Family History: A Covenant Responsibility

This is a talk I was asked to give on the obligation that we have to do family history work. I love family history work so much!!

Good Afternoon, brothers and sisters. My name is Elise Shipley, and my husband Matthew and I moved into the ward in the beginning of August. Just to introduce ourselves quickly in case you don’t know us… we are the self-proclaimed “non-students of typical student age” addition to your ward, because we really had no idea that we would be moving into a ward with so many students. After hearing that, many of you have literally asked us, “Well… why are you here then?” We are here because we both graduated from BYU in April, I am from Dallas, Matthew is from New Jersey, and this location satisfies both of our needs of east-coast-meets-the-south-but-not-too-south-ness. I am a teacher at Orange High School in Hillsborough, and Matthew graduated in Illustration and is in the process of getting an Illustration/Graphic Design job. During my Freshman year at the Y, Matthew’s younger brother Brigham was in my ward and we became close friends, and I met Matthew at his mission call opening. We made absolutely no impression on each other. I wrote Brigham on his mission, (although non-romantically- cause the way this ended up would have been weird), and after his mission he lived with Matthew, and I was over there all the time so he convinced me to date him, and got married in August of 2013. It has been an awesome year and two months, and we have loved every minute of it, and love being here in North Carolina. Our last calling in our married student ward in Provo was as Family History committee members, specializing in indexing, and so when we mentioned that to the bishopric when we got here, they sprang to action and called us to that job again, so here we are, and thus the topic for my talk today is Family History, and I will first start off by saying I LOVE family history work. I think its super interesting, spiritual, and is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. If you are not involved in family history work now, GET INVOLVED!!

So I have a scenario for you… I’m not going to explain it right away, but I’ll let you sit on it, and we’ll come back to it later. So take a second, close your eyes if you want or if you are not holding a small child. You’re back in college, or you’re in college, for those of you who are still in college. There is this HUGE assignment that you will be graded on. The completion of this assignment essentially determines every aspect of the rest of your life. You won’t be able to graduate, get a job, buy a house, have a family, or progress in any way without the completion of this assignment. But here’s the catch: you yourself cannot complete it. Someone else has to do it for you. You don’t know them personally, and they don’t know you personally, but you both know the other exists. This other person has a life, a job, a house, and a family, and other obligations that they have, and on top of that, at some point they have to complete this assignment for you so that you can have a chance to have a life and progress. All that you can do is wait and wait and wait. How do you feel? Remember how you feel right now, and we will come back to that.

There are three main things that I would like to address today: What our responsibilities are concerning family history work, how we do family history work, and the blessings that can come from doing family history work. 

When the Bishop called me and asked me to give this talk, he used the phrase “obligation to do Family History work” And I thought that was a interesting way to put it, because I had never heard anyone use the word “obligation” in regards to family history work. I personally feel like family history work is an obligation, but I don't necessarily think everyone has that mindset. I’m not a huge fan of the “Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines this as…” but I think the definition of obligation brings some insight into what Family History is supposed to mean for us. Obligation is defined as “something by which a person is bound to do, and which arises out of a sense of duty.” A secondary entry says “a binding promise, contract, or covenant.” A covenant! LDS people love the word covenant! In the November 2011 Ensign, David A Bednar said, “We have the covenant responsibility to search out our ancestors and provide for them the saving ordinances of the gospel” Although we make no formal covenant to do family history work, it has that same importance. If you can’t quite picture this being as important as it is, look at the three-fold mission of the church as stated by Spencer W. Kimball: Proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints, redeem the dead. Redeeming the dead is right up there with missionary work and the completion of our personal temple ordinances. 

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared: “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead… For it is necessary that the sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fulness of the dispensation of times- a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of men.”

And Joseph Smith bluntly spells out what the consequences are for not participating in family history work: “The Saints have the privilege of being baptized for… their relatives who are dead… who have received the Gospel in the spirit, through… those who have been commissioned to preach to them…. Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives do it at the peril of their own salvation.” I can only think that such a severe consequence is because by not doing family history work- you are putting others at peril of their own salvation. 

