9. Five-Minute Ideas for
Latter-day Saint Activities
With a bit of planning and a list of ideas, family history activities can become part of your everyday lives and unite your family in remarkable ways. Try some of the activities described on this page and see how your past and present can come together. As you do, you can strengthen family relationships, build your family tree, and make fun family memories.
At RootsTech 2018, Elder Renlund quoted President Nelson: "We encourage everyone to get on the covenant path as soon as possible—even, especially, when they are new and tender in the gospel—and then stay focused on the blessings of the temple.” He added: “This encouragement is because the data are incontrovertible that young men who participate in temple and family history work have a higher rate of being ordained elders and going on missions. New converts who participate in temple and family history work are retained at a higher rate ... Those who are new and tender in the gospel, he said, include 12-year-old youth and new converts ... As they are focused on temple and family history work, more will remain active, more will be protected when the storms and fierce winds strike...We invite all new converts and new 12-year-olds to discover and gather their families and become active participants in the plan of salvation. We desire to involve 11-year-old children and even younger children in family history work and encourage them to qualify for a limited-use temple recommend when they turn 12 years old...Thus, they can and are encouraged to perform proxy baptisms in temples whenever and wherever possible...Involvement of 12-year-olds and new converts will have a “halo effect” on all who help...Faith in the Savior will increase."(watch Elder Renlund's full address here.)
At the same conference, Sister Joy D. Jones, Primary General President and a member of the Temple and Family History Executive Council, said, "Children love to learn about their ancestors. Family stories can teach them important lessons and help them develop a foundation of strength they can draw from throughout their lives.” She talked about the fact that temple and family history consultants can lead young people into the world of family history along with their parents and other family members, and how working with children might require different methods than working with adults, “but I promise you that it’s worth the effort and the necessary adaptations and creativity ... Plus, it can be fun ... children can be the initiators to family history work in their families. Parents and leaders can share stories and experiences with children in the car, at the dinner table, at bedtime, and one on one ... Acting out a meaningful family story, learning about their family culture or even family recipes, viewing pictures of their relatives as children, or talking about and recording their four generations in the My Family booklet are all simple ways to begin connecting children." Watch Sister Jones's full address here.
Here are over 50 great ideas for getting involved with temple and family history work, five minutes at a time.
1.Pray for personal revelation to help gather Israel on both sides of the veil, as President Nelson has counseled. Make plans as families and individuals for carrying out this work.
2. Open FamilySearch and create your own account if you haven't already done so. Fill out everything you can to complete four generations, starting with you. Call relatives for info if needed. Also, ask your ward Temple and Family History leader or consultants to help you.
3. As a family, play 20 Questions: "I am thinking of an ancestor who ..." (Players respond with yes/no questions to guess the answer). You could also put a note on family member's backs with the name of an ancestor to guess or places they lived, etc.
5. Explore the new features of the FamilySearch Fan Chart (in the Tree view, click "Fan Chart" (upper-left)). You can explore birth countries, research help, photos, family lines, needed ordinances, sources, and stories.
10.Interview and record a family or ward Member using the Memories App Audio feature. Save the stories to FamilySearch. Check out interview question ideas from the 52 Stories Project.
11. In The Family History Guide, explore hundreds of activities for families, individuals, youth, and kids. Check out the "no prep" activities marked with an asterisk.
Here are a few of the 200+ ideas. See the index of activities here.
13. Watch temple and family history videos on churchofjesuschrist.org or The Family History Guide.
14. Find historical places using Google Maps, such as for missions, military service, ancestors' homes, travels, graveyards, etc. Tell and record the stories, then check out your ancestors' countries in The Family History Guide.
15. Make a cousin collage by printing pictures of you and your cousins. Frame the pictures, snap a pic, and share.
16. Cook a favorite family recipe. Share it in FamilySearch Memories and attach it to the tree. Read this article and this blog post for more info.
17. Do an activity from The Family History Guide Weekly Family History Activities. These are correlated family history activity ideas for each week's lesson; however, all the activities can be used anytime. See this video for an overview, experiences, and examples:
18. Create an "ofrenda" for your home (as in the movie Coco). See the meaning, suggestions, and ideas here.
19.Do indexing. See step-by-step instructions in The Family History Guide. Teach the skill to someone else. Review this encouragement and direction for the youth: Getting Into Indexing.
20. Who is the first member of the church in your family in each family line? Discover and share their stories. Talk with your family about making a collection of them and create a plan. See this blog post for details. Have fun illustrating these stories and others (see ideas here and watch this video of President and Sister Nelson beginning at 24:54)
21. Have tons of fun with FamilySearch Activities linked from the home page.
22.Upload memories, such as a picture, document, or audio file, to FamilySearch. Have fun adding audio to photos that have already been uploaded, or do five minutes of photo tagging.
23. Explore the Family History Museum of your home. As a family, go on a hunt to find family history objects in your home. Take pictures and upload them to FamilySearch with a short written and/or audio description. See the Digital Family Museum activity in The Family History Guide.
25.Begin your personal history. Read the Define Your Dash blog post for inspiration. Check out the 52 Stories Project to review and record your life stories (also see #10 above).
26.Create a gratitude journal. For inspiration, watch the video clip for President Eyring's Oh, Remember, Remember from his October 2007 conference talk.
28. Keep the memories of your ancestors alive with this photo identification game from FamilySearch. Watch this video see how one family got to know their ancestors.
29. Check out the free BillionGraves and ☆Find A Grave websites to locate family tombstones. Upload your findings to FamilySearch Memories.
31. Check out the New Ancestor Discovery Pages on FamilySearch. Share interesting facts about your ancestors with each other.
32. Tell family stories as a group, with each person telling a part of the story and the next person starting when the previous person stops. These would be fun to record and upload to FamilySearch—remember to tag them!
33. Play "Matthew Mark Luke John" using names of your ancestors. See instructions here.
34. Draw pictures about your family history, like the Pictionary™ game, and have everyone guess what they represent.
35. Write a letter of gratitude to a deceased ancestor or a living relative.
40. Have a "look-alike" photo shoot. Dress like an ancestor, and place your photos side-by-side and upload to FamilySearch Memories. Then add audio. Watch this video for ideas to dress up like ancestors and act out stories.
41.Dance through the ages. Learn a dance move from one or more past decades (so you think your grandma can't dance!) Be sure to video and upload to FamilySearch. Costumes would be fun, too! Dance along with EVOLUTION OF DANCE.
42. Take a selfie with a veteran and share it with his or her family. Help them post to FamilySearch if they would like.
43. Make a Kahoot! family history game and play it with your family.
44. Do Family History Live. Text or call (or write) your Mom and Dad and tell them how much you love them. Do the same for your grandparents.
Find A Grave websites to locate family tombstones. Upload your findings to FamilySearch Memories.