I have
loved doing family history research ever since I was old enough to copy family
names from my mother’s genealogy onto my own family group records as a young
child. Family history work has brought
the Spirit powerfully into my life and has blessed me with immeasurable peace
and joy throughout my life. Some of my
greatest spiritual experiences have come while engaged in family history
research and temple work. I’d like to
share with you one of my treasured family history experiences which is both a
family history story and a visiting teaching story wrapped together in one.
Many years
ago, while living in Utah, I was handed a slip of paper with my new visiting
teaching assignment. One of the names
read, “Esther H.” “Oh how nice,” I
thought. I had been wanting to get to
know Esther better. She was a lovely
woman in her 80’s, articulate, wise, and a person of great faith and
testimony. I was a mother of four young
children at the time and felt that there was much I could learn from her. But I had no idea of the blessings that were
in store for both of us through this visiting teaching assignment.
I began
visiting Esther in her home. Over the
course of our visits I learned many things about her – about her family who had
settled that area of Utah, about her husband who had died years before from a
heart attack and about her sadness over her only son who had been inactive for
years. She grieved that she had no
active posterity. I learned of her
missionary experiences to Bulgaria and her humanitarian work in South America. She had so many wonderful stories and life
experiences to share. Though we were
probably over 40 years apart in age, we became very dear friends. She showed great interest in my family and
the things going on in my life. I always
came away from those visiting teaching visits feeling very uplifted. My own family was going through some
financial hardships at the time, including a job loss, and I was strengthened
through those years by her testimony and example of consistent and steady
devotion to the gospel. She had
weathered many of her own storms in life.
I looked
for ways that I could serve Esther. She
had helped me so much, even sharing the fruit from the fruit trees on her
property, which was a great blessing to us.
One day our conversation turned to family history research. She asked if I knew how to use the computer
program to enter and clear family names for ordinance work. “Yes,” I told her. “I use it all the time.” She then explained to me that her husband had
been a convert to the church. There were
no other members of the church in his family.
Her husband had been diligent in collecting as much information as he
could over the years while on business trips around the world. He had gotten the temple work done for many
of his close ancestors, but not all of them.
He had an aunt, not a member of the Church, with whom he had
corresponded who was an avid genealogist and had meticulously collected genealogy
on their family. She had compiled two
huge volumes full of genealogical information and histories which she sent to
him. Esther told me that she had been
feeling very strong promptings that she needed to get those names to the
temple. She was at a loss, though,
because she did not really know how to use a computer. She had just bought a brand new one, but
didn’t know how to use it yet. She asked
if I could teach her how to use the program so that she could type the names in
and get the temple work done for her husband’s ancestors. She was feeling a great sense of urgency
about it.
I was
joyful. This was something I definitely could
help her with. Over the next few months
I went over to her house regularly to teach her how to use the genealogy
program. The progress was very slow,
though. Her hands and fingers were
arthritic and just didn’t work like they used to. She had a lot of difficulty just trying to
master using the computer, let alone the internet and the genealogy program. Being a very independent person, she was
frustrated with herself and her lack of progress. Adding to her anxiety was that feeling of
great urgency to get the work done.
Finally, at the end of one of our teaching sessions, a thought occurred
to me and I asked her, “Would you like me to just type this information in for
you? I wouldn’t mind doing it.” She looked at me with so much relief and said,
“Would you? Really?” She couldn’t
believe that I would do this for her. I
told her, “Of course. I would love to be
able to help you.” She was overjoyed.
Esther
then gave me an apple box full of her husband’s genealogy including the 2
hardbound books put together by his aunt – all of his precious family
records. I brought the box home. I carefully went through every pedigree
chart, family group record and the two books and got all of the information
entered into the computer. The project
took me two years to complete. As I went
along, I processed batches of names to clear them for temple work. As I got cards printed for temple work, I
brought them over to Esther. She was so
happy and spent every week after that in the temple. She often brought friends along with her, to
help get the temple work done for her husband’s family. That was something that she could do, and she did it enthusiastically. It was such a beautiful experience. We were working together to accomplish this
great work – one entering the information and the other doing the temple
work.
As I
worked on the genealogy, I learned about her husband’s family – the good people
they were, their faith and homesteading experiences in a little town in central
Kansas. I began to feel a closeness with
this family, even though they were not my own.
As I worked on the project over those two years, very real blessings,
both temporal and spiritual began flowing to our family – a job for my husband after
two years of unemployment, the ability to buy a home after years of renting, as
well as other spiritual blessings. We
saw the hand of the Lord plainly in our lives.
I felt so uplifted and a divine sense of calling in doing this work.
The
project finally came to a close when the last ordinance was completed and I
brought all the records back to Esther at the end of those two years. I handed her a disk with all of the genealogy
on it and all of the completed ordinance cards – well over 100 cards. She had tears in her eyes. The work was finally done. She was now at peace.
It was not
long after the project was completed that new opportunities awaited our family
including a new job for my husband and an out of state move to -- Kansas. What a great surprise to move to the very
state where these people came from that we had done the work for! My heart was filled with joy as we drove
through central Kansas and I got to see the place where this family lived out
their lives – these people now sealed and ready to move on in their eternal progress
in the heavens.
Just a few
years later, Esther’s health declined and she passed away. How grateful I was that the family history and
temple work for her husband’s recorded family were all completed. I knew she would be meeting her husband with
great joy.
-Debbie Wood
