Who is this work for?
"We wonder about our progenitors--grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, etc. What do they think of you and me? We are their offspring. We have the responsibility to do their temple work, and the beautiful temples of the Lord stand day after day, yet we do not fill them always. We have a grave responsibility that we cannot avoid, and may stand in jeopardy if we fail to do this important work." ~ President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Jan.1977, italics added
Why work?
"Temple work...gives a wonderful opportunity for keeping alive our spiritual knowledge and strength. ...The mighty perspective of eternity is unraveled before us in the holy temples; we see time from its infinite beginning to its endless end; and the drama of eternal life is unfolded before us. Then I see more clearly my place amidst the things of the universe, my place among the purposes of God; I am better able to place myself where I belong, and I am better able to value and to weigh, to separate and to organize the common, ordinary duties of my life, so that the little things shall not oppress me or take away my vision of the greater things that God has given us." ~ John A. Widstoe, Conference Report, April 1922, italics added
"No work is more of a protection to this Church than temple work and the genealogical research that supports it. No work is more spiritually refining. No work we do gives us more power. No work requires a higher standard of righteousness." ~ Elder Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, June 1992, italics added
And a promise...
John A. Widtsoe wrote: "I believe that the busy person on the farm, in the shop, in the office, or in the household, who has his worries and troubles, can solve his problems better and more quickly in the house of the Lord than anywhere else. If he will...[do] the temple work for himself and for his dead, he will confer a mighty blessing upon those who have gone before, and...a blessing will come to him, for at the most unexpected moments, in or out of the temple will come to him, as a revelation, the solution of the problems that vex his life. That is the gift that comes to those who enter the temple properly."
"Temple Worship," The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, April 1921, pp. 63-64, italics added
"What a glorious thing it is for us to have the privilege of going to the temple for our own blessings. Then after going to the temple for our own blessings, what a glorious privilege to do the work for those who have gone on before us. This aspect of temple work is an unselfish work. Yet whenever we do temple work for other people, there is a blessing that comes back to us. Thus it should be no surprise to use that the Lord does desire that his people be a temple-motivated people. I repeat what I have said before: It would please the Lord for every adult member to be worthy of--and to carry--a current temple recommend, even if proximity to a temple does not allow immediate or frequent use of it. The things that we must do and not do to be worthy of a temple recommend are the very things that ensure we will be happy as individuals and as families.
Let us truly be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. We should hasten to the temple as frequently , yet prudently, as our personal circumstances allow. We should go not only for our kindred dead but also for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and safety that are within those hallowed and consecrated walls. As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make the temple, with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience."~ President Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, Feb. 1995, italics added
"But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come."~D&C 59:23
Carry on with the 'work' Temple Chasers.
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