PROVO, Utah — One cannot do the work of redeeming the dead "without being touched with a love and a compassion for those who have gone before," Elder Ronald T. Halverson of the Seventy told a group of family history enthusiasts gathered for a conference at BYU July 26-27.

Elder Halverson was a keynote presenter at the Genealogy and Family History Conference held at the BYU Conference Center.

"It changes your life as well as enables them," Elder Halverson said regarding the effect of family history and temple work on those who engage in it and their progenitors.

Making reference to the visit of the resurrected biblical prophet Elijah to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, Elder Halverson said Elijah restored the sealing power to bind ordinances in heaven that were performed on earth.

"Joseph Fielding Smith further said, 'There is nothing, in my judgment, that has been revealed that is more apparent of its fulfillment than the coming of Elijah, for his spirit has gone forth into the world.' "

Elder Halverson noted that genealogy or family history has become one of the leading hobbies in America and around the world, indicative of the pervasiveness of the spirit of Elijah.

"To my knowledge, prior to the coming of Elijah in 1836 there were no endeavors or any support to search the records of the dead, but what has happened since is miraculous," he said. "Laws have been passed in countries compelling the preservation of the records of the dead. In Norway, where records were were scattered and difficult to find, they have constructed a records vault near the city of Morirana similar to the Church's vault (in Little Cottonwood Canyon near Sandy, Utah). They are very proud of it. You can now find family history libraries or locations to find your records in almost every major city or county."

He cited President Brigham Young's chastening of Church members who wanted to go to the goldfields of California instead of remaining in the Salt lake Valley to help build the temple. President Young suggested figuratively that they were making a "golden calf" to worship.

Elder Halverson said, "We could ask the question, 'Are there those in the Church who have built a golden calf and worship it?' The answer is all too clear as we know the many conveniences of life that distract us from the responsibilities that have eternal consequence."

Underscoring the importance of the work, he quoted Joseph Smith relative to Church members' responsibility to become "saviors on Mt. Zion" by receiving "all the saving ordinances on behalf of their progenitors who are dead and 'redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them, and herein is the chain that binds the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which fulfills the mission of Elijah.' "

He related the task of identifying ancestors for temple ordinances to the scriptural concept of the sons of Levi making an offering in righteousness prior to the Second Coming of Christ (see Doctrine and Covenants 13). He cited Doctrine and Covenants 128:24, "wherein the Lord speaks somewhat in the beginning of how He is going to purify the sons of Levi, and then tells us what the offering is to be." He read the verse, including the latter part, which states, "Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation."