At our recent Ward conference we were challenged to have 3 spiritual goals for the coming year. A monthly temple goal A monthly ministry goal and A weekly doctrine goal. A friend showed me a center piece she had created for her table to help her family with the goal to Ponderize. I had my 12 year old help me create one this week out of old 3 ring binders with the clear plastic covers you can put pictures or things in. My daughter had the idea to put flowers in the middle and it makes me so happy. It has 3 places for different messages.
Our first doctrine is the doctrine of the family. We studied my favorite quote from this First Presidency message "We owe our families the kind of relationship we can take into the presence of God. We must try not to give offense or take offense. We can determine to forgive quickly and fully. We can try to seek the happiness of others above our own. We can be kind in our speech. As we try to do all these things, we will invite the Holy Ghost into our families and into our lives."
Today I was asked for more step by step instructions for teaching the Puzzilla program to find your family history. I have been having some great success with my family names and haven't sat down to do family history on Puzzilla without feeling great success. I think it is a huge way to access your family that has been untapped.
To start with you need to watch this amazing 4 minute video with Elder Anderson and his grandson telling about finding your cousins
Then I think it would be helpful to give you a step by step instructions so you can refer to them again and again.
1. Login with your LDS.org or Family Search User name and Password
(This connects you to the work that is already done.)
2. Puzzilla it will automatically create a fan chart with you at the bottom of the fan and your ancestors fanning out from the middle
It looks like this:
3. Choose one of the ancestors at the the top of the fan.
4. click on the Descendants button
Puzzilla will generate a descendant chart for the family member you chose.
It looks like this:
5. Look for ancestors that have no descendants.
A Yellow box next to a red or blue box means that ancestor died before the age of 16
Any ancestor that has a Grey box means they are less then 110 years old and might still be alive.
Avoid either of these. But anyone else needs to be researched to find if they have descendants that are not on family search yet. Click on the red or blue box and it will show you their information.
6. Choose View in Family tree button
Puzzilla will take you to their Family tree person page
7. On the Right hand side of the page you will look for the button that says Search Records
Family search will take you to the indexing records, Census or birth or death records with this persons name or similar names.
8. This is where the fun begins because if you can find this ancestor in a census or on a birth certificate as a parent you have found children for this person that were not there before. This is how to start finding your family to do their work for them. SO FUN!!
This video talks about what you can find when you search the records and what to do to refine your search to find what you are looking for.
My children and I are taking this challenge and so far have found about 50 names since Jan 12,2015 using a program called Puzzilla. I am working on a step by step how to so that we can all start using Puzzilla more
There are so many promises for protection and spiritual strength for doing family history work. I loved this short video by Elder Scott promising protection.
I love this quote by the Prophet Joseph and am so excited to watch this promise unfold. I love being part of the fulfilling of this promise in my day.
More promises from Elder Andersen-
1. You will have a greater testimony of the Savior
2. Increased knowledge of life beyond the veil.
Promises from Elder Bednar:
1. Your hearts will turn to your fathers,
2. The promises made to Abraham, Issac and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts,
3. Your patriarchal blessing esp your declaration of lineage will be more meaningful to you
4. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase,
5. Your conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding
6. You will be protected from the intensifying influence of the adversary
7. Safeguarded in your youth and throughout your life
I had a precious Relief Society president who mentored me in a very hard time. When I complained that family home evening was hard and my kids weren't behaving during it she said, " I read the promises for having family home evening and determined that nothing was going to get in my way of getting those blessings for my family."
These blessings are too great for us to let anything get in our way of receiving them
Our first doctrine is the doctrine of the family. We studied my favorite quote from this First Presidency message 
