[MUSIC PLAYING]
We do family history work because we
know that there are people on the other side
of the veil waiting for their work to be done.
They need to be able to return to be with our family as a unit
and with our Savior.
Everything we do in the Church, it all
is done with one objective in mind,
and that is to get our people into the temple.
We hope that all the people in the Church
will be able to have that sublime experience of doing
temple ordinance work for their own people.
We had wonderful temple experiences
going to the temple for our own ancestors.
I feel like I can do family history work now, where
before I felt intimidated.
Sometimes I'll stay up late at night
because I just can't quit.
I just have to keep going.
It kicked off a whole new thing in my life
that I've never experienced before, never knew about.
My grandpa, he wasn't LDS.
So when he passed away, I found this Bible--very old.
There were names and dates pre-America in there.
I discovered probably over 1,000 names in this book.
The names that are in there, no one else
is taking care of right now.
And bang, right there was my grandpa's name with his family.
I was, like, thrilled.
I'd never seen anything like that.
It started to instill in me how I wanted to take
care of his work for him.
The greatest thing out of all of this for me
so far is, I was able to go to the temple and perform the work
and have my grandparents sealed.
My kids were able to help, and it
took on a whole different personal level
with my kids, my family, my immediate family.
As a family, it can strengthen you
so much as you work together.
My father-in-law has done a lot of family history research,
and he has gone through and cleared a lot of names.
It started when I came to college.
I just felt complete when I was doing family history
work and temple work.
He then prints the cards, and I divide them up so
the grandkids in the family have the opportunity
to take those to the temple and do the baptisms.
When they come out of the water, having
been baptized for an ancestor, they come out
with tears in their eyes.
This happens over and over again.
When I have gone through and done work,
and I look at the card and I see that one of my kids
did the baptism, it gives me a moment of happiness
as I look at that.
It just ties you together as a family.
It is one of the most wonderful ways
of solidifying a family around their faith,
to realize that they've been serving their ancestors
on the other side of the veil.
You know, it's got to be a celebration--that finally
something is going to move forward.
And boy, that carries a lot of weight on my shoulders,
and I can't do it without those that are going to be around me.
Before, I just felt like I was the only one that
had to do them.
I had to hold onto those names and get them done
because I was the only one.
We have over 12 million reserved names in those files
now, some of them having been there for many years.
This is an opportunity for families
to release some of those reserved names for the youth,
or they can release them to other places
in the world that can help get that work done in a timely way.
So as an elders quorum presidency,
we planned very focused home teaching efforts
on family history to help the families overcome any obstacles
and to help them put together a family history plan.
Family history isn't about just researching,
but it's also about understanding where
you came from and who you are.
Interviews with our grandparents--a lot of little
children really getting to know their grandparents on a more
personal level.
My children were inspired by talking to their grandparents.
I'm probably not the first to say this, but "only if."
Only if I would have had some of this information,
some of this experience before my grandpa passed away.
I think the Lord is hastening His work right now
and needs everybody, even children.
As they go to temples a lot in their youth
and develop those habits, they will
go throughout every stage of their life.
It is a work of conversion.
It is a work of connecting families.
It is the time and the season when
the work is being hastened.
We want to rescue them from their spiritual drift
into a focus that will lead them to eternal life and all
the blessings that God has in store for His faithful people.
That's what He wants, so we're His helpers.