MATT - I was having a dicussion the other day in regards to the importance of sealing families together. A friend of mine made the statement that if you are able to visit lower kingdoms (if I make it to the celestial than I can visit both the terrestrial or telestial or if I make it to the terrestrial I can visit the telestial but not the celestial) than with this ability to visit other kingdoms doesn't that mean that families/people can really be together forever not matter what? Can you please help me respond to him?

JOEL - We really have no solid idea on the kind of relationship, if any, we might be able to have with family members in other kingdoms. The scriptures only say, speaking of those in the Telestial kingdom:

"These are they who receive not of his fulness in the eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial;
And the terrestrial through the ministration of the celestial." (D&C 76: 86-87)

So there will be those from the Celestial kingdom(we don't know who or how many), who will minister to the Terrestrial, but appears will not go to the Telestial kingdom. Those in the Telestial kingdom are ministerd to by those from the terrestrial world. So you might not see any family members who are in the telestial world. And we don't know who in the Celestial world might be appointed by God to minister to those in the terrestrial.
There have been various opinions from Church leaders as to what degree we will have access to the lower kingdoms to see family members. But the only way for families to really be certain that they will be together forever at all times and enjoy the blessings of eternal life and exaltation together, is for all to be sealed to each other.

MATT - As a follow up question (because I am sure I will be asked): If only those family members that reach the celestial kingdom will have the blessing of their families being together forever, than why do they have to be sealed together. Doesn't the fact that they will be in the celestial kingdom mean that they will be together?
How would you respond? Echoing what you stated below I would respond by saying that we are unsure as to the conditions and callings that we may have, even within the celestial kingdom, and that the only 'sure' way that we call all be together is through the sealing ordinance. Would you add anything else?

JOEL - Just because family members might otherwise deserve the Celestial kingdom, they won't end up together in the highest level of that kingdom(there are three, D&C 131:1-2) if they are not sealed.
The sealing ordinance is required for the highest level where the family can be together forever. That's why we perform it in the temples for the dead.
I would only add to what you are saying that much of what we think about how things are there is speculation at best; not much has really been revealed about it. You might want to quote the following scriptures found in the same section of the D&C:

"But great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpass all understanding in glory, and in might and in dominion;
Which he commanded us we should not write, while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful for man to utter;
Neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him;
To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves;
That through the power and manifestations of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory." (D&C 76: 114-118)