Family History

I spoke in church last week on the topic of Family History.  I will admit that I prepared this talk less than 12 hours before I gave it, so who knows if made sense or not.  I don't usually write out talks, but for whatever reason I did this one.  If you care to read it, it is below.

Talk -Family History 1.19.2014

First off I wanted to introduce myself to any of you that might not know me.  My name is Alison and I have lived in Lewisville for 3 years now.  I moved to Texas in 2009 from Indiana where I was born and raised and went to school.  I am also a convert to the church. I joined when I was as a senior in high school.  I was 17.  I was the only member of my family to join the church. 

Today I will be speaking about Family History.  Primarily doing my family history work and how it has impacted my life. 

First I want to tell you why Family history is important. 

Elder Bednar, in the October 2011 Conference quoted the Prophet Joseph Smith saying, “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. … For it is necessary that the sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fullness of the dispensation of times—a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of man. … Hence, God said, ‘I will send you Elijah the prophet’”.

Centuries before Joseph Smith ever lived the Prophet Malachi prophesied saying, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

In 1836 Elijah the Prophet came to the earth and conferred the keys of the sealing authority to Joseph Smith.  Joseph Smith said: “By building their temples … and going forth and receiving all the ordinances … in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead … ; and herein is the chain that binds the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which fulfills the mission of Elijah.”

Elder Russell M. Nelson said that the Spirit of Elijah is “a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family.”

D&C 128:15 states, “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 salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers-that they without us cannot be made perfect-neither can we without our dead be made perfect.”

I want to stress to you the importance of what Joseph Smith said there at the end.  A lot of times when I think about doing work for my ancestors I only think about the fact that I am helping them to progress.  I rarely think about it the other way around.  But he said, “They without us cannot be made perfect-neither can we without our dead be made perfect.”

I first started my family history when I was in high school.  They used a different online system then and I just remember feeling so overwhelmed.  That was mostly due to having so many names and dates in front of me and having so much temple work ahead of me.  I have come to learn over the years that the Lord doesn’t expect us to do more than we are able.  I wonder if it’s not the divine timing of the Lord that it can sometimes take so long to find peoples names. 

The online system is set up a little differently now and it is much easier to understand and use.  It’s called FamilySearch.org.  Lucky for me I have two people in my family (who are not members) who love working on family history.  They have done a lot of work for me on other websites with which we share information. I basically had to start over (for at least the inputting data part). I remember the first week that I was in the family history class a few months ago I had one name.  It was my own.  I promised Brother Bills that I would work on it over the course of the week and at least add my immediate family into it.  When I added my mom’s name hundreds of names popped into place on my family tree on her side. 

I started investigating the church when I was 14 years old.  At the time I knew absolutely nothing about the Mormon Church.  I had no points of reference to tell me if looking into it was a good thing or a bad thing.  No one at my parent’s church had given a lesson on “the Mormons” or spoken poorly about the church, that I remember. On the other hand I don’t remember hearing anything good about the church either.  I simply had a clean slate.  Or at least that is what I thought.  The truth is there a lot of factors that go into me standing here in front of you today, a majority of which were made by others who lived decades and centuries ago.  If you think about it you are the product of every single person that is in your direct line of ancestors.  The way you look, the accent have, the part of the country you grew up in, the genetics you possess, the traditions you have learned.  It is all tied to your parents and their parents and their parents before them.  And when you look, you have hundreds and even thousands of people who you are tied to in some way or another. 

At some point when I was investigating the church I was talking to my mom about the church and what she thought of me going.  I asked her if she knew anything about the church.  All she said to me was, “They grow gardens.”  I think I laughed her because it was such a random answer.  I had expected her to say something about big families, or polygamy, or Utah, or something of that nature.  But all she said was “They grow gardens.”  I asked her how she knew that.  She told me something that still impresses me to this day.  She said, “Well, before you were born, the Mormon Church would show their conference on regular tv.  And I watched it one time.  And the leader or whoever he was advised everyone to grow a garden and how important it was to be self-sufficient.  I have planted a garden every year since then.”  And its true, my mother still keeps a garden to this day.  To me its pretty impressive that, first of all, she watched General Conference, and secondly that she is following the prophet’s council even though she has no real understanding that he truly is a prophet of God. 

