As missionaries, and as future parents in Zion, we must remember that we don’t change any faster than we make and keep commitments. The Lord calls them covenants. Our exaltation is determined by how well we have kept our baptismal, our priesthood, and our temple covenants. And when we keep those covenants, the promises and blessings are ours. I have learned that when covenants are deepened because our commitment is strong, our lives are different. If in your lives—either at this moment as elders and sisters, or later—you find yourselves vacillating, look deep into your souls and check your level of commitment to your covenants. And when your level of commitment to your covenants has deepened to where you feel that it is life eternal to keep them, you will be a missionary for life. You will help many souls come unto Christ. When you make covenants with the Lord at that altar in the temple, and you become a mother or father, and find yourselves missionaries of a whole different sort, you will find that you’ll never be totally converted until you learn to make and keep covenants by committing yourselves to the Lord.
Our blessings here and hereafter are dependent upon keeping the covenants we make with God. We re-covenant each week. This is how Heavenly Father helps us—by continually reminding us of our commitments to His law and His covenants. The Spirit will help us keep those covenants, and keeping those covenants will exalt us.” (Ed J. Pinegar, The Ultimate Missionary Companion [American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2001], 143–144.)