An effort of love, family history work
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Family history and temple work are an effort of love that "enlarges our souls, broadens our views regarding the welfare of our fellowmen, and plants in our hearts a great love for our Heavenly Father," said Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy.
Elder Jensen, executive director of the Family and Church History Department, was the keynote speaker during an open house of the Family History Library held at noon Jan. 26. The open house was held to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the Genealogical Society of Utah and its library, which was recently renovated.
Presiding at the event was Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve, who was accompanied by Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Charles A. Didier of the Presidency of the Seventy, and a number of others of the Seventy.
In his address, Elder Jensen thanked the many who had contributed to the library over its 110-year history. He welcomed those who were not Church members at the library and thanked them for their many contributions.
He explained that Latter-day Saints are not hobbyists, saying, "We do family history work for the salvation of the living and the dead."
This work is done in answer to the perplexing question that "if Jesus is the only way to salvation, if no one can come to the Father but by Him, what is the final destiny of the billions of people who are born, live and die without a chance to hear of Him, and follow the path that has been described as the 'strait and narrow?' "
Elder Jensen explained that Latter-day Saints believe the fulness of the gospel was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Church of Jesus Christ was organized again in the year 1830.
"Included in this Restoration was the doctrine of salvation for the dead, 'the most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel, namely baptism for the dead,' " as the Prophet Joseph Smith once said.
Joseph Smith instituted the process of performing proxy baptisms in behalf of deceased ancestors a few years after the organization of the Church, he continued. This was done because "we Latter-day Saints believe that baptism, along with the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, is essential for salvation, but that these ordinances are invalid unless performed by priesthood authority."
Those spirits for whom such ordinances are performed are capable of making choices and are "free to accept them or reject them. And if they do reject them, they are of no effect."
He said family history work benefits those such as himself, even though much of their family history work has been done by others.
"President Joseph Fielding Smith counseled us that our obligation now is to become acquainted with our ancestors," Elder Jensen said. "This is all a part of turning the heart of the children to the fathers."
He told a personal experience of finding a sketch of his great-great-grandfather, Christian Jensen, written by a daughter, Bertha Jensen Eccles, late in life. She wrote:
"One more incident happened that I must tell. I must have been 5, sitting at the table eating something from a bowl, and it fell down and broke. My father was there. I do not know if it was mother or one of the maids who started to scold me. But my father said (that) I did not mean to do that. It was an accident. And I thought my father was the best friend in the world. How I loved him. And that act has served me all through my life. I don't think I ever scolded any of my children for things they did accidently. Neither have I reprimanded my help. If I ever felt like scolding, I immediately had a picture of my accident at the table, and my father's kind words."
This story, said Elder Jensen, has a sequel that occurred a short time later:
"I was home (from Europe) for conference and had a chance to have dinner with our oldest daughter and her husband and their two rambunctious boys. She set a beautiful table and had just finished saying the blessing when Andrew, who was 5 and full of the dickens, tipped over his glass of milk and, in the process, flooded at least half this beautifully appointed table.
"As grandfathers can, I just sat back, wondering how my daughter, who has some of me in her, would respond. And how grateful I was when, as cool and calm as a summer's morn, she said, 'That's all right, Andrew. It was an accident. Let's clean it up.' "
This, concluded Elder Jensen, is how "we, as people interested in our children and grandchildren, affect an inter-generational transfer of our values and the things that we hold dear.
"It is obvious — the answer is to be found in family history work: the research to find the names, to take them to the temple, to perform the ordinances and in that process to become acquainted, as nearly as we can, with what great people we come from."
E-mail to: jhart@desnews.com
