Status Updates From Wilford Woodruff's Witness:...

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"You have power to... redeem your dead. A great many of you have done this, and I hope all of you will continue as long as you have any dead to redeem. Never cease that work while you have the power to enter into the Temple."

"Are we living up to our privileges? Are we performing the work required at our hands?"

Wilford Woodruff

"The Lord ... will hold us responsible for the use we make of thee holy Priesthood, the ordinances of this house and the power that is put into our hands to accomplish the work of God, and to build Temples to his name."
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Saints are counseled to do their best research and record keeping and rest assured that the validity of all ordinances will be determined "beyond the veil." Ultimately it is up to each individual, because all must "qualify themselves" for and accept the saving and exalting ordinances performed in their behalf."

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For 50 years.. Saints were only able to seal children to parents if the father was ordained to the priesthood
1894 With the reassurance that most, if not all, of their family members would accept the gospel in the spirit world, the Saints were able to move forward. Rather than only performing ordinances for those they judged worthy or sealing to those presumed would accept the gospel, they would leave judgment to God

THE FAMILY OF GOD

These principles are still practiced and believed by Church members: the fulfillment of the mission of Elijah is to bind families together, to link the generations, to seal the children to their fathers and the fathers to their God. All other priesthood ordinances are designed to lead members step by step toward this ultimate goal of eternal families.

Unfolding of Gospel principles and doctrines -

"...Begin at the first rudiments, and continues to progress step by step. It is so with the student in the study of the everlasting Gospel. There were not many principles revealed to us when we first received it, but they were rudiments to us as fast as we were capable of making use of them."

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"There will be few, if any, who will not accept the Gospel."

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"Let ever man be adopted to his father, and then you will do exactly what God said when he declared he would send Elijah the Prophet in the last days... then we will make one step in advance of what we have had before. This is the will of the Lord to the people..."

[Before the Saints had done the law of adoption, which connected anyone to prophets

221 The Saints' ... responsibility extended beyond themselves. Their duty was not just to build temples, but to enter them and act as proxy for their deceased relatives so their relatives would be able to enjoy the same blessings as the Saints.
"These.... are important works. They are works which we do for others that they cannot do for themselves... instruments in the hands of God in procuring their redemption."

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The Lord has conferred upon them the priesthood so they would be able to administer in the ordinances of life and salvation. He then asked, "Do we comprehend these things? Do we comprehend that if we abide the laws of the Priesthood we shall become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ?"

221 Wilford recognized that understanding the significance of the ordinances was more important for the Saints than anything else.... the ceremonies help them realize their divine birthright.
"Very few of us fully comprehend our position, our calling, or relationship to God, our responsibility, or work the Lord requires at our hands."

252 On November 24, 1889 the Lord promised, "If the Saints will hearken unto my voice, and the counsel of my servants, the wicked shall not prevail. . . . I the Lord will deliver my Saints from the dominion of the wicked, in mine own due time and way."

253God directed Wilford to suspend the practice of plural marriage to save the temple and the priesthood, and thus continue the saving work for the living & the dead

"This labor is not to be performed by other hands... [W]hen our time comes to take our departure for that life behind the veil, none of us will regret having devoted our time, talents, and labor for the accomplishment of this great object.... We hold the Priesthood for that purpose, and we have no business to use it for anything else but to officiate in the ordinances of the house of God."

The dead will seek .. after you as they have us in St. George. They called upon us, knowing that we held the keys and power to redeem them."

The Founding Fathers ... "waited on him" for two days and two nights.

Those men who laid the foundation of the American government ... were "the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits... inspired of the Lord. "

August 1877

The appearance of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence to Wilford .. has become an important symbol of the universal nature of temple work. His experience underscored the role of the living in providing the opportunity to accept Christ's salvation to all who have ever lived. It also reminded the saints that those in the spirit world expected them to fulfill their responsibility.

By 1885 Wilford recorded that 3,188 of his family members had been baptized by proxy, and 2,518 proxy endowments had been completed for them.

"[He] himself organized every endowment in our Church and revealed the same to the Church, and he lived to receive every key of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods from the hands of the men who held them while on the flesh, and who held them in eternity. "

After endowment ceremony written, Brigham said, "Now you have... an ensample, to carry on the endowments in all the temples until the coming of the Son of Man

ETERNAL PRINCIPLES

"I bear record... that Joseph Smith first made known to me the very ordinances which we give to the Latter-day Saints in our endowments. I received my endowmentsunder the direction of Joseph Smith...

....

January 1, 1877 - Dedication of St. George Temple

Wilford ... explained how rare a privilege temple worship had been through the ages: "[We] are this day blessed with a privilege that but few since the days of Adam have ever enjoyed, but few of the sons of Adam have ever had the privilege of entering into a Temple built by the commandment of God in which to administer ordinances for both the living and the dead."

The exterior of the St. George Temple was built to look like a castle, symbolic of the royal priesthood and the divine birthright of God's children. The defensive architecture, with buttresses and crenulations, symbolizes the spiritual protection provided by the ordinances administered in the temple.

Like Nauvoo Temple
Lowest floor - Baptistry
Main - Endowment
4 - Assembly
3 & 5 - smaller rooms, sealing or sleeping

“The people will live their religion when you live it yourselves.”

Wilford encouraged bishops and home missionaries to rely on the Spirit and treat people in a “fatherly“ way in order to save them.

He told them it is not necessary to “jump and shout and stomp off 50 cents worth of sole leather” or “knock people in the head” in order to get them to wake up and reform.