2024-02 Feb - Generational Impact

Feb 10, 2024 family history generations

Read time: Summary 1.4 minutes | Expanded section: 11.7 minutes

Summary

• Story of woman who wrote a book about her father for her 13 grandchildren who knew nothing about his WWII actions
• Thoughts about Elder Godoy’s talk at Oct 2023 General Conference

Expanded

Story

• The dramatic true story of a woman who wrote a book about her father for her 13 grandchildren who knew nothing about his WWII actions
  • If the link didn’t work for you, try the URL directly in a browser, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/07/bazooka-charlie-wwii-hero-writings-daughter/72087625007/
  • Not all of us will have such a dramatic story, but how might the grandchildren’s lives been changed by seeing their granddad’s self-made credo about becoming better? How might yours about your life, your decisions, and how you handled difficulties?
  • I have privately published such a book only for my family and can (a) show you how, (b) show you the mostly free technologies I used, and (c) even give you the book printer’s information which I used to print 13 copies for my children. Cost was my time, and about $350 for the printing company if I recall correctly. Not everyone will care about this so see me individually if interested.

Generational Impact of Temple & Family History

• This month I will reference a talk from the October 2023 General Conference was NOT about Temples & Family History, and yet it also had some comments that seemed to resonate towards Temple & Family History work. The talk was “For the Sake of Your Posterity”, by Elder Carlos A. Godoy, Of the Presidency of the Seventy

“Generations ahead of them are impacted, and blessings and promises that were reserved for their posterities” ~ Elder Godoy

• He talked about decisions that “could have an impact on their posterity forever!” Does this not describe Temple & Family History work too?

• My life and my father’s life was blessed by my Grandfather, who made the decision to dig into and record what he found about our family line. How might your decisions impact your posterity?

“The decision of one has impacted a whole chain of descendants.” ~ Elder Godoy

• The decision of one has played out in my life and my father’s life. Can it not in your life too?

  • My Grandfather was touched by the Spirit of Elijah, though not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
  • My grandfather gave me a documented family history legacy that I could build upon, that survived his death. You can do that for future generations.

• Some of you are surely pioneers with no one having gone before. It will seem hard at first, but I promise that as you stick with it you get better at it, and the work becomes easier.

  • In Mosiah 24:12 the Lord said, “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs”
  • He knows he asks difficult things of us. And, he loves us enough to help.
  • After helping another branch in the Stake, the FamilySearch Center Director was marveling recently about how much the Lord has made this work easier compared to when they first started in the 1800s. I agree. When viewed over the whole history of the restored Church’s efforts to link us to our ancestors, the capabilities are truly miraculous.
    • I have digitial voice recordings of my mother describing specific ancestors posted on familysearch.org. I couldn’t have imagined that when my grandfather solemnly handed me, a 14 year old, my copy of his research as a family book.
    • My grandfather inspired my non-member father to write a history of his life and provide copies to all his children. I was also blessed by that.
    • I have written, published, and distributed a book of my life to all of our nine (9) children so it can be available to our many grandchildren (still young).
    • If any of this interests you, let me know and I can help you do the same. Experienced guides make the work easier initially. It is still work. But it is worth it.
    • My point, echoing Elder Godoy, is that these decisions impact generations ahead, just as my grandfather’s decisions impacted me and my children and may impact their children. Talk about family legacies!
    • Granddad’s work took one of our family lines back to the 1700s. I have been able since then to do the same for other lines. Because for my generation, my mother’s line is now included, I have worked on her lines (she also is not a member of the church, and she has flip-flopped on ordinance permissions a few times) but the research is now in familysearch.org even when the temple work has to wait a bit due to permissions.
  • The FamilySearch Center Director tells me the stake is working to get Family Search tools to all the wards and branches.
    • Our ward is blessed to be in the same building with all those tools to help ease the burden so we barely feel it.
    • Some of us have most of the tools (though not all the sites) on our home computers and mobile devices too. Look at the technology environment the Lord has blessed his saints with in these last days for gathering Israel!
    • A funny aside: when I first learned about Science using tools to extend our senses I thought about telescopes extending human eyes, not about reading glasses. But with older eyeballs, I’m grateful for reading glasses too. Ha! The tools for Temple & Family History all have the ability to enlarge the text for those of us with eyes not as good as they were when we were 20 years old. And we have reading glasses! I also use a head-mounted jeweler magnifier that is fantastic for seeing really small things like splinters in your finger clearly. OK, back to Temple & Family History whys and tools.

• Isn’t it interesting that while climbing the “stadium stairs” of life, by analogy, that when we occasionally pause, turn around and look at how far things have come that we can be overwhelmed with gratitude, that seems to burst forth from our souls, often with spontaneous tears of joy. Truly, God loves his children. I am grateful to be a part of his plan in the latter days.

  “Anything…can be mended through Jesus Christ.” ~ Elder Godoy

• As we look to Christ in the work of Gathering Israel, can he not ease the burdens so we cannot feel them on our backs? I testify that He can and that He does. Come and see.

  • Wherever you are on the journey of gathering Israel (for the living or the dead), look to Christ and be equally yoked with him in His work. He can mend us and bless us.

• And as Elder Godoy said multiple times, our decisions to persist when it seems hard will bless generations.

  • My grandfather’s efforts have blessed my father, me, my children, and will to their children too (4 generations of impact so far). If you are the pioneer, your efforts can similarly bless your generations.

• Oh, and let’s not forget, Temple and Family History service also blesses the souls of those for whom we vicariously do the work in the Temples, the House of the Lord. Linking the parents and children blesses our upstream generations too.

