Mormon Temples and Family History Centers

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Mormon Temples and Family History Centers
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Agenda

• Teaser Simon Wiesenthals baptism
• Introductions
• Disclaimers
• Ground rules
• Who am I?
• What do you want to make sure I cover?

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Agenda, continued

• Mormon Temples
• What a Mormon temple is and isnt
• A history of Mormon temple worship
• The Los Angeles temple
• Baptisms, endowments, sealings

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Agenda, continued

• Genealogy, computers, and the Internet
• Family History Centers
• The non-Mormon view
• The Mormon view
• A brief history

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Agenda, continued

• Recent controversies
• 1995 Holocaust victims baptisms
• Simon Wiesenthals 2006 baptism
• The Mormon churchs response
• Questions and Answers

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Introduction

• Disclaimers
• I am solely responsible for this talk.
• Ground rules
• Please interrupt me with questions.
• This talk is being recorded.
• Who am I?
• What do you want to make sure I cover?

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Mormon Temples

• Some terminology
• Temples are not meetinghouses
• Temples arent even open on Sundays
• Unlike meetinghouses, temples are not open to the
  public

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Mormon Temple History I

• First temple Kirtland, Ohio, 1836
• Next temple Nauvoo, Illinois, 1846
• Three more in Utah before Salt Lake City in 1893

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The Salt Lake Temple (1893)
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Mormon Temple History II

• Five more outside of Utah before Los Angeles in
  1956

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The Los Angeles Temple (1956)
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The Oakland Temple (1964)
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The San Diego Temple (1993)
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Mormon Temple History III

• 124 temples worldwide today
• Roughly half (60) are within the U.S.
• Seven are within California
• Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego
• Fresno, 2000
• Redlands, 2003
• Newport Beach, 2005
• Sacramento, 2006

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Temples in California Today
Source http//temples.lds.org
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Mormon Temple Growth

• Only four temples operating in 1900
• Only eight operating by 1950
• 20 in 1982
• 40 in 1986
• In 1999, increased from 43 to 68
• In 2000, increased from 68 to 102
• 124 today, with 11 more announced

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The Los Angeles Temple

• 13 acres purchased from Harold Lloyd Motion
  Picture Company, Mar 23, 1937.
• World War II delayed construction.
• Groundbreaking Sep 22, 1951
• Dedication Mar 11-14, 1956
• Source http//www.ldschurchtemples.com/losangeles
  /

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Questions and Answers

• Does anybody want to ask questions about any of
  the stuff weve covered so far?

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Salvation for the Dead

• Ordinances baptism, etc. are required for
  exaltation for all accountable persons. Many
  people have died without receiving these
  ordinances. Heavenly Father has prepared a way
  for the dead to hear the gospel and receive these
  ordinances. People who died without a knowledge
  of the gospel, but who would have received it,
  are promised that they will be heirs to the
  celestial kingdom. CHI, Book 2, Section 9, p.
  262

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Salvation for the Dead

• The people in the spirit world may exercise
  faith in Jesus Christ and accept the gospel
  message, but because they do not have physical
  bodies, the gospel ordinances must be performed
  vicariously for them on earth. Church members
  have a responsibility to provide these ordinances
  for their own ancestral families. Ordinances that
  have been performed for the dead are effective
  when the deceased persons choose to accept them
  and become qualified to receive them. ibid.

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Salvation for the Dead

• The greatest responsibility in this world that
  God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead.
  Joseph Smith
• Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their
  deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their
  own salvation. Joseph Smith

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Salvation for the Dead

• These are principles in relation to the dead and
  the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as
  pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation
  is necessary and essential to our salvation, as
  they without us cannot be made perfect neither
  can we without our dead be made perfect.
• Joseph Smith, DC 12815

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Baptism

• For the living
• First practiced in 1829
• By immersion, in any body of water
• For the dead
• First introduced in 1840
• Must be performed in the temple

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Endowment

• Introduced in 1842
• Must be performed in temples
• The name endowment is a reference to being
  endowed with power from on high (cf. Luke
  2449, DC 958-9)
• Is a two-hour dramatization of Adam, Eve, the
  Garden of Eden, etc.

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Endowment

• Your endowment is to receive all those
  ordinances in the house of the Lord which are
  necessary for you, after you have departed this
  life, to enable you to walk back to the presence
  of the Father, passing the angels who stand as
  sentinels, being enabled to give them the key
  words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the
  holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal
  exaltation.
• Brigham Young

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Sealings

• Husband and wife
• Dates to the 1840s
• Parents and children
• As we know it today, began in 1894
• Must be performed in temples
• Means to bind in the same sense with which
  Jesus gave Peter the power to bind on earth and
  in heaven (Mt. 1619, Hel. 107)

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Questions and Answers

• Does anybody want to ask questions about any of
  the stuff weve covered so far?

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Family History Comes of Age

• 1894 Revelation on sealings organization of the
  Genealogical Society of Utah
• 1938 Microfilming begins
• 1961 Name extraction begins
• 1963 Granite Mountain Records Vault completed
• 1964 Branches of the Genealogical Library open
  renamed FHCs in 1987

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Family History Comes of Age

• 1969 Records of temple work begin to be
  computerized the IGI is born
• 1983 Personal Ancestral File
• 1990 FamilySearch
• 1993 TempleReady
• Late 1990s FamilySearch.org
• Source Hearts Turned to the Fathers, Allen et.
  al., 1994

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Questions and Answers

• Does anybody want to ask questions about any of
  the stuff weve covered so far?

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Genealogy on the Internet
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Genealogy on the Internet

• http//www.Ancestry.com
• http//www.CyndisList.com
• http//www.FamilySearch.org
• http//www.RootsWeb.com
• http//www.USGenWeb.com
• http//www.WorldGenWeb.com

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Family History Centers the non-Mormon view
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Visiting a FHC

• The big one at the temple is the largest one
  outside of Salt Lake City
• A huge collection of books and microfilms
• The rest are smaller
• A basic set of books and films, but you can order
  any films you want for a small fee
• Open hours are unpredictable check before you go
  at FamilySearch.org.

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FHC Locations (626)

• Covina
• Glendora
• Hacienda Heights
• Pasadena

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FHC Locations (818)

• Burbank
• Canoga Park
• Glendale
• Grenada Hills / Northridge
• La Crescenta
• San Fernando / Van Nuys
• Sylmar

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Family History Centers the Mormon view
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TempleReady

• The main focus is taking ancestors to the temple.
• Research books and microfilms are a means to that
  end.
• By and large, Mormons who are in the FHC are
  there to use TempleReady.

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TempleReady and the IGI

1. Members enter a name, and an event date and place
   into TempleReady.
2. TempleReady checks that name against the IGI. If
   no duplication is found, the name is added to a
   floppy diskette.
3. Members take that diskette to the temple, which
   begins recordkeeping of temple work for that name.

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TempleReady and the IGI

1. As ordinances are performed, the temple transmits
   the date and place of each event to headquarters,
   which updates the IGI with new information.
2. If another member, elsewhere in the world, tries
   to submit the same ancestor to TempleReady, it
   gets flagged as a duplicate and no diskette is
   generated.

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Questions and Answers

• Does anybody want to ask questions about any of
  the stuff weve covered so far?

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Non-Mormon Reaction

• Praise
• Controversy
• Holocaust baptisms 1995, 2000, and 2006
• My brush with LDS Public Affairs

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Questions and Answers

• If theres any time left now, you all need to
  think of questions to ask, or Ill just ramble on
  some more.