Temple & Family History Newsletter #7 – May 6, 2022

May 7, 2022

Temple & Family History Newsletter #7 – May 6, 2022

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1.  Review the Elkridge Park Temple & Family History Plan for 2022 by visiting elkridgepark.org.

2.  NEW ENDOWMENT SESSIONS TO BEGIN.  Beginning April 5th, endowment sessions will begin at 5:30am daily and occur every half hour throughout the day.  Watch for the new scheduling opportunities appearing on the appointment calendar.  SESSIONS WILL INCREASE TO 70/SESSION STARTING MAY 10TH.

3.  Scheduling appointments at the temple has been modified.  You can only schedule two months in advance now instead of four months.  This applies to ALL ordinances.  This is a directive from the Temple Department.  

4.  You can now make two endowment and sealing appointments instead of just one.  It used to be that you had to complete one before scheduling another.  This does not include initiatory and baptisms.

UPCOMING EVENTS

1.  We had two very successful temple activities in April.  Twenty-one members participated in a ward sealing activity and 48 youth participated in proxy baptisms and confirmation.  We plan on repeating these activities in the coming months.

2.  The new 1950 US Census is now available on- line.  Much work needs to be done on this project.  Please visit Family Search and see how you can help.  It is easy.

MONTHLY FOCUS FOR MAY

Schedule an appointment at the Temple to do an ordinance.

NEW INDEXING WARD GOAL

Get started indexing today!  Many names are being attached to family trees through this activity.  Ordinances can then be done to prepare families to be sealed for eternity.

Steps to get started indexing:

Be sure you have your church login information.  If you haven’t opened an lds.org account, its easy, you’ll need your LDS member number to get it set up.  If you already have a lds.org username and password, you are ready to start!

  1. Go to familysearch.org website
  2. Sign in with your username and password
  3. Find the “Get Involved” tab and click on it 
  4. Select “indexing” from the drop-down menu
  5. Select “find batches” or “find project”
  6. Choose language, default is English
  7. Choose difficulty level (there are no beginning options right now, try intermediate)
  8. Choose a project and click on the “Index” button on the right-hand side
  9. Follow instructions on the pop-up window.  Be sure to read and follow the instructions.
  10. If batch seems too difficult, simply return the batch using the “batch” drop down menu and select “return batch”.  We have committee members and some experienced ward members that are happy to assist if you hit a roadblock.  Please contact Shaun Thomson or Gary & Ruth Ann Chambers with questions

If you are new to Indexing, on the Family Search Website, choose “Get Involved”, then “Overview” and then select “Try a Guided Tour”.  This will give you a good overview and is a short tutorial.

Our ward goal is 2500 index names per quarter.

UPDATE OF OUR WARD GOALS

  • Year-to-date indexing numbers through April are up 1% as a ward.  Follow the instructions listed above and get started.  It is fun and rewarding.  We need more doing indexing.
  • 56 more members have submitted a name to the temple this year-to-date than last year.  Thank you for helping in Gathering Zion on both sides of the veil.  This is a great indicator of our ward being more involved in Temple work.
  • Ward Sealing night.  28 members attended our sealing night on January 19th.  21 members attended our sealing night on April 6th.  48 youth participated in our ward Proxy baptism night.

THANKS TO ALL.