I try to gather quotes on Temple and Family History work to use in talks and presentations. We came across the following one a few weeks ago:
How early in the restoration did the Angel Moroni teach the principles of baptism for the dead to the prophet Joseph Smith? It was early which to me reflects how important it must be.
“If the Latter-day Saints of this generation are to build upon the foundation laid by the prophet Joseph Smith, we must work to fulfill or responsibility to research our ancestors and provide temple ordinances for them so that “they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit (D&C 138:34). President Woodruff taught that if Latter-day Saints could see the labors of the missionaries in the spirit world, they “would lose all interest in the riches of the world, and instead thereof their whole desires and labors would be directed to redeem their dead.”Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 152. Other prophets have taught that “this work must hasten” (Hunter, We have work to do, p 64), and that “it matters not what else we have been called to do, or what position we may occupyor how faithfully in other ways we have labored in the church, none is exempt from this great obligation.” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:14)”
(From Cynthia Doxey, “Elijah’s Mission, Message, and Milestones of Development” in “Joseph Smith and the Doctrinal Restoration” 34th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium p. 168-9 (2005: Deseret Book)
Here is a good quote I found today…
“Over the years one of the great stumbling blocks encountered by those newly involved in family history was the enemy of “fear” and its attendant feeling of inadequacy. The work of seeking out our dead and insuring that the ordinances of exaltation are performed in their behalf is a mandate from our Heavenly Father and his Beloved Son. They do not leave us to struggle alone but rather, in ways which are sometimes dramatic, prepare the way and answer our prayers”. (President Monson Ensign article “Happy Birthday” (to President Hunter). March 1995.