I Believe- Family History and Temple Work

I have been preparing a lesson this week because I was asked to teach our Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class.  I love teaching.  First of all, it forces me to really study a topic.  Secondly, I always discover a great lesson that the Lord is trying to teach me.  I have found that every time I prepare a lesson, the topic is something that I need to work on or fix in my life.  

This time the lesson was centered around Family History and Temple Work.  I have been playing around a little bit with the new familysearch.org website (which if you haven't checked it out...you should whether you are LDS or not).  I have also felt like I need to delve more into my family history and make sure that my ancestors have their temple work done.  

This is one thing that I love about our church.  When I go to the temple, I can perform ordinances for people who have passed away that did not have the chance to do it for themselves.  This brings up a question for some....
How can you know if that person who is dead actually wants to be baptized a member of your church?
Aren't you forcing them by being baptized for them without their permission?
No, and here is the reason I say no.

I believe that when a person dies, their soul or spirit goes to a spirit world.  In this spirit world, everyone has the chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They then have the chance to either accept that gospel and Christ as their Savior or not.  It is their choice.  When I go to the temple and am baptized for a deceased person, that person has a choice to accept that baptism or not.  Now, whether or not they have accepted it, I cannot know for sure in this world.  But I have had experiences in my life where I know the person I am doing temple work for has accepted it and is very thankful that these ordinances have been done for them.

I got sidetracked a bit from my original post.  Sorry.  Back to Family History.

The church has a phenomenal family history program.  People all over the world, from different nationalities and faiths, are welcome to use the churches resources to do their genealogy.

As I mentioned before, FamilySearch.org is an amazing resource to do some genealogy.
It is free for anyone who wants to use it, LDS or not.
I love being able to research my family lines and find out more about who I come from.  It is like a big puzzle and I love finding missing pieces.  The other thing I love about family search is that it is so easy that my kids can participate with me.  All of my kids love hearing stories about their ancestors and it's fun to be able to help them realize that their ancestors had thoughts and feelings just like them.  They were happy and scared and had joy and sorrow in their lives.

Family is THE most important part of our lives and learning more about those who have gone before you is a very cool thing.  It gives you strength to face trials in your own life when you know that your ancestors experienced trials of their own and persevered.