We are familiar with the scripture mastery, Malachi 4:5-6; “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” However, I like the Joseph Smith History account, where the Angel Moroni appears to Joseph Smith and quotes the book of Malachi to him. He changes the wording ever so slightly, but it brings a whole new meaning to the scripture. Joseph Smith History verse 39 says: “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promise made to their fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers…” Not only are our hearts turning to our ancestors, but in our hearts are planted a remembrance of a promise made to our ancestors- that we would redeem them by performing their ordinance work. This promise refers to the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concerning the gathering of Israel, but I like to believe that it also means that in the pre-existence during the mingling among our thousands of ancestors, we realized that not all of them would have the opportunity to hear the gospel during their time on Earth, and we promised or covenanted with them that we would find them and complete their ordinances for them. 

I bear testimony that this is a covenant responsibility that we have. We are expected to find our ancestors so that their work may be done. 

The second thing I’d like to talk about is how we go about doing Family History Work.

When you hear the word “Family History” or “Geneology” I would assume what comes to mind is a retirement-age hobby. But its not! In the October 2011 Ensign, David A Bednar said: “I know of no age limit described in the scriptures or guidelines announced by Church leaders restricting this important service to mature adults. You are sons and daughters of God, children of the covenant, and builders of the kingdom… It is no coincidence that FamilySearch and other tools have come forth at a time when young people are so familiar with a wide range of information and communication technologies…The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.”

Elder Scott explained: “Temple and family history work is one work divided into two parts. They are connected together like the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost…” He then quotes President Howard W Hunter: “Doing work for others is accomplished in two steps: first, by family history research to ascertain our progenitors; and second, by performing the temple ordinances to give them the same opportunities afforded to the living. There are some members who engage in temple work but fail to do family history research on their own family lines. Although they perform a divine service in assisting others, they lose a blessing by not seeking their own kindred dead as divinely directed by latter-day prophets…”

In order to be full participators of temple and family history work, we cannot just simply go to the temple- we need to be bringing the names of our ancestors that we have found.

There are a variety of ways to participate in family history. To name a few: journaling, interviewing older members of our families, compiling journals, pictures, and other documents related to the lives of ancestors, indexing, completing our family trees on familysearch, taking names to the temple and completing ordinances. I challenge you choose one of these things and practice it in your own homes. Make family history work a continuous habit, not a one-time project. 

Do you remember the scenario I mentioned a few minutes ago? Think about the feelings you had as I explained the hypothetical task that had to be completed. Although not a perfect example, I believe this is similar to how the billions people waiting for their work to be done feel. They are completely helpless as to what can be done for them- they simply have to wait for someone they don’t know, to find them and help them. 

For those of you that have been continually seeking out your dead ancestors, Elder Scott has some advice for you: There are currently 12 million names and millions of corresponding ordinances that are reserved. Many names have been reserved for years. Ancestors who have been found are no doubt anxious and thrilled when their names are cleared for ordinances. They, however, may not be very happy when they have to continue to wait for their ordinances to be performed.” He then goes on to suggest that you share your reservation of names with others to help you complete the work. Last month my husband and I had the opportunity to give some of our temple names to the young men and young women to take to the temple for their youth temple trip. My own teenage siblings live about 3 and a half hours from the nearest temple, and are unable to go often, so this was a blessing to my family, and to the ancestors whose ordinances were completed in the temple. And hopefully it was also a blessing for the youth in our ward. 

My husband and I had the opportunity to attend the temple last night. We had planned on doing initiatories for the baptisms & conformations that had been recently done. However, we are not used to the whole “call-ahead” process that does not exist in Utah. The only available option to us was to attend a Spanish-speaking endowment session. Although it was new to us to wear headphones to get an english translation during the endowment session, it was a wonderful experience for us. Before heading to the endowment room, an elderly hispanic woman approached me and asked me if I could perform an ordinance for an ancestor of hers, and she handed me a card. It was a testimony to me that although the ancestor was not my own, the work was being done for someone who really lived and needed this ordinance completed. Elder Scott says: “Any work you do in the temple is time well spent, but receiving ordinances vicariously for one of your own ancestors will make the time in the temple more sacred, and even greater blessings will be received.”

