2023 Rexburg South Stake Family History Update: A Focus on One-On-One Personalized Family History Experiences

 

There is a new approach to temple and family history consulting that focuses on the one-on-one personalized family history experience. When members of the church have meaningful experiences with their own family history, they are more likely to continue to engage in it regularly or come back to working on it in the future--even when they have had a disruption for a time in their lives. Members who regularly engage in their own family history are more likely to stay worthy to hold a current temple recommend, attend the temple regularly, and stay on the covenant path. Family history is also a great reactivation and conversion tool (see other articles below), a tool for strengthening the youth and adults in a ward, and a tool for strengthening families and opening the heavens for help and revelation (see also below). The updates in this edition of the training blog will help you learn doctrine and provide you with tools and resources to teach and work with your ward council and ward members to provide meaningful family history experiences for everyone. 

The main focus of this training this year (and in future years) is the one-on-one personalized family history experience. The main components are the following.

1. Add the Member to the Consultant Planner. The helper/consultant will add the member to their consultant planner so they have access to that member's FamilySearch account. This will help them to prepare a personal experience ahead of their first visit. 
2. Prepare a Personalized Plan. Using the tools in the planner, the helper/consultant will prepare some activities to help the member learn about some interesting and meaningful things about their family. They will also prepare to help the member learn to find family members who need temple work, attach records to the tree to prepare names for temple work, and to help the member to reserve names and print cards for an upcoming temple trip. 
3. Minister One-on-One. The helper/consultant will then come to the member's home or other setting where the Spirit can be felt and present this first experience. It should take about 30-40 minutes. 
4. Invite To Act. Finally, the helper/consultant will invite the member to act on a simple goal and then set up a time for a follow-up visit. 

The Church has provided a number of resources that demonstrate how to do each step. You can find some of them at these links.

• A New Approach to Temple and Family History Consulting
  
• Use Simple Activities to Create Personalized Family History Experiences
  
• Personalized Family History Experience (a step-by-step guide).  You need to be logged into your FamilySearch account for some of the links at this last training to treat you as a church member and provide you with temple work information. If you are not signed in, click at the link in the upper right corner and provide your LDS account log-in information. 
  

If you need additional help or your own personalized training, you are welcome to contact your stake consultant or ward consultant for help. One important goal for each ward is to provide the personalized experience for each ward member. This should start with ward leadership members having their own experiences with family history so they can testify and lead-out in helping others. 

Please read through all the posts on this page to get the 2023 update. Then feel free to browse previous posts for earlier information and resources. Key resources are also linked at the top of the page, just to the right of posts. Enjoy!