A successful football coach once said:

• If you want to be happy for an hour, eat a steak.
• If you want to be happy for a day, play golf.
• If you want to be happy for a week, go on a cruise.
• If you want to be happy for a month, buy a new car.

But what if we don’t want our happiness to be temporary?  How can we achieve lasting happiness?

Elder Patrick Kearon said in his October 2024 General Conference address “Because of the loving plan of our Heavenly Father for each of His children, and because of the redeeming life and mission of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can – and should – be the most joyful people on earth! Even as the storms of life in an often-troubled world pound upon us, we can cultivate a growing and abiding sense of joy and inner peace because of our hope in Christ and our understanding of our own place in the beautiful plan of happiness.” (See Link)

We should want to share this happiness with others!  As part of God’s plan, He gives us the opportunity to help others. Perhaps even doing for others, what they can’t do for themselves. I’m reminded of President Russell M. Nelson’s comments in 2018 when he said, “The gathering of scattered Isreal is the greatest work on earth, and anytime you do anything that helps anyone- on either side of the veil – take a step towards making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal & temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It’s as simple as that.”

I’m sure we have all felt the joy that comes from serving others, how blessed we are to be able to help others accomplish what they are unable do for themselves. We have the perfect example in our Savior Jesus Christ. He has made it possible for each of us to accomplish more than we ever could by ourselves, and He has given us the opportunity to help others receive baptismal and temple ordinances that they can’t receive on their own.

As we share what we have with others, our joy will not be temporary, but we will experience lasting joy in our lives. Not only will we be able to experience true and lasting joy from giving others the chance to make and keep essential baptismal & temple ordinances, but we will also enable those whom we seek out to feel the joy that comes from and because of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Regardless of how we engage in sharing what we have, whether we seek out our ancestors, or help with temple ordinances, the result will be the same. We will experience true and lasting joy. The world offers so many ways for us to fill our time, but as the examples used by a famous football coach show, the world’s outline for happiness is often fleeting and short lived. I hope we will take the opportunity to do what we can, whatever that may be, to create a lasting and fulfilling joy that comes as we help others do what they can’t do without our help.

– Doug Nielsen, Director, Granite FamilySearch Center