Email written to Cami and Emma....12/11/16
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Hello, Beautiful Girls of Mine!
Adam's talk today went awesomely well! He did a good job expressing himself, actually got a real deal laugh from the audience, and held himself together when the general authority called him back up and put him on the spot by asking him more questions!
Yes, that's like Public Speaking 501 right there!
He looked so handsome in his brand new suit, bought because he was busting out of his other one!
He looked so handsome in his brand new suit, bought because he was busting out of his other one!
Elder Randall Bennett was the visiting General Authority. He served his mission in southern France back in the day and he was actually mission companions with Bro. S.
Below, you can read his talk. Can you guess which part elicited the laugh? It's also the part that he got the most comments on afterward.
Well, I hope you had a wonderful Sabbath day! I LOVE YOU!!!!!
Love,
Mom
ADAM'S TALK
Sometime in the last couple of years, President Wheatley challenged the youth in our stake to find our own names to take to the temple. I had never done family history before that, so my mom set up a visit from a family history consultant in our ward and my whole family learned how to do it together. Since then, we’ve all tried to take a little time each Sunday to work on indexing, researching, or finding names and now my older sister and I are youth family history consultants in the Vienna Ward. And even my little sister, who’s still in primary, loves doing family history too.
Originally my mom and dad both thought that we wouldn’t be able to find very many names, since they both have had genealogists working on their family trees for many years. With the new technology and descendancy charts, though, we’ve been very surprised at the hundreds of names we’ve found that still need their temple work done.
Elder Boyd K. Packer said, “No work is more of a protection to [us] than...genealogical research. ... No work is more spiritually refining. No work we do gives us more power. No work requires a higher standard of righteousness. Our labors...cover us with a shield and a protection.”
Those blessings sound pretty amazing, don’t they?
Well, let me take a second and have you do a really hard math problem.
What is 0x0?
Zero, you say?
Well, that’s how many of those amazing blessings we get when we use excuses and don’t do any family history work.
So, here’s another math problem, what’s 1x12?
Twelve. Not a huge number, but something. What if we spent one hour every fast Sunday doing family history? That’s 12 hours a year of doing work for our departed loved ones and it opens the windows for receiving some of those blessings.
Now imagine if we did just one hour of family history work every Sunday? That’s 1x52! Now that’s opening the windows wide open for receiving those wonderful blessings that Elder Packer mentioned.
As part of my calling as a youth family history consultant, we try to do some family history every week. But another thing my sister and I have done is to host a family history night for all the youth at our house every other month or so. Our house isn’t very big, but we always make treats and everyone has a good time working on family history together. We help when people have questions about indexing or finding names and we’ve had so much success that the Vienna Ward youth have provided almost all of the names for our temple trips for the last year or so.
Elder Bednar said, “As you respond in faith to this invitation {to do family history}, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.”
I have felt that protection that both Elder Bednar and Elder Packer talked about and I have felt a connection with my ancestors as I’ve found their names and then been baptized for them. I am so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to play a small role in helping those ancestors receive the blessings of salvation. I encourage you, no matter what stage of life you’re in, to remember those simple math problems we’ve done today. Whether it’s 1x12 or 1x52 or even more, we can make the time to open those windows and allow those blessings to flow into our lives.
I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sometime in the last couple of years, President Wheatley challenged the youth in our stake to find our own names to take to the temple. I had never done family history before that, so my mom set up a visit from a family history consultant in our ward and my whole family learned how to do it together. Since then, we’ve all tried to take a little time each Sunday to work on indexing, researching, or finding names and now my older sister and I are youth family history consultants in the Vienna Ward. And even my little sister, who’s still in primary, loves doing family history too.
Originally my mom and dad both thought that we wouldn’t be able to find very many names, since they both have had genealogists working on their family trees for many years. With the new technology and descendancy charts, though, we’ve been very surprised at the hundreds of names we’ve found that still need their temple work done.
Elder Boyd K. Packer said, “No work is more of a protection to [us] than...genealogical research. ... No work is more spiritually refining. No work we do gives us more power. No work requires a higher standard of righteousness. Our labors...cover us with a shield and a protection.”
Those blessings sound pretty amazing, don’t they?
Well, let me take a second and have you do a really hard math problem.
What is 0x0?
Zero, you say?
Well, that’s how many of those amazing blessings we get when we use excuses and don’t do any family history work.
So, here’s another math problem, what’s 1x12?
Twelve. Not a huge number, but something. What if we spent one hour every fast Sunday doing family history? That’s 12 hours a year of doing work for our departed loved ones and it opens the windows for receiving some of those blessings.
Now imagine if we did just one hour of family history work every Sunday? That’s 1x52! Now that’s opening the windows wide open for receiving those wonderful blessings that Elder Packer mentioned.
As part of my calling as a youth family history consultant, we try to do some family history every week. But another thing my sister and I have done is to host a family history night for all the youth at our house every other month or so. Our house isn’t very big, but we always make treats and everyone has a good time working on family history together. We help when people have questions about indexing or finding names and we’ve had so much success that the Vienna Ward youth have provided almost all of the names for our temple trips for the last year or so.
Elder Bednar said, “As you respond in faith to this invitation {to do family history}, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives.”
I have felt that protection that both Elder Bednar and Elder Packer talked about and I have felt a connection with my ancestors as I’ve found their names and then been baptized for them. I am so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to play a small role in helping those ancestors receive the blessings of salvation. I encourage you, no matter what stage of life you’re in, to remember those simple math problems we’ve done today. Whether it’s 1x12 or 1x52 or even more, we can make the time to open those windows and allow those blessings to flow into our lives.
I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Finally a moment to comment!
ReplyDeleteI can vouch for everything you said! Adam's talk was awesome! I was so impressed, both by his ability to do such important work, and by his ability to talk about it in an entertaining/motivating way. Also impressed with how well he handled being put on the spot by a general authority!
As a practical mom, I noticed how handsome he looked in his suit, and wondered how long it would stay looking that sharp before his arms and legs would be too long :)
Another highlight of Adam's talk was watching you and Glen bursting with pride (as well you should have been!). I love to sneak a peek at other parents as they catch each other's eyes when their kid is doing something awesome.