Place goals and plans where you will see them often and put them into action.
Meet with your ward family history consultants and have them help you create your family history plan.
Create some key indicators to help you measure your progress. Examples of key indicators are: number of ancestor names found and number of temple ordinances performed for ancestors. Set goals for each key indicator. Track your performance through the year in a visible place.
As a part of your plan, be sure to commit to setting aside some time for family history and temple work on a regular basis. Be prayerful, identify "next steps" and go forward in faith.
It is necessary to prepare and to plan so that we don’t fritter away our lives. Without a goal, there can be no real success. One of the best definitions of success I have ever heard goes something like this: Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Someone has said the trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never crossing the goal line.
Place goals and plans where you will see them often and put them into action.
Meet with the ward missionaries and have them help you create your family mission plan.
Create some key indicators to help you measure your progress. Examples of key indicators are: number of gospel conversations with non-members and number of friends invited to listen to missionary lessons. Set goals for each key indicator. Track your performance through the year in a visible place.
I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.
Strengthen eternal family bonds through temple service.
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Search FamilySearch.org or your personal genealogy records for family members needing temple work, reserve the needed ordinances in FamilySearch.org, and perform the temple ordinance work.
Teach others how to find the name of a family member and take it to the temple.
If you do not currently have a temple recommend meet with your Bishop and set goals to obtain one.
Helpful Hints:
Your personal genealogy records can include computer programs (e.g. Family Tree, Roots Magic, Ancestral Quest, Ancestry), family records (e.g. Books of Remembrance, journals, certificates), and online resources such as: Google, Yahoo, blogs, family websites, etc.)
If you need help completing the temple work, invite family/friends to help.
Contact the ward family history consultants or visit one of the Family Search libraries if you would like help.
Share your experience in your journal and with your family, possibly at a family home evening or dinner.
Think of a faithful missionary standing there with those he has loved and taught who are your ancestors. Picture as I do the smile on the face of that missionary as you walk up to him and your ancestors whom he converted but could not baptize or have sealed to family until you came to the rescue. I do not know what the protocol will be in such a place, but I imagine arms thrown around your neck and tears of gratitude.
Source
President Henry B. Eyring, "Hearts Abound Together", April 2005
It is only when we love God and Christ with all of our hearts, souls, and minds that we are able to share this love with our neighbors through acts of kindness and service - the way that the Savior would love and serve all of us if He were among us today.
Source
M. Russell Ballard - "Finding Joy through Loving Service"
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Find a photo of an ancestor from at least two generations ago, reenact the photo, and share your reenactment in some way.
Find a photo from your childhood and reenact it then share it some way. You can also show the photo to someone else and share what was happening in the photo with them.
Luck? I know that luck had nothing to do with it. I had been on the Lord's errand as I searched out my ancestors. He had guided me, through his spirit, to everything I had found that day.
Build or improve relationships with your less active or non-member friends and family.
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Invite a friend or family member to an activity in your home such as a Family Home Evening, movie night, game night, dessert night, etc. that they might experience an environment where the Spirit is present.
Invite a friend or family member to a sporting event such as church sports, school sports or other games. Be a good example and build a strong relationship.
Helpful Hints:
If you are a youth and there is another youth in the stake that isn't planning on attending youth conference, reach out to them and invite them to attend.
Follow up on your invitations even if the answer was "No". Continue to be a friend and to invite them to participate. Never give up!
Share your experience in your journal and with your family, possibly at a family home evening or dinner.
Assess your progress toward your missionary goals and plans you created at the beginning of the year; make adjustment as needed.
Youth, you are some of our most effective gospel teachers. You come to church to learn so that you can go home to teach and serve your family, neighbors, and friends. Don't be afraid. When an opportunity comes to share your thoughts about the gospel and the lessons of life, stop everything.
Understand what your ancestors had to go through over the past 100 years. By understanding the struggles that they had to go through, you can apply what they learned to your life and receive strength as you go through trials.
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Interview one of your oldest ancestors about the challenges they had to go through and overcome. This can include old war stories, difficult jobs, sacrifices they had to make, etc. Ask them about the games they played and other things they did in their youth that brought them happiness.
Record stories from your own life of challenges that you had to go through and overcome. Include what gave you the strength to keep going and how you felt after you accomplished it.
