Family History and Temple Work

One of the things that I really missed while on vacation was the temple. We didn't go in July or August. For having a temple 5 minutes away from us, that's pretty horrible. While I was away, I kept on feeling that we had to go to the temple as soon as we got back. We went this past Thursday and were able to do some family names.

In June, we started doing some family names that my sister gave us. She is so awesome. Nobody in my family is great at genealogy (myself included). When my grandma was alive, she gave a lot of information to my sister. My grandfather had also started some of it several years ago. But Damaris has been the one to continue it. She is such a great example to me. So she does the hard part and let's us do the work in the temple since the nearest temple to her is 4 hours away. The names we did were Luisa Cruz Perez (from La Habana, Cuban - born in 1887) and Manual Armas Garcia (from the Canary Islands, Spain - born in 1881). I really don't even know exactly how they're related to me (I'll look it up in new.familysearch.org), but I felt a really strong connection with these people while we were at the temple. I was so happy when we left the temple. I knew that the joy I was experiencing was being experienced on the other side of the veil as well.

This Sunday our Relief Society class was on temple work. Classes on genealogy are usually boring, overwhelming and leave you feeling guilty. It's a hard task and one that requires a lot of work and dedication. I also feel that we don't really understand how important genealogy is. But this girl in Relief Society is such a marvelous teacher. Every time she teaches, I feel so motivated and spiritually uplifted. She made some great points that really changed my opinion on genealogy. She said that genealogy is the same as Facebook stalking. This is so hilarious but so true. I will not deny that I am a proficient Facebook-stalker. I know, sad. We look up people who are rarely important to us just for "fun." Next thing you know, you've wasted an hour or more looking up useless information about other people. When she put it that way, it sounded so ridiculous. Finding information about deceased people is a little harder but basically the same. With the technology and resources that are now available to us, we can definitely be successful in our search. She also made the point that these dead people loved and continue loving their families as much as we love our families now. I cannot imagine a life without my family. Luisa and Manuel surely had parents who taught them how to tie their shoes, a sister or brother who was their best friend, and a grandmother who cooked their favorite dishes. They also had husbands and wives who were their soul mates and raised children together. These family bonds that are so, so strong here on earth do not die when we leave. I felt a confirmation of that very strongly this week.

Blaine's mom, Eileen, is also so great at genealogy. She actually took a trip to Puerto Rico back in the 80's to dig up some of her family history. She has tons of notes with cool stories of the Sepulveda family. One of her ancestors was a wealthy mayor of Sabana Grande. He had a daughter who fell in love with a guy who wasn't of their social class. He disapproved of their desire to marry. The two lovebirds were like the Puerto-Rican Romeo and Juliet. They went to this little island and drank some poison to end their lives, since they couldn't be together. She has so much information and cool little stories that really bring you back to the time period that these people lived in. This makes genealogy much more interesting! I try to help as much as possible, translating some Spanish documents that she sends me into English. I wish we lived closer so that I could help even more. Eileen is also a great example to me of how important family history is!

So maybe those of you reading this already know this information but it was such an epiphany to me. I know that the work for the dead is extremely important and that it is doable! (1 Nephi 3:7). We still have several names to do. I hope that we can finish those as soon as possible and start searching for more family names! Living so close to a temple and in a place with so many Church resources, I feel that this is a great time in our lives where we can make temple attendance and family history a habit. The best part is that as we attend the temple and do work for others, we are also blessed with an increase of peace in our lives. And I, for one, am always needing some peace!

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that allows families to be together forever. There is nothing in this world more important than family. Family truly is everything!

The Provo Temple