Today we got up and attended the Sacrament Meeting in a church in Jim's neighbor. It is not our ward but Bob goes anywhere that he can improve his Spanish. It is fun to see the Missionaries from the States. The church is the same where ever and the people have the spirit of love hope and charity.
I have been thinking a lot about an e-mail I got from Don and Jeannette Helvey in my home ward. Don mentioned that a spiritual thought from the "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith". "....as soon as the law of the Gospel is obeyed here by their friends who act as proxy for them, the Lord has administrators there to set them free."
President Dahl, 1st Counselor Provo Temple quotes this teaching by Joseph Smith to the patrons who come to the baptistry and sometimes wait for 3 hours to do just one confirmation and baptism name. Just one name means a lot to that person on the other side of the veil who has been waiting for hundreds of years. And where do the bulk of these names come from..... indexing. How important is what you are doing, well if you only copied one name and did nothing else and they are baptized....! they are set free."
Bob and I are here on a Family History Mission. I am now being exposed to another area of this work, the photographing of records. David Triudo has been working in the Lima Archives since the 80"s. He had to leave in the 80's when the terrorists took over Peru but returned in the early 90's to start the work again. He took pictures on micro-film for 15 years and then the church start using digital photograph. We are working with a $25,000, 50 millimeter camera that takes pictures so fast it is amazing. It will take another 20 years to complete the filming in this archive. This information is posted within a month of our taking pictures as historical documents on family search.org. Some day the books will all be indexed. The church is filming in 10 areas of Peru at this time. David Triudo over sees these projects. If this is one country filming then I cannot imagine the projects being done world wide. There is only about 10% of the world records in the Vault in Utah. Today because of this work there are 2.34 billion searchable names and 3 billion search historical records on family search. This work is moving a very fast pace.
In March 2012 the Ensign and New Era will focus on record keeping, indexing and temple work. There is a urgent need for indexers. Indexing is one of the works that will follow us into the millennium. About 80 % of the names in the temple come from indexing. I have a testimony of this work. I see a bigger picture now that I have observed first hand the photographing of records and preparing names for the temple.
President Henry B Eyring said in conference in 2005 "When you were baptized, your ancestors looked down on you with hope. … They rejoiced to see one of their descendants make a covenant to find them."
The Savior did something for us that we in turn cannot do for ourselves and only we can do some for our ancestors that they cannot do for themselves. I often tell people when I talk, "if you do not get a long with the living, try finding those who have pasted on. They want you to find them. You are the only way they can be saved."
Please participate in this work whether it is through indexing, recording family history, researching or temple attendance. It is all important work.
Last Friday night Ashlee's husband Steve was in the hospital. I did not know exactly what to do being here in Peru so I started indexing. Every time I type a name I know that person is one step closer to having their saving ordinances completed. This is the work of our Heavenly Father.
To my ward, I hope the few hours I put into indexing will help the ward and stake.
Kris
Aunt Kris, Brian and I found your blog (on Diana's) and we are so excited to hear about your mission to Peru! Good Luck on your spanish!
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