  • How soon will the new Temple be ready with the new modular construction techniques? Much sooner than it took to build the Washington DC temple. The Lord has blessed us with improved Engineering and construction techniques in addition to easier technologies for family history.

• We like Lehi, stand at the tree of life waving to our loved ones (posterity and ancestors) to come and partake.

  • Of course, gathering Israel takes more than waving, but you get what I mean. Waving or beckoning is the action in the vision.
  • While awake and serving, our ward has Temple & Family History consultants available whose entire calling is to meet with you in your home (you have to invite) or in the Family Search Center and to work with you as you get started as Temple & Family History pioneers. If you’re a new member let me be clear, these consultants help at no cost, no contribution, free. It is our service to the Lord in our calling as you do in yours.
  • Yes, we also staff the Family Search Center during its posted hours too, but any of us would love to help you one-on-one as you take steps in gathering Israel beyond mortality.
  • In a recent Temple & Family History Correlation meeting with members of the ward leadership, there was a desire to reinforce with the ward that Temple & Family History consultants are here to help. When you invite one of us in, we will ask questions about where you are so far and what you’d like to do next, and offer how we can help get you going. We’ll work together with you for a while until you gain your sea legs. We can show you how to crawl, walk, or run in Temple and Family History, depending on what you need help with.

• Elder Godoy’s words ring in my ears, “You and generations yet unborn will be blessed by your actions now…[on] the covenant path.”

  • (yes, I know he was speaking about another spiritual challenge, but his words resonated towards Temple & Family History work too, so I’m sharing).

“Just as yesterday’s decisions impact today’s realities, decisions of today will impact our future and the future of our family members.” ~ Elder Godoy

And:

“As we make current decisions, we should always be asking, ‘Where will this lead?’” Will our current decisions lead us to joy now and in eternity? ~ President Dallin H. Oaks

• Your service in Temple and Family History efforts will lead to blessings now and in eternity. I invite each of us to consider and act on how we can incorporate a little bit more of this into our lives. I have experienced these blessings. I know they will come when you serve.

• Elder Godoy referenced Revelations 3:16, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

  • He discussed the impact this “lukewarm” type of membership will have on their lives and on the lives of their posterity.

    • I being careful here. Our prophet has said that anything you do towards gathering Israel will provide blessings. Each of us has to evaluate and adjust our heading or bearing on the race of life. Each of us decides how we will spend our minutes and hours of this mortal test. I am not your judge. I am simply inviting and encouraging Temple & Family History service to the Lord. Each of us decides how much and when we will serve. I’m not offering tickets on a guilt trip, but rather hoping that as you see the grandness of God’s vision for gathering Israel that you’ll factor that into your own decision making about allocating a portion of your mortal time available to the Lord’s various errands and labors he’d have us tithe our energies, might, mind and strength.

      O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength. (D&C 4:2)

• Here are the other statements by Elder Godoy that seemed to also apply to Temple and Family History:

  • Spiritual impact it will create for generations ahead.
  • You know that families can be eternal.
  • Be the strong one. It is your turn to do it, and the Lord can help you.

• This message addresses the WHY behind Temple & Family History work.

NOTE: For older members, even if your body is no longer as spry as when you were 20 years old, and you can no longer help with move-ins/move-outs carrying heavy things without visiting chiropractors and physical therapists for weeks, you can still serve in Temple and Family History. The tools allow larger text to see, the physical effort is sitting in a chair and using a mouse. If you can’t do that, let a consultant show you how to capture recordings of your verbal stories of those who have passed before your memory goes the way of all the earth.

• As always, the HOW in Temple & Family History work takes more scope than this (sometimes brief) monthly message can accomplish, which is why the church organizes into stakes and wards/branches, and calls Temple & Family History consultants to serve you and get you going or to help (where possible for now) where you’re stuck.
• Consider serving by indexing, to put money(data) into the ATM before temple trips take money(names) out, so to speak. If you use your mobile device, the Artificial Intelligence (A.I. Machine Learning model) will give it a go first and you only have to confirm (youth, I’m talking to you because you can see mobile screens better). If you do indexing on a computer, it’s all on you to read the cursive writing (older technology) and type what you see (index) the data.

“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” ~ President Russell M. Nelson, 2018

These messages are inviting behavior change.

Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming. ~ Dallin H. Oaks, 2011

• Fundamentally, the Lord’s pattern is to invite behavior change. The adversary opposes with diversions, discouragement, etc.
  • As each of us decide our desires, priorities, choices, actions, changing, achieving and becoming more like our Savior, Jesus Christ, I invite you to tithe an appropriate-to-your-context amount of your time in mortality to Temple & Family History.
  • Our Father knows our various and different phases / contexts of life perfectly.

P. S.

• This month’s message got a needed style makeover with cascading style sheets (CSS), using the green color from Family Search. The CSS also adds “Figure: " in front of image captions automatically. I create these messages in plain text using markdown, and auto-convert and auto-format them to HTML or Word as needed.

• Reminder

  • The intent of these messages is not as a guilt trip, but rather as a reminder of the grandeur of the vision and scope of the work God asks of his children as we prepare for the Savior’s second coming, and the urgency our Prophets have indicated.
  • Discouragement is the adversary’s pattern. The bigger picture can inspires commitment for what we can do, one step at a time, little by little.
  • With our hand in the Lord’s hand, all things are possible as we keep trying and practicing Christlike love and service, we can help unite families through family history and temple work and be blessed too.
  • Through small and simple things are great things brought to pass.