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Come, Follow Me is a resource offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is designed to be used in the home to support personal and family scripture study to build faith in Heavenly Father and His plan of salvation and in the Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Come, Follow Me is self-contained and adequate, when used properly. Products and materials designed to supplement this resource, though they may be helpful in some instances, are not necessary for a successful home study program.
Communing with God prepares me to serve Him
From Come, Follow Me :To prepare for His mission, Jesus went into the wilderness “to be with God” (Joseph Smith Translation, Matthew 4:1 [in Matthew 4:1, footnote b]). Think of what you do to feel close to God. How does this prepare you for the work He wants you to do?
Think of what you can do to feel close to God
President Russell M. Nelson: “I invite you to increase your participation in family history, including family history research and indexing. I promise that as you increase your time in temple and family history work, you will increase and improve your ability to hear Him" (see Hear Him).
What does God want us to do?
As members of the Church, we are all responsible to help God gather His children. Here are a few of President Nelson’s specific invitations:
To the brethren:
“After some 4,000 years of anticipation and preparation, this is the appointed day when the gospel is to be taken to the kindreds of the earth.This is the time of the promised gathering of Israel. And we get to participate! Isn’t that exciting?”
To the sisters:
“My dear sisters, we need you! We “need your strength, your conversion, your conviction, your ability to lead, your wisdom, and your voices.”4 We simply cannot gather Israel without you.”
To the Millennials:
"Spend more time on your knees in prayer, more time in the scriptures, more time in family history work, more time in the temple. I promise you that as you consistently give the Lord a generous portion of your time, He will multiply the remainder."
To the youth :
"You—my dear, extraordinary youth—were sent to earth at this precise time, this most crucial time in the history of the earth, to help gather Israel ... There is nothing happening on this earth right now that is more important than that. There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing. This gathering should mean everything to you. This is the mission for which you were sent to earth."
"Now, participating in the gathering of Israel will require some sacrifice on your part. It may even require some changes in your life. It will definitely take some of your time and energy and your God-given talents. Are you interested?"
"As you pray about this sacrifice of time, you will be guided to know both what you can give up that week and what you can do instead to help gather Israel."
Increase Participation in Family History Work
President and Sister Nelson invite all church members to make a sacrifice of time to do family history and temple work: Open the Heavens through Temple and Family History Work.
One idea to help both individuals and families do temple and family history work more consistently comes from an address Sister Wendy Nelson gave to the sisters of the church in a women's conference talk in 2015.
She offered the invitation to busy, overburdened sisters to do some temple and family history work each day for 21 days and then to watch what happened. She was concerned that adding one more thing to their list of things "to do" would make them even more burdened but the opposite was true for all who participated. Even a few minutes per day helped them to see miracles in their lives and the lives of their families. Although this challenge was given to sisters of the church, it is applicable to everyone. Here are the links to the PDF and the video of Sister Nelson's talk:
Check out 5-Minute Ideas for Latter-day Saints with the idea in mind that temple and family history work includes many facets, and can be fit into many different time frames. This list also includes examples from a ward who did the challenge together (see “Resources” at the end of the end of the page).
Week 29 (Weekly Family History Activities 2020) elaborates on some of these activities, and has even more fun and creative ideas and resources for ways to break family history activities into smaller segments and fit them into your busy schedule!
See also Family Activities: Anytime Activities and Games which includes “Quick and Easy Family History Activity Time Fillers.” . Make good use of the Activities Index.
You may also want to explore the Family Connections Experiment and select a plan to follow.
Gathering Israel
From Come, Follow Me :Do we know anyone who is brokenhearted or who needs to be “set at liberty”? (Luke 4:18). How can we help others receive the Savior’s healing and deliverance? You might also discuss how performing temple ordinances helps bring “deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18).
President Nelson: “When we speak of gathering Israel on both sides of the veil, we are referring, of course, to missionary, temple, and family history work. We are also referring to building faith and testimony in the hearts of those with whom we live, work, and serve. Anytime we do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—to make and keep their covenants with God, we are helping to gather Israel. Let God Prevail
One way to help others desire to do temple and family history work is to teach them about the healing promises listed by Elder Renlund (Family history and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing).
See Week #3 2023 for a related family activity.
Learn more about the promises:
Family history activities often are the catalyst to help family members have a desire to do proxy temple work for ancestors.
You could get together with individuals, groups of friends, and your families to do activities that help everyone get to know their ancestors. Here are some ideas and resources that work well (but check out any of the other resources linked above for activity ideas):
Family History Fun Basket—Read all about this fun, adaptable activity in The Family History Fun Basket—It's Ready when You Are!
Google Earth—Explore ancestral homelands, places living families live or have lived, places family missionaries have served, cemeteries where ancestors are buried, etc. See Integrating The Family History Guide Countries Section with Google Earth – a winning combination for family fun!
The Plan Of Salvation Activity—See instructions in Week 32 - 2022
Relatives Around Me—One approach you can use to introduce individuals to family history is to use Relatives Around Me. When you are with a group of people (within about 100 feet of each other), have everyone sign into the FamilySearch Family Tree app. Everyone will be able to see how they are related to others. Try it in church groups, with friends, with co-workers or even with your neighbors as you are visiting. (If any individuals have not added their information to FamilySearch Family Tree, the app won't be able to find their relatives. To help these friends add their families to the Family Tree, have them access the Getting Started page.)
The Human Knot—Depending on the group, you could play this game and discuss what an unbroken circle represents and the nature of eternal family bonds. What can you do to stay connected? See The Human Knot – The Family History Guide Blog
All About Me—Go to the FamilySearch "Activities" and click All About Me.” This is a fun guessing game to help us all realize how quickly and dramatically things change in our lives, and especially how technology and opportunities to serve in temples have both escalated since our birth years. The birth year can be changed right on the page! Have fun exploring the birth year of your friends and family members, and their ancestors.
Surname Search—Discover the origin and meaning of your last name at Surname Search by FamilySearch. Before you search, see if you or other friends or family members can guess the meaning. Enter the last names of some of your ancestors to also learn about their last names. Look at your pedigree chart if you need help finding other names. (If you need help finding your pedigree chart, The Family History Guide Project 1: Family Tree can help you.) For more information, read What's in a Surname. See also the information in All About Me for each person whose FamilySearch account you are logged into. .
When others would like to learn how to learn more about discovering their ancestors and their stories, and how to do proxy work for them, check out Helping Others with The Family History Guide.
