What recommendations do we have for our ward members - release names to the temple system, or hang o
As we work with our ward councils to set 2021 goals I am sure this question will come up. I don’t think we want to bury those Saints lucky enough to have Phase 3 temples (and I assume they have their own names to take). I appreciate that the time we can hold our names has been extended, but the real objective is for our ancestors to receive their ordinances and be able to progress. This is further complicated for those of us living in areas where our temple is down for renovation. Suggestions on what we should do?
Answers
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Hang on to them, practice patience, and pray for this pandemic to lift so your local temples can go to phase 4. In the meantime, there is plenty of polishing-up to do in FamilySearch Family Tree.
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Unless there is a particular special reason someone wants to personally receive the ordinances for a specific ancestor, wouldn't it make sense to go ahead and release our completed submissions for temple work to the temple system? We can't possibly do ALL of our own ancestors unless we're living next door to a temple and are fully retired, so the sooner we get names into the system, the sooner they'll show up in any temples that become open - and the sooner they'll be accomplished by someone, somewhere in the world.
--Chris
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I think there are several things to consider.
First, when we reserve a person’s ordinances, they won’t expire for us until we have our local temples available for us to perform the vicarious ordinances ourselves within the limits that were previously set — 90 days for temple ready and pulled shared ordinances, one year if we have performed a previous ordinance for the person, or two years if we have newly reserved (not from temple ready or pulled from the shared reservations) ordinances.
If, as Chris points out, we are not able to perform the vicarious ordinances ourselves, then we should reserve and share those ordinances with the temple system, keeping in mind that the person’s record should be as complete as we can make it.
If the record is complete enough to reserve, then another member can easily see that it is available for reserving and reserve it themselves. If you are planning to perform or have performed the ordinances, then you should go ahead and complete the reservation yourself.
Finally, there has previously been discussions on when, and I’m of the opinion that it doesn’t hurt to make the reservation while you are still working to complete the reservation (or that of their family).
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My personal approach has been to retain them; when our temple moves to phase 3 and we have a youth baptismal trip, I want to have names for them to work. The other ordinance work will then be released for access by the temple system with some retained for family work. I have accumulated toooo many names to be able to do myself, even though I'm retired. (Unfortunately, our ward members seem to have taken the approach of "the temples are closed, therefore there is no urgency in submitting names for work to be done.")
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When my district's temple closed for renovation in early March 2018 I shared all the male ordinances I had ready to the temple system. They are still sitting there, untouched. I thought it would be fun to see where in the world they would go. Now I think they never left the waiting list for my closed temple and nothing will happen with them until it reopens. The rededication would have been this weekend but for Covid. We guess that the opening will not happen until about this time next year.
When the temple was open my shared names were completed within a couple of months. Hopefully that will be the case again. My point is that sharing the names when your temple isn't accessible doesn't mean they'll get done elsewhere any faster than if you held on to them, as @Jon W Thomas suggests.
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I'm not surprised at this point that nothing has happened with them, but as temples begin to reopen for deceased ordinances again, I suspect that they will be exceptionally busy from the day they're open. Even with limits of 16 people in an endowment, for example, at least some temples weren't seeing more than that in many of the sessions they had a year ago (ours certainly was that way). Hopefully they'll be adding more sessions as soon as they've got more ordinance workers trained and ready to serve again, so the daily numbers may build rapidly.
So as more and more open, I suspect the rate of temple attendance will really increase and remain that way at least for a while, given the excitement that will surely come when none of us has seen the inside of a temple in over a year by that time. And I would think (hope) that the enthusiasm would be contagious with all of our members, thus providing the opportunity for more work to be accomplished in a shorter period. Personally, I want to get my ancestors in the queue, so to speak. Some of the statistics I've become aware of from more than just my own stake indicate that activity in FamilySearch is also down this past year, so the backlogged list of names from pre-COVID will be reduced much more quickly than it would have if there had been higher, steady submissions of names this year.
