In the past decade we often hear our church leaders quote D&C 88:73 – “Behold I will hasten my work in its time.” To hasten means to be quick to do something, to act or move quickly, or to cause something to happen sooner than it otherwise would. 

I don’t know any work that is currently “hastening” at a more rapid pace than temple and family history work. Every month we experience advances in technology, the availability of additional records online, new temples, hints to help us find ordinances that need to be done, and more interest and involvement by individuals and families throughout the world. As I think back over my lifetime, I am overwhelmed with the advances in temple and family history work that I have seen. Here are just a few of them:

• There were 8 temples in the year I was born. There are now 172 temples dedicated, 49 under construction and an additional 61 announced.
• When I was first married, building my four generation family tree on paper was slow and tedious. Today we have FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, The Family History Guide, and a host of other resources to help populate our family trees and to connect us with hundreds or thousands of others who may be adding information and sources to people in our trees.
• It was not that long ago when research was done primarily through reviewing hard copies or microfiche. Now records from all over the world can be accessed on my home computer.
• When researching microfiche, you had to scroll through a lot of records to find the diamond in the rough. With the robust search engines we have today, locating an individual record or name can be done in seconds.
• The number of searchable records online has grown exponentially as millions of new records are being added to the FamilySearch database and other databases every week.
• The use of artificial intelligence and handwriting recognition technology are now increasing the speed and volume by which new records can be indexed and made ready to search online. What used to take decades for volunteers to index can now be done in months through a combination of technology and volunteer efforts.
• The sharing of stories and histories used to be by word of mouth or photocopying hard copies. Now we can share stories, photos, histories and journals digitally at no cost and at the click of a mouse.
• As I first started to research my ancestors about a decade ago, I was always reaching out to others trying to find information. Now FamilySearch provides me with weekly updates of all the information recently added to my tree by not only those relatives I know, but also by many others I don’t know.

Today I stand in awe at the progress that has been made in temple and family history work in just my lifetime. The growth and opportunities in this work continue to accelerate at a pace I never dreamed possible. I can only imagine what tomorrow will bring. I am so grateful to be alive today and to see the hastening of this work and be able to participate in temple and family history. I know President Nelson speaks the truth as he has taught us that the gathering of Israel, on both sides of the veil, is the most important thing taking place on earth today. “Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in majesty. And if you choose to, if you want to, you can be a big part of it. You can be a big part of something big, something grand, something majestic!”

-Dave Castleton, Director, Granite Family History Center