2025-11 Nov - Improving

Nov 10, 2025 improving D-day message in a bottle

Read time: Summary 0.3 minutes | Expanded section: 12.4 minutes | Entire message 12.7 minutes

Summary

• We Are Happiest When We Are Improving (Shaping Our Growth)
• Family Search Center Staff Members Provide Free Personal Help
• A Possible Agenda for Working with a Ward Temple & Family History Consultant
• Story Time 1 - Chinese Officers in D-Day
• Story Time 2 - Bazooka Charlie
• Story Time 3 - Soldier’s message in a bottle dropped at sea during WWI found 109 years later
• Workflow for Family History

Expanded Message

Welcome to the Fall Season!

We Are Happiest When We Are Improving (Shaping Our Growth)

God’s children have the capacity to direct their own growth. It’s not enough just to grow. Even the weeds and the biblical tares can do that. It is expected of us that we will shape our growth. (Dwan J. Young, Primary General President, Apr, 1982)

The way to measure your progress is backward against where you started, not against your ideal. (Dan Sullivan)

This interesting article in Inc. said:

If you’re not growing and changing, you’re not happy. Research is clear that as people, we are happiest when we are improving. Self-acceptance is important, but self-acceptance is also intended to be a vehicle for positive growth, not for staying stagnant and justifying mediocrity.

How many talks by apostles and prophets address improving and moving towards Christ? God is okay with us comparing ourselves to our own past selves to assess growth (just not comparing against other people).

If you’re growing but constantly measuring where you are against your ideal, you’ll never get there. This will lead you to always feeling dissatisfied with yourself, which isn’t helpful to your future goals and it robs you of the joy of the distance you’ve made.

Imagine you’re on a high school or college sports team and the coach has asked that you run up the stadium stairs to grow physically. In that mental picture, stop for a moment about half way up, turn around and see how many stairs you have already climbed. Feel the accomplishment and smile. Then use that feeling to turn back to the effort and continue getting better. You might be tired as you reflect, and express gratitude, feel the confidence, and feel the happiness.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has already identified this pattern to the youth. I recommend this church booklet for youth, and beyond the youth, to us adults in the ward too. Jesus Christ Himself taught us to look to children as an example.

Your Heavenly Father has given you talents and spiritual gifts. You can seek revelation to know how to develop your talents.

As in the parable of the talents in the New Testament, we sometimes behave like the servant who buried their talents. We are blessed more when we magnify our talents. Another scripture says we should “act” rather than be acted upon. As we choose what to improve, we increase precept upon precept, line upon line (D&C 98:12) rather than all at once. That is a spiritual pattern too.

Knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon (2 Nep 2:26, emphasis added)

The church youth booklet (applies to us adults too) offers four categories to consider when we’re willing to choose how to increase, to grow and become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

• Spiritual
• Social
• Intellectual
• Physical

The youth booklet describes the growth pattern for growth as (a) Discover what you need to work on (your needs, gifts & talents); (b) Plan how you will do it; (c) Act on your plan in faith; and (d) Reflect on what you have learned (thinking, pondering enables course adjustments).

Put simply, when you take the time to reflect and measure how far you’ve come, you’ll set clearer and more powerful goals, because those goals will be set from a place of confidence, happiness, and gratitude. (source: Inc.)

When the adversary whispers to you that you’re no where close to the ideal, or that you’re not doing better than so-and-so, stop listening to those thoughts. Recognize that is not God’s pattern. With gratitude and prayer, each of us can proactively adjust, we can compare to our start-point for this time around. Then we can better appreciate what you have accomplished so far. So when the master comes back and asks an accounting of the talents he gave to us, we won’t have to say we buried our talents (did not grow, or chose to be acted upon). It is okay that some people magnify talents ten fold and others 100 fold. They are comparing to themselves, to their own starting point, not to you and me.

The atonement of Jesus Christ frees all of us from the chains of sin, and gives us a chance to start again to do better. We can make this our starting point, or set our next starting point for another round of increasing. Each of us is a child of God with such potential (room to grow). Let us all choose a growth path that aims closer towards our Savior.

