Just a quick thought...

“There is not one of us but what God’s love has been expended upon. There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels—invisible beings of power and might—charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping.”
-- Pres George Q Cannon
(Click here to view the entire talk by Pres. Eyring)

My Journey to... FAMILY HISTORY! (stop groaning!)

When the phrase "Family History" crops up, there are usually four responses:
     "(HUGE GROAN!) Not family history AGAIN! That's what grandparents are for!"
     "Family History... yeah, I look through scrapbooks occasionally."
     "What's family history?"
or, if you're in the 5% of the population:
     "FAMILY HISTORY! That's, like, my LIFE!"

I used to be in the first category. I was so tired of hearing people tell me about how fun Family History was.
That is, until I started doing it :).

It all started with indexing. Indexing is the manual transcribing of images of names to a digital record, making it possible to search them.
(If you'd like to try it for yourself, here's a link to help you get started)

I'd do these about once a week (more if there was a Census... especially a typed Census. You'll know what I mean when you do it). Then I kind of trickled off, and stopped doing it.

Recently, my grandparents (how are Family HIstory gurus, my Oma majored in Genealogy),  returned from Germany where they'd been serving a Senior Mission. While there, they started to help a woman do Family History. This woman (we'll call her Sis. Schmidt) had been forced out of her home during the French occupation of Germany, and had lost almost all of her records.
When they started doing her family history, they were able to search for names of people she did remember (ie, parents, grandparents) and because of the indexing people had done, they were able to find many more of her ancestors and distant cousins.

After I graudally stopped indexing, I went for a year or so without doing anything besides listening to the talks and grumbling. But then, a friend showed me how to use the "Descendancy Chart" on familysearch.org . HOLY COW! It was amazing!
It's easy, fast, and a contribution. What more could you want?

Basically, using Descendancy Chart takes one of your ancestors, and shows you their descendants (no, duh :)). Next to the list of names are little icons telling you that this person needs more research, or that their *temple work* has already been done, or that you can request their ordinances.
Here's a video with a more coherent explanation. 

If you'd like to learn more about family history, here's a lesson outline that gives you all sorts of resources: https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/ss/marriage-and-family/history?lang=eng

I know that through my work, I'm continuing the work of salvation. I challenge you to do it to.

** Don't know about temple work? Read at one (or both!) of these sites:
https://www.lds.org/topics/baptisms-for-the-dead?lang=eng
http://www.mormon.org/faq/baptism-for-the-dead