December 2011 Temple & Family History Newsletter Welcome to the December newsletter, our first one as Area Advisors for Temple and Family History Work in the Preston Temple District, certainly the longest title to any calling either of us have ever held! By way of introduction we are Michael and Jacqueline Gilmore from Sheffield. We will celebrate our 30 th wedding anniversary next July. In that time we have become the proud parents of five children (three sons and two daughters), and one grandson, with a granddaughter due early December. Our eldest three are married with the youngest two still at home. We have lived most of our married life in Sheffield except for a period of four years in the Norwich stake in the early 90 s. In our professional lives we work as a headteacher (Michael) and part-time Paediatric nurse (Jacqueline). We view church service as an honour and privilege especially when seen as working alongside the Saviour in accomplishing his mission, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. We have served in many church callings, most recently Jacqueline as adult gospel doctrine teacher and myself as stake president of Sheffield stake for the last 9 years. We had only been called into the ward missionary team of Sheffield 3 rd ward for five weeks when we received the new calling through a telephone call from Elder Kerr in November. We do not pretend to be experts in family history work, far from it. We know most of you will have greater experience in this area than we have. This makes the responsibility all the more daunting. We therefore earnestly seek your help. We are already seeing that there is a lot of inspirational teaching in the Preston Temple District. We would like to come round and see as much as we can. We hope you find the newsletter useful. It is your newsletter so please send us your stories and ideas. Hopefully as we learn more and travel round it will grow into something more meaningful. We look forward to working with you and building on the work of Brother and Sister Beverley. Kind regards Michael & Jacqueline Gilmore
Family history saved by diligence and inspiration! Janet and Ivan Dunne from Crossgates in Leeds are currently serving a voluntary mission at the Preston Temple in Lancashire. But Janet s love of genealogy and diligence in visiting a housebound lady in Leeds over a number of years has resulted in a wonderful work that will take place at the temple this month. Janet explains: For many years I was visiting Laura, a less active lady who was blind and housebound, as her visiting teacher. I felt impressed to write down all the stories and information she related to me about her family, to save it for her relatives in future years should they become interested in family history. Shortly before this lady died at the age of 94, her daughter Rose Wray became an active member of the Church and expressed regret at not having compiled her family details when her mother had been able to remember dates and places. Janet continues: I was delighted to be able to produce my notes and help prepare the family names for the Temple. My final service to Laura has been to have her sealed to all her family at the Temple on 23 November 2011. This story shows us it is the Lords work we are doing. If we are receptive to the spirit and act upon its promptings, he will guide our paths to accomplish what is needed. Thank you to Janet for sending us this lovely story.
So what do Area Family History Advisors do? The following is taken from the manual To Turn the Hearts page 20. The Presidency of the Seventy or Area Presidency oversees temple and family history work in the area. They teach the doctrines of the work. They also teach leaders their temple and family history responsibilities. The Area Presidency or Area Seventies call a sufficient number of area advisers to assist stakes with family history work. Area Family History Advisers Area family history advisers work closely with the Area Seventies and coordinating councils. Generally, priesthood holders or couples are called to serve as area advisers. The Church s Family History Department provides training for new area advisers. Area family history advisers do the following: Consult with Area Seventies, stake presidencies, and high councillors on how family history can serve as a resource to help achieve overall goals for those whom they serve. Provide training to stake leaders and others within stakes and wards. Provide information to area leadership on the Church s direction and plans for family history work. Help with public affairs efforts that may include temple and family history work. Ultimately we are prepared to do whatever we can to help progress members submitting names to the temple and then performing the saving ordinances. That is the ultimate aim of this work. The harvest for temple and family history work is upon us. The excuses are gradually disappearing. Shortly every chapel will have internet connectivity, what an opportunity that is. Add Elder Bednar s inspirational talk at General Conference and the new Family History site for youth,we have two more great opportunities. At this time of the year our thoughts are turned to Christ and his birth. We celebrate this pivotal event in history by the giving of gifts to those we love and care for. Christ s gift to us was to save us vicariously by his atoning sacrifice because of his love for each and everyone of us. In the sanctity of the holy temples, it is our privilege to perform vicarious saving ordinances for our family members and others who have gone before us. What better way to show our love to our deceased ancestors, and gratitude to Christ! There is no better gift that we could give to them. John A Widtsoe The Worth of Souls tells us:- In our pre-existent state, in the day of the great council, we made a certain agreement with the Almighty. The Lord proposed a plan, conceived by him. We accepted it. Since the plan is intended for all men, we became parties to the salvation of every person under that plan. We agreed, right then and there, to be not only saviours for ourselves but measurably, saviours for the whole human family. We went into a partnership with the Lord. The working out of the plan became then not merely the Father s work, and the Saviour s work, but also our work. Our best wishes go to you all for a lovely Christmas and continued success in your temple and family history work. Thank you for all that you do. We are here to serve you in whatever capacity we can.
