Sharing the Fruit Through the Generations
In Lehi's vision of the tree of life, he came to the tree and partook of the fruit. He said that it was sweeter than any other fruit that he had ever tasted before. It was also whiter than any other fruit that he had ever seen. When he ate the fruit, his soul was filled with exceedingly great joy. And what was the first thing that crossed his mind when he felt that joy? He had a strong desire that his family should partake of the fruit as well. He knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
We know that this fruit represents the love of God. It represents the gospel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Lehi didn't want to keep this fruit all to himself. He wanted to share that joy with his family. He wanted them to taste of the fruit for themselves.
There is a painting by Annie Henrie Nader called Turning the Hearts. I was introduced to this painting through a talk by Sister Rosemary M. Wixom. I don't have a copy of this painting, so I'll just try to describe it the best I can. Picture a tree with a large trunk and branches that extend outward, like a big shade tree that you would long to sit under on a hot, sunny day. The tree is glowing with hundreds of little round pieces of fruit. There are several people, gathered around the tree and they are picking the fruit and sharing it with those around them.
About her painting, Annie said “As we experience the joys of the gospel, we turn our hearts not only to the individuals around us, but to our ancestors who have gone before. Within this painting, we might see ourselves passing priceless fruit down from the luminous tree. The tree is symbolic in several ways: It represents the tree of life and the fruits of the gospel. It also represents a family tree with journal excerpts and records of those who have passed on. The fruit embodies those precious pieces of information we pass down through our generations.”
I want to focus on this concept of sharing the fruit, The fruit, being God's love, particularly when it comes to Family History and Temple Work. I am going to focus on 3 aspects. The first is how we share the fruit with our ancestors. The second is how our ancestors share the fruit with us. And the third is how we can share the fruit with our posterity.
First, How can we share the fruit with our ancestors?
Heavenly Father loves all of His children. That includes everyone that has ever lived, everyone that is living now, and everyone that will live in the future. And because He loves us, He wants all of his children to return to live with Him. We know that the ability to live with Heavenly Father rests on the gospel of Jesus Christ – this includes receiving our ordinances and keeping our covenants.
Unfortunately, there have been many people that have died without a knowledge of the gospel. They have been unable to make and keep covenants. This looks like it would disqualify them from the blessing of eternal life. But, because Heavenly Father loves them, just as much as he loves us, he has provided a way for them to still receive the necessary ordinances of salvation. These ordinances are provided through Temple work for the dead. I love that the temple is a place that links and strengthens families and the individuals within those families – and this applies to both the living and deceased family members.
When we take family names to the temple, we are helping our ancestors. They need us to perform that sacred and vital work for them. Without us, they are unable to attain eternal life. They are dependent on us. Through proxy temple work, we help them to receive their ordinances, and in that process, we are sharing the fruit with our ancestors.
I'd like to share an experience that I have had with doing family history. I was born in the church and I come from several generations of faithful members. Some of these family members have done a lot of family history work. Because of this, whenever I had looked at my family tree before, I saw that it was all filled out. Everything was done...or so I thought.
About 6 months ago, I was sitting in Relief Society when Sally Jenks got up to talk about family history. She was a family history consultant and wanted everyone to know that she was willing to help any of us that wanted to work on our family history. I felt a strong desire to take her up on her offer. I thought that maybe she could help me find at least one person, even though it seemed like all the work had been done.
So on a Tuesday night in early September, I met with Sally in her home. I had given Sally access to my Family Tree a few days before so that she could look ahead and see what we might be able to work on. When I showed up at her house, she said that she had some leads of individuals that we could look for – some of my distant cousins were missing their spouses and children. She had written down a particular ancestor's name, but when we went to that person's profile, we hit a dead end. The record hint that she had seen previously wasn't showing up for some reason. So we moved on to the next name that she had written down. Again, the same thing happened. The record hint was gone. So instead, we just clicked on one of the siblings who was also missing her spouse. Jane Elizabeth Clayton. I instantly felt a connection to Jane, but I didn't recognize why at first. Within the hour that I was at Sally's house, she was able to teach me how to use record hints, search for records, and how to navigate the FamilySearch site. We were also able to find Jane's husband, Alfred Evans. Both Jane and Alfred had already had their temple work done – everything except their sealing to each other, and to their children that I didn't know about yet. I left Sally's house feeling excited that we had found someone and that I had the names of a couple to take to the temple to be sealed.
When I got home, I started to understand why I felt so connected to Jane. You see, when I was pregnant with both of my girls, and also when I was pregnant with our second son (but didn't know yet that he was a boy,) we loved the name, Jane. It was one of the names at the top of our list. Even though we both love the name, it never made the cut because we like to name our kids after family members or close friends and even though I had heard that I was related to a few women named Jane, they were farther back in my family line and I didn't feel any real connection to them.
