Stake Conference

I spoke in Stake conference..... again... 

Yeah... crazy.

I spoke in the Sunday session this time. After the Saturday session we went out with the Shulers, Conovers and Gards for Applebees appetizers. We had waaay too much fun. :)

My Talk:

In 1844, Joseph Smith asked, “What is this office and work of Elijah?” The Prophet promptly answered his own question: “It is one of the greatest and most important subjects that God has revealed. …

“This is the spirit of Elijah, that we redeem our dead, and connect ourselves with our fathers which are in heaven. … This is the power of Elijah and the keys of the kingdom of Jehovah.” 

The Prophet Joseph warns: “These are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over. … For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation … they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect.” 

·         David A. Bednar said: “Very simply, the Spirit of Elijah is the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of Elijah will influence anyone who is involved in this work. That, for a young person in the wickedness in the world in which we live today, is one of the greatest safeguards against the temptations of the adversary. The Spirit of Elijah will not only bless you, it will protect you.”

That is a profound statement from a Prophet of God. The spirit of Elijah will protect us—it will protect our children.

I’d heard of the Spirit of Elijah, of course, but I hadn’t really felt its power. Not until recently.  And that is why President Hansen asked me to speak today.

I’d never done family history before. The thought of finding a person just out there and figuring out if they belonged in my family and where they happen to belong in my line and oh yeah, is there covenant work done? It was just all too intimidating. So I did close to nothing. Honestly, I was afraid I would do it wrong and screw something up.

So, I wrote in my journals and I kept photos and records on my blog which I print into books and I called that keeping my personal family history. And it is. And it’s good. But there is so much more to do.

Then a couple of years ago, our friends The Youngs stopped by and told me about printing off their family fan. I’m sure I said something like “your family what?” I knew so little about the topic. But then, in a matter of minutes they brought up my family fan on my computer. It was awesome! It took my family back 9 generations. And I discovered some cool facts—like Joseph Fielding Smith is my 3^rd great grandfather, which makes Hyrum my 4^th great grandfather.

After that we tried to dabble a little in family history. We wanted to learn more and we wanted to share it with our kids. We got on family history sites in FHE with our kids, it was neat—but we didn’t get far.

And for a while that was it.

You know how in General Conference there often seems to be an overwhelming theme. Well that’s how I felt the few months before I dove into my first real family history attempt. I heard about it in my church meetings, I heard about it our bi-monthly stake auxiliary trainings. It was in the talks I read and listened to. Then, in February I got this email from familysearch.org and I think it said something like watch a 2 minute video and learn how to find family members who need their temple work done using the descendancy view.

And I thought: 2 minutes… sure I have 2 minutes. So, I watched it. And it changed everything for me. I felt the Spirit of Elijah.

If you go to LDS.org and search: finding our cousins, descendancy view, it will take you to the 2 minute video that I watched.

I watched the video and immediately tried it out. Within maybe two minutes I had found an ancestor of mine who needed her temple work done. Susannah. I was still scared. I was still afraid I didn’t know what I was doing and that I would mess something up. So, I didn’t request to do Susannah’s work. I kind of squealed and shut down the screen on my lap top. But I couldn’t let it go, minutes later I got back on. I found twelve more family members that day. And with a prayer that I wouldn’t screw up their exaltation, I requested to do their work.

Once I got started it was hard to stop. My 11 year old son, Landon started helping me. He would get so excited when we’d find a little green temple—symbolizing temple work needs done. When I would have to leave it to cook, he’d continue for me. It was a wonderful thing, seeing my son, feel the spirit of Elijah. And together we found our first male ancestor in need of baptism. Landon will be 12 in august and he’ll get to perform this ordinance.

Since that first day in February I have found 200 more names to take to the temple. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found Susannah. But I’m not done, I’m still looking for her.

In March, my husband and I went to the temple. We were to do 20 sealing’s that day—20 people that happen to be my ancestors, people I wouldn’t be here without.

5 of those 20 were siblings who needed to be sealed to their parents. Phoebe and Teunis’s five children. The kids were all born in the 1600’s. During the ordinance, our sealer pointed out that 3 of the 5 children, Elsje, Elshe, and Denys had had their previous temple work completed back in 1934, but they had yet to be sealed to their parents.

As I knelt across that alter I couldn’t help but think of my own mother. I have yet to be sealed to her. I’m not able to yet. Sometimes the wait for that sealing blessing feels never-ending, it’s just something I desire so greatly—and it’s only been 5 years. 37 in life. Elsje, Elshe, Denys and their 2 sisters were born more than 360 years ago… and their endowment work was done 81 years ago. They’ve been waiting so long to be sealed to their mother.

And because I watched a 2 minute video, I was able to help make that happen.