Family History And The Temple

     The 'Spirit of Elijah' has settled upon me once again.  I have been spending much time preparing family names for Temple ordinances.  The research tools that have been provided in these modern days are truly remarkable when compared to what was available way back when-40 years ago when I first felt that spirit and was 'compelled to compile'.  And as the Church has put the responsibility of 'correctness' on the members, another hurdle was crossed.  In the past, names were researched by viewing data from microfilm  that could be ordered from Salt Lake City and other record repositories.  The film was usually not indexed so finding an ancestor was most often like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack.  Once found, a full page of biographical information was submitted to Salt Lake for verification and processing.  The submitted name would be returned usually within 6 weeks 'Temple Ready'.  Whew!!  I am tired just thinking about the process.  Now, with the help of Ancestry.com I can literally type in a name, and, from their fully indexed data base which includes all US census's up to 1940 and other Government and private data bases, can build a fairly comprehensive 'source' list for each individual researched.  Even greater is the fact that there are other Ancestry.com subscribers who are building their own family trees.  These trees, if public, can be accessed through a common ancestor and notes and sources compared and added upon which will often  complete an entire family 'picture'.   Then these names are input into the new Family History Church program, Family Trees,  for Temple ordinance processing.  I presently have over 300 names in various stages of ordinance completion, and have turned many of them over to the 'Temple System' for completion. What that means is that the submitted name is put on a 'Sharing' list at another Temple somewhere in the world and is printed as part of a Temple File batch of names that Temple patrons who do not have their own Family File names may procure and proceed to complete the ordinance.

    An amazing 'coincidence' occurred this past Wednesday during my Temple shift with regard to the above outlined sharing program.  Part of my shift assignment was to act as a sealing patron. I had a small stack of my own family names for sealing and these were completed with me acting as a male proxy either for the husband or son.  I was asked to be a witness and so took my place to the side of  Brother Brimhall, one of three wonderful  'Sealers' assigned to our pm shift.  I happened to view the Temple File list in front of him and noticed to my great and wonderful surprise the name of a female I submitted for Temple Sharing back in late February.  On the next page of 5 was her sister!!!   Coincidence????  No!! Families are eternal and those on the other side are keenly aware of the work needed for and in their behalf.  And as for me, it was another sweet morsel added to what is becoming a fuller plate of Temple moments.

     Here are the notes for Mother's Day at the Prison. 

     With the 12th being Mothers Day, we thought it best to spend as much time with our wives and families as possible, so President and Brother Campbell conducted the morning meetings-President at SVSP and Roger at CTF North.  Brother Campbell adjourned the North meeting at 10am so that he could return and attend Salinas 2nd Ward services with his family.  I  attended the first two hours of Salinas 1st Ward services, then drove to the prison to relieve President Romero and allow him to return home and spend the rest of the day with his family. 

     I conducted the PM meetings at Central and South.  At Central, we had 5 brethren in attendance and we watched the 2nd session of April Conference.  Of particular notice was the spirit felt when the combined choirs from BYU closed with ‘More Holiness Give Me’.  

     At South, we said goodbye to ‘Oatmeal Testimony’ John Bankston as he is being paroled on Wednesday the 15th back to his home area of Stockton.  5 brethren were in attendance as we watched Conference.  I asked Brother John to share his ‘oatmeal’ testimony at the end of the meeting, which he did.  We all said goodbye and good luck.  John is not a member, yet, but has stated that the first thing he is going to do is find the LDS church closest to him and make himself known.  He shared the following incident.  His ‘bunkie’—inmate who shares his bunk—asked John what he was going to do when he got out.  John told him was going to find the nearest Mormon Church.  Evidently, this ‘bunkie’ is from John’s home area also and evidently is ‘in the know’ regarding outside affairs.  This bunkie who is not a religious person told John that there was a brand new mormon building close to hwy 99 and some street in Stockton.  John shared with us that this chapel is in the very neighborhood that he will be paroling to!!!  We will miss John, but know that we will be hearing from him.

Oh yes,  we did get around to finally planting our garden.  Who is the masked person (bandido) prowling around the grounds?

Before!!!

After!!!