So it was really neat that the first person that I found to do temple work for was Jane. I started to think that maybe that's why I have felt so connected to that name. Maybe Jane was calling out to me, wanting me to find her. Maybe she was saying “I need your help. Please help me to be reunited with my family. I can't do it without you.”
Over the next couple weeks, I was able to find Jane and Alfred's kids. I found 11 of their 12 children. I know that they have 12 children because that number was listed on a census record. I'm still searching for that last child and I look forward to the day when I find him/her. A few weeks after discovering Jane and Alfred, Jershon and I were able to take their names to the temple. We knelt at the alter and served as proxies while they were sealed to each other. It was a special and spiritual experience. I am still working on completing the temple work for their children, but we've already been able to have several of them sealed to Jane and Alfred. Those were special experiences as well.
Finding Jane sparked a desire in me to really dive deeper into doing my family history and searching for my ancestors that need temple work done. As I spent more time searching, I realized that my initial view of my family tree – that it was all complete and there was nothing left to do – couldn't have been further from the truth. In reality, there is still a ton of work to do. I have continued to work on Family History and have found several other ancestors. They are keeping me busy with all their temple work that needs to be done.
So now that we know how we can share the fruit with our ancestors, lets move on to how our ancestors share the fruit with us.
When we go to the temple, it isn't a one sided service. Our ancestors are helping us as well. Taking their names and spending that time in the temple provides great blessings for us. We are strengthened through our temple experiences and we learn eternal truths. The temple helps to fortify us against Satan. Doing this work for our ancestors helps us to be in the temple more often. And spending more time in the temple helps us to better keep our covenants. Our temple experience is also richer and deeper when we do the ordinances for our own family members. In his talk titled, The Joy of Redeeming the Dead, Richard G. Scott said: “Any work you do in the temple is time well spent, but receiving ordinances vicariously for one of your own ancestors will make the time in the temple more sacred, and even greater blessings will be received.”
In this process, our ancestors are sharing the fruit with us.
Another way that our ancestors share the fruit with us is through their life stories. Have you ever thought about how powerful stories are? In a book that I am reading, titled Take Your Time, the author says “Wisdom has always been conveyed through stories. Stories are what we remember; they wrap ideals and values in images that stay with us all our lives. Great spiritual teachers consistently teach first by story and parable; explanations are dry by comparison.”
Finding the names of our ancestors so we can take them to the temple is very important. But it is also important to discover the stories behind those names. Those names belong to real people. And those real people had real lives full of real experiences, real adventures, real faith, real fears, real challenges, and real triumphs. If stories, in general, are great teachers, then I would say that the real stories from our real family members would be even greater teachers for us in our lives.
In her talk at the 2016 Family Discovery Day at RootsTech, Rosemary M. Wixom said “The veil is thin, and when we know about those who have gone before, they become real people with real-life situations who help us in times of need—especially when the wind is blowing. ...How do we make our ancestors real? We tell their stories. Too much courage, faith, and real-life challenges have gone into their lives for us to let their examples dissolve like faded ink on paper.”
I know that we will be strengthened as we learn from the stories of our ancestors, and this includes our parents and grandparents. Their real life examples and experiences will help us in times of need. A great resource for stories from your own ancestors can be found on FamilySearch through the App called “All the Stories.” It pulls all of the stories that have been uploaded to your family tree, into one place.
Through their real life stories, our ancestors share the fruit with us.
A third way that our ancestors can share the fruit with us is through providing angelic assistance.
At a BYU Women's Conference, Wendy Watson Nelson gave an amazing talk titled “My Soul Delighteth in the Covenants of the Lord.” In this talk, she spoke about the privilege of being able to ask for the help of angels. I love how she describes this so I'm just going to read her words.
“As we keep our covenants, we can ask for angels to help us. Literally!
It was during Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s April 2010 general conference talk that I first learned this truth. He said, “Ask for angels to help you.” He said it with such clarity, and yet in a manner that implied this was something we all knew. But for me it was an entirely new principle. I wanted to call out, “Wait! Wait! What? You mean I could have been asking for angels to help me all this time?”
Without intending to sound too dramatic, I can say with all candor that Elder Holland’s six words changed my life. “Ask for angels to help you.” That counsel changed my prayers, changed my understanding of the very real help from heaven that is always available to us as we keep our covenants.
