I have been interested in knowing how the youth of our church have responded to the challenge put out by President Russell M. Nelson at RootsTech 2017. His challenge? “I invite you to prayerfully consider what kind of sacrifices you can make to do more temple work and family history work.”

Although I have heard about various youth giving up their cell phones for a week (President Nelson’s latest challenge), I hadn’t really heard much about the sacrifices made to do more temple and family history work until I attended the missionary farewell talk of my grandson, Josh. Josh was called to the Peru Lima Central mission and left at the first of August for the Mexico City MTC. His talk in sacrament meeting was inspiring to me as I listened to him relate his experiences in the temple since receiving his endowment in early July.

The Saint George Temple, as do other temples, encourages the missionaries that have calls and been endowed to spend time working in the temple before they leave on their missions. Josh chose to do that and worked in the baptistry. His talk centered around many of the experiences he had while serving in the temple. One experience that had an impact on him happened as he was working one day as the recorder in the baptistry. He noticed a young man coming into the baptistry, beaming and excited. When he stepped into the font, his expression changed to one of worry. After the baptism was performed, the young man’s expression once again turned into a big grin.

One of the other workers stopped the young man after he performed the baptism and asked him who he was being baptized for. His answer: “My father.” Josh was touched by the experience and many others while he served in the temple. His desire to serve a mission has been greatly enhanced by his temple experience.

Just this past week we had a young man come to our home to receive his patriarchal blessing. Scott Williams of the Quail Hollow Ward, Granite Stake, has been working at the FHC after school over the last year. He talked about his preparations for receiving his blessing, a big part of which involved both family history and the temple. While fasting in preparation for his blessing, he also attended the temple and did baptisms and confirmations for 10 names he had researched. Hearing him talk about family history work (he’s been called to the Granite Stake Temple and Family History Youth Council,) it was evident that his focus on family history work has influenced and blessed his life.

Have you seen any of the youth you’re acquainted with accept the challenge? How have they found the experience? Would you like to share those experiences with the readers of this newsletter? If so, please contact me at whiz53@hotmail.com.   –Liz Kennington