The one thing you can do as parents to ensure your Children's future Church activity

When I would organize temple trips 6 years ago, there weren't as many people with their own family names.  Now when I go, the baptistries are full of youth who have their own ancestor's names.  The sealing sessions I have been to have so many people in them with their own family names that the temple wasn't able to use the ones they had.

I'm seeing the Spirit of Elijah resting upon the saints in large measure.  The Lord is hastening his work in his time, and I wanted to share something that will set you and your children firmly on the gospel path for life. 

It's something I wish I had known when I was a young parent. It's something I didn't do with my older children, but with my later children it has made all the difference in their lives.

About 6 years ago, I was given a calling that worked with Family History and Temple Work.  At that time, one of my leaders who had just been on the High Council told me something that changed my outlook on Family History and temple work. 

The Church has done studies on which things people do that have the most powerful impact on their future activity in the church.  There are many different things, scriptures, prayer, individual devotion, and this leader stated there is one that eclipses them all.  For youth and new converts the thing that has the most impact is looking up their ancestors and doing baptisms for the dead for them.  Most of the youth and new converts who do this stay active in church for life. 

We are living in a world where more and more people are leaving religion, and abandoning their connection to God.  There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the most powerful statement of this comes from our Prophet, President Nelson, who said that the adversary is coming up with more creative ways to attack the church and it's members, and we need to develop counter strategies and proactive plans. 

The proactive plan I'm suggesting is to teach your children about Family History and Temple Work.  I believe it is critical for them to know about that sacred and vital work. 

You are probably remembering things like a visit to Aunt Edna's house, and seeing all these pictures of people you never knew, and listening to stories about your ancestors.  And they may not have appealed to you.  But they can, and they will change you. The spirit of Elijah is deep within you, and waiting to turn into a burning fire.  

I remember reading stories about my ancestors, and after doing so, having my faith strengthened.  I wanted to do better, to be better, and to live up to the examples my ancestors had given me.  In some cases, I wanted to be better than they had been (some of our ancestors may not have been the best examples).  However they are our ancestors, and most of them have been forgiven of their sins, and just wait for their work to be done.

So how can you teach Family History and Temple work to your children when you don't know how to do it yourself?  You can do it.  There are so many tools and resources for it now. 

I remember sitting down at the computer, and not knowing how to do it.  So I reached out to my mom, who does Family History.  There are so many people you can reach out to now, and so many options on Family Search that if you can click a mouse, you can find out.  If you just find one person, it is worth it.  One way to gather tips is to follow this blog by email.  Once a week will come tips woven into a narrative about Family History.  And in future posts, I will be discussing some of the promises that we can have through doing Family History. They are too numerous to list here, but know your life will be transformed as you continue setting aside time for Family History and Temple work. 

Now back to how you can help children.  When they are young, you can tell them stories about their ancestors.  You can use that to bring up questions like "what about people who weren't able to get baptized in their lives?"

You can have them do activities like download the My Family packet and have them do their 4 generations sheet. 

You can have them do family history games like matching their ancestors with stories they had.  Now if you don't have stories, you can login to FamilySearch.org, or on the Family Tree Memories app, and there may be some there. 

Then, when kids start approaching 9 years old, you can have them help you to do family history work online. If you don't know how, a family night where you invite a family history consultant over can help you. 

If all this seems hard to do, let me share something with you that can be a reality for you if you keep working to try to learn Family History. 

I remember one time calling my 9 year old over, and one of my ancestors had a record hint that included some children that were previously not listed with their family.  I asked my daughter to see if the person in our family tree matched what was in the other record, and if she might see some children that weren't listed. 

She spotted them, and so I clicked the button "review and merge," and it opened up a new tab (I prefer family search online, not the app).  It showed the names and dates on the census record, and the birth name, date, and location matched with the person on the family tree (my daughter spotted that, too).  And believe me, the interface is so good that it's much easier to use than it sounds from my clunky writing. 

when the time came to add the new names, Family Search did a quick search to check for duplicates, but it didn't find anything.  It's always good to search yourself as well.  So after making sure the dates were standardized, we added the names, and then went to reserve the names. Names can be reserved for 2-3 years, and since my daughter will be in her 12th year in a year and a half, I told her that I would save these, and she and I could go to do their baptisms when she was 11. 

