I have so much to be grateful for. As many of you know, we're expecting our first child any day now, and the joy that comes from that is indescribable. Admittedly, this time is also full of a lot of impatience. I'm trying my best to trust the Lord's timing while also being as prepared as I can be for the arrival of our little one. One of the things I've become very grateful for, during this time of waiting and trusting, is family history work.
Being pregnant has taught me a lot about the importance of family history. As we prepare to welcome our child into the world, I think about all the other children who have been welcomed before her, and how my life - and hers - is possible because of them. I don't think I realized the true significance of finding children and linking them to their parents until I understood how much I want my daughter to be linked to me forever. It's given me a whole new perspective about the sacred work that we have the opportunity to participate in: researching our families and taking their names to the holy temple.
I want to testify of the power of family history work and the joy and peace it can bring into our lives. Recently, I spent almost a whole day researching a family. I discovered many new children, grandchildren, parents, and so forth. I think I reserved around thirty names to take to the temple. I've been making an effort to do better at something called "interviewing ancestors" (check out this video) as I research, which is the concept of making sure as many sources as possible are found for an individual before requesting their ordinances. That ensures that when their green temples on Family Search go away, it won't make those people less visible if there's still important work to be done.
I've learned that I've often been hasty to reserve names without taking the time to find the children, parents, and other precious family members of the people I'm looking at. Taking the extra time to do this has helped me find so many people who might not have been found for years otherwise. When I've come across children who weren't previously recorded in Family Search, my heart has leapt with joy for their parents because of the wonderful blessing of their family being able to be sealed.
Shortly after I spent that day researching, I was blessed with a small miracle I'd been praying for. It was such a sweet, tender mercy. As that prayer was answered, I felt a distinct impression that it was because of the time I'd spent doing family history work. Not only has spending the time to do this work helped distract me from my impatience, but it's also brought other blessings - like that tender mercy - that I am profoundly grateful for.
Friends, we owe so much to the people who have come before us. We have so many privileges that our ancestors worked hard to achieve for us. As we spend these next few days considering our blessings, I challenge you to also make this a time of action and to take a little time to thank your family members who are on the other side of the veil. We may not be able to go to the temple right now, but we can still do family history work from our homes. It doesn't have to be time-consuming and even a little effort can bring us meaningful experiences and blessings.
Our efforts to show our gratitude to those who have lived before us will be met with even deeper, more joyous gratitude as they are able to progress on their eternal journeys. This is a wonderful time for us to band together with people both here on earth and on the other side. We all need the blessings, peace, comfort, and joy that can come from working together and being grateful together.
I love you all!
Bonnie Gwyn
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