A work that "cannot be lightly passed over..."

Maybe it's all the indexing posters I've made lately (thank you Hansie for helping me!), or maybe it has been the joy of teaching a Temple Preparation class with Aaron, or maybe it's all the studying and thinking I've been doing lately about family history work and temple work - whatever it is, I feel the significance and importance of family history work and temple work more than ever before. And I know it is important for you to get involved too! We all need to be doing something, no matter how small.

I want to hear your thoughts! What do you know about your ancestors? What kinds of records did they keep? Have you actually READ those records? How have their lives influenced you? What specific things are you doing to be involved in family history work, (especially you busy moms)?

I was SO impressed with a girl in my ward who has two small kids. One day I dropped something off at her home and she was working on her family history while the kids were napping! Of all the things to be doing, that is NOT what I would have been doing. But, maybe I can change that a little. I've always thought family history work was something my mom would take care of, but as I've thought about how I ought to be spending my time, this has come up as a priority.

I've been studying out of the Doctrines of the Gospel manual, and this is the principle that caught my eye, and my heart:

"Latter-day Saints have the authority and the responsibility to perform temple ordinances in behalf of the dead."

As I read all of the scriptures and quotes, I kept seeing that word, "responsibility," and it was often coupled with "individual responsibility." Yikes! Sometimes I don't like responsibility. However, I also saw the word, "privilege," and realized that this is a privilege and opportunity! With all of the technology, and all that is going on in the world, I can't help but think we live in the best time e.v.e.r!

What is happening to me? 

Elder Nelson said it best.

"When our hearts turn to our ancestors, something changes inside us...We feel part of something greater than ourselves. Our inborn yearnings for family connections are fulfilled when we are linked to our ancestors through sacred ordinances of the temple." (Elder Nelson, here)

What should we be doing?

"All men know that they must die. And it is important that we should understand the reasons and causes of our exposure to the vicissitudes of life and of death, and the designs and purposes of God in our coming into the world, our sufferings here, and our departure hence. What is the object of our coming into existence, then dying and falling away, to be here no more? It is but reasonable to suppose that God would reveal something in reference to the matter, and it is a subject we ought to study more than any other. We ought to study it day and night, for the world is ignorant in reference to their true condition and relation. If we have any claim on our Heavenly Father for anything, it is for knowledge on this important subject." (Joseph Smith)

"Some of us have had occasion to wait for someone or something for a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or even a year. Can you imagine how our progenitors must feel, some of whom have perhaps been waiting for decades and even centuries for the temple work to be done for them? I have tried, in my mind's eye, to envision our progenitors who are anxiously waiting for those of us who are their descendants...on the earth to do our duty toward them. I have also thought what a dreadful feeling it would be for us to see them in the hereafter and have to acknowledge that we had not been as faithful as we should have been here on earth in performing these ordinances in their behalf." (Spencer W. Kimball)

"The responsibility [of doing work for our dead] rests with equal force on all, according to our individual ability and opportunities. It matters not what else we have been called to do, or what position we may occupy, or how faithfully in other ways we have labored in the Church, none is exempt from this great obligation. It is required of the apostle as well as the humblest elder. Place, or distinction, or long service in the Church, in the mission field, the stakes of Zion, or where or how else it may have been, will not entitle one to disregard the salvation of one's dead. 

"Some may feel that if they pay their tithing, attend their regular meetings and other duties, give two, or more years preaching in the world, that they are absolved from further duty. But the greatest and grandest duty of all is to labor for the dead." (Joseph Fielding Smith)



 "If you don’t know where to start, start with yourself. If you don’t know what records to get, and how to get them, start with what you have."
(Boyd K. Packer, check out this link)

Yes, I guess you could say my heart is being turned to my fathers.

So, since we're living in Salt Lake, Michael and I are going to tour the new Family History Museum!