Weekly Family History Activities

A Come, Follow Me Companion

2021: Doctrine & Covenants

Week 27, June 28–July 4

Come, Follow Me is a resource offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is designed to be used in the home to support personal and family scripture study to build faith in Heavenly Father and His plan of salvation and in the Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Come, Follow Me is self-contained and adequate, when used properly. Products and materials designed to supplement this resource, though they may be helpful in some instances, are not necessary for a successful home study program.

Doctrine and Covenants 71-75: "No Weapon That Is Formed against You Shall Prosper."

Doctrine and Covenants 73

I can seek opportunities to share the gospel.

From Come, Follow Me :

After Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon returned from their brief preaching mission to repair some of the damage Ezra Booth had done (see Doctrine and Covenants 71), the Lord told them to return to the work of translating the Bible (see Bible Dictionary, "Joseph Smith Translation"). But He also wanted them to keep preaching the gospel. As you read Doctrine and Covenants 73, consider how you can make preaching the gospel an ongoing, "practicable" (verse 4)—or realistic—part of your life among your other responsibilities.

"The artificial boundary line we so often place between missionary work and temple and family history work is being erased; this is one great work of salvation." (David A. Bednar [from an address given at the seminar for new mission presidents, June 25, 2013, Salt Lake City]). Read more about missionary work and temple and family history work here. How can you make doing and sharing family history an ongoing part of your life? What are some ways that you can share the joy of family history with your own family and others?

Open the Door to Family History

Family history can open doors for ministering. People enjoy learning about their own family. Choose someone you can help discover the world of their family history. (First, make sure that the person's family tree is set up.)

Discover their ancestors by viewing their family tree. (Be sure to let them explore all the alternate views.)
Enjoy some fun activities to help them connect more with their ancestors.
Learn about their family name.
Learn about ancestral homelands. (See Countries in The Family History Guide.)

Photos: Keep Me, Protect Me, Share Me

Using family photos, stories or other heirlooms is one way to share your family's history with others. As you share your family information, you help other family members learn more about themselves.

Look through some old photos and share stories or memories of the events they portray with family members. Decide which photos you would like to share on your FamilyTree and upload them. For additional help, read:

Doctrine and Covenants 75:3–5, 13, 16

From Come, Follow Me :

You can help your family understand how the Lord wants us to serve Him by talking about the difference between being "idle" and "labor[ing] with [our] might." Perhaps you could select some household chores and invite family members to demonstrate doing those chores idly and then with all their might. How can we serve the Lord with all our might?

"Elder John Longden, an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, quoted Herndon as saying, 'Satan selects his disciples when they are idle; Jesus selected his when they were busy at their work either mending their nets or casting them into the sea.'" (Serving the Lord and Resisting the Devil, James E. Faust)

You become a true disciple of Jesus Christ as you serve Him and do not idle away any of the precious time allotted to you while on this earth. Dallin H Oaks said, "We are accountable and will be judged for how we use what we have received ... This principle of accountability also applies ... to the precious hours and days allotted to each of us during our time in mortality ... We are accountable for how we use that time."

Elder Oaks continued, "The ultimate Latter-day Saint priorities are twofold: First, we seek to understand our relationship to God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to secure that relationship by obtaining their saving ordinances and by keeping our personal covenants. Second, we seek to understand our relationship to our family members and to secure those relationships by the ordinances of the temple and by keeping the covenants we make in that holy place. These relationships, secured in the way I have explained, provide eternal blessings available in no other way." (Focus and Priorities)

Obtaining your own saving ordinances and having those same saving ordinances performed for your ancestors are essential for salvation. Family history work is vital. President Russell M. Nelson encouraged you to examine your priorities when he extended a challenge for you to make a sacrifice of time to do more family history work.

"I would like to extend a challenge to each one of us so that the wonderful feeling of this [temple and family history] work can continue and even increase. I invite you to prayerfully consider what kind of sacrifice—preferably a sacrifice of time—you can make in order to do more temple and family history work this year." (Open the Heavens through Temple and Family History Work, Russell M. Nelson and Wendy W. Nelson)

How can you "labor with all your might" to serve the Lord by doing more in your family history endeavors? The FamilySearch blog article Sacrifice of Time, shares three ideas that you may want to consider: indexing, preserving living memories, and creating family temple traditions.

Indexing

Indexing makes vital records searchable online for family and temple history work. Start or continue indexing as a family or individual. If you need some help getting started or need to review how to index, review the Indexing Activity in Week 9 .

Preserving Memories

Preserving your own personal records gets you off to a good start and helps you protect your valuable information. The Family History Guide can help you with ideas on how to Gather your records, Gather records from others , and Interview living relatives about their memories and life stories.

FamilySearch provides some simple steps on how to preserve some of your family memories:

Creating Family Temple Traditions

From FamilySearch: "Establishing family traditions that unite family members is important, but those traditions can be made eternally significant when they involve gathering your family to, around, or in the temple ... You can establish temple family traditions that create special bonds between your living family members and connect them with their ancestors." Creating Family Temple Traditions shares some ideas of creating meaningful temple traditions, such as:

Plan monthly temple trips with cousins
Drive by the temple as a family
Strengthen family ties through memory storybooks which serve as reminder that families are forever
Learn about a temple's history
Make a list of temples that your ancestors were married in
Create a temple experiences book
Record thoughts and impressions about attending the temple (especially for the first time)
Color pictures of the temple and talk about the temple with your family

Fulfillment of Promises in Your Life

Note: President Nelson encouraged us to do the following for six months, but it may be a wonderful opportunity to carry this invitation through your study of the Doctrine and Covenants this year:

"As you study your scriptures during the next six months, I encourage you to make a list of all that the Lord has promised He will do for covenant Israel. I think you will be astounded! Ponder these promises. Talk about them with your family and friends. Then live and watch for these promises to be fulfilled in your own life." (President Russell M. Nelson, Let God Prevail, October 2020 General Conference)

Suggestion: Find the promises in sections 71-75. Write or audio-record about their influence in your life, and share with your family.