Using Family History Centers™ for Missionary and Activation Efforts

“We do not use our family history work for missionary work nearly so much as we could,” said President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, during a family history program broadcast 8 November 1998 on the Church’s satellite system. “These Family History Centers are great centers because we have a common bond to talk to those who are not of the Church.”

Also speaking during the family history broadcast was Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Presidency of the Seventy. “Family history is obviously a crucial tool in redeeming the dead, but it can also play an important role in proclaiming the gospel and strengthening members of the Church,” he said. “With even minimal coordination between priesthood leaders, family history workers, and missionaries, it will not be difficult to use family history as a tool for conversion and retention of new members and activation of less-active members.” Elder Christofferson said that missionaries are currently “being trained to use family history as one means of introducing investigators to the gospel, of involving new converts in significant gospel activities, and of encouraging less-active members.”