THE MAJOR FOCUS FOR OUR WARD IN THE YEAR 2016 IS TO BE . . .

Sunday, 11/29/15, was a 'fifth Sunday' and we were honored and pleased to be addressed by Bishop Cameron Dennis on what he sees as the major focus for our Ward in the coming year.

Bishop Dennis began speaking by telling about a couple of his ancestors. His maternal great-grandfather was Absalom Walmsley Smith. In 1840, Absalom traveled to Illinois and got to know many of the Mormons living there. Eventually he himself was converted to the Church and after he met and married  Amy Emily Downs, they both decided to cross the plains with the Saints.  They met hardships along the way, but persevered and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

His paternal great-grandfather was Dan Jones from Wales who emigrated to America. He was a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River. He heard many terrible things about what the Mormons had done, but he didn't believe they could have done them. So, rather than join the Church and endanger his success as a riverboat captain, he set out to disprove Mormonism. Turns out he was unable to prove the Mormons wrong and he eventually joined the Church. Later on, he actually traveled back to Wales to escort a company of new converts to America.

These are two of the family stories that impressed Bishop Dennis with the importance of finding and getting to know our ancestors. There is so much temple work to be done that we are encouraged to search our own family histories for those needing their work to be performed. If we are fortunate enough to have had all our family history completed by another, we should volunteer to become 'indexers' for the Church to search out old records for the names of people in other family lines who need their work to be completed.

The Bishop's challenge to the Ward is to be more prepared for the Sabbath Day in reading our scriptures and our lessons and to be more active in doing family history.

Bishop quoted Elder Bednar as saying that the Spirit of Elijah will influence anyone who is actively involved in searching for ancestors.

Elder Richard G. Scott has said that doing family history work is a sure way to discourage the adversary in your life and offers a protection from his influence.

The most important concern of our Bishop is the youth. As we endeavor to do mor family history work, we can influence the youth for good.

Sister Alyse Goddard has been called to be in charge of helping ward members with their family history search and any problems we may run up against.

All Ward members are encouraged to be involved in the Church's Indexing program whereby online searches are performed through Family Search to locate names that can then be used by others in their own family history searches.

Brother Dave Genereux is to be our go-to person for help with Indexing. He gave us an overview of how the Indexing program works and a sign-up sheet was sent around for those who do not have an account to register (at no charge) and become active in the indexing process.  In registering with Family Search a person also receives free access to Ancestry.com.  The link to reach Family Search is through LDS.org -> Families & Individuals -> Home & Family -> Family History -> Family Search.org  The sign-in for LDS.org is in the upper right corner of the screen. If you do not have an account, see the Bishop for your member number and supply your date of birth, then create a password for future sign in. It is helpful to print out your sign in information for future reference.

The church has a pamphlet entitled "My Family" which is recommended to get started in your family history search. This pamphlet can also be used as a missionary tool for investigators who are interested in their own family history.

When you are in the Family Search screen, you can click on your Family Tree to see what information is already on file for you and your family. The Family org chart comes up with all pertinent information. We are encouraged to have four generations completed for each family by the end of 2016. As you explore the Family Search options you can find many interesting applications and charts for use in your family groups. 

It is recommended that we do only as many names at one time that we can easily take to the temple to perform ordinances and to do the work by family groups in order to maintain good records.

Indexing is also done through the Family Search site. There are different locations called "Test Drive" and "Get Started", for example that give step by step instruction on how to proceed.  There are rules and specific guidelines for each project that must be followed, but there are training programs available onsite and Bro. Genereux is very experienced. 

The Bishop has set a goal for next year of 4 Temple Baptism trips for up to 8 youth and 10 names from our ward for each youth to perform baptism and confirmation ordinances. This makes a total of 320 new names we need to have available for our youth.  Not so many when we consider the number of people we have to provide the names and pertinent information.

Let us all try to do our part to reach this goal in our family history searches throughout the year.

Your bloggess, 

Karen