Helpful Hints:
From the interview with an ancestor, play the game you learned about with your family.
Assess your progress toward your family history and temple work goals and plans you created at the beginning of the year; make adjustment as needed.
The principle of sacrifice should be taught in every Latter-day Saint home and should be practiced in many simple yet important ways... Our commitment to the kingdom should match that of our faithful ancestors even though our sacrifices are different... Our sacrifices may be more subtle but no less demanding. Instead of physical deprivation and hardship, we face the challenge of remaining true and faithful to gospel principles.
Source
M. Russell Ballard - "The Blessings of Sacrifice"; General Conference April 1992
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Write a letter/email of encouragement and thanks to a missionary from your ward, stake or extended family. You may also want to share a faith-building experience or scripture from your scripture study.
Write a note of appreciation to someone who has been a missionary to you.
Helpful Hints:
Share your faith-building experience in a family home evening, family dinner, or testimony meeting.
One of the most effective methods we can use when teaching or participating in a discussion - whether in the home, a Church classroom, or sacrament meeting - is to share a personal experience and then relate it to the point we are making. These points or main ideas should come from the scriptures, the words of living prophets, or other appropriate sources. Telling stories from your life - something that has happened to you - adds power to what you teach. The events that have shaped our character and make us who we are can be tools in the hands of the Lord to help others when we use them appropriately.
Source
Richard Nash - "Telling Personal Stories"; September 2002 New Era
Seek strength through reading the patriarchal blessing of one of your ancestors and by studying your own patriarchal blessing.
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Find a deceased ancestor who was a member of the church that received a Patriarchal Blessing. Request a copy of their blessing from the Church. Study and ponder on the patriarchal blessing to gain strength and courage.
Reread your patriarchal blessing each Sunday during the month and take time to ponder the words.
If you haven't yet received your patriarchal blessing, consider taking the steps towards getting it. Talk to your bishop to see what steps are needed.
Helpful Hints:
Share your faith-building experience in a family home evening, family dinner, or testimony meeting.
As you respond in faith to this invitation [to do family history work], your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you.
Source
David A. Bednar - "The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn"; October 2011 General Conference
While there are [sometimes] organizations that help them with a place to live and basic necessities, what they need is a friend and ally who can help them [adjust] to their new home, a person who can help them learn the language, understand the systems, and feel connected.
Source
Linda K. Burton - "I was a Stranger"; April 2016 General Conference
Learn to spread the gospel through any medium, including social media.
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Share your testimony of the gospel or share an experience where the gospel has blessed your life with someone who might be curious about the church, either in person, written letter, or through social media.
If you haven't borne your testimony for a while, bear it in Fast & Testimony meeting in your ward.
Write your testimony in your journal as if you were bearing it to someone else.
Helpful Hints:
Tag or challenge someone to share their testimony or experience via social media.
God is preparing people to receive your testimony of the restored truth. He requires your faith and then your action to share fearlessly what has become so precious to you and those you love.
Source
Henry B. Eyring
SourceUrl
Quote
A testimony of the gospel is a personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true.
Evaluate your progress toward carrying out the family history and missionary plans you created at the beginning of the year. Take this month to finish strong and reflect on what you have learned, accomplished, and how the Lord has blessed you.
Activity Options (Do one or more of the following as a family or as an individual)
Take the time to evaluate your progress toward carrying out the family history and missionary plans you created at the beginning of the year. Use this month to complete any unfinished Sprints, or to work on other unfinished or under-developed parts of your plans.
Go back and complete any Sprints you may have missed or not completed.
Sign up to do some "Zoning" which allows newspapers to be indexed (digitally transcribed) and published to FamilySearch.org for research purposes. For more information go to the Family Search Zoning Training website.
Helpful Hints:
To do zoning, you review digital parent images (newspaper pages) using an Internet-based tool to identify articles containing birth, marriage, and death events about real people. You draw a box around the article to create a "zone." Once a batch is completed, the zones are sent to be individually indexed and published so that Family Search patrons can more easily search for ancestors in these newspapers.
Reflect on your offering to the Savior this past year. Share your experience(s) with family/friends.
Write in your journal about the gifts that are ours through our Savior and about the opportunities you had to share them with others.