WORDS OF WISDOM- Part Two - GENEALOGY

WORDS OF WISDOM- Part Two - GENEALOGY

The Church of Jesus Christ has a 3-fold mission: Redeem the Dead, Proclaim the Gospel, and Perfect the Saints. Read the Abrahamic Covenant and the promises to the fathers. See D&C 10:32, Moses 1:39, D&C 20:59, Conference Report October 2003 page 58 and Nov 2003 pg 54. D&C 110: 11-16 tells of keys restored. Read the booklet, “Family History Teachers Manual – Religion 261, dated 2005. Know that it is our responsibility ‘That They May Be Redeemed’. Elder Boyd K. Packer stated “We must redeem the dead, all of them, for we are commanded to do it.

We made promises before we were born to our Ancestors – for without them we would not be born, made perfect, nor saved for eternity with God and Jesus Christ. We are obligated to do the ordinances for the Living and the Dead. If you are having a problem with doing this, pray for the Holy Ghost to assist you to turn your heart towards your family. The prophet Gordon Hinckley said, “This work, unselfishly given in behalf of those on the other side, comes nearer to the unparalleled vicarious work of the Savior than any other of which I know.”

Be Saviors of Mount Zion: Read Obadiah 1: 17, 21 and D&C 103: 5-9, D&C 2, and 137 & 138. Pray to have a witness and a desire to complete this work. There are many Conference Reports that give promises to us when we complete this work.

‘Discourses of Brigham Young’ pg 409. About the time that the temples of the Lord will be built and Zion is established – pretty nigh this time, you will see there will be strangers in your midst, walking with you, talking with you; they will enter into your homes and eat and drink with you, go to meetings with you, and begin to open your minds, as the Savior did the two disciples who walked out in the country in the days of old – along the road to Emmaus. Page 394 – To accomplish this work there will have to be not only one temple but thousands of them, and thousands and tens of thousands of men and women will go into those temples and officiate for people who have lived as far back as the Lord shall reveal. Page 406 – We have a work to do just as important in its sphere as the Savior’s work was in its sphere. We are now called upon to do ours; which is the greatest work man ever performed on the earth.

April 1844 Conference - Joseph Smith, Jr. said: The whole of America is Zion itself from North to South, and is described by the prophets, who declare that it is the Zion where the mountain of the Lord should be, and that it should be in the center of the land. The 144,000 – it is necessary that you should be baptized for your dead; you will have to go through all the ordinances for them, the same as you have gone through to save yourself. There will be 144,000 Saviors on Mount Zion and with them an innumerable host that no man can number. Oh! I beseech you to go forward, go forward and make your calling and your election sure…Pg 380, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.” pg 369. Read Hebrews 11:40.

To Begin: Start with yourself, your spouse, your children, children’s children, and then go forward towards your ancestor – like me. Don’t forget to enter your spouse’s ancestors too. This is how I started.

Next: Go to the computer (or the Family History Library) and find [me], your family on computer – saved for prosperity. Bring a ‘smart drive’ or whatever saving device is available in your time period. Save your info and enter (import) it into the Data Base. It is called New.FamilySearch.org today. Then, download (export) the family lines that are already saved within the computer Data Base at the library in Salt Lake City. [As time passes this info may be in another city or within another computer address, however, it will be available to you].

Third: Now go to your home and load all that you have found into your own computer [or phone instrument] and check to be sure it connects to you.
I wish for you to have a BIG smile on your face about now, because I worked for over 50 years on this information. If you do not have paper Pedigree Charts or Family Group Sheets, they’re available on-line. You are to add any new info you find onto the on-line computer programs – New.FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, etc.

Fourth: Research for people in family groups that have not been identified or have not had any saving ordinances completed for them. I have found many holes in the lines that I researched. It is NEVER ALL DONE. There will always be people missed or that do not have all their info listed. Find them and finish their work. The purpose of the online website, per Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, was to avoid duplication and to get all the people found, recorded, and have completed ordinances – their saving for eternity.

The great battle of Armageddon will be in the Valley of Megiddo, fifty miles north of Jerusalem. There will be at least seven countries fighting Israel and Christ will save them by splitting open Mt of Olives, Zechariah 14:4. Then the Jews will remember and serve Him and accept Christ as their savior.

