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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.
Week 16 April 10–16
From Come, Follow Me:
How does God reveal to us that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God”? (verse 16). How can we prepare ourselves to receive this revelation from Him?
“...please schedule regular time to worship and serve in the temple. Every minute of that time will bless you and your family in ways nothing else can. Take time to ponder what you hear and feel when you are there. Ask the Lord to teach you how to open the heavens to bless your life and the lives of those you love and serve."
"...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" President Russell M. Nelson, Hear Him
President and Sister Nelson invite all church members to make a sacrifice of time to do family history and temple work (see Open the Heavens through Temple and Family History Work).
An 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:
See Family Activities: 5-Minute Ideas for Latter-day Saints, and check out Week 29 (Weekly Family History Activities 2020) for even more fun and creative ideas and resources for breaking family history activities into smaller segments, and how to fit them into your busy schedule.
You may also want to join the Facebook group for The Twenty-one Day Family Connections Experiment (a family history project) and select a plan to follow for ideas and motivation. Read more about it here.
Discuss ideas and options and make a plan! Think about routines and traditions you can create to do temple work and to make connections with those who have gone on before and living relatives. You may want to calendar your goals and record how you will work toward them. The Family History Guide provides a way for you to get the help you need to accomplish your goals!
Matthew 16:13–19; 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–9
The keys of the kingdom of heaven” are on the earth today.
From Come, Follow Me:
The “keys of the kingdom of heaven” that the Savior promised to give Peter are priesthood keys (Matthew 16:19). What are priesthood keys? Why do we need them? Ponder these questions as you read about the Savior’s promise in Matthew 16:13–19 and its fulfillment in Matthew 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–9 (see also Joseph Smith Translation, Mark 9:3 [in Mark 9:4, footnote a]).
Matthew 16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Study about the Second Coming of the Savior and the significance of Malachi's prophecy that before the Savior comes again, the prophet Elijah would be sent to the earth to turn hearts (see Malachi 4:5 and D&C 2:1-3 and click here for an in-depth article about Book of Mormon events and prophecies). See also Sealing Power and Temple Blessings.
(D&C 2:1–3) "Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.
If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming."
As a family or in a group of families, play the game "The Human Knot" to demonstrate how families can try to hold on to each other and never let go! Discuss how the prophet Elijah restored the sealing keys—the power and authority to bind in heaven all ordinances performed on earth—and why this is the only way to be truly bound to our families forever.
"All of the Church's family history endeavors are directed to the need to form a 'welding link … between the fathers and the children' (D&C 128:18). This welding link is formed by the power of the priesthood, through sacred temple ordinances we receive in behalf of our ancestors….Many of Heavenly Father's children have died without having the opportunity to receive the fulness of the gospel. In His mercy and infinite love, the Lord has prepared a way for them to gain a testimony of the gospel and receive the saving ordinances of the priesthood…. In holy temples, we have the privilege of receiving ordinances in their behalf.
These ordinances include baptism, confirmation, Melchizedek Priesthood ordination (for men), the endowment, the marriage sealing, and the sealing of children to parents...you perform a saving work for others that they cannot do for themselves." (Family History Work and Genealogy, True to the Faith)
As a family, find ancestors you can go do baptisms or other ordinances for in the temple. If you haven't used Ordinances Ready yet, learn how here and read Ordinances Ready—Inspiring Members Around the World.
Read how to verify names and relationships here.
Indexing is a humble offering that can bless others - a beautiful way to serve others as individuals or as families. You can index anytime or anywhere—even in your pajamas! All you need is a computer or a tablet (see FamilySearch Indexing: Easier Than Ever!)
Indexing makes records searchable online. Each indexed record is a gift to someone, somewhere -allowing him or her to learn about and gather ancestors into the family tree. Indexing is not hard to do (you can select the level of difficulty) and it is so much fun! Anyone who has a FamilySearch account, including children over the age of eight, can participate. Young children should be supervised by an adult or older sibling who is familiar with indexing - so this can be a team effort!
The Family History Guide offers the newest information and detailed “how-to” help for indexing. See FamilySearch (FS) Project 5: 1: Learn about Indexing 2: Get Started 3: Index Batches 4: Improve Skills 5: Collaborate with Others 6: Read Difficult Handwriting 7: O-Ancestry World Archives 8: Zoning . Learn more about the how and why of indexing in this FamilySearch blog post.
Enjoy watching instructional and motivational videos by going to the LDS.ORG Media Library . View videos about youth indexing here. See this Indexing Activity. Read about more experiences here.
Set some goals to index records and let today begin a new adventure! Beware - indexing is addicting!
Try using the Get Involved app. Help people lost to history get found by their families. FamilySearch explains: “Our computers find names in old documents, but they often make mistakes. Reviewing the names and fixing the mistakes is an easy way to help others discover their ancestors.”
Read more in this article: FamilySearch's Use of Artificial Intelligence and Handwriting Recognition.