“Now, the word turn here should be translated bind, or seal” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 472).
President
Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency:
“Many
of your ancestors died never having the chance to accept the gospel and
to receive the blessings and promises you have received. …
“… There
are more temples across the earth than there have ever been. More
people in all the world have felt the Spirit of Elijah move them to
record the identities and facts of their ancestors’ lives. There are
more resources to search out your ancestors than there have ever been in
the history of the world. The Lord has poured out knowledge about how
to make that information available worldwide through technology that a
few years ago would have seemed a miracle. …
“… When
you were baptized, your ancestors looked down on you with hope. Perhaps
after centuries, they rejoiced to see one of their descendants make a
covenant to find them and to offer them freedom. In your reunion, you
will see in their eyes either gratitude
or terrible disappointment. Their hearts are bound to you. Their hope
is in your hands. You will have more than your own strength as you
choose to labor on to find them” (“Hearts Bound Together,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2005, 77, 79–80).
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
“Elijah
restored the sealing powers whereby ordinances that were sealed on
earth were also sealed in heaven. That would affect all priesthood
ordinances but was particularly important for the sealing of families
down through the generations of time, for without that link no family
ties would exist in the eternities, and indeed the family of man would
have been left in eternity with ‘neither root [ancestors] nor branch
[descendants]’ [Malachi 4:1].
“Inasmuch
as such a sealed, united, celestially saved family of God is the
ultimate purpose of mortality, any failure here would have been a curse
indeed, rendering the entire plan of salvation ‘utterly wasted’ [D&C 2:3]” (Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 297–98).
