Where There's a Will, God Makes a Way

In a talk titled Firesides Focus on Family History and Temple Work by Jeanette Hurst, she talks about the importance of family history work, especially the work being done in India.

Jeanette talks of a woman named Greeta Naidu who is from Fiji, but has roots in India. She says, “We came to India trying to find our forefathers, but our initial attempts were fruitless, so we changed our strategy. A friend who is a family history consultant suggested that maybe the Lord’s mission for me was to become a ‘heart specialist’ to my people first, and it would lead me to my nana. These inspired words motivated us to turn our focus to our fellow Indian members to help them catch the vision of family history and temple work.”

Like Greeta Naidu’s story above, have you ever started something new with a ton of enthusiasm only to fizzle out at the first sight of trouble or confusion? Greeta realized that the more people worked on their own family history, the more information she would have to find about her own family members. This week I learned some important lessons when it came to helping with my family history work. In the past week I have been praying about who I could help with my family tree. I was led to the Rapier/Raper family lines . I came across a relative I had learned more about recently. It showed that he had been married many times, but one of his wives did not have their temple work done. Her name was Susie and she had very little information on her. I decided I was going to do some digging and find out more about her. As I talked with my mother about this, she produced a document showing when she was married to her husband, Eugene Rapier. As I read through the document I noticed a discrepancy, but wasn’t quite sure. I continued to look for more information, but was not able to find what I was looking for. It wasn’t until my mother did some of her own digging and realized Susie was actually married to Eugene’s brother. The document where we had gotten the original information started to make more sense. I then was able to learn exactly who Susie was and more about her family. I saw her work had been done as well.

At first I was slightly discouraged. I wanted to put in my own work and find out who this unknown Susie was. Instead of the outcome I had imagined, my efforts seemed futile and embarrassing in the end. Were they? Should I have thought this way? No! This process taught me how to search for specific documents on Family Search. I learned how to better find someone that I had no prior information on. The original source document for Susie was reread again and again with fresh eyes to make sure the information assumed from it was correct. I got to better know who Susie was and where she came from. Susie was also no longer listed as a spouse to her brother-in-law. So many positives came out of this experience working on my family tree. I believe there are times where failures can teach us more than successful experiences can. Remember in our hard and confusing times, we are learning and growing. With our Savior’s help, we can gain the information we are looking for and learn important lessons along the way as well. He did this for me this past week and I know He can do it for you as well.