I started to ask for assistance from those on the other side of the veil from that moment on. Now I’m not talking about praying for fantasy angels with wings to magically fairy-dust our problems away. I’m not talking about praying to angels. I’m talking about praying to your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, for those on the other side to be “dispatched” (Elder Holland’s word) to assist you. Perhaps a loved one or two could be sent to help you with whatever you need.
Can you imagine the effort it took those angels who pushed from the rear of handcarts as they helped the pioneers over the steep, snowy, windy, freezing, jagged terrain of Rocky Ridge? If angels can manage that, they can certainly help you and me over our present Rocky Ridges. We know the Lord gets His work done with the help of His angels. So could you use a little more help in your life? If so, keep your covenants with more exactness than ever before. And then ask for angels to help you with whatever you need. Or ask for them to be dispatched to help those you love.”
Just like Sister Nelson, I too have had a life changing experience with these six words “Ask for angels to help you.”
For several years, I struggled with driving. I would drive if I had to, and sometimes (rarely) if I wanted to, but mostly I just avoided it. My confidence level would wax and wane over time. At times, it was pretty good, but usually I felt trapped by my fears and they felt paralyzing. I know that to some people, this fear/weakness doesn't sound like that big of a deal. But to me, it was. I hated feeling "broken" and like I should be comfortable doing this, because "hello! I'm an adult! Adults drive! And it isn't any big deal for them." I also felt like it held me back from being able to be the wife, mom, and friend that I wanted to be.
About a year and a half ago, I learned this principle about asking for angels to help me. I started praying (especially before and during driving) that angels would attend me and they would literally help me to drive with courage and confidence. I didn't have any profound experiences or visions or anything, but I could feel that angels were truly there helping me. I could tell because I felt a calmness and peacefulness in the driver's seat that I knew wasn't coming from myself.
Something clicked inside me. I started facing my fears with more determination than I had been able to muster in the past. I was able to make more progress, more quickly, with driving than I had ever been able to in the past. I started to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Fast forward to 18 months later, it is like a night and day difference. I can now drive with a lot more internal peace. I no longer feel paralyzed. The progress that I have made has been so freeing.
I have no doubt that those angels that came to help me in my time of need were some of my ancestors. I wouldn't be surprised if Jane was there, holding onto the steering wheel with me and telling me “You are strong. You can do this. Just have faith and don't give into your fears.” I am sure that other ancestors, and probably some members of my posterity were there helping me as well. I look forward to meeting them someday and thanking them for helping me to face my paralyzing fears. They truly changed my life.
Through providing angelic help in times of need, our ancestors share the fruit with us.
So now that we know how we can share the fruit with our ancestors and how they share the fruit with us, lets talk about how we can share the fruit with our posterity.
To me, this comes back to the power of stories and telling those stories to our children, grandchildren, and future generations. We can continue to pass down the stories from our ancestors' lives. We can also share the stories from our own lives. It is important to share these stories with our posterity while we are still living. And I feel like it is just as important to record these stories for future generations. I am a big believer in record keeping. If we don't share and record our experiences of faith, challenge, and triumph, then these stories will just die along with us.
Let's share the fruit by sharing and recording our own life stories.
I hope that I have been able to inspire you to dive deeper into your own family history experience and to do your part, both in sharing the fruit, and also in partaking of the fruit that is being offered to you by your ancestors.
I want to conclude with a quote by Wendy Watson Nelson. This quote comes from the RootsTech Family Discovery Day presentation that she and Elder Nelson gave last month.
“It is my testimony that however fabulous your life is right now, or however discouraging and heartbreaking it may be, your involvement in family history and temple 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? Could you use 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? How about more ability to pray with power? More inspiration and creative ideas for your work and other projects? More time for what really matters?
My dear brothers and sisters, 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.”
I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like a very empowering and exciting promise. I would like to add my testimony to Sister Nelson's. I know that Heavenly Father organized us into families for a special purpose. I know that through sharing the fruit with our family members – both the living and the dead, and partaking of the fruit that is being offered to us, we can help to bring to pass Heavenly Father's work and glory – the immortality and eternal life of all mankind. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Resources:
1. The Joy of Redeeming the Dead, Richard G. Scott, October 2012, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-joy-of-redeeming-the-dead?lang=eng
2. Take Your Time: The Wisdom of Slowing Down, Eknath Easwaran, pg. 17
3. RootsTech Family Discovery Day 2016, Sister Rosemary M. Wixsom, https://www.lds.org/topics/family-history/familydiscoveryday/wixom?lang=eng&old=true
4. RootsTech Family Discovery Day 2017, President Russell M. Nelson and Sister Wendy Nelson, https://www.lds.org/topics/family-history/familydiscoveryday/nelson?lang=eng&old=true
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