Stories We need your stories. Experience shows that we are inspired by inspirational stories. Some examples can be youth serving as family history consultants, special youth/ysa family history activities, nonmembers experiences, new members, reactivated members, individual member efforts, reaching out into the community, just to name a few. The best stories are those that end up with a conversion, reactivation or temple ordinances being performed. Arbitration issues Below is an email from Sister Elaine Mander. This issue was raised by Sister Atkinson, Indexing Director from the Sunderland stake by an indexer within the stake. We hope it may be of use to indexers throughout the district. Since the My Accuracy tool was launched, we have seen many instances where the arbitration has been of a very low standard. Many indexing batches which were correct, have been altered by the arbitrator or even put back in the pot to be redone. As shown below by Sister Atkinson, some can be quite amusing, but nonetheless it s all very frustrating. My colleague in the indexing department at Church HQ is very aware of these problems, and I believe they are working on some sort of arbitration check too, but that could take some time as it is not high priority. We need to make the arbitrators aware that it is just as important for them to read project instructions as it is for the indexer. Problems with the programme like those experienced by Ros in her email to Sister Atkinson should be reported to FamilySearch Support. Indexers and SIDs should be encouraged to email support@familysearch.org or ring them on 00800 1830 1830 to report these problems rather than contact you or I. Sister Beverley used to forward many of these to me, but there was nothing I could do other than forward them on. I don t hear all that s going on in the indexing world, but the support missionaries do. There are also community chats on Face book and Twitter the Face book one is www.facebook.com/familysearchindexing, and Twitter is https://twitter.com/familysearchind. People can get answers from here, and also post their own questions. I hope this is helpful. Kind regards, A Fantastic Effort Indexing There is no doubt that stakes within the Preston Temple district are a shining example in certain areas of temple and family history work. Where indexing is concerned in 2011 you have indexed a total of 5,739,000 names by the end of November. This equates to 66% of the total indexing done throughout the Europe area. A staggering statistic really. However the more telling statistic is when we compare ourselves to ourselves, (we don t of course have any influence over stakes in other temple districts). In 2010 you indexed 1,590,243 names. Still an excellent effort but very much overshadowed by your 2011 efforts. Family Search In terms of family search accounts the Preston Temple district has progressed from 4,769 accounts in quarter 1 of 2010 up to 6,951 in quarter 3 of 2011, an increase of 46%. However the number of submitters each quarter has only risen from 921 to 1118, a 21% increase. In 2012 one goal is to have more members submitting names each quarter. Think, 'little and often.
