2025-03 Mar - Get Help

Mar 13, 2025 family history help Tuskegee Airmen name assist tool

Read time: Summary 0.1 minutes | Expanded section: 6.1 minutes | Entire message 6.2 minutes

Summary

Expanded Message

Family Name Assist Tool

We Can Get Help From Heaven

Can we get help from Heaven to do challenging things, which includes Temple & Family History?

Yes, we can! Elder Richard G. Scott shares more about how to do that.

Life in today’s world can be at times so complicated and the challenges so overwhelming as to be beyond our individual capacity to resolve them. We all need help from the Lord. Yet there are many individuals who don’t know how to receive that help. They feel their urgent pleas for help have often gone unattended. How can that be when He Himself has said, “Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”? (D&C 4:7.)

~ Elder Richard G. Scott, Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (emphasis added)

How do we get such help? (emphasis added)

He intends that we do our part. But what, specifically, are we to do? No one would expect to receive a result from physical law without obeying it. Spiritual law is the same. As much as we want help, we must expect to follow the spiritual law that controls that help. Spiritual law is not mysterious. It is something that we can understand. The scriptures define it in significant detail.

~ Elder Richard G. Scott (emphasis added)

The Savior taught:

“Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith. Trifle not with these things; do not ask for that which you ought not.” (D&C 8:10)

I have asked for help in Family History. I’ve had to be patient with the Lord’s timing too.

Elder Scott went on to say…

These teachings of Jesus Christ emphasize that it matters very much what we ask for and how we ask for it.

One heavenly pattern is here a little, there a little.

Help from the Lord generally comes in increments. The general pattern is that improvement comes in sequential steps. That plan gives us an opportunity to discover what the Lord expects us to learn. It requires our patience to recognize His timetable. It provides growth from our efforts and trust in Him and the opportunity to express gratitude for the help given.

Some parts of family history come quickly. Other parts take monitoring and watchfulness of the continuing flow of new record digitization over extended time frames.

Elder Scott identified steps:

  1. Ask the Father in the name of Christ
  2. Diligently keep His commandments
  3. Ask with faith in Christ
  4. Ask for that which is right
  5. Harden not our hearts
  6. Express gratitude

Our earnest prayers are answered when they conform to the will of the Lord. Since we cannot perfectly understand His will, we must walk with faith. He is all-knowing, and His decisions are perfect. The fact that our finite capacity does not let us understand all of His dealings with man does not limit Him from blessing us. His will is our best choice in life, whether or not we fully understand it. When we act using our moral agency wisely, the Lord will act according to His will.

I see Elder Scott’s guidance applying to Temple & Family History work as it does to the other parts of our lives.

The path you are to walk through life may be very different from others. You may not always know why He does what He does, but you can know that He is perfectly just and perfectly merciful. He would have you suffer no consequence, no challenge, endure no burden that is superfluous to your good.

To gain unshakable faith in Jesus Christ is to flood your life with brilliant light. You are no longer alone to struggle with challenges you know you cannot resolve or control yourself, for He said, “If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.” (Moro. 7:33) (emphasis added)

I find it comforting that he wants us to know He will help when we ask.

With Elder Scott, I testify too.

I solemnly testify that the Lord will help you when you carefully obey the spiritual law upon which that help is predicated. He is your Father. You are His child. He loves you. He will never let you down. I know He will bless you.

Story Time

Reminder. Current Workflow for Family History:

Think Inputs and Outputs.

  1. Historical people’s information first has to be digitized (others do this).
  2. We index people’s digitized information so the image can be associated with text, which can be found in computer searches. AI is still not good enough to do this by itself.
  3. We link families' data together in FamilySearch.org (each member’s initial target is 4-Generations found and linked. Later we work cousin lines too.)
  4. We attach people’s information (source data) to the right person to help us and others to get to know them better. Attaching more sources also shows our hypotheses about individuals more likely true than not true as we build a clear picture of who they were.
  5. Then, we can get names to take to the temple and offer them the choice of being linked to their families for eternity.
  6. By delving deeper, finding and attaching sources and their small bits of information about our ancestor’s experiences, we get to know our people (both direct lines and cousin lines), and our hearts turn to them. As more original sources are digitized and indexed, more puzzle pieces become available. It’s an ongoing and accelerating effort. When are we “done” knowing someone? We can all go beyond the dates of their birth and death and get to know our people.
  7. We can bless others by sharing with our immediate family and cousins what we’ve learned about our shared ancestors or kin, helping all of us feel more grounded, knowing where we came from. Potentially helping them to turn their hearts to their fathers too.

As Ward Temple & Family History Consultants we are called to help you with HOW to do these things, the Lord has asked that we all do our part.

As Ward Temple & Family History Consultants we are called to serve & help you with HOW to do these things, the Lord has asked that we all do.

Sincerely, Your Ward Temple & Family History Consultants,

During Stake Family Search Center posted hours, our staffing assignments are posted

(our contact info is in the tools app, or see us in church)

P.S. - Older versions of this Ward Message (without names), with some how-to instructions, are at familyhistorystuff.com for your reference. This site is not for profit. The .com was a mistake when .org was intended, and would have doubled the cost to fix the mistake.