Sunday Report: Generations Linked in Love – familysearch.org

April 25, 2010,  Teachings For Our Time - Generations Linked in Love,  Elder Russell M. Nelson taught by Sister Deandrade

When I think of the love I feel for each member of [my] family, I sense, to a slight degree, the love that our Heavenly Father bears for His children. While the family is under attack throughout the world, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims, promotes, and protects the truth that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” and our vast family history efforts are but two evidences of how this Church brings hope and help to the sacred institution of the family.

We teach that God’s love for His children is infinite. Regardless of race, nationality, or gender, He loves all of them.¹ … He also provided a way for them to be part of an eternal family. Every human being who comes to this earth is the product of generations of parents. We have a natural yearning to connect with our ancestors. This desire dwells in our hearts, regardless of age.  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.

Procedures have been simplified so that virtually every member of the Church can participate in temple and family history work.  No matter your situation, you can make family history a part of your life right now. Primary children can draw a family tree. Youth can participate in proxy baptisms. They can also help the older generation work with computers. Parents can relate stories of their lives to their posterity. Worthy adult members can hold a temple recommend and perform temple ordinances for their own kin.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.”⁷ New technology makes it easier than ever to fulfill that responsibility. Temple and family history work is now facilitated by a system known as the “new FamilySearch.”⁸ This Internet-based system helps members identify their ancestors, determine what ordinance work needs to be done for them, and prepare their names for the temple. It can be accessed from home, a family history center,⁹ or wherever the Internet is available. The steps are easy to follow.¹⁰

1. You first identify individuals for whom you desire to do temple work.
2. Then you print out a Family Ordinance Request. This document provides the information needed at the temple and eliminates the need to take computer discs with you.
3. From the Family Ordinance Request, ordinance cards are printed at the temple.
4. After an ordinance is performed, it is recorded and entered into new Family Search on that very day.

Now what about those of you who have no access to a computer or prefer not to use this technology? Don’t worry! Take one step at a time. Start at home. Begin with an empty cardboard box, as suggested by President Boyd K. Packer.¹¹ Put in that box important information about you and your family. Add data gathered from others of your family. Then avail yourself of assistance from your ward or branch family history consultant. The new FamilySearch system enables a consultant to perform all needed computer functions for you, including preparing names for the temple. About 60,000 consultants serve throughout the world. One in your ward or branch can be very helpful to you.

The new FamilySearch system changes the dynamics of family history work by facilitating the creation of one common pedigree. In the past, a person worked separately, keeping his or her own family records. One often worked without knowing what other family members were doing. Now each person can contribute information while coordinating with others in developing their family tree.

While the new FamilySearch is a giant step forward, it is still just a step. There is more work ahead. Because the system facilitates access to information submitted to the Church over many decades from many sources, new FamilySearch may expose duplicate entries or errors that had not previously been recognized. This feature is especially useful for those with early pioneer ancestry. Duplications and errors need correction, and no one can do it better than each individual for his or her own family.

While temple and family history work has the power to bless those beyond the veil, it has an equal power to bless the living. It has a refining influence on those who are engaged in it. They are literally helping to exalt their families.

We are exalted when we can dwell together with our extended families in the presence of Almighty God. The Prophet Joseph Smith foresaw our duty: “The great day of the Lord is at hand . . . ,” he said. “Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter‑day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple . . . a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.”¹⁴

The preparation of that record is our individual and collective responsibility. As we work together, we can make it worthy of all acceptation by the Lord. That record enables ordinances to be performed for and accepted by our deceased ancestors, as they may choose. Those ordinances can bring liberty to captives on the other side of the veil.¹⁵

If you have access to a computer, go to new.familysearch.org. To register for the first time, you will need your membership number and your birth date. You can obtain this information from your ward clerk. Once logged into the system, you can verify that your ancestors' information is in the system and what temple ordinances are needed. You can identify ancestors who are not now known to you and add them to your family tree. Print out a Family Ordinance Request form to take to the temple and thus open the way for needed ordinances to be performed.