matter; exaltation is a family matter.” Temple ordinances, including sealing, create eternal relationships between husband and wife that can last beyond death if they are faithful. Parent-child relationships can also be perpetuated beyond mortality, linking generations in eternal family relationships.
“He that receiveth these things receiveth me; and they shall be gathered unto me in time and in eternity” (Doctrine and Covenants 39:22).
President Nelson further taught: “[Through covenants] we . . . create a relationship with God that allows Him to bless and change us. If we let God prevail in our lives, that covenant will lead us closer and closer to Him. . . . Covenant keepers who love God and allow Him to prevail make Him the most powerful influence in their lives.”
President Jeffrey R. Holland, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, explained that “a covenant is a binding spiritual contract, a solemn promise to God our Father that we will live and act in a certain way—the way of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In return, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost promise us the full splendor of eternal life.”
As with other ordinances, individual faithfulness is required for an ordinance to be sealed, or made valid, in heaven by the Holy Spirit of Promise.
“Because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7).
Invitation to Act
I invite (1) youth without a temple recommend, (2) adults over 18 who are no longer in high school, (3) couples and families who have not yet been sealed, and (4) adults without a current temple recommend to meet with your bishop or branch president to begin this process. Receive ordinances, make covenants, and obtain the eternal blessings available in the house of the Lord.