Ponder the path of thy feet (Proverbs 4:26)

If you’re wondering which areas to grow in, we can involve the Lord in our decision. Consider Temple & Family History growth.

So if you catch yourself feeling overwhelmed or in a checklist mindset, remember that Jesus Christ’s atonement was because he loved you and me. He does not expect flawlessness. Superman’s leaping in a single bound is a fiction story, not an actual pattern of the Lord. Even “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature.” (Luke 2:52) So in trying to be like Him, we also need to increase (to grow).

In short, we promise to press forward on our journey, and God and Christ promise to refill the tank. (Bradley R Wilcox, Oct 2021)

Family Search Center Staff Members Provide Free Personal Help

FamilySearch center staff members provide free personal help to anyone looking for family history information (to learn about their ancestors). Many visitors to a typical FamilySearch center are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In some centers, the percentage of general public visitors exceeds 80%.

We are here to serve you and the communities in which we live. If you’re traveling, locate your nearest FamilySearch center using the locator.

A Possible Agenda for Working with a Ward Temple & Family History Consultant

If you haven’t yet worked with a ward family history consultant you might wonder what to expect. Of course, you could just ask one-off questions as you have them.

Things you may want to share:

1. Initial contact.

   • Meet a consultant in the Family Search Center, or arrange with a consultant to come to your home. Schedule a time to meet and share.
   • Remember, Ward TFH consultants are called to help you. We want to minister to the one. You are not imposing, you are letting us serve well.
   • Consider sharing your TFH needs.
     • Clarify your specific challenges and goals to help the Ward consultant know you’d like to start or go next.
       • We will not teach a class, but rather will respond to your unique situation.
     • Familysearch.org can show the current state of your family tree (even if you have nothing yet, we can help).
     • As for role expectations, Ward Consultants can help you get going, or answer questions.
       • If you are a beginner, it is okay. Just let them know you want to get started.
       • If you have intermediate or even expert skills, we can adjust to that too.
     • Create a FamilySearch account, if you do not already have one.
       • If you want your Church record number, you can find it in the Church Tools app, on your temple recommend, or obtained from the ward or branch membership clerk.
     • We can help all levels of computer skills. You do not have to be an expert in using computers for us to help you. You’ll learn how.
     • The role of a Ward Temple & Family History Consultant includes:
       • Provides one-on-one family history help.
       • Helps members identify ancestors
       • Helps prepare for temple ordinances.
       • Support parents in helping their children participate in temple and family history work.

2. Diagnosis of where you are now.

   • Share information about your family tree so far.
   • Consider what existing information you can gather:
     • Collect any family documents, photos, letters, or stories you (or your immediate family) already have.
     • This includes family Bibles, certificates, and other personal records.
   • Work with the consultant to identify the next steps for the problem or challenge you face.
   • Ask questions about the research process and the tools being used.
   • Listen for potential answers to ensure the consultant has a full understanding.

3. Intervention and implementation

   • Pray for help from the Holy Ghost as you serve the Lord in Temple & Family History work.
   • Ask the consultant to help you create actionable strategies.
   • Ask the consultant for their recommendations.
   • Collaborate with the consultant to make your plan or for next steps in your Temple & Family History service.
   • Ask for training in how to use the tools that familysearch.org makes available to everyone.
     • Ask for a step-by-step explanation so you can learn to do the work yourself in the future.
   • If you are newer to this work, ask the consultant to explain any terms or concepts so you’re clear.
     • We all had to start at the beginning and take our first steps.
   • Do the work where you can, or pivot to other people in your ancestors when you are blocked by a lack of sources.
   • Learn to use the familysearch.org and Family Search Center tools and gradually become more self-sufficient using them.

4. Learn & Adjust and

   • Evaluate your results on this iteration of service.

     • What was your plan or desired outcome?
     • What went well in this iteration of effort?
       • Express gratitude to the Lord for help from the Holy Ghost.
     • What did not go so well?
     • How do you feel about that?
     • Based on how you feel about that, what will you change or improve in the next iteration of effort?

   • Remember “line upon line” is a pattern that applies in Temple & Family History work too.

