(I came home and added in all the extra things I added while giving my talk.)
Heavenly Father loves all of His children and wants us to return to live with Him someday. He has created the perfect Plan complete with a
Savior.
Family history and temple work are part of that plan, they bless both the living and the dead.
President Russell M Nelson said, “Because the Melchizedek priesthood has been restored we have access to “all the spiritual blessings
of the church” or, we might say, to all the spiritual treasures the Lord has for His children.”
I am thankful for baptismal and temple covenants and all the saving ordinances of the temple that bind us to our families eternally. All things
in the temple point to our Savior and His Atonement. The power of the Atonement is real in my life as I have been healed, made clean,
blessed and comforted.
Jesus Christ said Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give thee rest. I have felt that relief (since the first day) as a
Missionary Mom the last five years. That’s how we survive and not worry too much! You knew there was a secret, right? It’s the Atonement,
the power of God’s grace.
We are so blessed by God’s plan and can share it with others through gathering our family and temple work.
President Russell M Nelson said, “Most certainly, the adversary does not want you to understand the covenant you made at baptism or
the profound endowment of knowledge and power you have received or will receive in the temple—the house of the Lord. And Satan certainly
does not want you to understand that every time you worthily serve and worship in the temple, you leave armed with God’s power and with
His angels having “charge over” you.
Your power will increase as you serve others. Your prayers, fasting, time in the scriptures, service in the temple, and family history work
will open the heavens to you.”
Family history is about love, there is a natural affection that binds the generations together, it’s often referred to as the Spirit of Elijah.
Through stories we can feel a connection down through the generations as it leads to our own identity as children of God.
When I first “met” my 3rd great grandmother, Zurviah, I felt connected to her. It was through her stories that I loved her because
now I knew her. The first story was just from looking at her dates. Her son was born two months after she arrived as an early pioneer in
the Salt Lake Valley. So she was expecting a baby during the whole journey! I loved her conversion story, the story of her dream seeing
the man she would marry and her faith and testimony as a missionary mom. From her journal-
“I wish to tell one incident in regard to keeping the Word of Wisdom that to me is proof of it’s divine origin. I had been accustomed to
drinking tea all my life, and had not been converted to the thought of giving it up. One day however when my eldest son was on a mission
and I received a letter telling me of the bitterness of our enemies toward the elders, I was worried and knelt down to pray but could not
speak, and before me seemed to be a cup of tea. I arose and went about my work, but the thought was with me constantly. “If you do not
keep my commandments, you cannot expect my blessings.” I resolved that from that time one cup of tea should never stand between me
and my Heavenly Father. With this resolve the desire for tea left me and it has never returned.”
and my Heavenly Father. With this resolve the desire for tea left me and it has never returned.”
For me it all started in February 2015, I announced that Saturday would be Grandma Dolly’s 101st birthday and to celebrate we’d be deep
cleaning the house. (Now if it had been a weekday, like most years, I’d wear black and white, along with my siblings, and go shopping but it
was a Saturday with the kids at home so we’d be deep cleaning the house!) I logged into familysearch.org to just check her birth year. Yes,
it really was 1914 and she was 101 and I saw her father in law, Harry. (Now I remember Grandpa Harry, my mom told his story. He came to
live with her family when she was a little girl. The Grandpa Harry has no hair story. He was sick and had lost his hair. He was so weak he
couldn’t walk to the end of the lane to get the mail. My grandma served him carrot juice with his breakfast every day. He thrived so well that
not only was he soon able to walk to the end of the lane and back to check on the mail but he was harvesting the carrots and planting seeds
for the next season. When grandpa moved out he had little black curly hairs. My mom is a believer in carrot juice! She often reminds us we
all had it in our bottles.) Well, I saw grandpa Harry's brother Loren with his wife Stella and no children were listed. I looked at their census r
ecords and there they were, Loren, Stella and Beverly, age 7. Another census record showed Beverly, age 17. Then another record showed
Beverly’s death in California. I called my mom! She told me to add her. I hadn’t added anyone before! I wasn’t going to do that until I was older!
So over the phone the two of us worked it out together and now we had two Beverlys since we both added her! I learned about merging. (I
spend most of my time in family history work merging duplicates together.) I saw Stella as a child with two brothers (Claude & Jesse) listed
on another census! Wow! They weren’t on the tree either. I found those brothers' births and marriages and deaths. I found their wives, children,
and their children’s families. We didn’t end up deep cleaning the house for grandma’s birthday but we gave her a better birthday present.
I felt the urgency of those on the other side of the veil who were desperate to be found so they could be brought to the temple to make
covenants with God. I found more time to be in the temple for these families that I loved because I now knew them. One of the first things I
learned was, the dead are very much alive. And they are not far away.
In a letter to a son on his mission March 2015
“At my computer I was trying to close a page. I pushed the arrow on the x, again and again and the page wouldn't close. I looked down and
there was one more baby sister listed on the Census! I could imagine all her siblings yelling at me to not close the page until she was added
too. I love family history and I love the Spirit of Elijah.”
I know that following the spirit in this work allows the Lord to bless all who are involved. The living and the dead.
From my journal in January 2019, last year.
I need to quote my youngest daughter. I was struggling to sew a Mermaid outfit for the doll today. The fabric was beautifully shiny and silky
and that made it slippery and it kept bunching under the sewing machine needle. The fabric was hard to trace onto, hard to cut out and hard
to sew together. I was frustrated and said out loud that I just couldn't do it. The tutorial we saw was done on felt fabric and it looked so easy.
(Imagine seashells as big as a quarter!)