The spirit came so strong, and I told my daughter that she had made is to that some of her ancestors who hadn't gotten baptized could be able to be baptized, and could return to the presence of the Lord.  I told her that her life mattered.  I told her that these people were grateful, and that our Father in Heaven loved her for the help she was giving. It touched her heart more than any other time, and in a totally different way. 

And she now has something extra to be excited about when she is 11 and can go to the temple.  She gets to get baptized for someone whose name she helped find. 

There are critical points in our lives, and I believe that getting children involved in Family History and Temple Work is one of those critical things we can do that can practically cement our children, and ourselves to the link that binds us all together to Christ. 

I wanted to close with something I have noticed.  Since Elder Bednar encouraged the youth to do Family History and Temple work, and since Elder Cook, Elder Renlund, and other of the twelve have urged us to do more Family History and Temple work, I have seen evidence that the Lord truly is hastening this work. 

I testify that as we will involve our entire families in this sacred work, we will see miracles in our lives.  Next week's post will be about that, and I hope you tune in.  

I wanted to close with this song, by Janice Kapp Perry, called Teach me about the Temple.  I often wonder if our children, before they came to this earth, wished that we would do the same things as are encouraged in this post and this song. 

May we all move forward in this great saving work. 

Start your story at FamilySearch.org, or on the Family Tree Mobile App. You can subscribe to this weekly blog by entering your email into the top of the sidebar. 

Picture courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Find out more about Christ.  Read the promise of The Book of Mormon online or download the Free Gospel Library Mobile App.

Helen's Story - Where Heaven and Earth Meet

Helen slammed her book down on her desk. Sheila might as well have dropped an atom bomb on her with the look she gave her in class. And when her friends joined in, it made it worse. And her mom reminding her of her chores was the last straw.  Couldn't she have picked a better time? Life seemed to be spinning out of control lately. 

She turned her music up, and for a moment, let the angst seep into her, but she still felt unsettled.  She grabbed her sleek, new, pink iphone, and was going to open up groupme until she realized Sheila would be there.  

She flopped into the chair, folded her knees under her, and thought for a bit.  She needed to settle down.  Then something happened she couldn't explain.  She felt like she needed to open the Family Tree App and go to the Ancestors with Tasks section.  She didn't know why, but felt it was important. And there was an unexplainable peace that baffled her even as it comforted her.

In the Spirit World, Unknown to Helen, Constance was waiting for the right moment. She was finally used to being able to float above the floor, and in fact, she was remembering more about before she had been born on earth lately, but she still had a hard time with the fact that people on earth couldn't see her-only other spirits could.  She turned to the glorious spirit with bright white hair, named Dorothea, and watched her as she, with the power of the spirit, prompted Helen to open the family tree app.

"Why doesn't she respond as well to me?" For Constance, it was a question born of both curiosity and desperation.  This feeling of separation from her Father in Heaven was so hard to deal with.  Dorothea told her it was because it was the spirit of the Lord conveys messages the best, but that her time to have someone baptized for her, and receive the holy ghost was almost here.  Then, when assigned to do work, she would have the spirit with her as well.  Dorothea remembered how it had been for her before her temple work was done, and she could see Constance could sense that about her.

"How far are you with your proxy lessons," Dorothea asked. "I just have 3 left," said Constance excitedly, glad that Dorothea was also excited.  "I have been soo waiting for this, and my parents have been sad that I haven't been able to experience more of this.  I just know this gospel is true, I just wish I had been found when my parents accepted their ordinances." Dorothea smiled and said, "It's almost time."
 

Constance thought about how things had been when she first heard of the gospel, of how she had hoped for her name to be found and ordinances done.  It had been almost 100 long years she had waited.  She loved the spirit at church meetings, but it always left after the meeting finished. 

"Go ahead to your next proxy lesson, Constance, and return here as soon as you feel the spirit calling you here." Constance suspected there was more to this, and excitedly said "Really?"

"Yes, really, you will get to help with this-The Lord has given his approval."

