Saviors on Mount Zion

A little talk on Family History.

 While Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail in 1839 he wrote an epistle to the church.  The end of that epistle is D&C 123:17: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” When I read that scripture my question is what things lie in my power and how do I them cheerfully? I hope that we all think about our participation in and attitude towards God’s work of salvation.  What more can we do for the Lord?

Two years ago I was called to be a missionary in the Chile Osorno Mission. I served there for 6 months until I got sick and came home early. For a long time after my mission I was very sick and very dependent on other people. On occasion I wouldn’t even eat until my brother came home from school to feed me because I couldn’t get up and walk to the kitchen by myself. I didn’t like that! I wanted to do things for myself, but I couldn’t and I needed help.

I want you to keep that in mind for this next part.  Each of you has a family member that depends on you to do their temple work.  That family member probably had a difficult life, they didn’t have the gospel to help them through it, and now they are waiting for their family members to find them and help them.  I imagine it’s like they’re lying on the bed waiting for you to come home and feed them, because they can’t do it themselves and it’s not their fault. 

Now there are two questions I want to talk about: Why do we do temple work and why do we do family history work?  The reason is the same: ordinances and covenants are prerequisite to our entry in the celestial kingdom.  We do family history so we can find names to take to the temple for ordinance work.  I hope you all appreciate that is one of the most Christ-like acts we can perform. In Provo we are blessed to live a very short distance from the temple so many of us are going to the temple often.  Some of us need to be going a lot more often than we do, but even just statistically I find that more members of the church are going to the temple than they are doing family history.  Why is that? Why are we so much more likely to attend the temple than do our family history?

Here’s how I felt about family history: I don’t know how, I don’t have time to learn how, I’ll do it when I’m older, all my work has been done anyway, it’s boring, and  I don’t think it is very realistic right now.  I felt like those were all pretty good excuses—but they are just excuses. Luckily the Lord made time for me and I started doing my family history last year while I was sick.  After a couple months I became a part time family history missionary to help people use the FamilySearch website. I serve a part time mission while I go to BYU full time.  Since I became a missionary I have talked to hundreds of people about their family history work. The questions I get aren’t, “why should I do family history work” the questions I get are “how do I do family history work?” Where do I start, how do I find things, how do I fix things? Those are great questions that I can’t answer in just 10 minutes, but here are some suggestions that might help us get started. 
  1. Talk to your family.  It’s called family history. Ask for help, stories, pictures, interviews; find out what they know and what they don’t know.  You’ll find that by taking in an interest in your family your relationships will improve both with the living and the dead.
  2. Some of you are in denial so I just want everyone to keep an open mind.  If you think all of your family history work has been done you are wrong. Some of you don’t believe me which I can understand. Everyone likes to be the exception; but you are still wrong.  Here’s why: 1 Nephi 3:7: “for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” The Lord wouldn’t ask us to do temple and family history work if it were not possible.  It is hard and it takes time, but we can all do it.
  3. Make time to learn how.  I know that is difficult; however, if you are trying to get your degree and you never make time to go to class, do homework, or take tests, you won’t be able to earn your degree. If you never set aside time to learn about and research family history you’re never going to take family names to the temple.
  4.  Be consistent: This is missionary work, treat it as such!  It requires consistency, diligence, patience, faith, you’ve got to try new things and be very in tune with the spirit.
  5. Use your resources.  The very least you can do is get on your computer and go to familysearch.org.  If you are feeling ambitious log in, go to your family tree, and start writing down your questions. Then go find help. On familysearch.org you can click on Get Help and start watching some training videos.  Every ward should have family history co-chairs or consultants.  They are going to be receiving stake training regularly so find them, ask them questions, and tell them to come to their training meetings so they can help you.  We also have a family history center right on BYU campus on the second floor in the library.  There are some wonderful people that can help you there. Go to it and ask your questions.  As you actively search for help you will find the help you need even if it doesn’t come right away.

We are so blessed to live in this age of information and technology.  It amazes me and humbles me that a sick, frustrated 20 year old girl could lie in her bed and still bring souls to Jesus Christ.  I know that He is our Savior.  He did for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Temple and family history work allow us to emulate the Savior like nothing else can.  I testify not just that we should do, but that we can do our family history work.  It does require Heavenly help and it is hard, but my dearly beloved brethren: “Let us cheerfully do all things that in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”  I promise that as you make a sincere effort to do temple and family history work you will feel the presence of angels in your life and you personally can be better than you are now.


I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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