Family Search for Family History

Family Search is a LDS Church owned web site. Family Search has made leaps and bounds recently to create a better webpage and collection of data. Everyday they are progressing to create tools to help with your family history search. Here is the link, take a look and see all the new stuff. It's open to everyone throughout the world.

Familysearch.org

It was just announced that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will have free access in the near future to some paid websites like Ancestry.com and Myheritage.com. This is awesome. Family Search has also made deals with many places to give us access to important documents and even obituaries. That's even more awesome.

I can see God's hand in this work because of technology is rapidly changing for good, and it is making the search for ancestors more possible and easier. I love that and it should inspire many to want to seek for those who has gone before us.

With all this new research processes in place, we first need to turn our heart to our families.

The prophet Joesph Smith said,"The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead..." HC 6:312

Wow, that made an impact on me. I have thought a lot about this and found that he was talking to me. This is my greatest responsibility. When I started looking for names and putting together my family history, they were just names but when I started studying more about them and the times that they lived in, they started becoming more than just names. AND...when I took those names to the temple the true meaning of it all...God's purpose...began to unfold before me. My heart was turning to my fathers and I couldn't get enough of it.

Family History work is now my passion. I love this work and joy that comes with finding family and developing my tree. One thing that was an eye opener was when I started tracing the female side of the tree. It was easier to find the stuff on the male line but when I started working on the female lines I realized that there were so many more people to see.

I truly can see now how we are all related, as you do one line then the next and on and on.. your story never ends. And we are all connected, Family Search is trying to show us just that, we are all one big family.

I hope you will look in your hearts to see and understand this great work that God has entrusted to us. The work that brings us all together as God's family. Our ancestors need us to do this for them, the work that they can no longer do. And we need them to help us grow in understanding God's plan for us. I love my Heavenly Father for this great plan of happiness because I know the joy I get from doing this work.

Third Article of Faith

The Third Article of Faith states:

"We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

What does this mean? Jesus Christ is the only way back to our heavenly home. And that through his atoning sacrifice we can be saved simply by having faith in Him enough to be obedient to his laws and ordinance.

What are His laws? Jesus came and lived his life here on this earth to teach us how we should live our lives and then he paid the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind - that is to suffer for the price of our sins and lay down His life so we can over come death as He did. By doing the things Jesus taught we are following His laws.  What did he do?

He honored God first and foremost and then looked to the well being of all people ( see Matt 22:37-40). He taught lessons to His followers so they could understand His laws. By studying about Jesus' life on the earth we can come to know him and his ways better and become more like him. We can learn that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that he sent His only Begotten Son to save us all. We can learn that our most important mission here is love all people and do what we can to help them on the right path. He taught, he loved, and he sacrificed.

What are His ordinances? The first ordinance is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. We will talk more about that in another post. There are many other kinds of ordinances that are important to our salvation. We as Latter-day Saints also perform ordinances in the Temples which help us to have a higher understanding of God's ways. These things help us to become better people and develop a higher love of our brothers and sisters, which are all people. We make covenants with God to do certain things and He makes a promise to us to bless us with things we need in our lives. Ordinances are meant for our progression to be able to be successful in walking the path here in this life and to be able to walk the path home to heaven.

So, if we honor God by following the footsteps of Jesus, meaning to do as He did, then we are showing our love back to God. We are showing that we love them enough to do what Jesus did while he was here; to follow His example. Also, if we take care of each other, especially those who are needy - spiritually, physically, and mentally, then we are also doing the will of our Father in Heaven.

And, if we fulfill the ordinances and honor those covenants we make with God then we will be blessed and be able to return home successfully into the arms of a loving God.

But first we must recognize that the only way that could have ever happened for us is through the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His great love for His Father, and us, helped Him to fulfill His part of the Plan of Salvation. He did something that we probably will never fully be able to understand. But we can understand it enough to realize that we are sinners and that we need Him and his atonement in order to return home. Without Him we are nothing. We have to recognize that Jesus is the only way back to our heavenly home.

Through His sacrifice and through our obedience we can find peace and blessings in our lives in knowing that we are on the right path and working hard to help others to see that path as well. Its plain and simple, the plan is laid out in our scriptures. God wants us to be successful and return to Him so he has given us every tool we need to to do this. We just have to do our part by studying and understanding then being obedient to what He wants us to do. Jesus will do the rest.

That is pretty awesome. I am so glad He is on our side. I am so grateful that Jesus suffered and sacrificed so that we can return home, as long as we do what we are supposed to do. I know that Jesus loves us and I know that Heavenly Father loves us and through the fulfilling of the Plan of Salvation we can live for eternity in the most wonderful place ever. What more could we ever want?

Going to the House of the Lord

Years ago I set a goal to go to the temple once a month. I kept that goal for a long time. Those of you who are Mormon know you have to live your life within certain standards in order to enter into the most sacred place on the earth. When you live these standards then you are worthy to enter into the House of the Lord.

Every time I attended the temple I had wonderful experiences. I never walked away without learning something new. I formed a question in my mind and I would learn the answer then or later through scripture study. I loved attending the temple.

But last year I experienced a test and did not pass it. I had some unexpected expenses that I choose to pay and not keep up with my tithing to God. I missed some months and convinced myself that I would make it up before year end but I just kept getting behind.

Needless to say, at tithing settlement I could not pay the difference which made me less than a 100% tithe payer. As I confessed this to the Bishop he asked me not to attend the temple for awhile, my heart was sad.

My temple recommend was due to expire in February so we set the goal to be 100 % for 3 months. After that I would meet with the Bishop again. I was successful with getting back on track; however, he told me that the Stake President would probably want me to be back on track after 4 -5 months so I have to wait until April before I can renew my recommend and attend the temple again.

My heart aches to return because I have so much work to do for my ancestry as well as my thirst for more knowledge. I will never make that mistake again. I love the temple and the feeling of the Spirit while I am there. I know that wonderful things happen in there.

I also know that the work for my ancestry depends on me and if I do not live my life worthy then I can not help them. Who else do they have? There may be others out there doing the work but it is my responsibility to do this for my family; I can't let then down. So...from this day forward I will live my life so that I may be able to enter the temple knowing my life and the life of my loved ones, who have left this earth already, will truly be blessed as I do so.