God the Father wants His children home again, in families and in glory.

My dear brothers and sisters, I rejoice  at the opportunity to be with you at the beginning of this session of  general conference. I welcome you most warmly.General  conference has always been a time of gathering for the Latter-day  Saints. We have long since outgrown the ability to gather physically in  one place, but the Lord has provided ways for the blessings of general  conference to reach out to you no matter where you are. While it is  impressive to see the gathering of Saints in this large Conference  Center, we who stand at this pulpit always have in our mind’s eye the  millions of people who are gathered with us around the world to watch  and listen to the conference. Many of you are gathered with your  families; some may be gathered with friends or fellow Church members.Wherever  you are and however you are hearing my voice, please know that even  though you are not with us in person, we feel that you are with us in  spirit. We hope all of you will feel one with us—that you will feel the  spiritual power that comes whenever a body of believers gathers in the  name of Jesus Christ.I have felt  impressed to speak to you today about another kind of gathering. This  kind does not happen only every six months, as general conference does.  Instead, it has been going on continuously since the early days of the  Restoration of the Church, and it has been hastening in recent years. I  refer to the gathering of the family of God.To describe this gathering, it may be best to begin before we were born, before what the Bible calls “the beginning” (Genesis 1:1). At that time, we lived with Heavenly Father as His spirit children. This is true of every person who has ever lived on earth.You  see, the names “brother” and “sister” are not just friendly greetings  or terms of endearment for us. They are an expression of an eternal  truth: God is the literal Father of all mankind; we are each part of His  eternal family. Because He loves us with the love of a perfect Father,  He wants us to progress and advance and become like Him. He ordained a  plan by which we would come to earth, in families, and have experiences  that would prepare us to return to Him and live as He lives.The  central element of this plan was the promise that Jesus Christ would  offer Himself as a sacrifice, to rescue us from sin and death. Our task  in that plan is to accept the Savior’s sacrifice by obeying the laws and  ordinances of the gospel. You and I accepted this plan. In fact, we  rejoiced in it, even though it would mean that we would leave the  presence of our Father and forget what we had experienced there with  Him.But we were not sent here  completely in the dark. Each of us was given a portion of God’s light,  called the “Light of Christ,” to help us distinguish between good and  evil, right and wrong. This is why even those who live with little or no  knowledge of the Father’s plan can still sense, in their hearts, that  certain actions are just and moral while others are not.Our  sense of right and wrong seems especially keen when we are raising our  children. Innate in almost every parent is the desire to teach his or  her children moral virtues. This is part of the miracle of Heavenly  Father’s plan. He wants His children to come to earth, following the  eternal pattern of families that exists in heaven. Families are the  basic organizational unit of the eternal realms, and so He intends for  them also to be the basic unit on earth. Though earthly families are far  from perfect, they give God’s children the best chance to be welcomed  to the world with the only love on earth that comes close to what we  felt in heaven—parental love. Families are also the best way to preserve  and pass on moral virtues and true principles that are most likely to  lead us back to God’s presence.Only  a very small minority of God’s children obtain during this life a  complete understanding of God’s plan, along with access to the  priesthood ordinances and covenants that make the Savior’s atoning power  fully operative in our lives. Even those with the best of parents may  live faithfully according to the light they have but never hear about  Jesus Christ and His Atonement or be invited to be baptized in His name.  This has been true for countless millions of our brothers and sisters  throughout the world’s history.Some  may consider this unfair. They may even take it as evidence that there  is no plan, no specific requirements for salvation—feeling that a just,  loving God would not create a plan that is available to such a small  proportion of His children. Others might conclude that God must have  determined in advance which of His children He would save and made the  gospel available to them, while those who never heard the gospel simply  were not “chosen.”But you and I  know, because of the truths restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith,  that God’s plan is much more loving and just than that. Our Heavenly  Father is anxious to gather and bless all of His family. While He knows  that not all of them will choose to be gathered, His plan gives each of  His children the opportunity to accept or reject His invitation. And  families are at the heart of this plan.Centuries  ago, the prophet Malachi said that in a coming day, God would send  Elijah to “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart  of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6).This prophecy was so important the Savior quoted it when He visited the Americas after His Resurrection (see 3 Nephi 25:5–6).  