My 7 year old said,"I can do it! It's like our family history, Mom! Remember, I'm related to that ancestor who made a couple wagons for that
famous guy (Brigham Young!). I think I can sew something easy like a mermaid tail for a doll. Actually, if I were a pioneer today I would have
the best sewn clothes. I can do hard things, Mom. Let me try. Let's wrap the fabric around and measure again."
My daughter’s strength and power came from knowing her ancestor’s stories.
Just two weeks earlier we had a Stake Conference and our visiting General Authority, Elder Bradley D. Foster, explained this very thing!
He shared a question from a survey that asked something like:
Which gave children the most confidence and power when they struggled?
A. Eating breakfast together as a family each morning. (Tom nudged me, we know this is important!)
B. Knowing their stories from family history, or
C. Engaging in weekly regular religious activities
The answer was B. Knowing their family history stories, they understand a bigger picture of who they are and who their family is! I love it!
And here today she proved it right.
I love the confidence she gets from knowing her family history!
In the summer we visited her 4th great grandfather”s Webb Wheelwright and Blacksmith shop in Nauvoo.
We don't have to have church history in our backgrounds to be proud of who we are. We just have to know our stories.
Together we used a softer fabric and were able to complete the outfit pretty quick. Her confidence helped me continue and with the softer
fabric it was easy, a lot easier than building wagons and trekking west to a new home.
Elder Bradley D. Foster said, ”When we know who we are in relationship to God and to each other, it changes the way we think, the way
we act and the way we treat other people.” He taught how blessings of healing and peace are waiting for those who gather and connect their
ancestors, and he promised divine help to those who help others.
Joseph Smith wrote to the saints in Doctrine and Covenants 128:15, “And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you
that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their
neither can we without our dead be made perfect.”
9/6/2015 (in a letter to my son on a mission) This is 7 months after learning to add to my family tree.
On Saturday we went to the Manti Temple...I have enough family history work that we could always use family names for Endowments now.
It's wonderful to go to the temple but it's even more wonderful to bring your own family name that you've researched. On Friday I had thought
of WHO and quickly knew I would bring Hulda Charlotte Monson's name to Manti. She died a few days after having her 12th baby. Her baby
died too. She is one of the first people I found with pictures and a long obituary. She’s beautiful.
The sentence went over and over in my head, "Hulda Charlotte Monson, who is dead..." And I realized she's only dead. She is still learning,
teaching and choosing.
She is still a mother, wife and daughter.
I couldn't wait to get home and find all the rest of her family. I set my alarm early for Sunday morning so I could look up her family. In the 3
hours before getting ready for church, I found her children, all of them, and the rest of her siblings. Just by going down the list of each child
I have found more than a hundred today.
In the Manti temple I realized she only needed my body.
She has everything else.
What am I doing to keep my body worthy and healthy to be there? I never learned so much at the temple before. I raised my arm straighter
and I was doing it perfectly for her. I love the power and the closeness in the temple. (Your brothers keep reminding me "she's only dead." It's
been like a joke now.) But I love what it has taught me. When asked how I can be obsessed with family history, my answer is, “ I guess I'm
obsessed with happiness.”
I understand how these are saving ordinances because it feels like my ancestors are saving me. I love the way it feels to have the spirit
guiding me in the work and constantly in my own life. I love to be taught in the temple. I have said it more than once that my family history
and temple work are my strength. God knows me and His timing was perfect. He knew when I would need His guiding spirit felt so constant
in my life and I am thankful for that.
If you want more inspiration, if you want more strength, if you want to feel the spirit of God leading you, then do family history.
Log in to familysearch.org. Just sign in. The windows of heaven will open to you, like our prophet said. Look for abbreviations you can fill in.
Try familysearch.org/partneraccess for 5 additional search engines that connect to family search. While familysearch is the goal, ancestry.com
has been my tool.
Look for missing dates and find their records to make them perfect.
Look and see if your Grandma’s great aunt has a husband and how long they were married. Are there kids listed too? You will be inspired,
you will be reminded of why we are here, you will be stronger to stand for what’s right, you will know of the happiness that comes from the
saving ordinances in the temple. The same happiness a missionary feels as they bring someone into the gospel. You will be desperately
trying to fit in more time in your busy week to be at the temple because you will love the way it feels to bring your family there.
You will be directed because I know the Lord leads His church whether it’s perfecting the saints, proclaiming the gospel or redeeming
the dead. He is leading it all.
When we are doing family history work or serving in the temple on behalf of the deceased we are helping them make covenants. We have t
he privilege, the right, to ask for angels, our ancestors, our family, to call them down to assist us, surround us and help us and our posterity.
I love that as we help them make their sacred covenants they have a love for us too and would want to be near us. I read that in a book
called Covenant Keepers by Sister Wendy Nelson. She said we are living under our privileges. We can do our family history work to receive
all our blessings.
I have one more story. I went to the Provo temple, right before our new Provo City Center Temple opened, to do Initiatory work with my
friend Claire Brown. Afterwards, she thanked me and said, “ It felt really special that they were your family names and they were all 5
sisters.” As she handed back the cards, I apologized for their middle name initials and promised I’d go right home and find their middle
names! Well, I found more than their middle names. In the records and additional documents I found their husbands! Two of the sisters
married the Brown brothers. So cool that Claire had married a Brown too.
If you see abbreviated birth dates that's a sure sign you can find more records and more people.
Family history is more than the past, it’s also about the present and the future. Keep telling your stories and making great stories so that
the connections can continue and we can all understand our identity as children of God. He loves us and wants us all to return to him someday.
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