We Gave Another Fan Chart To A Community Leader

There is a lady here in Mound City who is very involved in doing service in the community. Her husband is the president of the local bank. She is the head person at a little community thrift store that does a lot of good things for the people in the town. She also always seems to be involved with all the school service functions. Every time we see her, she is very warm welcoming and gracious. We thought we ought to do something to say we noticed and thank her for all the community service she does. We decided to try to build a family history fan chart for her, but wanted to surprise her. We had met her mother at the nursing home where we serve and so I called the mom and told her of our plans and asked if she would be willing to provide me with the names of the grandparents. With that information I was able to complete a fairly impressive fan chart that was almost completely full covering six generations. Of course many lines went back much further.

We went by and presented the fan chart to her and she was very impressed and appreciative. It was fun. I continue to be amazed at how readily available family history information is now days because of indexing, computers and the internet.

Another Family History Story

Some time back I had completed a family history fan chart for an elderly lady that we visit. She is not a member of the Church but has known the Branch President for a number of years. She mentioned to the Branch President that the printing on the fan chart was too small for her to read. So I have been trying to find a way to get her a larger printout. I checked with the Mound City library and the largest they can do is legal size. That wasn’t big enough. It is likely an hour and half away to the nearest Kinko’s.

Then several weeks ago our Baptist friends had invited us to a play, put on at the local high school. After the play our friends introduced us to the Mayor of Mound City, whose daughter was an actress in the play. During our conversation we found out the mayor owns a building on Main Street in Mound City and operates a company out of there. His is kind of a tech/marketing company and so the thought came to me that he might own a printer that could produce a larger fan chart.

The following week we ran into him downtown, and I asked him about his printing capabilities and he had a printer that could print out a chart that was 17 x 22 which is twice the size of letter size paper. When I went by there it turned out his printer was not hooked up, but he thought he could do what I was asking for. He asked me to come back the next day. When I went back he had it printed out. I offered to pay him for it, but he wouldn’t take any money. So I said, "What if I do one of these for you?" He liked the Idea and gave me the information on his grandparents that enabled me to get started. I am currently working on it when I have time and am about halfway done, he did seem excited about it, so we will see what happens when I present him with it.

He also invited us to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony which was to be held on Friday. We ended up attending that and were able to visit with a number of people we have met here in town.

It turns out we also attended the Christmas tree lighting ceremony for the neighboring town since the mayor of that town had invited us to that as well. We should really be in the Christmas spirit by now!

The Spirit of Elijah Is Active In Our Day

Malachi 4

5 ¶Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

We know that scripture above concerns family history and the power to seal families together in Temples of the Lord.

When the Angel Moroni appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, he instructed him about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. And then Moroni quoted from the book of Malachi in the Old Testament, with a little variation in the language used in the King James Version:

“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” (JSH verses 38, 39).

Elijah held the sealing powers of the Melchizedek Priesthood. He was the last prophet to hold these powers until Christ Himself. He appeared as a translated being with Moses (also a translated being) on the Mount of Transfiguration to confer the keys of the Priesthood upon Peter, James, and John (Matthew 17:3).

Elijah has returned as promised. He appeared on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to restore the keys of the sealing power in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ (Doctrine and Covenants 110:13-16). He returned on the Jewish high holy day of Bikkurim, which occurs near the beginning of Passover. Traditionally Jews reserve a seat for Elijah at the Passover seder table in expectation of his return. Tradition holds that the Messiah will come very shortly after Elijah's return.

The sealing power of God, administered by Elijah, is the power that seals in heaven what is bound on earth. The sealing power is used in all the ordinances of the gospel for the living and the dead.

We know that genealogy societies were established around the time of Elijah’s return and interest in family history and the technology enabling people to find their deceased ancestors has grown at a phenomenal pace.

Some time ago I prepared a family history fan Chart for a couple who have become good friends of ours. I had explained to them how to get set up on Family Search however they were a little hesitant because of a lack of confidence in their computer skills.  So several weeks ago we went to their house and helped them get setup on Family Search. We also showed them Relative Finder. They were pretty excited and spent about an hour and a half looking at their relatives and finding famous people they were related to. 

The following week we got a phone call from the husband, it was Thanksgiving eve, and when he called, he could hear our granddaughter in the background. He said, "Oh I didn’t know you had company."

I explained that our daughter, son-in-law and a new grand-baby that we had not seen were visiting. He then said, "I just wanted to call and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving."  I told him that was very kind and considerate of him and wished him the same and we ended the conversation. However the phone call was very uncharacteristic of him and so I was pretty sure he called about something else.

The following Monday, after our family members had returned home, I gave him a call and he shared an experience with me. He said that several days after we had been at his home, sharing the family search website, he received a letter in the mail with a return address somewhere in Vermont. The letter was from a distant cousin that he had never met and did not know. This cousin was big in family history and was trying to locate relatives and wanted to organize a family reunion in Independence, Missouri next summer in June. He said that he gave this cousin a call and they had a long conversation.

He has asked me if I had anything to do with this contact from his cousin. I assure him that I did not know the cousin and had nothing to do with the letter. My sense is that the Spirit of Elijah is at work here. Our plan is to go back and teach him a little about the Spirit of Elijah.

A Friend's Birthday Party And A Family History Gift

Last week we attended a Birthday Party for a friend we met at the Clubhouse shortly after we first come out on the mission. She turned 80 years old. We gave her a card, but I thought it would also be fun to try to give her a family history fan chart without her knowing in advance that we were doing it. We called her sister who we know and explained what we wanted to do. The sister gave us the names of their parents, their birthdays and where they were born. With that information I was able to compile a pretty impressive fan chart. All of this lady’s children and close family members were at the party and were very impressed with the fan chart. Like so many of the people I have done fan charts for, her ancestry goes back to European royalty. One of this lady’s daughters was saying she wanted a copy. I volunteered to email her some information that would allow her to get on family search.