One of the greatest blessing I have as a Family History Missionary is being able to log onto the missionary and employee web site. We submit a weekly report through this site of the records we have copied. The church holds a month meeting with all family history employees and missionaries through out the world. There was a meeting held on 12/14/2011 giving the church's overview of the Family History Program through 2060. The meeting was an hour and a half and I could not begin to tell you the unbelievable things being planned for the world regarding what is called the "World Family Tree." The church is the only organization with the funds and volunteers available to create a tree for the world. It was explained this tree is for the world and will be influential in bring many members to the truth of the gospel.
Sometime in 2012 or 2013 family search and new family search will begin to interface. New Family Search recently was open to the public but their information is limited. As records become able through indexing there will come a day when dates and places and family trees will begin to automatically self correct. Don't get to upset over incorrect information because time will eventually take care of incorrect information. This is a number of years away. There will come a day when you will type a name in google or Microsoft bing with a few dates and anyone in New Family Search will automatically connected everyone to their family tree. The speaker said do not look for this for about 10 or 15 years or longer but it is coming.
The church is actively calling missionaries to serve as software engineers, programs, etc. They are looking for power thinkers who have worked in genealogy for years and use 200 sites or more to produce much of the genealogy now available in the world. There is a new mountain vault being built in the mountain with state of the art, futuristic processing and storage technology.
You can go to the indexing site and within a month the records Bob and I have photographed are ready to be indexed. There is a great commitment to this work in the Relief Society in the ward I live in. They are having monthly training meetings to train the sisters in research and indexing.
There is a new manuel for family history called the "New Leaders Guide to Family History" here is the web site:
http://broadcast.lds.org/elearning/FHD/Local_Support/Priesthood/T3H/En/To_Turn_the_Hearts.pdf
Watch this video:
It is incredible. This is the stories of real families and what happened to them when got involved in seeking their ancestors.
http://www.lds.org/service/serving-in-the-church/temple-and-family-history/leader-resources/to-turn-the-hearts?lang=eng
In the future you will see missionaries actively helping inactive members and converts to work on their genealogy with the goal of taking a name to the temple and then being sealed. As members become more involved in this work member retention will improve. There is a program that will be introduced in the Provo MTC to promote this program. Please learn how to index and research so you will be able to assist those who need help with their genealogy.
The number of temples could reach 500 by the year 2060. There are lots of hard problems to be worked out to make the program work but not impossible problems. There was a lot about technology that was way above my head discussed but it made me think we are preparing for the millennium and we know with God nothing is impossible. It makes my testimony grow as I see the plans for the future of this "World Family Tree."
The day will come in the next twenty years you will be able to send a name to any temple for your children or grandchild to do the work for. They will receive the card when they reach the temple. They can be provided with a paragraph telling them abut this ancestor they are about to do work for. The church see this program as the world's program, not just a LDS Program. This program will bring many new converts to the church. It is surprising how large the world of researchers is and it is not all LDS people. Although our world is growing very fast. Programs like Who do you think you are? and the The Generations Project at BYU TV are creating a lot of interest in Genealogy.
The speaker said the Prophet and the Twelve over see this project and the vision is large. They are very conservative in their thinking but their view of sealing families is far reaching. Decisions are made with prayer and very thoughtful thinking and are well thought out. They are preparing the world to meet Christ and have the world have an understanding of how important the family is as a unit. I can not think of a better thing to be involved in than Family History.
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