You may be wondering what that story has to do with family history.  Well despite the fact that I think my mother is an incredible woman for that and many other reasons, it also, in a small way, aided in helping me to get to where I am today.  When I look back I can see small but significant things that happened in the lives of my family that helped me join the church which in turn will help bind me to my family for eternity.  I can see now that Heavenly Father was not only preparing me for this journey, but my family as well.   

 If you will turn to D&C 138 you will find an amazing section where Joseph F Smith recounts a vision he had about the Savior’s visit to the spirits of the dead while his body was in the tomb.  I encourage you all to read the whole chapter because it is packed with amazing insight.  He quotes Peter in verses 7-10 (Read this).  Later Joseph F Smith is instructed on how this worked (32-35).  He went on to instruct in verses (46-50). 

I was thinking about the word “bondage” that he used.  I think about it in reference to my ancestors who came before me and maybe without knowing it were sent down on a path that will allow them to someday be redeemed from the world through the Atonement and through the covenants and ordinances we engage in.  They are waiting for me to do their work.  Your family is waiting for you to do the work that they can no longer do for themselves. 

I don’t know how many of you have worked on your own family history, but over the last few months I have come to love it.  There is no other feeling like finding a whole new section of your ancestors that wasn’t there before, or finally finding a person that has been missing from your tree for a long time.  This was the case for me a few months ago.  I grew up knowing that my grandfather on my mother’s side was one of 11 children, but when I looked at my family tree there were only 10 children listed.  I looked for the 11^th child for some time.  It sort of worried me that I wouldn’t find out his information.  In fact, I spent much thought worrying about him.  Finally, when I pulled up the correct census record I found him listed.  It was at this point that he became a real person to me.  He wasn’t just the 11^th child of a man and woman who I’ve never met, but he was a real person who was born, made choices, got married, and had children. 

Since then, census records have become my favorite part of searching for names.  Maybe that seems silly, but I love them.  When you pull them up you get to see a picture of the actual census that was taken.  It tells you the names of all the people in the household along with ages, relationship, and occupation.  And I just think there are so many fascinating things in the census, even down the handwriting of the census taker. 

I was thinking about censuses the other day and how significant they are to us doing family history.  In the case of my family it is so interesting to me that something as simple as answering the door, talking to a census taker and giving him their information so long ago would be a factor in their eternal salvation. 

For those of you who have other family members who have done most or all of your family history already, I would encourage you to seek out the stories and information they have.  Get to know the people that came before you.  I can guarantee that eternity is a lot longer than any amount of time you will spend on this earth, and that is a long time to spend with people you didn’t bother getting to know.  Some of you have families that were early members of the church. I am sure they have fascinating stories of listening to the prophet speak, or building temples, or pulling handcarts across the country. All of us have family that came from other countries, if you go back far enough.  There are fascinating traditions and cultures all over the world. 

I don’t know why I am the first member of my family to join the church.  I don’t know why Heavenly Father blessed me to be in the right situations, with the right friends to find the gospel.  I do know that He has put his trust in me and is counting on me to help my family, and therefore myself, progress by doing their work so that we can all live with Him again.  My patriarchal blessing reminds me to be mindful of those who have passed on before me and that in doing their temple work they will be able to enjoy the blessings of the gospel that I now enjoy. 

I will be taking names to the temple in the next few months to do their work for them.  I would encourage you to look into your family history whether your family tree is blank or it is completely full.  There are so many resources available to us now and so many people willing to help you if you need it.  I would also encourage you to come to the temple with the ward and help move the work along.  We cannot do it without you.

I know the gospel is true.  I know that Heavenly Father loves me and all of the people who came before me that have put me here in the this very moment today.  I know that we can become like the Savior when we help those who have passed on with the saving ordinances of the gospel.  I am grateful to Him and the sacrifices He made to overcome the sins and sorrows of the world for me and for you.

 

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.