Come, Follow Me is a resource offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is designed to be used in the home to support personal and family scripture study to build faith in Heavenly Father and His plan of salvation and in the Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Come, Follow Me is self-contained and adequate, when used properly. Products and materials designed to supplement this resource, though they may be helpful in some instances, are not necessary for a successful home study program.
Sacred experiences require preparation.
From Come, Follow Me:
The Lord told Moses that the children of Israel needed to be prepared before they could “meet with God” (Exodus 19:10–11, 17) and keep a covenant with Him (see Exodus 19:5). What do you do to prepare for sacred experiences in your life, such as attending the temple or partaking of the sacrament? What can you do to more fully prepare for these experiences? Think of other spiritual activities that require preparation, and ponder how your preparation can affect the kind of experience you have.
“The temple is a place of holiness. It is the most sacred and holy place on earth and should be treated with the greatest degree of reverence and respect. Reverence in the temple is an expression to the Lord that we consider it to be sacred and that we recognize it to be, indeed, His holy house." L. Lionel Kendrick, Enhancing Our Temple Experience
Elder David A. Bednar stated, “Please consider how the principle of ‘home centered and Church supported’ applies to our individual preparation and worthiness to receive sacred ordinances and covenants in the house of the Lord. Indeed, temple preparation is most effective in our homes.” (Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing)
President Russell M. Nelson encouraged us to prepare spiritually for the temple. He said, “Individual worthiness to enter the Lord’s house requires much individual spiritual preparation. But with the Lord's help, nothing is impossible. In some respects, it is easier to build a temple than it is to build a people prepared for a temple. Individual worthiness requires a total conversion of mind and heart to be more like the Lord, to be an honest citizen, to be a better example, and to be a holier person." (Closing Remarks, General Conference October 2019
Review, explain, and discuss the temple recommend questions as a family. What preparations might you make individually and as a family to be better prepared to attend the temple?
Preparing Youth for the Temple: Seven Simple Steps gives you some ideas on ways to help prepare your youth for the temple:
You may find some additional insights in the following:
”I have come to understand better the protection available through our temple covenants and what it means to make an acceptable offering of temple worship. There is a difference between church-attending, tithe-paying members who occasionally rush into the temple to go through a session and those members who faithfully and consistently worship in the temple." David A. Bednar, (Honorably Hold a Name and Standing)
The video above depicted a young woman reflecting on the blessing of walking the covenant path as she made her journey to the temple. Discuss as a family:
"The greatest of all the blessings of the priesthood are bestowed in holy temples of the Lord. Fidelity to covenants made there will qualify you and your family for the blessings of eternal life." Russell M. Nelson, Face the Future with Faith.
You receive these blessings in the temple first for yourself and then for your kindred dead. See Temples, Covenants, Ordinances, and Temples in the Plan of Salvation, and Why Ordinances and Covenants Matter. See also Latter-day Saint Youth: Temple.
"These are your days. You were born in a time of temples and technology. These are your days to more fully turn your hearts to your fathers and bring these saving ordinances to millions within our families. These are your days to prepare for the Second Coming of the Savior." Elder Neil L. Andersen, RootsTech 2015
We without [our ancestors] cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. See D&C 128:18. Many of our deceased ancestors are being taught the gospel in the spirit world - they need our help and we need theirs! Here are some ways to find those who need ordinance work done (sign up for a free FamilySearch account first):
Ordinances Ready is a FamilySearch tool that simplifies finding names for the temple. See Ordinances Ready on the FamilySearch App.
Check out Temple Opportunities. Also, see "Recommended Tasks" on the FamilySearch home page and click the Temple tab. A list of names for possible ordinances may be displayed. Note : Be sure to check each name for possible duplicates or other issues before reserving them for ordinances here.
See Descendancy Research to find descendants of ancestors (such as distant cousins) who need temple work done. For a detailed look at how cousin relationships work, see Are Your Cousins Removed?
See the FamilySearch Fan Chart. Kathryn Grant gives instructions for How to Find Ancestors in Need of Temple Work in the Family Tree using the fan chart.
It is important to put the Lord first in my life.
From Come, Follow Me:
Reading Exodus 20:1–7 might prompt you to think about the priorities in your life—you could even write them down in a list. What are some possible “gods” or “graven image[s]” (Exodus 20:3–4) that you might be tempted to put before God? How can putting the Lord first help you with the other important things in your life? What are you inspired to do to increase your focus on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?
President Russell M. Nelson has said, “I invite you to increase your participation in family history, including family history research and indexing. I promise that as you increase your time in temple and family history work, you will increase and improve your ability to hear Him.” (Hear Him)
See also: Leadership Instruction | Hear Him Through Temple & Family History Work and A Prophet's Temple Invitation.
President Nelson: "I invite you prayerfully to consider what kind of sacrifice, and preferably a sacrifice of time, you can make to do more family history and temple work.” Open the Heavens through Temple and Family History Work,
President and Sister Nelson invite all church members to make a sacrifice of time to do family history and temple work (see Open the Heavens through Temple and Family History Work). An idea to make this a reality comes from an address Sister Wendy Nelson.
She offered the invitation to busy, overburdened sisters to do some temple and family history work each day for 21 days and then to watch what happened. She was concerned that adding one more thing to their list of things "to do" would make them even more burdened but the opposite was true for all who participated. Even a few minutes per day helped them to see miracles in their lives and the lives of their families. Although this challenge was given to sisters of the church, it is applicable to everyone.
Here are the links to the PDF and the video of Sister Nelson's talk:
Discuss ideas and options and make a plan! Think about routines and traditions you can create. List your goals and record how you will work toward them.
You may also want to join the Facebook group for The Twenty-one Day Family Connections Experiment to do family history for 21 days, and select a plan to follow for ideas and motivation. Read more about it here.
From Come, Follow Me:
What effect did Moses’s testimony of God’s deliverance have on Jethro? What great things has the Lord done for our family? Who can we share our experiences with? How can we preserve those experiences for future generations?
“Testimony grows gradually through experiences. No one receives a complete testimony all at once. It grows as individuals show willingness to serve in the Church and to study, pray, and learn. It increases as individuals obey God’s commandments. Testimony grows as it is shared.” (Testimony)
What effect does listening to President Nelson’s testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ have on you? What effect might your testimony have on your family and others?
Discuss as a family what a testimony is. You may want to share your personal testimonies as a family or you may prefer to do it individually. You can use the FamilySearch Memories Audio app to audio-record, or the Record My Story feature or you can write in your journal. Consider sharing your testimonies with other family members or friends. It may be just the thing to strengthen their own testimony. You may want to consider some of the following ideas in your discussion and testimonies.
See additional ideas on sharing your testimonies from prior weeks: week 1 and week 16.
Learn about Sources - When you add or change ancestor information in FamilySearch Family Tree or other places, it’s important to add sources that let others know where you found the information that you are including. To learn more about family history sources and how to use them, see Project 1: Family Tree, Goal 8, Choice A.