Most of us have attended a few family reunions. Through the years, I have enjoyed gathering together, having a picnic with extended family, hearing stories of ancestors, and playing games to learn about the descendants of my great grandfather, Breneman Barr Bitner. In 2008, it was an extra special family reunion I will always cherish and hold dear to my heart!

I was a member of our family reunion committee. At these family reunions, we had about 300 people attend the reunion. They were always fun and memorable! One of my assignments was organizing a calling tree to invite descendants of my great grandfather who had 19 children. When I called one family member who was the Temple Matron of the Salt Lake Temple, she said she and her husband would not be able to attend the family reunion that year in July, but she asked if we would be interested in having a family reunion temple endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple a few months later. What a wonderful idea!

It was exciting to help organize that special evening where 106 descendants of my great grandfather gathered at the Salt Lake Temple to have a delicious dinner then meet together in the large chapel in the Salt Lake Temple and hear stories of our ancestors. As I led the music, what a memorable experience as I looked out into the special, large chapel with a beautiful, large mural on the back wall and saw 106 extended family members dressed in white singing together. Another family member handed each of us a card with a family name on it as we left the chapel to join together for an endowment session. 

There was a very special Spirit felt that entire evening. As we met together in the Celestial Room of the Salt Lake Temple, there was an overwhelming feeling of love for the family members we visually saw and also for those ancestors who we felt were nearby who had also gathered there for that special night to receive their temple work. A special family reunion I will never forget!

Thanks to those family members who took the time to find family names to take to the temple and then shared those family names with us that evening. It would be several years later while serving as a Temple and Family History Consultant at the Granite Family History Center that I learned how to find my first family ancestor’s name to take to the temple. Thanks to the many consultants and leaders who helped me, inspired me, and taught me. I still have a lot to learn, but it is a wonderful journey of learning! I am also grateful to Bob Taylor and Bob Ives for their sacrifice, dedication, and hard work in helping all of us not only in the Salt Lake Valley but throughout the world learn and continue to learn from the amazing “thefhguide.com” website. What a TREASURE and BLESSING!

There is also a very special Spirit at the Granite Family History Center. In a recent consultant training, Sister Janet Helland shared part of the Dedicatory Prayer given by President David Castleton on February 23, 2014:

“We pray for all the volunteers that will serve here, those who have already begun and those who will be called in the future. We pray that their lives will be blessed, their families will be blessed, and that the joy of service will radiate in their faces and their eyes and their homes . . . We dedicate this Center unto Thee as a place of learning, a place of love, a place of light, a place of caring, a place of missionary work, a place of testimony, a Center that will bless our lives and help us to further Thy work.”

Also, there is a wonderful new beautiful banner Sister Janet Helland was inspired to do that lists some of the promised blessings we can receive from doing family history work! Thank you, Sister Helland! Now you can see why EVERYONE would want to go to the Granite Family History Center and do family history!

President Russell M. Nelson said, “We can be inspired all day long about temple and family history experiences others have had. But we must do something to actually experience the joy ourselves.”

Elder Richard G. Scott said, “Any work you do in the temple is time well spent, but receiving ordinances vicariously for one of your own ancestors will make the time in the temple more sacred, and even greater blessings will be received.”

Yes! We had a very special family reunion at the Salt Lake Temple in 2008 as we rejoiced on this side of the veil while our ancestors were nearby celebrating on the other side of the veil. That evening I felt a glimpse of heaven!

-Sharon Morris Walton, Consultant, Granite Family History Center