Temple Work and Family History (FHE)

Again I'm late on another family home evening post.  So, for last week's FHE, I covered chapter 40 from the Gospel Principles manual: Temple Work and Family History.

Song: We sang song #94 from the Primary Children's Songbook, Family History-I Am Doing It.  This a fun song to sing, and it goes as follows:

Fam'ly history - I am doing it, My fam'ly history.

And the love I feel when I'm doing it Is very sweet to me.

I learn stories of my progenitors; I write their history.

I keep records of my loved ones On my own fam'ly tree.

 

Fam'ly living now and the ones who've died Can all be sealed to me,

And someday I'll meet ev'ry one of them, I'm sure as I can be.

Oh what joy we'll have when they say to me, "We're all a family.

I am yours and you are mine now, Through all eternity."

 

Lesson:  Heavenly Father wants His children to return to Him.  If we are to live forever with our families in Heavenly Father’s presence, we must do all that the Savior commands us to do. This includes being baptized and confirmed and receiving the ordinances of the temple.  Heavenly Father wants all of His children to return and live with Him. For those who died without baptism or the temple ordinances, He has provided a way for this to happen. He has asked us to perform ordinances for our ancestors in the temples.

Salt Lake City Temple

Temples are special buildings dedicated to the Lord. Worthy Church members may go there to receive sacred ordinances and make covenants with God.We also go to the temple to learn more about Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We gain a better understanding of our purpose in life and our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We are taught about our premortal existence, the meaning of earth life, and life after death.

Many of our ancestors are among those who died without hearing about the gospel while on the earth. They now live in the spirit world. There they are taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who have accepted the gospel are waiting for the temple ordinances to be performed for them. As we perform these ordinances in the temple for our ancestors, we can share their joy.

Latter-day Saints are encouraged to participate in family history activities. Through these activities we learn about our ancestors so that we can perform ordinances for them. Family history involves three basic steps:

1. Identify our ancestors.
2. Find out which ancestors need temple ordinances performed.
3. Make certain that the ordinances are performed for them.

Through our efforts in finding our ancestors names and in performing their ordinances in the temple, we can have our families for time and all eternity.

Fan Chart on FamilySearch.org

Activity:  This activity was pretty simple and very effective.  First, I logged into my Family Search account. Family Search is a free website where you can build your own family tree and search for your ancestors.  You can also add or find pictures and stories of you family.  I pulled up the fan chart view of my pedigree chart and just showed this to June so she could see all the people in her family line.  Then, we sat down with my dad and just looked through old photo albums.  She loves looking at pictures and she loved hearing the stories behind each photo even more.

Grandpa telling June family stories