Family history work is not simple. It takes time and it takes effort. However, most things we are asked to do in the church require time and effort. I believe however, that as we pray for the desire and for the skills to do Family History work, we will be filled with the Spirit of Elijah and be given the tools necessary to fulfill the promises made to our ancestors. 

And thirdly, the blessings of participating in family history work. 

Last week at Stake Conference, Elder Carlson spoke about Family History Work, and I wrote down something that he said because I thought it was a really interesting interpretation of the concept of the spirit and power we receive when doing family history work. He said, “The power of Elijah is the power to destroy evil.” Richard G Scott iterated similar sentiments when he said, “Do you want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors, prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the temple, and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them… I can think of no greater protection from the influence of the adversary in your life.” As mentioned before, we can receive blessing for not only doing temple work, but doing temple work for ancestors we have found: He continues, “I have learned that those who engage in family history research and then perform the temple ordinance work for those whose names they have found will know the additional joy of receiving both halves of the blessing. 

My personal experience with family history has not been as in depth as I would like it to be. My paternal grandparents served a mission at the Family History center in Salt Lake City. I grew up knowing full well the importance of family history work, but not having a huge opportunity to do it, as much of our family history had been completed. I would assume that this is a similar story for many for you. For years I have been looking for a way to find a family name. I have found dozens of names who’s information had already been uploaded to family search, but they just needed their ordinances completed. I index a lot, because I know that my ability to find an ancestor’s name depends on the information that comes from indexing. I’ve talked to experts at BYU about specific names, all to no avail. The Bishop asked me to share personal experiences, and I felt kind of bummed that although I love to do, and am frequently doing family history work, I haven’t ever found and done the ordinances for a completely unknown ancestor myself. Until a week ago. I found three names last week. Three names that had never been entered into familysearch before, and I will soon be able to take them to the temple and do their work for them. And I can’t tell you how blessed I feel after all this time to be able to have found these names. And I hope that those three- Uriah, Jane, and Pearl are overjoyed that finally someone has found them, and their place in the eternities can be secured. 

For those of you who think your work is done, you have heard others bear testimony that it is not- there is still work to be done. I join with those testimonies when I say that you might have to get a little creative, and work a little harder, but there are names out there for you to find. It was once explained to me that the percentage of family history work that has been completed can be compared to a football field. If the football field represents all of the people who have ever lived upon the earth and need their ordinances completed, the amount of work that has completed equates to about three inches down the field. This equals .08%, or less than a tenth of a percent. There is still work to be done, and people are counting on you to do it for them. 

As I have increased my efforts in family history work, I have felt sincere and complete blessings from my Heavenly Father. They come in a variety of ways. Little things like a text from a friend, or a kind word from a student on a day that I really needed it. I have also seen large and life-changing blessings happen, as the power of the adversary is destroyed in my life and in the lives of people around me.  A student at my school brought a gun to school on Friday. And yet, no one was harmed, we all left safe, and were spared from the emotional trauma and tragedy that others in this country have recently experienced. My little sister, who is in Tokyo on her mission, and I never ever have gotten along. We have conflicting personalities. However, for the last year and two months that she has been on her mission, I have grown closer and more endeared to her than ever I have before. With the exception of my husband, I consider her one of my closest friends, and I love her more than I can say. And perhaps most importantly, my husband and I have grown closer together through trials and difficulties as we have served together in our calling and learned about and participated in this wonderful work. 

I bear testimony that the hastening of the work of the Lord can also be applied to family history work. There has never been a time where family history work is as accessible as it is at this moment in time. There are blessing unmeasured to be received, and salvation is at stake for ourselves and for the ancestors we must do the work for. I am so grateful to be a member of this church and ward and to be blessed with the spirit of Elijah in my own life, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.