Family history work is a fundamental part of the Mormon Faith. Because the family is the most important unit in society, Mormons participate in family history work to learn about their ancestors, and better understand where they come from. As a Marshallese, it is mandatory to know a bit about your ancestry. We learned through our teenage years, that failing to know your ancestry meant taking the risk of finding out that the person you fell in love with, and have been dating is your family member in some way! You know what I am talking about! When looking at a Marshallese pedigree, you can hardly call it a family tree. It's more like a family spider web! But to avoid the embarrassment mentioned above, we take the time to learn about that spider web.
Ok back to being serious. I am so grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day saints and for all the work they have done to make family history work so simple and accessible. They have invested so much to create an easy way to seek out our ancestors and to learn about them. Family Search.org is a non profit family history organization dedicated to connecting families across generations. It contains an archive of 4 plus billion names to search and build your family pedigree. I have started my family history work and it is super addicting! I am so grateful to know more about my family line and I know that my future posterity will appreciate it as well. They will never fall into the same mistakes I have with courting haha. To learn more, click on the link below and get started! The best part about it is it's free!
Why Mormons Do Family History Work
I have been asked why Mormons do family history work. I can talk about the doctrine but I will provide a link to www.lds.org which will better explain the reason behind family history work. I will instead share an experience I had before I became a dedicated member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When I was about 15 years old I attended a wonderful Christian church. It was during this time that I became especially curious about God and life after death. I remember one Sunday during our Sunday school class, I asked my teacher about the fate of those that passed through this life without having the knowledge of knowing Christ. That day we had been studying about the essential act of knowing and accepting Christ in order to be saved in the Kingdom of Heaven. My thought immediately turned to those that I knew did not have an understanding of our savior. It did not take much for me to understand that there were indeed people who lived before Christ that did not have a knowledge of him, and even today there are those that live in other countries and have not had the opportunity to learn of the savior. I was troubled by this and thought my teacher would answer my question. Her answer to me was that everyone has been given an equal opportunity to learn of Jesus Christ, and that there will be no one that will go through this life without knowing of his goodness. After listening to her I remembered feeling unsatisfied with her answer. So I decided to seek out the answer for myself.
To be continued.....
I will continue the story in my next post. Until then please write any thoughts or comments you may have regarding this question. Have you ever had this question before? What happens to those that have never heard of Christ? Please keep comments respectful.
To learn why Mormons participate in family history work click here
