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.
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