Long before his call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Neil L. Andersen grew up on a small dairy farm in southeastern Idaho in the United States, where he performed daily chores, cared for animals and had life-shaping experiences that taught him to believe in God and to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Leading a heifer by a rope in a video at the farm, he said: “How wonderful it is to be led by our Savior. He is our hope and our salvation. … I witness that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He lives. May we desire to be led by Him, that one day we might live with Him.”
The dairy farm visit was featured as part of the Family Discovery Day keynote presentation by Elder Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, on Saturday, March 8, the third and final day of RootsTech 2025.
Elder and Sister Andersen were joined on the stage by President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After Elder Andersen’s farm lesson about being led by the Savior in his life, President Holland reflected on the difference that Jesus Christ and the gospel have made for him.
“It is as different as a life could be, even having been born into the Church,” he said. “It is just so significantly shaped by the Savior that I cannot really tell you the difference in that 85 years; it means everything to me. And the work is hastening. The work is moving.”
Family Discovery Day is a free, one-day event during RootsTech designed to help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints discover and celebrate their family heritage. The event, which also featured music by The Piano Guys and other activities, took place in person at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City and was available for viewing online at RootsTech.org.
Building temples
Elder Andersen opened by stating a theme: “The remarkable time in which we live when temples are being built at an unprecedented pace.”
He noted that when he and Sister Andersen were married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1975 — 50 years ago this month — there were 16 operating temples.
“We are moving. The work is hastening,” said President Holland, a native of St. George, Utah. “I grew up within a shadow of the first temple completed in the West as the Saints came to this extended valley in the pioneer corridor. I thought everybody had a temple. [Learning] of these temples and this growth and these numbers [has been a] very personally moving thing for me.”
Since 2018, President Russell M. Nelson has announced 185 new temples; 60 temples have been dedicated or rededicated during that time. President Nelson dedicated the Deseret Peak Utah Temple — the Church’s 200th house of the Lord — on Nov. 10, 2024.
“The knowledge and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the power, the protection, the peace, all of which comes from His holy house, will be so important as we prepare for our Savior’s Second Coming,” Elder Andersen said.
Examples of faith, sacrifice
Sister Andersen focused her remarks on two men in her family — her great-grandfather Daniel Henry Arline and father, James Bernard Williams — and how honoring their priesthood and making sacrifices to be sealed with their families in the temple shaped their lives and influenced their generations.
“I am so grateful for the men in my family who took upon themselves the deep responsibility and obligations associated with their priesthood ordination and their temple covenants,” she said. “It changed them greatly, enlarging their souls” (see Doctrine and Covenants 121:42).
In one video segment, Sister Andersen told how two missionaries found Arline and his wife in Florida. They were baptized in 1898.
In 1902, recognizing the importance of being sealed as a family, they sold all their possessions and boarded a train with their 11 living children, including Sister Andersen’s grandmother, and traveled to Utah to be sealed in the Logan Utah Temple. They returned to Florida and remained faithful the rest of their lives.
In another video segment, Sister Andersen told about her parents, Bernard and Martha Williams, who met while attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Bernard Williams introduced Martha to the Church. She was baptized, and the couple married. Martha Williams was the first member of the Church in her family. Their examples of devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ blessed and inspired their children, Sister Andersen said.
When Sister Andersen was 4 years old, her parents decided to drive their family across the country to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple — a one-way journey of 2,300 miles — despite limited finances and concerns about their vehicle. Her mother dedicated months to sewing the children’s white clothing.
Sister Andersen’s grandmother lent them her newer car, but several days into the journey, it broke down, causing an expensive delay. They also somehow lost their suitcase with the homemade temple clothes, and efforts to find it were unsuccessful.
Despite these setbacks, the family eventually arrived in Salt Lake City with just one day to be sealed in the temple. Sister Andersen said it was worth the sacrifice and made a deep impression on her as a young child.
“It has now been over 60 years, but I still vividly remember the moment I entered the sealing room with my brothers and saw my mother and father dressed in white. We knelt at the altar and were sealed together as a family,” she said. “This changed our lives.”
She concluded by expressing her love for Heavenly Father and sharing her testimony of Jesus Christ.
“I believe from the depths of my soul that Jesus is my Savior and Redeemer. I love and adore Him,” she said.
Gospel lessons on the farm
Returning to the dairy farm, Elder Andersen reflected on experiences that taught him gospel lessons as he used a bottle to feed a baby calf.
“On the farm, I constantly experienced the miracle of new life,” he said in a video filmed at the farm. “The wonder of it confirmed to me [Book of Mormon prophet] Alma’s words that ‘all things denote there is a God’ (Alma 30:44). Life is a miracle.”
He continued: “Being with new babies on the farm helped me see how dependent each of us is on our Heavenly Father. … In living with cows and horses, dogs and cats and even rabbits, I came to believe that in many ways we were like my new friend [the baby calf] being cared for by our Heavenly Father. There is, however, one very important difference. We are literally our Heavenly Father’s spirit children. His work and glory is to help us learn here on earth and provide a way for us to return to our Heavenly Father.”
While holding a bunny in a video, Elder Andersen recounted losing his favorite rabbit at age 7 and fearing for its safety. After searching unsuccessfully, he went behind the barn and prayed for Heavenly Father’s help. Instantly an image of a nearby spot came to his mind, and he found the rabbit.
“This experience and many others taught me that the Lord responds to our sincere prayers,” he said.
The Savior’s Second Coming
Elder Andersen concluded his remarks with his witness of the Savior and His Second Coming, temples and family history work.
“The miracle of our time in the Restoration is a most special time when prosperity has been given to us by God to build these houses of worship across all the world … so we can in this time prepare ourselves for the Second Coming of the Savior,” he said.
“The temple is a testimony to the immortality of the soul. As we take the names of our ancestors, those ancestors who are still living, and we go into those houses of the Lord, we connect with that world,” said Elder Andersen, adding, “and at the same time, we focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ. We learn of Him. We willingly covenant with Him to obey Him and keep His commandments, and we become someone we need to become as we anticipate His return.
“When that unforgettable day comes, we will be gathered up to meet Him, whether on this side of the veil or the other, and it will be a day of great rejoicing and gladness. I testify that that day will come. I witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I know that He lives.”
