How did Mosiah's people feel after he read to them the records of Zeniff's people and Alma's people? Has your family kept any records you could read from?
Discovering Family Records On FamilySearch
If you haven't yet, you may want to create a FamilySearch account and fill in four generations on your branch of the FamilySearch family tree. Step-by-step instructions with links to FamilySearch articles, webinars, and videos are found in The Family History Guide here. Check out the guidelines for children's accounts here.
The Family History Guide also has instructions for creating your family tree on Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FindMyPast. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can sign up for these sites for free. See FamilySearch partner accounts. Learn more about partner sites with information from The Family History Guide here.
Real-Time Discovery Experiences
You can become a successful family history detective! Diaries, letters, postcards, scrapbooks, photos, baby books and other items from trunks, closets, and attics hold "everyday life" details and stories you won't find anywhere else. Perhaps some will be difficult to discover. Go through your house (and your relatives' houses with them) for these home sources and examine them for clues. Watch the video below to see how one man "discovered" his grandfather whom he had never known, through a box of photos and a movie reel that was given to him.
What discovery experiences can you create with and for your loved ones? What family history would you like to discover? How will you record, preserve, and share your discoveries?
The Family History Guide offers step-by-step instructions in FamilySearch Project 2 (use the drop-down menu at the top):
In addition to the list from The Family History Guide above, here are some preservation activity ideas, suggestions, tools, and resources from FamilySearch. Preserving memories together as families can be rewarding, even though it may take longer as you reminisce. Turn on some music, bring out the boxes, and get on with the exciting task (and joy) of preservation!
Maybe you could add to your records or start keeping your own. What would you include that might help your family (including future generations) be "filled with exceedingly great joy" and learn about "the immediate goodness of God"? (Mosiah 25:8, 10).
Why was it important for Limhi's people to remember that the Lord had delivered them out of captivity? What has the Lord done for us that we should remember? (Mosiah 25:16).
After "the voice of the Lord came to [Alma]," he wrote down the things the Lord told him "that he might have them" (Mosiah 26:14, 33). How will you follow Alma's example?
"The scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, make clear that "remembering" is a fundamental and saving principle of the gospel. We keep records to help us remember. Remembering the past gives us needed perspective as God's children to have faith in our future destiny and thus to live more faithfully in the present." Marlin K. Jensen, There Shall Be a Record Kept among You (Ensign 2007)
Keeping Journals
View the following highlight video of President Henry B. Eyring sharing his experience deciding to write in his journal daily with this question in mind: "Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life or the lives of my children?" He describes his commitment to record his answers to those questions, and "find a way to preserve that memory." President Henry B. Eyring, O Remember, Remember, October 2007 General Conference
For more journaling ideas, see these previous Come, Follow Me Companion lessons:
"Embrace your sacred memories. Believe them. Write them down. Share them with your family. Trust that they come to you from your Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son.24 Let them bring patience to your doubts and understanding to your difficulties.25 I promise you that as you willingly acknowledge and carefully treasure the spiritually defining events in your life, more and more will come to you. Heavenly Father knows you and loves you!" Elder Neil L. Andersen, Spiritually Defining Memories, General Conference April 2020
God hears my prayers and will answer them according to His will.
From Come, Follow Me :
Maybe you know a parent in Alma the Elder's situation, whose son or daughter is making destructive choices. Or maybe you are that parent. What do you find in Mosiah 27:14, 19–24 that gives you hope? How might these verses influence your prayers in behalf of others?
Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing
"Family relationships can be some of the most rewarding yet challenging experiences we encounter. Many of us have faced a fracture of some sort within our families. Such a fracture developed between two heroes of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days. Parley and Orson Pratt were brothers, early converts, and ordained Apostles ... During the Nauvoo era, their relationship became strained, culminating in a heated, public confrontation in 1846. A deep and prolonged rift developed. Parley initially wrote to Orson to resolve the rift, but Orson did not reply. Parley gave up, feeling that correspondence was over forever, unless initiated by Orson. Several years later, in March 1853, Orson learned about a project to publish a book on the descendants of William Pratt, the brothers' earliest American ancestor. Orson began to weep "like a little child" as he glimpsed this treasure trove of family history. His heart melted, and he determined to repair the breach with his brother.
Orson wrote to Parley, 'Now my dear brother, there are none among all the descendants of our Ancestor, Lieut[enant] William Pratt, who have so deep an interest in searching out his descendants as ourselves.' Orson was one of the first to understand that Latter-day Saints have an obligation to research and compile family histories so that we can perform vicarious ordinances for our ancestors. His letter continued: 'We know that the God of our fathers has had a hand in all this. ... I will beg pardon for having been so backward in writing to you. ... I hope you will forgive me.' Despite their unshakable testimonies, their love for their ancestors was the catalyst to heal a rift, mend a hurt, and seek and extend forgiveness."
Rely on the Promises
"... as we participate in family history and temple work today, we also lay claim to 'healing' blessings promised by prophets and apostles. These blessings are also breathtakingly amazing because of their scope, specificity, and consequence in mortality. This long list includes these blessings:
Increased understanding of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice;
Increased influence of the Holy Ghost7 to feel strength and direction for our own lives;
Increased faith, so that conversion to the Savior becomes deep and abiding;
Increased ability and motivation to learn and repent because of an understanding of who we are, where we come from, and a clearer vision of where we are going;
Increased refining, sanctifying, and moderating influences in our hearts;
Increased joy through an increased ability to feel the love of the Lord;
Increased family blessings, no matter our current, past, or future family situation or how imperfect our family tree may be;
Increased love and appreciation for ancestors and living relatives, so we no longer feel alone;
Increased power to discern that which needs healing and thus, with the Lord's help, serve others;
Increased protection from temptations and the intensifying influence of the adversary; and
Increased assistance to mend troubled, broken, or anxious hearts and make the wounded whole.
If you have prayed for any of these blessings, participate in family history and temple work. As you do so, your prayers will be answered. When ordinances are performed on behalf of the deceased, God's children on earth are healed. No wonder President Russell M. Nelson, in his first message as President of the Church, declared, 'Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path.' (Dale G. Renlund, "Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing," General Conference, April 2018)
Your Personal History
You may want to write one story about your life as you study each Come, Follow Me lesson.
What message did you receive from God today that was just for you?
How did I see God's hand in my life or in the lives of my family today?
