How James's sacrifice of time Opened the Heavens

James was so frustrated. It had been a difficult day with his friends, and trying to do Family History on the Family Tree App was more difficult than he thought. It didn't seem worth it. 

He had felt the spirit a few weeks ago prompt him to do Family History, but hadn't been able to find any names.  His family tree went back to the 1600's, and he would need a professional Genealogist to help him find more. Or so he thought.

As he struggled, he decided to exit out of the Family Tree App.  He then went to the Gospel Library Mobile app, and went to the Family History section and watched "A Sacrifice of Time," by President and Sister Nelson. 

Something happened.  He watched and was impressed with Sr Nelson's testimony that "when we show the Lord that we are serious about helping our ancestors, the heavens will open, and we will receive all the help we need."

He watched President Nelson state that if we just remember stories of our ancestors, we haven't done enough if our ancestors ordinances aren't done.

And when President Nelson invited members to make a sacrifice of our time to do Family History work, James felt the spirit confirm again what he had felt before. 

He got onto his knees, and asked the Lord for help to do this work.  As he prayed, he felt the confirming peace of the spirit, and felt like he needed to reach out to the Family History Consultant. 

He opened the Family Tree App, tapped the 3 lines, went to Help, and then tapped "Contact Family Search."

He called them and explained everything about his situation, and then Brother Hillam, the fatherly Family Search member asked him two questions.

"So did your ancestors 100-200 years ago have brothers and sisters?"  James replied that they did, and Brother Hillam said to him "Well, if they did, and they had posterity, you are related to them, and you can research them and do their work."

A light bulb went off in James head. He had thought that he could only do his direct line ancestors, but here he could do more of his extended family line! Almost before he could recover, the second question was there.

"How are you checking your ancestors with tasks?"  James said that he was viewing the record, but couldn't see anything there. 

Brother Hillam told him there was a blue circle at the end of each record in the ancestors with tasks section, and if he would tap on them, they would show additional records for that relative, and sometimes it would list a wife or children if it was a census or death record.  Then, he gave him a quick tutorial on how to check for duplicates or existing people in Family Search.

Excitedly, James thanked Brother Hillam, and ended the call gratefully. 

He started looking through his ancestors with tasks, and found one of his ancestors in 1870 had some brothers and sisters who were on census records that listed spouses and children. 

After a flurry of tapping Review on the records, and adding new names, he had 5 new family names. 

Jonathan, unseen by James, looked to William, the Glorious spirit being with him, and said excitedly to him "I'm finally going to get my temple work done!" William hugged him, and Jonathan felt like he was filled with Light.  He asked William if he would be able to have that spirit with him when James did his baptism, and William confirmed that he would. 

William smiled, and then told Jonathan he could come with him as he told Jon's brothers, sister, and mother that James and his friends would soon be baptized for them, and soon after that, would seal them as a family.  But first there was something they needed to wait for the spirit to do. 

James couldn't hear anything, but as he reserved the names, he felt the spirit confirm that he had done the Lord's work.  He almost felt like there was an ancestor that was grateful he was doing this work.  And he felt the love of the Lord. 

All of the frustration, all of the difficulty was worth it now.  He couldn't wait to try to find more, and soon was off checking more hints. 

And somewhere, off in the spirit world, a part of James's family was preparing for their chance to be members of Christ's church, something they had been waiting for about 150 years to do. 

Never before in the history of the World have we had the resources to do Family History that we do today.  If you can order something from an app or online, you can do Family History. 

I testify that as President Nelson says in the below video, "we are engaged in the work of Almighty God. He lives, Jesus is the Christ.  This is his church, we are his covenant children.  He can count on us."

Here is the video referenced in this post.

Discover your story, and help your ancestors return to the presence of the Lord by beginning on the Family Tree Mobile App, or at the Family Search Website, and signing in.

If you use the website- you can find hints by going to a person on your tree, and look for "Research Help" with record hints on the top right hand side of each record.  

Picture is the Florida Ft Lauderdale Temple, courtesy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Media Library.