- Be temple worthy

- Have the Holy Ghost- Keep covenants at home

Children have the opportunity - when they are 12 years old and able to do baptisms for the dead - to go to the temple with their parents just as Jesus did when he was 12, Elder J Ballard Washburn said during the Saturday morning session.

"Our efforts as parents, wards and stakes should be to help our youth live worthily to go to the temple now," emphasized Elder Washburn of the Seventy. "The goal is the same for young women as for young men - be temple worthy now."

The influence of the Holy Ghost is important in encouraging temple attendance, he said.

"One thing that will help us more than anything else to want to be in the temple is to have the Holy Ghost with us. If we have been born of the spirit, as well as the water, we will want to be in the temple," he said.

To have the help of the Holy Ghost in temple worship, Elder Washburn said two important things are necessary: "First, we must be worthy of it, and secondly, we must ask for it."

He warned against going to the temple unworthily. He said couples who go to the temple unworthily to be married start their marriage on shaky ground. "I believe this is one of the main causes of divorce in temple marriages," he said. Elder Washburn also warned, "If a man who is dishonest in his personal life, as it pertains to his wife and children, or his business dealings, goes to the temple, he is heaping damnation upon his own soul and is in great need of repentance. If our young men or young women, on their way to the mission field, go to the temple unworthily, it is a great mistake."

Elder Washburn noted, "The greatest blessings of eternity come to us through the temple."

The greatest gift, eternal life, can only come through the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, a blessing that will some day be available to every worthy person, he said.

"This covenant includes a willingness to have children and to teach them the gospel," he continued. "Many problems of the world today are brought about when parents do not accept the responsibilities of this covenant. It is contradictory to this covenant to prevent the birth of children if the parents are in good health."

He then pointed out: "We go to the temple to make covenants, but we go home to keep the covenants that we have made. The home is the testing ground. The home is the place where we learn to be more Christlike. The home is the place where we learn to overcome selfishness and give ourselves in service to others."

He suggested that family prayer, home evening, scripture study and saying "I'm sorry" are little things that can be done in the home that are important steps in striving to keep temple covenants.

"By keeping the temple covenants, all of God's children may be exalted," he said. "I say again, we go to the temple to make the covenants, but we go home to keep those covenants."