September 2024

This month, we would like to share an example from a ward within our coordinating council. The TFH Leader in this case saw an opportunity to work with EQ and RS presidencies to teach about the nature of family history work in a fun setting that would involve the whole family.

Brother Parker, the TFH Leader and Brother Cranford, a TFH consultant, teamed up with representatives from both the EQ and RS presidencies to form a TFH council. They spent some time coming up with an activity that would help ward members learn about the nature of family history work. Some people still think of that work as something reserved for "old" people. Not so! Anyone can write in their journal, talk to Grandma about her very interesting life, add some pictures to FamilySearch, and so forth.

As you can see from the flyer, there are lots of things you can do that are directly related to family history. And the list here is not exhaustive, but the idea it conjures is expansive. The idea allows the spirit to be active - it can speak to the heart about a thing that will be of eternal importance to one person, and an entirely different thing that will be important to another, an idea not bound by the list, but perhaps informed by it instead.

Involvement of RS and EQ presidencies gives some reporting structure to the activity too - ministering brothers and sisters can carry the idea to their families, and report back to the presidency during ministering interviews;  and EQ and RS meetings are a good place to keep the idea in the conscious mind of members.  

Here's how the committe monitored the activity: the Relief Society made a giant ice cream cone out of posterboard and mounted it on the door to the ward clerk's office; they bought a dozen or so pages of stickers, 88 stickers per page, and put them in an envelope by the ice cream cone poster; they announced that the goal was to get 1000 stickers on the ice cream cone according to the instructions above, (the member would peel a sticker off of the page and then stick it on the ice cream cone); they set a time of 3 months for completion; and they set as a reward an ice cream party accompanied by a promise of uncommon, extraordinary ice cream. The activity was encouraged from the pulpit, too, as well as in Sunday School and RS and EQ meetings.

The time it took to get to 1000 was two and a half months. Brother Parker said that the first month was slow, but there was more traffic as the idea caught on. The date for the ice cream party is set, and it will include a testimony meeting - several members expressed their appreciation to the committee for directing their thoughts toward famly history and temple work, and have looked forward to sharing their experiences.

Return to Top

Find Simple Ways to Preserve Your Family History

The article and links below are from an inspirational email that Jo gets from the church (You can subscribe at @message.ChurchofJesusChrist.org)

A central focus of Heavenly Father’s plan is to unite families for this life and for eternity.

We are encouraged “to preserve our own family history, to learn from our ancestors, and to make the necessary arrangements for them to receive the ordinances of the gospel in the temples to help them to progress along the covenant path, which will bless them with an eternal family.”1

Here are a few ways we can go about this work:

Get started with FamilySearch.

Contact the family history consultants in your ward or branch.

Interview a relative and record some of their stories in the Memories app.

Visit a FamilySearch center.

1. Benjamín De Hoyos, “The Work of Temple and Family History—One and the Same Work,” Apr. 2023 general conference, Gospel Library

Return to Top

Temple Reminders

We published this list last month, but just in case you missed it...

Dates

When submitting forms for temple work, please remember to use a standard genealogy date format. The easiest way to do that is to look at the format used on your FamilySearch records (dd/mon/yyyy)and then adopt that as your standard. Why? The church is a worldwide organization, with temples in many different countries. The U.S. standard date format is mm/dd/yyyy, but the standard in many other countries not that, but something else. To do our part to keep the temple  a house of order, we have been asked to use the FamilySearch standard. It is also okay to use the month abbreviation, for example, FEB instead of February.

Temple advance scheduling

When scheduling an ordinance in advance, remember that the online system allows only dates occurring in the current month +1. For example, as I write this, it is Sunday July 28,  I can schedule an appointment today for Tuesday, July 30, Wednesday, July 31, or any of the Tuesday-Saturday dates in August but none of the dates in September. But next Thursday, August 1, I can schedule any of the Tuesday-Saturday in August, and also any of the Tuesday-Saturday dates in September. If you have a need to secure a special date that lies outside of those provided by the system, please contact a member of the temple presidency.

Temple closing in October 

Plan ahead and help those whom you serve to be aware: A closure has been scheduled for Monday, 14 October 2024  through Monday, 28 October 2024, for cleaning and maintenance.

Make sure children are attended

The temple is a sacred place. Important work of an eternal nature is done there by those who have bound themselves to the Lord through sacred covenants. Sometimes children participate in ordinances, but we expect that, while they are here in the temple, they will need help in maintaining the reverence that should prevail in House of the Lord. According to the General Handbook of Instructions, Section 27.1.6:

Child Care

Children must have adult supervision if they are on temple grounds. Temple workers are available to supervise children only in the following circumstances:

• If they are being sealed to parents

• If they are observing the sealing of their living siblings, stepsiblings, or half siblings to their parents

Note: in Nebraska, the legal age of majority (age at which a person is considered an adult) is 19.

