We recently had transfer calls and the missionary I had been working with, Elder Wood, got transferred down to Hardin and he was replaced with Elder Huffaker. Elder Wood was a Native American, so while I had Elder Wood as a companion he got a lot of questions about which tribe he was from. Usually the question would come in the form of, "What kind of Indian are you?" More often then not people would usually then turn the question towards me in the form of "What kind of white guy are you?" Unfortunately I am not as knowledgeable in my family history as Elder Wood is in his, so the asker of the question would usually leave the conversation very disappointed with me. So I decided I needed to find out what kind of "white guy" I am. The first place I looked was
new.familysearch.org, which is a free family history website set up by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Well it turns out that my ancestors were some of the first Europeans to settle in the new world, so it took a bit of digging to find where my ancestors were from before they came to America. It would appear from my research that they came mainly from the British Isles with a little bit of German, Dutch, and various other nationalities thrown in there.
It hit me while I was doing this research how much the gospel of Jesus Christ truly blesses families. If it were not for the church and its many programs that it has for genealogy I would not even know where to begin my research about my family and it is through these programs that many families are sealed for time and all eternity in the temple. I am grateful for the knowledge that I will be able to live with my family forever and that we aren't permanently separated after we die and I would not have this knowledge if it were not for Jesus Christ and his church that has been restored to the earth once again. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that one true church that was established before the foundations of this world and that its teaching can help families not only in this life but also in the life to come.