It's sad overall, but I also see it as an opportunity for those of us still plugging away at it, and moving properly qualified (genealogical proof standard) names into the system before people really start submitting names again in large numbers. The ordinances being done again in the temples are likely to outpace the submissions in the beginning. I'm getting my ancestors in line! 😁
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Prior to the ability to pull temple shared names, names that were shared went into a pool for the temple in which district you lived. It is my understanding that the temples now pull from a single pool of shared names so many of us no longer see our shared names sit for years.
it will be wonderful to have the temples open again for proxy ordinances. It will be a while before this pandemic is brought under control, eventually it will be.
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I send my ancestor's ordinances to the Temple. I don't have enough people to do them at anytime. So I don't want them left out. If they are reserved to the Temple, relatives can still request them back to do. Then they have 90 days to complete them. But I am reassured that they will get done. If I hold onto them, who knows. I want them to be in the queue.
Anitra
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This is a personal opinion, but perhaps this temporary closed period is a chance for us to re-examine/revise the reason we go to the temple and change the kind of experience we have there. When we reserve an ancestor's name, it is an opportunity to give a deeply personal gift to that specific ancestor - someone who is probably watching us as we research and reserve the name, and someone who will probably be at the temple to witness the proxy ordinance process - as a participant. The scriptures tell us the "hearts of the children must turn to the fathers" or else the earth will be wasted or cursed. Yet we approach this personal, family-based work as a task to get done as efficiently as possible.
When we attend the temple, our main focus seems to be task or calendar driven - we are going to the temple and if possible, we will bring a family name with us, but which name it is really doesn't matter because they all need to be done. Imagine if we had that same attitude when it is time to leave the hospital after giving birth to a baby. They hand us a baby as we leave and that is fine, because they all need a home. But our own baby is special to us - we want to take home our own baby because he/she is specifically "ours."
When we find a family name and reserve it, we are making a special bond with that person, who is aware of us and watching us. We do not know now how we felt about this person in the spirit world, but now we have this special opportunity and (in my personal opinion) the experience will be enhanced if we take it seriously as a personal commitment to honor that person in the temple and show him or her that he/she is much more than a "name" to us.
Temples are not doing proxy work right now, and that gives us an opportunity to purify ourselves and change our motivation and attitudes. Just as the pause in building the Salt Lake Temple ultimately avoided a catastrophic failure due to the faulty foundation (as Elder Uchtdorf pointed out in his conference talk), there may be an important blessing that can come to us if we reexamine our foundation during this time.
I live several hours and hundreds of miles from the nearest temples, but I have found it richly rewarding to take a deceased relative - or group of deceased relatives - to the temple to honor them there and show them they still matter, that they are important to someone living now, that they are not forgotten. It is worth the sacrifice to schedule and sacrifice for each temple experience, even in the times when we could go whenever we wanted to. I happen to have a large reservation list because of where my ancestors are from (not heavily LDS areas), but this gives me reason to make travel to the temple a priority and do as much as possible while I am there. I participate in as many of the ordinances as I can personally so the people will know I care about them individually - because they are my own family. Some ordinances are shared with temple file, but I do as many of the shorter ordinances as I can and I monitor the progress of the names I share.
It may be good to use this time to consider what it would take to turn our hearts to our ancestors and their descendants and go to the temple to bring their families together and to honor and show love for the forgotten family members we find. The Lord could have temple work done in a variety of ways, many more efficient than the current method. It is the impact on the people personally involved, not the efficiency or speed with which "names" are done, that seems to be His object.
People who have many names reserved may want to focus on one family at a time, perhaps working with siblings or close family members, to complete the ordinances for just that family, so they can be sealed together in the same session. Focusing and visualizing a family will change our temple experience and perspective as we "see" a family come together.
We can't go to the temple for our ancestors right now, and their work can't be done right now - by anybody. Perhaps our temples will be opened more quickly if we take a more personal and active interest in honoring our own relatives - that we discovered and grew to love during this waiting period - so that when they move to phase 3 and 4, we will be different people, attending the temple out of love for our family rather than duty to "do names."