At the end of the earth—meaning at the end of the Millennium (D&C 88:101; JS Matthew 1:55 p 26)—The final great battle between good and evil, known as the “Battle of the Great God” (D&C 88:114) or the Battle of Gog and Magog, will take place. And once again, the mighty Michael, the eternal captain of Jehovah’s army, will come face to face with his foe, Satan. “The devil and his armies shall be cast away into their own place, that they shall not have power over the saints any more at all”. Into outer darkness.

Robert L. Millet, “The Man Adam,” Ensign, Jan. 1994, 15
“For Michael shall fight their battles, and shall overcome him who seeketh the throne of him who sitteth upon the throne, even the Lamb, Jesus Christ. “This is the glory of God, and the sanctified; and they shall not any more see death.” (D&C 88:114–16.) Michael’s final victory is in preparation for the celestialization of the earth. Doctrine and Covenants 130:7 They reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord. (Fire represents clean, purity, chaste, sinless with Priesthood power as light.)

Fifth: I mostly searched through Vital records and Census Reports. You can add to the history by searching through Land records, Tax Records, Probate records, War Records, Published histories, Newsletters, Manuscript donations, NARA, Finding aids, and Queries. Visit libraries in the area where the families lived. I have found my ancestors’ letter-documents left for posterity in these libraries. I have paid researchers to take pictures of their gravesites. Other libraries, like Provo-BYU have Heritage Files on Families. There are other research tools to have available to you – the Red Book, county township maps, and others. The DAR-Daughters of the American Revolution have many records on that war. There is much out there.

Be sure to keep a Journal of all your Spiritual Experiences. The prophets have stated that the young will have angels attend them and they will prophecy.

Where Did They Come From - What Country? How Did They Get Here? This is important information for writing the family history. Pictures and maps of the country and city are important for posterity. Pictures of the clothing they would have worn, how they traveled – car, horse, by foot, give life styles. Migration patterns, Westward expansions, Settlement patterns, local wars and problems of sickness, are good to include in your histories.


Sixth: Keep a Personal Journal of your life experiences and spiritual blessings. “That the Angels May Quote From it, New Era, Oct 1975, pg 5.
Your own children will want to know you better and through your personal histories, we can influence our descendants to live righteously long after we are gone. This is my prayer for you.

I am not a perfect person, as I have made many mistakes – including some within my genealogy research records. I have learned to repent quickly and move forward. Each Sunday as I take the Sacrament, I pray in thankfulness to Jesus for His life, breaking the sins of death and offering resurrection. I repeat the blessing “to take upon me the Name of Jesus Christ and Remember Him.” I know that each sacrament my sins are forgiven me – again, that I may live better, more righteously with peace and forgiveness of others and myself. I bear my testimony often to keep it active and not lose it. As I grow in the gospel my testimony is stronger and undeniable.

I look forward to the day that I can be perfected and live in the Celestial Kingdom with God & Heavenly Mother, Jesus, the Holy Ghost and my family and friends. I want YOU to be there, as I love you completely.

I know each generation of births to this earth come more intelligent, stronger, better fighters for truth, and more recently from the presence of God. They have been saved for this time period. We read to them from the scriptures. We, their parents, are to teach them to be obedient to the gospel in every way. To walk with them in good examples; to converse with them about the eternities and blessings; to care for, love and encourage them to be great missionaries for God. We are all enlisted in the army of God. Happy are we.

We pray for the Second Coming of Christ to this earth; for the Millennium time period where we live with no sin, no pain, no sickness, and lots of time to do Genealogy and Temple work with the great blessing that we can converse with our ancestors – who bring us lists of names that need Temple work, for their salvation. We rejoice in the Plan of Salvation.

I know that my redeemer lives. I know this gospel is true, with prophets who lead us. I know each life is tested by trials, accidents, bad decisions, and conflict. These are given to us to make us strong, to encourage us to grow closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. For without problems we would think we are the effect of our good-luck – all by ourselves.

Time will tell how we succeed to love God first, family second, church third, and the world last. Be in the world but not of the world. I’ve always said, if it weren’t for the necessity of money, we would all be better off. I love the barter system for this reason. I share what I have with you and you share what you have with me – no coin to give priority of one thing over another.

I leave you my love, forever! Christie