Making covenants in the temple is only the beginning. To receive the promised blessings requires faithfully keeping those covenants, said Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Sunday afternoon session of October 2026 general conference.
“The covenants and ordinances of the Savior’s restored gospel are spiritual credentials that can open wide the heavenly windows of opportunity to receive in our lives divine purpose, direction and strength,” he said.
“God promises His sons and daughters supernal blessings for honoring covenants, including obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ongoing faithfulness is required for those credentials to be valid and for promised blessings to be received.”
Elder Bednar was among several leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who taught about the blessings of making and keeping temple covenants during the conference.
Sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise
Elder Bednar taught that for an ordinance or covenant to be binding on earth and in heaven, it must be sealed by the Holy Ghost, also known as the Holy Spirit of Promise. That sealing remains conditional during mortality and can be broken or forfeited through unrighteousness.
“Each of us needs the verifying witness of the Holy Spirit of Promise in order for us to receive the eternal blessings associated with the covenants and ordinances of the Savior’s gospel,” he said.
Describing the temple sealing of a man and a woman as a crowning covenant and ordinance of the Savior’s restored gospel, Elder Bednar explained how this doctrine can help answer deeply personal questions.
“The power of the Lord’s infinite and eternal Atonement can overcome all things, all the time, everywhere, for every person who holds fast to their covenants with Him,” he said.
Softening hearts on both sides of the veil
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve opened the Saturday morning session by teaching that temple service can bring healing through the Savior’s Atonement and soften hearts on both sides of the veil.
“We find hope and healing when we perform temple ordinances for family members with whom we may earlier have had difficult relationships,” he said. “Jesus Christ can help us mend, forgive and move forward.”
Elder Gong encouraged members to look beyond the buildings’ physical beauty and focus on what happens inside.
“While we are grateful our temples and everything in them are physically beautiful, let us celebrate and treasure even more the spiritual blessings temples bring,” he said. “Wherever we live, let us always be grateful for the gift of eternity sacred temples bring. Look for the miracles.”
Covenants bless generations
During the Saturday afternoon session, Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan, a General Authority Seventy, described how covenants his pioneer ancestors made in the original Nauvoo Temple helped lead him to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He previously belonged to another church that also believes in the Book of Mormon and recognizes Joseph Smith as a prophet of God.
“Though the covenant faithfulness of grandparents and parents does not alter the agency of children or grandchildren, there is a discernible impact of those covenants on all our posterity,” he said. “It was covenants that had impacted me, not my covenants, but those that came before me. The power of God in those covenants reached out after me.”
Elder Morgan continued: “Covenants with God are filled with incalculable power. They do not bless just the maker of the covenant but are generational in their impact. We are all the intended beneficiaries of countless covenants. Like the great binding of gravity that stretches across the universe, covenants with God stretch over all time and all space.”
Lighter burdens through covenants
Heavenly Father does not leave His children to navigate mortality alone, Elder Ciro Schmeil, a General Authority Seventy, taught during the Sunday morning session.
He offers two “divine helps” — the Savior Jesus Christ and covenants — that are essential to guiding members along the covenant path and helping them overcome challenges and weaknesses.
“Covenants bind us to Jesus Christ because He is central to every covenant we make,” he said. “It is through covenants that we become yoked with the Savior Jesus Christ and our burdens become lighter.”
He continued: “Heavenly Father is not asking us to physically build the temple, but He is asking us to build a strong relationship with Him and His Son Jesus Christ through our covenants.”