Temple trips 

When you have the opportunity to contribute to a conversation about ward, branch or stake temple trips, please follow this guidance offered in the General Handbook of Instructions, Section 25.1.1 and 25.1.2:

Individual Responsibility for Temple Attendance

Members determine for themselves when and how often to worship in the temple. Leaders do not establish quotas or reporting systems for temple attendance.

Ward and Stake Temple Trips

Each Church unit is assigned to a temple district. Organized ward or stake visits to temples outside the assigned temple district are not encouraged.

Individual members and families may attend any temple they desire.

The question that usually comes up though is "what about my ward temple trip to Omaha?" As you can see, these sections don't address that specifically. For guidance, we have been taught the "home-centered, church-supported" principle, and the principle of self-reliance. So for ward temple trips to local temples, the process that seems to work best is to announce the date, and let ward members sign up individually for a place on the designated session. What a wonderful opportunity to build up and encourage members by involving the ward TFH Leader, and the RS and EQ presidencies (it would be a great source for interview topics)! 

Group baptisms

Scheduling group baptisms for youth can be done online or by calling the temple office. Remember that the rules mentioned above will apply to both methods of scheduling.  If at all possible, please have sufficient numbers of Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood brothers to staff the session. If you are scheduling online,  spaces for reporting these numbers are included on the form. ( As minimum: 2-3 priests to act as baptizers;  2 MP for confirmation, 1 of which must be endowed in order to act as recorder; 2 from among the larger group to act as witnesses.)

Return to Top

Think Celestial!

As a keystone, it adds the structural integrity without which our "house of faith" can't stand. In the temple, as I worship in "a house of learning" and a "house of prayer", I can ponder my relationship to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and, after I have studied it out with diligence in my own mind, receive an inspired answer to questions that I have about how to come closer to them. The chiasms in the book provide me with yet another spiritual witness that the book is a true book of ancient scripture, just as the prophets have testified.

The graphic above represents the pride cycle as contained in the chiasm in Alma 62:48-51. Mormon shows in these verses the way the Nephites retained their prosperity by keeping their temple covenants and avoiding the negative parts of the pride cycle. I like the way it represents antithetical ideas on opposites sides of the pie.

This structure points out  Mormon's themes concerning prosperity in one direction and then restates them in the reverse direction, giving the reader more of an opportunity to absorb them.

• A And the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land,

  • B and began to multiply and to wax exceedingly strong again in the land.

    • C And they began to grow exceedingly rich. But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity,

      • D (a) they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes;

        • b) neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God;

      • D’ (a) but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him.

        • (b) Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them,

    • C’ that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, 

  • B’ so that they did wax strong 

• A’  and prosper in the land.

Does instruction in the temple follow this pattern? I was thinking about how Adam and Eve were born in the presence of God, then fell, then were taught the ways of repentance and atonement so they could turn things around, then etered into the presence of God again. Likewise, the ancient, and most modern, temples faced east to represent man's exit from and later return to that holy presence. I think that's instructive.

How do we "retain a remission of our sins?" Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught, “There is something about prosperity that brings out the worst in some people.” Fortunately, the chiasm in Alma 62:48–51 shows that remembering the Lord and keeping his commandments brings out the best in people, even in times of great prosperity. By entering into sacred covenants to remember the Savior, and then by keeping those covenants, we can remain humble and grateful, even during the most prosperous of times. 

Are there ways that we can use the Book of Mormon in our testimonies to others in and out of the church? How can we use its rich legacy of authentic historical literary devices like chiasmus to increase our own faith as we continue to develop Christlike attributes in the shadow of the temple?

(See https://scripturecentral.org/knowhy/how-does-chiasmus-teach-us-to-reverse-the-pride-cycle for further ideas about this subject)

Return to Top

Temple Moments

Through the temple, our Heavenly Father binds individuals and families to the Savior and to each other.

Here are a few quotes from General Conference talks to add to your collection:

Through the temple, our Heavenly Father binds individuals and families to the Savior and to each other.

-- J. Kimo Esplin

Being temple bound secures us to the Savior.

-- Elder Ulisses Soares

Our covenants are not merely transactional; they are transformational. Through my covenants I receive sanctifying, strengthening power of Jesus Christ.

-- Joaquin E. Costa

Qualifying to make sacred covenants is not a one-time effort but a lifetime pattern.

-- President Henry B. Eyring

A covenant is a commitment to fulfill certain responsibilities. Personal commitments are essential to the regulation of our individual lives and to … society.

-- President Dallin H. Oaks

Loving the Lord is often measured in small daily deeds, footsteps on the covenant path.

-- Elder Gary E. Stevenson

Every covenant with God is an opportunity to draw closer to Him

-- President Henry B. Eyring

Return to Top