2020-11 Nov - Pandemic Gave Us Extra Time for Family History

Nov 7, 2020 family history

From your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants:

The pandemic still constrains all of us from going places and gathering in our ward-sized groups. Our daughter got COVID and recovered. Another adult daughter just found out that someone at work may have had COVID. Our family is foregoing getting together for Thanksgiving this year.

Your family has stories like these too. What to do?

President Nelson has said the Gathering of Israel is important work right now. [see note 1 for details]

Some 30 years ago, Elder Neal A. Maxwell said that rather than praying to endure a trial, it is the what the Lord is using to tutor us. [For his exact words, see note 3].

President Nelson has asked the youth “For three weeks in a row, make a weekly sacrifice of time to the Lord.” [see Note 4 for details] Some of us youth-disguised-as-adults have been handed much of our old daily commute time back. If we got back 1 to 2.5 hours of commute time, that is 30-50 hours per month. The Lord asks for a sacrifice and then he blesses us with the way (time) to do it.

For Nov 2020, we invite each youth and adult to help gather Israel using familysearch.org.

What to do if stuck? - Perhaps there are no records you can find? - Perhaps it seems that there are no others in your direct line who need ordinances? - Don’t know how to do Family History work?

Constructive alternatives:

• Have you recorded (audibly or in writing) key memories you have of your ancestors so that others can get to know them like you had the opportunity to know them? The church has made recording memories on FamilySearch.org as easy as it has ever been in the history of the world.

• No more records for your ancestors? Perhaps by helping index to find other people records, they might do the same and you may find new records as more people index more of the records the church has in storage.

• If you feel Temple & Family History work is beyond your current ability right now, the ward has Temple & Family History consultants that can meet with you privately over Zoom to show or coach you on things you can do with the great tools the Lord has blessed the world with in these last days.

• “God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.” ― Neal A. Maxwell

We are happy to help you as you turn your heart to your fathers as Malachi said [note 5] with tangible action,

Sincerely, your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants

DETAIL NOTES

For those of you that like details, here you go. The rest can ignore this part.

Note 1. The prophet invited the youth to take part in “the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on earth. And what is the greatest challenge? The gathering of Israel.”

“There is nothing happening on this earth right now that is more important than that. There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing. This gathering should mean everything to you.

President Russell M. Nelson declared, “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It is as simple as that”

Note 2. You can help gather Israel on both sides of the veil by learning more about your family and taking the names of your ancestors to the temple. (churchofjesuschrist.org/youth/childrenandyouth/discover/you-can-gather-israel-through-family-history)

Note 3. God has repeatedly said He would structure mortality to be a proving and testing experience.

Brothers and sisters, he has certainly kept His promise. He has carried out His divine intent, hasn’t He? Thus, even our fiery trials, said Peter, should not be thought of as “some strange thing.” [1 Pet. 4:12].

We tend to think only in terms of our endurance, but it is God’s patient long-suffering which provides us with our chances to improve, affording us urgently needed developmental space or time.

Note 4. While you are standing out and being different from the world, and being a light, we invite all of us to become gatherers in God’s Kingdom. We invite you to choose your amount of time tithed during this pandemic to apply it to Gathering Israel through either Family History and Temple work or the other ways the prophet encouraged.

Note 5. “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (See Malachi 4:5–6)