Just my opinion and thoughts, for whatever it may be worth.
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We may also want to consider why we go to the temple. Many of us go to gain a blessing, to better understand our covenants, to receive revelation, or because we are "supposed to." All of these are great reasons for attending the temple, but they have nothing to do with our ancestors or the people we represent as proxies in the temple.
How would our experience be changed if we attended the temple thinking of the person for whom we are acting, instead of ourselves and what we hope to gain? Is that part of what is meant by "turning our hearts"?
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As the temples have moved into phase 2, where living people are receiving all ordinances, they are also performing endowments for deceased relatives for those who are attending with the person receiving the living ordinance. When I got a notification during this time frame for an endowment of a relative completed in the Kansas City Temple and I living in Utah, I was thrilled! Just one ... but one more than I could do myself! It was a powerful feeling!
When the Taiwan, Brisbane Australia, Tonga, and Samoa temples were announced to move to phase 3, I knew it would be a long time before my temple in Utah would be in phase 3. I know what steps are being taken in Taiwan to control the virus as my brother and his family live there. We are so far behind these other countries in controlling the virus.
When the phase 3 announcement was made I remembered the feeling I had of that one endowment that had been done in Kansas City. And so I went to my printed cards (the ones I was going to do last April) and I threw them away. I moved all these reservations to the shared temple file. I do have some reservations that start with baptisms for my children to do that are still in my regular reservations. EVERYTHING else I have reserved I have SHARED! I know that some of these people will now have their ordinances completed long before I am able to do them in any temple near me. Even if just one distant relative takes one of these shared relatives to the temple during this time, it will have been all worth the small effort to share them to the shared temple file.
I cannot wait until I can attend the temple again for my relatives. They need these ordinances in order to progress and I'm glad that I can share them with others who will have the experience of serving as proxy in their behalf.
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Wonderful outlook on this issue. It really is all about your last sentence, especially: "They need these ordinances in order to progress and I'm glad that I can share them with others who will have the experience of serving as proxy in their behalf."
Thank you for that!
--Chris
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I do not believe it is true that proxy ordinances for the dead are being done during Phase 2.
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The only proxy ordinance that is being done during phase 2 is the endowment. The only way you can participate in this ordinance is to be invited as a guest for someone who is receiving their own endowment via their own appointment. You cannot make an appointment to do proxy work only - that will come in phase 3. My neighbor is a temple ordinance worker and her son recently received his own endowment. All those invited to attend with him were asked to bring their own family names or the temple would provide a name. She is also working other times in the temple for others attending for their own endowments. She stated that yes, there are limited proxy endowment ordinances being completed in the temples by the guests of those who are receiving their own endowment.
You are welcome to contact your local temple and ask this question
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Thanks. Good to know. Our temple is still in Phase 1.
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Personally, I always share all of the names that I find with the temple. I find far more names than I could possibly do myself in a reasonable amount of time, so I like to share with anyone that I can.
Like everyone else, I have many relatives that I don't personally who are available to do the work, and I have found that often they love to have their own family names to take to the temple (but may not have the skills to find the names themselves just yet). In one case, a relative that I don't know personally, but that I corresponded with through FamilySearch, told me that she located some names I researched, and then because she had family names she could do, she had the opportunity to take her grandchildren and children to the temple to do those names, and they had a very special experience together. Without me leaving those names to be available for her to reserve, they would not have that family temple experience together. Since then, I've tried to leave names for others to do as much as I can.
I prefer to share my names with the temple because then others have just 90 days to do them if they are reserved, so then they don't get stuck and not done for 2 years and then expire.
I also love to go to the temple and do the work for names that I found personally, it's a special experience to be sure. If I share names with the temple, I can easily unreserve any names I have time to do that day, and I can go and get them done right away. But meanwhile there's a chance that maybe someone else will be looking for some family names to do and will have the time to do them.