And when the angel Moroni visited the Prophet Joseph Smith, he too  quoted the prophecy about Elijah and hearts, fathers, and children (see Joseph Smith—History 1:36–39).Today  is April 1. Two days from now, April 3, marks 181 years from the day  when Malachi’s prophecy was fulfilled. On that day, Elijah did come, and  he gave to Joseph Smith the priesthood power to seal families eternally  (see D&C 110:13–16).From  that day to this, interest in exploring one’s family history has grown  exponentially. At ever-increasing rates, people seem drawn to their  ancestry with more than just casual curiosity. Genealogical libraries,  associations, and technologies have emerged around the world to support  this interest. The internet’s power to enhance communications has  enabled families to work together to do family history research with a  speed and thoroughness never before possible.Why  is all of this happening? For lack of a better term, we call it the  “spirit of Elijah.” We could also equally call it “fulfillment of  prophecy.” I bear testimony that Elijah did come. The hearts of the  children—of you and me—have turned to our fathers, our ancestors. The  affection you feel for your ancestors is part of the fulfillment of that  prophecy. It is deeply seated in your sense of who you are. But it has  to do with more than just inherited DNA.For  example, as you follow the promptings to learn about your family  history, you may discover that a distant relative shares some of your  facial features or your interest in books or your talent for singing.  This could be very interesting and even insightful. But if your work  stops there, you will sense that something is missing. This is because  to gather and unite God’s family requires more than just warm feelings.  It requires sacred covenants made in connection with priesthood  ordinances.Many of your ancestors  did not receive those ordinances. But in the providence of God, you did.  And God knew that you would feel drawn to your ancestors in love and  that you would have the technology necessary to identify them. He also  knew that you would live in a time when access to holy temples, where  the ordinances can be performed, would be greater than ever in history.  And He knew that He could trust you to accomplish this work in behalf of  your ancestors.Of course, all of  us have many pressing and important responsibilities that need our  attention and time. All of us find parts of what the Lord expects us to  do beyond our abilities. Fortunately, the Lord provides a way for each  of us to gain confidence and satisfaction in all our service, including  family history service. We gain strength to do what He asks through our  faith that the Savior gives no commandment “save he shall prepare a way  for [us] that [we] may accomplish the thing which he commandeth” (1 Nephi 3:7).I  know this is true from experience. Many years ago, as a university  student, I met a man who worked for one of the largest computer  companies in the world. This was in the early days of computing, and it  just so happened that his company had sent him to sell computers to The  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.As  far as I could tell, this salesman had no religious faith. Yet he said  with wonder and exasperation, “In this church they were doing what they  called ‘genealogy,’ searching for names of people who are dead, trying  to identify their ancestors. People, mostly women, were running around  between filing cabinets, searching through little cards for  information.” If I remember right, he said the ladies were wearing  tennis shoes so they could run a little faster. The man went on, “As I  saw the magnitude of what they were trying to do, I realized that I had  discovered the reason for the invention of computers.”Well,  he was partially right. Computers would be an important part of the  future of family history work—just not the computers he was selling. An  inspired leader of the Church chose not to buy his computers. The Church  was to wait for technology that at that time had not yet even been  imagined. But I have learned in the many years since that even the best  technology can never be a substitute for revelation from heaven, like  the kind that Church leader received. This is a spiritual work, and the  Lord directs it through His Holy Spirit.Just  a few weeks ago, I was working on my family history with a consultant  by my side and another helper on the phone. On the computer screen  before me was a problem beyond my mortal power to solve. I saw two  names, sent to me by the wonders of technology, of people who might be  waiting for a temple ordinance. But the trouble was that the names were  different, but there was a reason to believe they might be the same  person. My task was to determine what was true.  this is some of the talk i love to here god bless our apostles and god bless the profit of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints