ON March 3, 2026, our VIP delegation from the Philippines of government officials and others (I was the "others") who can influence policymaking and public opinion on records management, participated in a two-day special event before the international conference on genealogy and technology, "RootsTech 2026," called the Archivist and Record Custodians (ARC) Symposium.
The first day was dedicated to a tour of the venue. We toured the FamilySearch Library and had lunch at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with the view of the Salt Lake City Temple. Then we were brought to the Humanitarian Center, a former facility that made ammunitions during the Second World War. It is now a place where some poor immigrants work; half of their paid time is spent learning English. This is not a dole-out but a transitional temporary facility to teach self-reliance to people from various countries who are not LDS members. I even saw many Muslim women wearing hijab. This is also the place where they sort out kits for cleaning out disaster areas and relief goods, especially personally sewn kilts to be given, as the elder who guided us said, so that those that were affected would feel "loved." I was really touched by that.
That's something for a place built to create weapons that kill, which is now used to build lives.
They have another facility which we visited two days after, the Utah Bishop's Central Storehouse, which is where goods given to poor families in America, not necessarily LDS, are stored and are distributed by the referral of an LDS bishop to 115 storehouses. It was a very large facility which we needed to tour via carts, which included a very large freezer room that was like an inverter, with no ice all around.
The LDS humanitarian work is their way of connecting to the human family with the cooperation of various NGOs, including Catholic and other faith-based groups, in a spirit of ecumenism to "alleviate suffering, maintain dignity and instill hope."
But for their interest in connecting families through genealogies, there is a doctrinal reason.
Since 2019, the Salt Lake City Temple was closed for much needed renovation and retrofitting, which included a seismic upgrade to prepare for a big one. The project's new completion date is the end of the year and there will be an open for everyone before temple dedication in April to October 2027.
Once dedicated, the public cannot enter the temple anymore, but only LDS members deemed worthy by a bishop through a temple recommendation. In every temple you will see the words, "Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord." You see, LDS temples are not places of worship but they are places where LDS perform rituals, wearing white garments, that recall their spiritual journey from pre-mortal existence, the fall of man, the plan of salvation, to the various stages of the afterlife. These are called temple ordinances.
Despite the temple still being completed right before our eyes, we were already blessed to be invited to the new Temple Visitors Center which is not yet open to the public, where we were given an immersive experience. From a scale model of temple rooms and four actual rooms that recreates for us what it is like to be there, which included the Instruction Room and the Celestial Room.
The first room that was shown to us was the one connected to genealogy. The baptismal font in the temple is only reserved for the ritual of the baptism for the dead, otherwise known as proxy baptism. They quote 1 Corinthians 15:29, which asks, "Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?"
So, a person is immersed one time for each dead relative in the genealogical tree. That person, in the afterlife will have a chance to hear about the Gospel and may decide if he is going to join the Saints.
The last room shown to us was the “Sealing Room” where families are ritually sealed and bound to spend eternity together. The elder guiding us made us look at the mirrors that were facing to see an infinity image where families are bound past, present and future.
I used to hear about secret handshakes and strange temple clothing only to realize when I studied religious anthropology that whatever religious ritual we engage with, we take it by faith to bring us that transcendental feeling through the architecture, lighting and the symbolisms that we do not really feel everyday: the experience to touch the Divine. It is not strange. If this genealogy work gives hope, assurance and strength and it works for them to become better people, then it has served its purpose.
As one young missionary told me on my visit to the Conference Center, "The temple ordinances are sacred, not secret."
