Weekly Family History Activities

Doctrine and Covenants 95:8

From Come, Follow Me:

Today, temples are found around the world...Though each temple differs in appearance, within them we learn the same divine pattern—a heavenly plan to bring us back into the presence of God. Sacred ordinances and covenants connect us to Christ and strengthen our families “not after the manner of the world” but after the pattern God shows us.

How have making and keeping temple covenants brought “power from on high” into our lives? Perhaps family members could share how they feel about the temple or share experiences when they have felt blessed with “power from on high” through worship in the temple.

Make a collection of the stories of how you and those you love have been blessed by temple worship. You might consider binding these in a book, or sharing them with each other on-line or through letters.

This collection would make a beautiful gift for family members preparing to go to the temple for the first time.

You can scan or take a photo of hand-written testimonies to preserve in Memories on FamilySearch, or type directly into a document in Memories. See instructions in The Family History Guide here. Record on FamilySearch using the FamilySearch Memories Audio app or the Record My Story feature on FamilySearch Discovery.

You can also share these memories with others from FamilySearch via text, email, etc. by tapping the "Share" symbol. Your testimony may contain the very words that will help family members strengthen their own testimonies of the temple. Read more here.

"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." Read more in Creating Family Temple Traditions and see the examples below:

• Plan monthly temple trips with cousins [where possible]
• 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 [see Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints].
• Make a list of temples that your ancestors [or others] were married in.
• 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 (download the coloring page of a family in front of the temple, the temple, and temple portraits).

See also: The Year You Were Born How many temples in the year you, your relatives, or your ancestors were born? How many temples were dedicated?

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Type in the year you were born, or the year a friend, family member or ancestor was born. In the image below, you can see that the faces of your family members are also available when you type in the year you were born.

“It’s wonderful to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers by telling important family history stories in ways that are accessible and memorable. Perhaps having family history documents, stories, photos, and memorabilia always before our eyes can strengthen our testimonies (see Mosiah 1:5). As we place them on our walls, our tables, our computers, our iPads, and even our cell phones, maybe we will be prompted to make better choices and draw closer to the Lord and to our families.” Open the Heavens through Temple and Family History Work Russell M. Nelson and Wendy W. Nelson

Discover specific temple details in My Ancestors's Temples. You will need to have a free FamilySearch account and four generations entered into the family tree.

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Doctrine and Covenants 95:8, 11–17; 97:10–17

The temple is the house of the Lord.

From Come, Follow Me 2021:

What sacrifices do you feel the Lord wants you to make?

President Nelson: "I invite you prayerfully to consider what kind of sacrifice, and preferably a sacrifice of time, you can make to do more family history and temple work.” Read or watch the full talk "A Sacrifice of Time" here. See a clip below:

See also:

• The Promised Blessings of Family History 1 
• The Promised Blessings of Family History 2 
• Why We Need Family History Now More Than Ever
• How Family History Changes Our Hearts and Minds

An idea to help both individuals and families do temple and family history work more consistently comes from an address Sister Wendy Nelson gave to the sisters of the church in a women's conference talk in 2015.

She offered the invitation to busy, overburdened sisters to do some temple and family history work each day for 21 days and then to watch what happened. She was concerned that adding one more thing to their list of things "to do" would make them even more burdened but the opposite was true for all who participated. Even a few minutes per day helped them to see miracles in their lives and the lives of their families. Although this challenge was given to sisters of the church, it is applicable to everyone. Here are the links to the PDF and the video of Sister Nelson's talk:

• Sister Wendy Watson Nelson BYU Women's Conference 2015 (PDF)
• Entire video presentation
• Short video clip

Discuss ideas and options and make a plan! Think about routines and traditions you can create. You may want to calendar your goals and record how you will work toward them. The Weekly Family History Activities makes it easy, effective, and exciting to correlate temple and family history activities into your weekly study of the scriptures. 

See also Family Activities: 5-Minute Ideas for Latter-day Saints. In addition, Week 29 (Come, Follow Me Companion 2020) elaborates on some of these activities, and has even more fun and creative ideas and resources for ways to break family history activities into smaller segments and fit them into your busy schedule!

You may also want to join the Facebook group for The Twenty-one Day Family Connections Experiment and select a plan to follow for ideas and motivation. The Come, Follow Me Companion is included as one of their community contributed plans. Read more about all of the plans here.

View It's Your Story, a presentation from RootsTech 2025 in which Seth Christensen (a youth from Bluffdale, Utah) invites the youth of the church to accept a 21-day challenge to do temple and family history work every day for three weeks and share the results of the changes in their lives (timestamp 56:56).

Suggestion for journaling this week: Find the promises in Doctrine and Covenants 94-97. Write or audio-record about how the temple has blessed your life and the lives of family members, church leaders, and your friends.