The Work of Salvation Temple and Family History Work in the Work of Salvation. The beginning of Chapter 5 in Handbook 2, says Members of the Church of Jesus Christ are sent forth to labour in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men (D&C 138:56). This work of salvation includes member missionary work, convert retention, activation of less-active members, temple and family history work, and teaching the gospel. The emphasis should be on all these elements working alongside each other to bring about salvation. Each leader in a stake or ward needs to see the whole picture. This means all members of ward and stake councils being involved in each of the elements contained within the Work of Salvation. In addition we need to use the work of salvation to protect and retain the youth and young single adults. Regards temple and family history work, each leader should be asking the following questions; How can temple and family history work help member missionary work? How can temple and family history work help with convert retention? How can temple and family history work help activate the less active? How can temple and family history work help in teaching the gospel? How can temple and family history work help in leading members to the temple ordinances? How can temple and family history work help in retaining the rising generation? The questions above are crucial. As we contemplate them, we want to testify that the Lord will reveal the answers. Why? Because it is His work, His Church and by asking these questions we are doing what He wants us to do. As we have talked with some of you in the past month it is clear that miracles happen as we are obedient and follow what the brethren are asking of us. HELP!!!!!! A Plea from Brother Hugh M Jones, High Priests Group Leader of the Porthmadog Branch. If you can help, please contact him on shoot303762@aol.com The Porthmadog Branch (Chester Stake) wishes to hold a Family History event for the public as a missionary tool during February next year. The venue will be the capacious public hall in the town; it has a number of rooms varying in size from a 300 seat theatre to a 60-seat lounge and smaller committee rooms. There is ample car parking and the place is well-known to the public. We feel that there might be a two-pronged thrust. Initially it would be "Pwy da chi?" ("Who are you?"), designed to introduce members of the public to their own families. The second approach would be "Why do we do this?", leading to Temples and the Plan of Salvation Can you offer contacts for Church units which have done this sort of thing, so we might learn from their experience before we actually do anything?
Michael & Jacqueline The Story of Thomas Morley (part 1) Growing up in a church family I was taught from a young age the importance family history work. I always had a great desire to do this sacred work. My parents had very different life experiences. My mother was a convert to the church and little was know about her Irish ancestry. My father was brought up in a Banardos children s home and knew very little about his parents, although he did visit his mother on a couple of occasions. Whilst in Young Women s and then as a young adult I persevered with my mothers ancestry and had some success finding Irish family who travelled to and settled in Liverpool. However I was always interested in my Father s illusive family. I knew that my paternal grandmother was alive when I was younger as I remember a doorstep visit with my father, although she was not welcoming and the door was closed on us. She was a young girl when she met my grandfather, who was a merchant navy seaman during World War II. He died at sea when his ship was torpedoed while taking supplies to the Baltic. Being pregnant and unmarried she decided to give up the child to the foster home. As my father had his mother s surname, I had no leads when finding information about my grandfather s family. The only clues came from the records at the children s home. Finding my family seemed to be an insurmountable task until the Lord blessed me with an experience that left me in no doubt that my family were alive in the spirit world and were waiting for the gospel ordinances. My father died in 2002 and I was given a copy of the Banardos records. I now knew my Grandfather s surname and was given a drawing of the Tower Hill War memorial in London that he had drawn. I must admit that with a young family, I put these records to one side and forgot about them. Five years later on a day trip to London with family and friends we passed Tower Hill memorial, I felt the warm promptings of the spirit to stop, although I couldn t imagine why as I had never been there before and didn t know the relevance of the memorial. Again I felt the spirit but much stronger this time, almost stopping me in my tracks. I whispered to my husband I know this place I ve seen it before. I looked up to the large monument and I immediately recognised it as the memorial in my Grandfather s drawing. My family and friends with us on the trip helped me search through the thousands of names listed on the plaques but to no avail. I needed Heavenly Father s help to find my Grandfather. I felt the Spirit guiding me, telling me that my Grandfather wanted to be found. He was there looking down on us from the Spirit World as my Father was teaching him the gospel. I became very excited. I know he wanted us to perform the temple ordinances for him. I felt sure his name was in this garden. So, if these promptings were from the right source, it was time to test my faith and pray to my Heavenly Father. Why should I be surprised that after a short prayer my steps were guided straight to the name of Thomas Morley. I had found him. To be continued... Thank you to Hilary Bradbury for this story. We look forward to the next encounter.