I have a request regarding family temple ordinances. There is a ton of work that needs to be done with our family history, especially since Mom found those hundreds of names! A lot of those names are reserved though, making it hard to do any of the work. Dave and I go to the temple once a month and we would love to do work for our own family instead of just having the temple give us names. Mom, I know you like to reserve names so that the kids can do baptisms on their temple trips and I totally get that. Sometimes I reserve a name so that I can do just the endowment portion. But I just realized that when you reserve a name, you are reserving ALL of the ordinances for that one person. So if Kristy does the baptism for a person Mom reserved, that means I can't do the endowment until she releases that name from reservation.
So what I'm proposing is this: If we have an upcoming temple trip that we know about, we reserve all the names we are planning on doing at that temple trip. For example, David takes a bunch of male names to the temple for baptisms and confirmations. But when we get back from the temple, we release all those names again so that other family members can do the other ordinances. Right now, Kelly, Mom, Dad, Roy, Dave and I are the only ones who can do the initiatories, endowments, and sealings (which is makes up for more than HALF of the ordinances that need to be done). And it will be that way for a while. So it makes sense to me that after the kids do their baptisms, the names get released again so that Kelly or my family can partake in doing their temple work. What do we think about this idea?
Dana, I think this a fantastic idea! However, I need a lot of help in understanding the process of family history and knowing how to reserve and release names for use at the temple when I/we go. Would you mind explaining how the names are reserved and released? Is it done through FamilySearch, or do I do that at the records office within the Temple? Could you point me in the right direction? Sorry I don't know much yet about doing family history, I am determined to become a pro at it, though!
ReplyDeleteRoy, no problem, it's SO easy! It is done through FamilySearch. Basically, you sign into familysearch.org (using your memberID name and password, your ward clerk has it if you don't remember it) and go to your family tree. Any name that has a temple with a green arrow above it is ready to be taken to the temple. So you click on that temple icon and it will take you to a page where you can reserve the ordinances you would like to do for that person. Once the ordinance has been reserved, you can click on the "Temple" tab of your Familysearch page and see them there. When you are ready to physically take the names to the temple, just click on the names and ordinances you want and then hit "print". A sheet of paper with a barcode will print and you take that paper to the temple. Take it to the family history desk and they will scan the barcode and...wallah! They will give you the ordinance cards for those names.
ReplyDeleteNow, here comes to the part I was talking about. Once you have done those ordinances, PLEASE release the names so that other people can do any unfinished work for them as well. You can do this by going to the same "Temple" tab on your FamilySearch page, click on the names and ordinances. Only this time, you will select "unreserve". Once you unreserve a name, other people with access to your family tree can take the name to the temple for additional ordinances. It just gives us all a chance to take part of the blessings of the temple.