Remember Thy Fathers

When the angel appeared to Alma (the Younger) and the sons of Mosiah, one of his main purposes was to stop Alma from destroying the church. He said, “Alma, arise and stand forth, for why persecutest thou the church of God? For the Lord hath said: This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people…. And now I say unto thee, Alma, go thy way, and seek to destroy the church no more, that their prayers may be answered, and this even if thou wilt of thyself be cast off.” In the midst of this stern direction to stop the persecution, the angel also said this, “Go, and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of Helam, and in the land of Nephi; and remember how great things he has done for them” (Mosiah 27:13-16). I find that fascinating counsel for Alma; of all the things he could have told Alma to do—pray, fast, read the word of God, have faith, repent, be baptized, etc.—he told Alma to remember his fathers. If we were to put that in today’s vernacular we might say it this way: “Alma, stop being a jerk, and go do some family history!” An important part of the change that came upon Alma—his repentance—was to remember his ancestors and what God had done for them.

               As I pondered these words to Alma I was reminded of a talk that President and Sister Nelson gave about family history several years ago. Sister Nelson said this: “It is my testimony that however fabulous your life is right now, or however discouraging and heartbreaking it may be, your involvement in temple and family history work will make it better. What do you need in your life right now? More love? More joy? More self-mastery? More peace? More meaningful moments? More of a feeling that you’re making a difference? More fun? More answers to your soul-searching questions? More heart-to-heart connections with others? More understanding of what you are reading in the scriptures? More ability to love and to forgive? More ability to pray with power? More inspiration and creative ideas for your work and other projects? More time for what really matters?” Surely for most of us the answer would be yes to just about all of these questions. She then gave this invitation and promise to tell us how to obtain these things: “I entreat you to make a sacrifice of time to the Lord by increasing the time you spend doing temple and family history work, and then watch what happens. It is my testimony that when we show the Lord we are serious about helping our ancestors, the heavens will open and we will receive all that we need.” Their message is a powerful reminder to me that for some of the blessings I seek, more time connecting with my ancestors and doing their work in the temple may be just what I need.   

I think there are two parts to family history that are both important for us. The first, as Sister Nelson implied here, is to find those who need their temple work done so that we can perform that for them. Several years ago, the Church introduced “Ordinances Ready” which is a computer algorithm to search in your family tree to find relatives whose work has not been done but who have enough information for it to be done. It is an amazing tool that for me has one drawback: it has made me lazy when it comes to actually searching myself for people who need their work done. Since the algorithm does it for me, I have mostly stopped trying to search out my own ancestors. But I don’t think that the Church meant for us to stop looking just because an algorithm can. The second part of family history important for us, as the angel suggested to Alma, is to remember our ancestors. The work of family history is not simply to make sure all our ancestors have their temple work completed, as important as that is; it also consists of gathering as much information as we can about them and seeking to remember and learn from their lives. The Book of Mormon gives us a clue about what will happen to us as we do indeed remember them. One of the reasons that the brass plates were so important to Lehi was that they contained a genealogy of his family. As soon as he got the plates he searched them and found the records of the prophets. But Nephi recorded what else he found: “And it came to pass that my father, Lehi, also found upon the plates of brass a genealogy of his fathers; wherefore he knew that he was a descendant of Joseph; yea, even that Joseph who was the son of Jacob, who was sold into Egypt, and who was preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he might preserve his father, Jacob, and all his household from perishing with famine. And they were also led out of captivity and out of the land of Egypt, by that same God who had preserved them. And thus my father, Lehi, did discover the genealogy of his fathers. And Laban also was a descendant of Joseph, wherefore he and his fathers had kept the records.” We then have this powerful statement about what happened to Lehi after he had searched this genealogy of his family: “And now when my father saw all these things, he was filled with the Spirit” (1 Nephi 5:14-17). That is ultimately the blessing we seek and that Sister Nelson promised us as we engage in truly remembering our ancestors: we will be filled with the Spirit. And, in the end, there is no greater blessing we could hope for in this life.