May 2025

Holidays

As a reminder that "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass" here are some holidays in May that, though they aren't officially condected to the church, might spark a conversation related to family history: (and though it's past, we hope that you had a great Star Wars Day: May the 4th be with you!)

• May 11: Mother's Day. Where would an eternal family be without Mom?

• May 15: International Family Day.  Did you know that there is actually a day set aside for the world to remember that families really are important? 

• May 26 (last Monday in May): Memorial Day. We remember those who have fallen in defense of their country. It's a great day to remember our ancestors, too. Jo and I will be making our annual trip to southeast Nebraska to decorate family graves at a couple of cemetaries in the area.

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CB Stake TFH Fair

Thanks to Jake Hansen for organzing this and running the show on April 26!  Jake is the high councilor from the Council Bluffs Stake with oversight responsibility for temple and family history work

 Here is Brother Hansen's summary of the event, along with some pictures:

Our two goals for the event were: 1) for any participant to feel uplifted and inspired to engage more fully in temple and family history work and 2) if a participant had no experience with family history or temple work, they could create a FamilySearch account, populate their family tree, and leave with a name to take to the temple by the end of the event. 

It was truly a wonderful afternoon! We had volunteers and visitors from all the units in the stake. To the best of our ability, we counted a total of 103 attendees either there to simply participate or also help run the individual activities throughout the event. 

Here are some pictures from the day:

1. Participants could place a pin on the map, indicating where their ancestors came from.

3. We had some awesome keynote devotionals by the Wilkinson's from the Temple Presidency and the Fankhauser's from the Area Temple and Family History Council. They presented on the blessings of temple work and family history work, respectively.

4. Participants could write a special memory of an ancestor and add it to the "Family Tree." 

Here are some examples of a few memories that were shared: 

Other activities included a classroom dedicated to creating a FamilySearch account, helping families populate and print their 4-generation chart on FamilySearch, learning to index, showing participants how to print their own family name to take to the temple, a craft room for children, a presentation about the Mormon Battalion and gravesites by the trail center missionaries, and presentations by a few units in our stake who had hosted wonderful TFH initiatives throughout the year. 

Everyone we talked with was inspired and grateful for the opportunity to be there. If we do it again in the future, I think only more people will come and enjoy it! :) 

Thanks so much!

Jake Hansen

Here are more pictures as well:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XZY1KwPRbxNd2uZc6

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At our last meeting with Elder and Sister Hutchins, Elder Hutchins shared that he has seen the effect that the temple has on friends that he has had contact with in his calling as Branch Mission Leader. He is a real believer in the persuasive qualities of the Name Assist feature in LCR. When he works with a person who is new to the church, he says it takes about 5 minutes for him to get a name for that person to take to the temple.  Now, it's true that most of us don't have access to LCR, but the people we serve do. Wouldn't it be great if we could help them to understand what a great new tool it is, and how to make use of it?

Just some ideas to help us all to start thinking more intently about normal and natural ways that we can use what we know to influence the people we work with. I heard at the temple the other day that the Omaha stake was in the beginning stages of a plan to host a TFH event on November 1st to coincide with Day of the Dead activities. That sounds exciting! I hope they can do it and I hope it brings some joy to someone by triggering a memory of a treasured ancestor, and the realization that there is a way, through FamilySearch, to record those memories and make them immediately available to the right audience.  In a recent General Confrerence, Elder Karl D.Hirst said "Joy is our purpose, not the gift of our circumstances." What a great comment for a world that needs a permanent path to true, divinely inspired joy!

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New Training 

Speaking of Brother and Sister Hutchins, we got an email from Sister Hutchins today with two great training aids that we think will be a great help. The first one is a video that you can use for training on using the new Name Assist application. In it, Brother Hutchins takes a new convert in real time through the process of getting a temple name card printed out that he can take to the temple.  Take a look:

The second one is great one-page summary  from church headquarters of talks from General Conference that are related to temples and family history:

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Are you looking for a Mother's Day gift? We are helping two of our grandkids with gifts that they can give to their Mom. It's a family tree from the FamilySearch Keepsakes campaign (https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree-designs/global/   or  https://www.familysearch.org/campaign/keepsakes ) that has Mom as the base of the tree, her brothers and three generations of branches for each of her mom and dad, and the grandkids (her children) as roots. These are the designs that they chose (below), but if you don't fancy either of them, there are 85 others to choose from !

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Where can I find ______ ?

FamilySearch and RootsTech and the church website are wonderful resources for anyone interested in family history, but finding what you want can be daunting at times.

Here are some tips that I have found:

The main page is for doing work, like for pedigree charts, researching records, and doing deep dives with the research wiki, for example. For the inspirational videos and the calling helps though, you have to take a different route. 

For help and training resources, click on the circled question mark at the upper right-hand corner and select from the options in the menu. The items at the bottom are especially valuable for consultants. 

To get to more general help for your calling, go to the address bar and put "/consultant" at the end of the base URL (familysearch.org/en/consultant). And while you're there, scroll to the bottom of the page and check out the additional resources there! I especially like the Quick Start Lesson Videos.

To get help for leaders, go to the address bar and add "/united-states-canada/member_resources" after the base URL ( https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states-canada/member_resources ). This is a great place for training ideas for ward leaders. Look at these video titles: Organizing Temple and Family History Work; Ward Temple and Family History Coordination Meeting; Ward Temple and Family History Council Meeting; How can Relief Society and Elders Quorum Presidencies Counsel Together. How I wish I would have had these when I was on the High Council!

To take part in vetting new FamilySearch features, go to https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/.

Here is why a FamilySearch account is free:   Feelings of family connection can help us overcome the ups and downs of life. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints funds FamilySearch to help people draw strength from their family relationships—past, present, and future. ( https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states/whyfamilysearchfree )

A start page for people who are unfamiliar with FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/en/united-states/

To create a slideshow: click Memories, then Gallery, then Album. Fill the album with slides and audio, then click Slideshow up at the top. I know it seems macabre to mention, but what a great way to get ready for a funeral reception - all the pictures are already there, and not only that, they will be  there later when family members need to remember and reconnect. All they need is a FamilySearch account.  

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