Ancestors and Temple Work

My friend, Kathy, taught our Relief Society lesson today about the importance of temples and doing the work for our ancestors. She handed out a piece of paper to us and asked us to write down any thoughts we had while she was teaching. At one point in the lesson, I remembered how overwhelmed genealogy used to make me. In the past seasons of my life, I've been newly married, going to school and working full time, caring for aging parents, and raising young children. The thought of genealogy was always in the back of my mind, but I was so busy. I assumed that there would be a point in my life that I could work on it. The great thing about life experience is the perspective we gain, and it was this perspective that caused me to reflect the following thoughts:

I was in my forties before I was able to begin my ancestral work, and my dad is the primary reason I have been successful. Over the past 20 years or so, he has had the promptings leading him to search and find information about his family. He and I have become a team by accident, but really, there are no accidents in this work. While it was not my season for genealogy until recently, my dad has been hard at work researching and collecting data for years. Now that I am in a season in life where I can focus on this work, he has been able to provide a myriad of information for me to take over, organize further, and do what is needed. The timing coincided beautifully with my husband's calling in the High Priest group where he was responsible for setting up the temple schedule each month. Although it was a stress for him at times, it was a blessing for us as we were continually signing up for temple appointments and feeling the strong desire to take our own family names. Although there is much more to do, we have completed a lot of the work for our ancestors from the information that my dad compiled. Now that my eyes are wide open and aware of these ancestors, I see how much there is to do. I keep my field of vision narrow so that I don't get overwhelmed. I also take deep breaths and have faith that it will all work out. I know that I will uncover what I need to at the right time, and that I will know where to turn next. This has been my experience thus far, and I am forever grateful to my dad for having the desire to know his heritage, to research and record, and to pass this work on to me.