Family History

I wanted to post a little about family history. It is just plain AWESOME!  I love being able to find new information about my ancestors. It has been quite a journey the past 3-4 years as I have come to love and teach family history. In 2009 one of my best friends showed me how to do family history and indexing and research. It has been so fun for me to learn about my ancestors since then. I was able to get into family history and find some names to do temple work for. Although I am only able to do baptisms and confirmations at the temple, I know that family history and temple work can and will bring us closer to our Father in Heaven and our ancestors as well. Near the end of 2010 my singles ward started a Family History and Temple Work class on Sundays and after the first day I talked to my Bishop and asked him if the class would be continued and he said yes and asked if I know much about family history and I said I knew some about it and i have been using www.new.familysearch.org website for almost two years. He was excited to find out because they needed to find another teacher for the class. The next week I was called as the other family history teacher. It was so fun to teach the class every other week for 5 months before there was major ward changes and i was released from that calling. But i want to say that I have learned a great deal about my ancestors since I started doing family history and temple work for them (what I am able to). I strongly encourage ANYone who has the slightest desire to do family history to start researching what you can do for your ancestors.  This is the Church's Temple and Family History website that has links to help you get started with family history. http://www.lds.org/family/temple-and-family-history?lang=eng
It will be hard at first but once you get into it, it is amazing what you can find. It took me a couple years of doing it once or twice a month to really grow a love for family history but the more you do it the easier it becomes. Sundays are a great day to do family history and a great way to spend your sunday. PLEASE comment on this post if you have ANY questions about family history or temple work or indexing. I would be glad and am more then willing to help with what I can.
Now I am going to bear my testimony about family history and temple work. Last year I was able to met and exchange information with a great-aunt who does family history on my mother's paternal side. This line only goes back 3-4 generations to the late 1800's when my great great grandfather immigrated to America with his brother from Sweden. We knew nothing else at all, not any other siblings name or even parents names. My great-aunt spent a month in Salt Lake City last year and was able to find some of that information that we have been missing. She came to find out my great great grandfather changed his name when he came to america and that explained why we could not find any other information about my great great grandfather's family. She also came to find out that my great great grandfather or his brother worked for the king of sweden as a stable boy before they came to America and had to have his permission to come to America.  Although we are missing a lot of information about that line after my great great grandfather, it makes it more real for me to find evidence that he had family in Sweden. With the information that my great aunt found, I am able to take it to the temple for their work to be done to allow them to partake of the blessings that i have right now in mortality.  I know that family history and temple work is a special opportunity for each person. I challenge you to start looking into it and do it. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.