   • Ponder what support do you need from a Ward TFH consultant next?

   • What follow-up questions do you have?

   • Start on the next iteration of effort.

5. Follow-up - Set new goals or Identify your Next Desired Result

   • At the end of each iteration, set new goals for your next steps.
   • Some people find it helpful to write them down, along with any tips or findings, in a notebook to track your progress.
     • Sometimes progress is not immediate, so having it written down can remind you of what you wanted when you started the iteration.

Story Time 1 - Chinese Officers in D-Day

“I was flabbergasted,” she says. “It’s a gift of me learning who he was as a young person and understanding him better now, because I didn’t have that opportunity when he was still alive.”

Read what a Chinese officer wrote of D-Day in his diary salvaged in Hong Kong

Story Time 2 - Bazooka Charlie

• Charles Marsten “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter, left being a high school History teacher and part time flight instructor, to serve in during WWII as a U.S. Army liason pilot. His official job was to fly loitering patterns and call in artillery fire as needed.
• Carpenter was originally assigned as an artillery spotter for the 4th Armored Division under General George Patton’s 3rd Army.
• Then Charlie took the initiative to arm his aircraft with bazookas to directly engage enemy tanks. There was only a rumor of another doing this to go on. Charlie transformed his Piper L-4 Grasshopper observation plane with fabric wings into a makeshift anti-tank system by mounting six bazookas on its wing struts.
• He practiced until he could hit targets. Then he flew into combat and intervened rather than just observed and called for fire. His daring act that earned him the nickname “Bazooka Charlie” and the title of a “tank ace” after destroying at least five enemy tanks during the Battle of Arracourt in September 1944.
• He named his tiny aircraft “Rosie the Rocketer” in honor of “Rosie the Riveter.”
• Then he got Hodgkin’s lymphoma disease in 1945 and was sent home with an estimated 2-years to live. Thinking he only had one year to live, he took his family all over the USA to see the country he defended during the war. He went on to live 22 years before passing.
• When the Internet got going, Charlie’s daughter, Carol Apacki, saw people discussing what her father did during WWII and she noted the skepticism the internet had about her Dad. But because of her “family history”, she knew better.
• Carol dug through her father’s extensive wartime correspondence to her mom, and then she and posted documentation proving his wartime actions. She posted old photos of the plane too. This led to renewed public interest and historical recognition of Charlie’s contributions.
• Carol went on to co-author a biography with aviation writer James P. Busha, published in 2025, which includes his personal letters and confirms the authenticity of his wartime actions. Charlie’s biography is on Amazon, Bazooka Charlie: The Unbelievable Story of Major Charles Carpenter and Rosie the Rocketer.
• This is a Temple & Family History newsletter, so this is not about his war actions, but about his daughter’s use of family memorabilia to establish her father’s history.
• You may be thinking, “my family was not famous,” but remember the worth of souls is great in the eyes of God. What I’m encouraging is to do what Carol did. Go through your family memorabilia and document your people on familysearch.org to help your direct family and cousins know about your family. If you acted as if you only had 2-years left like Charlie thought, what would you want to make sure made it to your progeny? What’s stopping you from making progress on that?

Story Time 3 - World War I Soldiers’ Message in a Bottle Found on Beach 109 Years Later

In this news story, some people were cleaning the beach of trash and found the note in the bottle washed ashore. The paper was wet, but the writing remained legible. Because of that, Deb Brown was able to notify both soldiers’ relatives of the find.

Harley’s granddaughter Ann Turner said her family was “absolutely stunned” by the find. “We just can’t believe it. It really does feel like a miracle and we do very much feel like our grandfather has reached out for us from the grave,” Turner told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Now consider how your family might feel if you left your thoughts for them in the future. Consider journals, an autobiography (experienced at this, I can help if your interested), old fashioned paper letters, audio recorded stories (many mobile phones can make these). If you’re not sure where to put them, consider adding a representative sample to your familysearch.org page in the memories tab. Be sure to mark them private, because if you leave them set to public, you may get a bigger audience than you intended. I don’t recommend message in a bottle.

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.

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.