Temple and Family History
Accept the temple challenge
Purpose
Accept the worldwide challenge from Elder Neil L. Andersen to receive temple ordinances for your own ancestors.
Description
Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has challenged Latter-day Saint youth to find the names of ancestors who need temple ordinances performed for them and to go to the temple to receive those ordinances. Plan an activity with the youth in your ward or branch to watch the new video about this challenge. After watching the video, invite the youth to use phones, mobile devices, or a computer to accept the challenge and add their names to the counter on templechallenge.lds.org. Counsel with your adult leaders about setting a goal as a ward or branch to help all the youth accept the challenge and complete the goal. Use the Youth Temple Challenge website to discuss the four steps needed to complete the goal. As a group, make a plan and set dates to help one another find family names on FamilySearch.org and then go to the temple to receive baptisms and confirmations for the people you have found. As you search for and find ancestors and go to the temple, consider documenting your experiences with photos and videos and sharing them on social media. You could post your photos and stories using the hashtag #TempleChallenge to inspire youth around the world to accept the challenge too.
Create and learn to use an LDS Account
Purpose
Create an LDS Account and learn what you can do with it.
Description
Go to your local family history center or a place that has multiple computers with an Internet connection. Invite someone who has experience with LDS.org to teach the youth how to set up their own LDS Account. You might want your ward clerk to attend to help the youth obtain their membership record number (MRN), which is required to create an account. Set up several booths or stations and divide the youth so that they can rotate among the stations. The stations could teach the youth any of the following things:
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Learn how to download and navigate the Gospel Library app to study scriptures and other Church publications. Learn how to link materials, bookmark, highlight, and make notes as you study. You could also learn how to create custom collections of your favorite materials.
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Use your LDS Account to access your family history charts, create your family tree, and prepare family names for temple work. Visit FamilySearch.org. Make sure you learn how to print out ordinance requests.
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Participate in FamilySearch indexing to help a lot of people find their ancestors much easier. Learn about how digitizing records speeds up the process of doing family history research.
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Sync your online calendar (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or iCal-compatible calendar) with your ward and stake calendar so that you can be aware of upcoming activities. You could also use the calendar feature on the Youth Activities site to help you plan and schedule Mutual activities.
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Learn how to download and navigate the LDS Tools app so that you can access ward and stake directories.
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Work on and track your progress with Duty to God or Personal Progress. You can record journal entries, make plans, and check off requirements.
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Request a copy of your patriarchal blessing or request copies of the blessings of your ancestors.
Family traditions
Purpose
Discover the joy of family history through traditions such as stories, art, dance, food, and music.
Description
Encourage the youth to interview a grandparent, parent, uncle, aunt, or other close relative to discover how a tradition was started in their family. If they don’t have a tradition, invite them to consider one they would like to start as a family. Invite each youth to share a tradition by preparing a story, food, art, dance, or song. Invite family or ward members to be the audience. Take photos of the traditions. Consider creating stories about how these traditions were created and share them and the photos in Family Tree on lds.org/familyhistory.
Find your ancestors
Purpose
Learn how to research family history and prepare names for temple ordinances.
Description
Go to the local family history center or lds.org/familyhistory to learn who your ancestors are. If needed, create an LDS Account for each youth. Invite the youth to complete the My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together booklet and enter that information in Family Tree at FamilySearch.org. With help from a ward family history consultant, find and prepare ancestors’ names for temple ordinances. Plan a temple trip to perform these ordinances.
Help others prepare family names
Purpose
Help others prepare their family names to take to the temple.
Description
Invite your ward members to complete a My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together booklet. Gather the booklets and the helper IDs (last five digits of their membership record number) from members who want help processing names to take to the temple. Go to lds.org/familyhistory and enter Family Tree. Sign in as a helper for the member. Enter the information into Family Tree from the My Family booklet and reserve any temple ordinances that need to be completed. Print a Family Ordinance Request for the member. Give the booklet and Family Ordinance Request to the member.
Indexing
Purpose
Discover the joy of family history work and serve others through indexing.
Description
Invite a family history consultant or stake indexing director to teach the youth how to index, or learn how to get started at FamilySearch.org. As a group, set a goal to index a certain number of names, and work toward your goal together. You may want to have everyone participate on the same indexing project to build unity. Consider indexing records from areas of the world that would help ward members find their family.
Learn about an ancestor
Purpose
Discover the joy of family history by learning about an ancestor.
Description
Go to the local family history center or a place that has multiple computers with an Internet connection. Invite someone who understands historical records to share an example of how information or a story can be pulled out of a record about a person. Invite the youth to find a historical record about one of their ancestors on lds.org/familyhistory. If they can’t find a record, help them help index records from where their family lived to help make those records searchable. Consider attaching the record to the person in Family Tree and adding any new information they discovered about their family. Prepare any names found to take to the temple.
My favorite family story
Purpose
Learn about and draw strength from the legacies of our families.
Description
Have youth come prepared to share a favorite story from their families. It could be a story from their family history or something meaningful that happened during their lifetime. Encourage them to explain why their story is meaningful to them and how it has strengthened their families. Divide the youth into small groups and have them share their stories, or have them share with the entire group. Invite them to bring pictures or objects that represent their stories. You may want to have them share the photos and stories on lds.org/familyhistory so they can be shared with more family members. Consider ways to involve parents in this activity. For example, you could invite them to join the activity and share stories.
Preserve living memory
Purpose
Help those who may be uncomfortable with technology preserve their family history.
Description
Ask older members of the ward to gather old family photos and tell the youth about them (this could be done in their homes or elsewhere). Consider pairing one youth with each person. Scan photos, take digital photos of prints, or go to the local family history center to scan the photos. Consider recording some of the stories the older members may tell about their families. You may want to upload the information you find to Photos and Stories at lds.org/familyhistory, tag the people in the photos and stories, and connect them to Family Tree.