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Thanks for this suggestion, it's a wonderful one !
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If you decide to share an ordinance with the Temple unless it is already printed by a Temple, you can always unshare it if you decide to complete the ordinance yourself. I have shared my reservations with the Temple for Baptisms and Confirmation because of back problems that I choose not to complete those ordinances and to give the youth a chance to do them.
When a Temple opens for proxy ordinances near me and there is a youth temple trip where the ordinances could be completed, the option to unshare and print the ordinances for them to do is still available.
You are not locked into one or the other unless a Temple has already printed the ordinance to complete.
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I think the best way to handle work for ancestors depends on personal circumstances. Do you live near a temple and can attend frequently? Or do you attend less often due to distance? (when temples were open). Do you have lots of people who are waiting for work, or only a few? Are you able to easily get work for both genders done, or only one?
As a temple office worker, I learned that the church (SLC) was moving in the direction of discouraging handing out your own family names at the temple, or having a place where people in your ward or stake could pick up and do your family names. They want people to print their own names to bring to the temple- and now to print only one ordinance at a time (1 endowment, limited number of B, I, and sealings). Temples (before the shut down) were all moving in the direction of no longer returning family name cards to patrons (my temple has not been returning them for over a year). The reason is simple- there are so many family cards out there that are old and expired. When I record proxy ordinances performed, even last night, there were some family file cards that as I scanned them, I got a message on the screen that said "work previously done". That makes me sad. In this time of limited opportunities to provide proxy endowments, some time was spent doing work that was already done. Reservation of temple work has a time limit, as was previously mentioned. We need to get these old cards out of the system to stop the duplication of work. People won't verify the work has not been done before bringing the card to the temple- erroneously thinking that if they have the physical card then it could not have been done.
It may be that temples will be moving in the direction of no longer printing temple file slips, even though those are all patron shared names now (not the result of indexing projects), and have been for several years. One of the great things that family search does is offer temple opportunities to people, that they can choose to reserve and print, to bring to the temple themselves. I believe this gives each patron, even those who have not been able to find names of ancestors in their part of the tree who still need work done, to feel some true sense of joy and personal relationship with the person whose name they take and print, and bring to the temple themselves. I think it does more to "turn hearts". It may help (or require?) people who never sign into FS to do so, in order to have a card to provide proxy ordinances for someone. Once they begin signing in, one day perhaps they will stay and explore, and then perhaps even progress to learning about their family and connecting with them more.
Since I have half of my ancestors with amazing records (Quebec French Catholic), I have tons of people I put into the tree, attaching sources. They are all related. But I do not reserve those names at all, not to keep and do myself nor to share. I know that FamilySearch will notify people that those ancestors need their work done. It will get done fast than if I reserve it myself.
So, in answer to your original question... what is best to teach people in your ward to do? That depends on several factors. I am sure the Lord will inspire you to offer a variety of ways to help your local members. I think it is wonderful that you are seeking ideas and pondering how to help your local members, and planning ahead. I am sure you will be richly blessed for your efforts!
Susan
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I share my temple names with relatives. Besides my family, my cousins and their children help. They enjoy doing family names. I keep tract of who I have given which cards to. This year I have a back log since the temples are closed. If we can't get them done in time, the names can always be shared later with the temple. I would say keep your reservations for the present.
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I am continuing to add names, dates, places and sources to FamilySearch and leave them there for anyone related to them to reserve them and bless them with ordinances, once the temples are open again. I have enough (and to spare) reserved, so I do not want to reserve any more.
Sending the names to the Temple file means additional hassle if I want to reclaim a few of them. So many names have been shared with the temple that I don’t think they will be in want.
Each week I am adding several names to FamilySearch as their documents are translated, so there will many more families ready for their temple work. This is a period my growing the stream of ancestors as large as is accurately possible, to be ready for when the ordinance floodgates open.
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