Her face flushed, Constance disappeared to go to her lesson, excited to tell the missionaries the good news.

Oblivious to what was happening in the spirit world, but feeling peaceful, Helen looked at the Family Tree App, at the couple Edward and Joan Button. She hadn't been able to find anything about them, but now as she was looking at the record, she noticed a Record hint on the side.  It was a census record! Someone must have indexed a new record! She looked at it, and saw Edward and Joan's name, and then saw below it one name-Constance.

She excitedly tapped "review and merge," and saw the birth years matched up within one year with Edward and Mary, and that the towns matched up as well.  She matched up Edward and Joan's records, attached it to theirs, and then clicked on Constance's name to add her as a daughter.  There were no duplicates in Family Search.  Just to be sure, she did a quick search, and couldn't find a Constance Button with that birthdate and location. 

She added the name, added deceased (because no one is alive after 175 years), and then saw the temple ordinances tab light up.  She reserved the ordinance, and knew she would be able to take this to the youth temple trip in a couple of weeks.  She started to get excited.  She had run into roadblocks with this, and now she was glad she had followed the challenge in that old story she read by President Monson. 

He'd said that when doing Family History, you would run into roadblocks, and that if you would get down on your knees and pray, the Lord would open a way for you.  And he had.

Her life mattered: As she was thinking that, She started feeling the spirit confirm that she had done a great work, and for a moment, she felt a joy beyond compare.  She felt like for the first time her life mattered to someone else beside herself. She felt the Love of the Lord for her, but there was something else there.  She felt that Constance understood her, her challenges, and that she would be able to get through them. She didn't know how, but somehow she just knew.  She didn't feel so alone in the world, and she had more hope.  

Close to Helen but unseen, Constance had returned from her proxy lesson a few minutes ago.  Constance felt a connection to this girl, not just because she had been through similar things, but because of the spirit that had come to convey things to both of them.  She now had a date that she would be able to be baptized, and was more settled. If only more of her ancestors could be found.  Her heart longed for them to feel of this love.  Dorothy said to her "It's time to go, dear, you will have a couple of weeks to finish preparing, then you will be able to go to the temple to accept your ordinances." Edward and Joan, her parents, had appeared, and hugged her tightly.  

"We are going to be together forever as a family, and with the spirit, you will be able to help in the work of the Lord, said Joan, her mom. Edward was just silent, but what he didn't say spoke volumes. 

Holding the App, Helen felt a peace that stayed with her for a long time, even though the impressions she had were subsiding.  She would never be the same.  The heavens felt close to her, and more real than ever.  She knew in her heart that Jesus Christ was the Savior and Redeemer of the world, that this gospel and work were true, and more importantly, that she was helping others return to the presence of the Lord.  She pushed away tears, and thought to herself "This is a happy time, Helen, what are you doing crying?" Then she realized that somewhere, some spirit was probably crying for joy as well... 

Each one of us has our own story we can discover as we engage in Family History and Temple work. We can become whole, can become healed, and can help our dead return to the presence of the Lord. Even though the above story is fictionalized, it does share very real experiences that happen every day when you engage in Family History or Indexing.

Most importantly, this is his work.  The work of Salvation is going on for both the living and the dead, and will continue without end until the end of the millenium, when the work will have been done for the entire family of man, and all will have heard the spirit testify of the Savior. 

Some of the greatest joys I have ever had was when I engaged in this great work.  I testify it is a healing, saving work, and is the work of the Lord.  

Now if you have never done Family History before, don't worry, you don't need to be anymore.  The Ancestors with Tasks section on the App is pretty self explanatory, however I have found that the Family Search Website Hints section is much easier to use. I'm not an expert, in fact, sometimes I feel like a beginner.  Which is why the following ten minute Get started video is so easy to use. 

One caveat. If you login and can't see your ancestors, you have homework-find out your parents and grandparents birthdates and places, and put them into Family Search. As soon as you get back to people who have passed away, it should connect you with your Family Tree. Then use this get started video

I'm going to close with this song from Youtube about the most sacred place on earth.  The temple. 

Start your story at Family Search, or on the Family Tree Mobile App.

Picture courtesy of LDS Temple Pics, available at their website