2025-12 Dec - Hard Things

Dec 4, 2025 Hard Things ask for help Pope

Read time: Summary 0.1 minutes | Expanded section: 6.2 minutes | Entire message 6.3 minutes

Summary

Expanded Message

Welcome to the Winter Season.

Hard Things. Big Things. What Do We Choose.

I will tell you the highlights. See if you can determine who I’m talking about based on the patterns of behavior.

The Lord asked them to do something hard, a big assignment. It felt hard due to its scope and difficulty. None of them had ever done that type of work before. Some of them immediately asked for some help with the next steps and then acted on the Lord’s request right away.

Some of them chose to complain and push back against the work and some even against those who had already begun working on the enormous task. Some of their complaints brought up true points. For example, none of them had actually done something like this before, or some mentioned the seemingly overwhelming enormity of the ask. Their complaints and push-back followed typical patterns. Those choosing not to do the work spent much energy rationalizing their choice.

Those that performed as asked in faith, received help from Heaven which assisted them ing doing the work more effectively than they might have with only their own abilities. Rather than only relying on their own knowledge and existing skills, they asked for heavenly help and in faith received the help they needed.

There were discussions between some in both groups. Those who acted in faith tried to remind those not wanting to do the great work about other examples of doing what God had asked even when it seemed hard. Not just one example, but multiple examples of those who had gone before, and how they had done hard things for the Lord with his help. Some responded to that outreach in anger.

At some point, an event caused those who had pushed back and even those who had gotten angry to reflect and turn their heart and will back towards God. The enormous task’s first phase was completed. The work so far was good. Then the second phase of the work started. More hard things. As with many of us mortal humans faced with hard things, there was some backsliding and additional complaining. But they chose to align their hearts and will with God’s. Again. And then again.

And finally, when the hard work, the great task, was finished, there was the daily hard work that life requires of us all. And then all those involved noticed the abundance of blessings they were receiving. They expressed gratitude. Indeed they were blessed with all they needed and more.

Okay, can you guess who I’m talking about? Was it perhaps about me after a hurricane had damaged my home and cut the power & water, and my initial response to being asked to go serve others impacted by the storm? Was it perhaps about someone in our ward family struggling with a hard thing?

The pattern is so common with us mortal, natural people that it is hard to identify which specific instance I’ve described.

Fortunately, the Lord is willing to still have us turn to Him, when we turn from our complaining and align our will with His will. As Elder Patrick Kearon said at the Oct General Conference, “Every week as we eat a small piece of bread and drink a tiny cup of water in remembrance of the gift of our perfect Saviour, who died for the express purpose of giving us as many new beginnings as we need! Jesus gives us as many new beginnings as we need.”

The Saviour never gave up on His commitment to fulfill the will of the Father and complete His divine atoning mission, even through pain that caused Him to tremble, to bleed from every pore, to suffer body and spirit, and to pray that the bitter cup might be removed. Again, He was demonstrating for us what faithful endurance with God looks like. (Elder Patrick Kearon, Oct 2025, emphasis added)

The Lord does ask each of us to do hard things. Hard things are, well, hard to do.

One example is Temple & Family History work. Another example may be your calling in our Ward family. There seems to be an abundance of hard things that God needs done.

Do you need a new beginning? Can you make a fresh start, even you? Think about the people the Saviour ministered to—the people He taught, healed, raised, forgave, and restored.

If we reflect and choose to repent of our occasional hard heartedness and return unto Him with full purpose of heart, no matter the hard thing, He will bless us during our performance, and bless us abundantly afterwards as in the example I’ve described. Which response will we choose today?

For me, Elder Kearon’s Oct talk was helpful. The Holy Ghost let me know where I needed to turn my heart. What has helped you recently or sparked your faith sufficiently to ask for heavenly help in your hard thing?

And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (Jesus as reported in Matthew 28:20)

(The answer: The example I described at the pattern-level was about Nephi building the ship to cross the ocean (1 Nephi))

Story Time - An Act of Ancestral Reckoning

Know thyself: UVA professor helps students trace family lineage

She realized the answer was to help students better understand themselves. “We come to know ourselves through the web of relationships, past and present, that have made us who we are,” she said.

Story Two - Why Does My Family History Matter Today?

“A lot of people think their family history doesn’t apply to them in the present day,” Graham says. “However, it’s important to realize where your family came from. It’s not until you start looking that you realize that your ancestors’ decisions from 100 years ago still impact you today.”

See the posting

Story Three - Gates Meets with Pope to Present Copy of Family Tree

The Harvard Gazette posted this story. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the television series Finding Your Roots on PBS and has done so for 13 years.

Covering Pope Leo XIV’s entire desk was his family tree, its corners secured by weights. “Your Holiness,” announced Henry Louis Gates Jr., “your ancestry goes back to your 12th-great-grandparents, who were born 500 years ago — when Leo X was pope.”

Story Four - Utah Influencer is Changing How Young People See Family History

“Just Kalima” is how Kalima Watson helps people find their roots and discover who they are, all online. The article includes a 2 minute video interview.

When you know the hard things they’ve done, it makes doing hard things yourself easier.

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.