We'll I guess I should explain what I am doing and how this got started. When I was at Snow college in 2004 I was given some family history books as I had to write a paper on someone on my family for a history class. As I was researching I realized we had a lot of ancestors that lived in Manti and helped build the Manti temple. I thought that was pretty cool as I went to that temple often. I found a memorial by the temple where they reconstructed a dug out that some of the early settlers would have live in on the side of the mountain. I found that my ancestors lived in dug outs just like this one. I read some stories and put the books away as I went on my mission. After I got back and got married I took a family history class at the ward we lived in and found some more stories and got introduced to Ancestry.com. Ancestry was very fun for me. I started to see how far I could go back linking people who had been put in there. I was not concerned about verifying any information, and had been told that all my family work had been done ( oh how wrong I was). So I just was having fun trying to see how far back I could trace my lines. That got boring after awhile so I dropped it thinking that there wasn't much I could do in the way of temple work. My whole life I was told that my Aunt Linda and Aunt Susan had done all the work on my dad's side and my Aunt Diana had done all the work for my moms side. My Aunts on my dad's side had put together an amazing book that I am more grateful for the more I learn about the difficulty of family history work. I also had some great books on my moms side of some really cool pioneer heritage. But as far as doing temple work I never thought that was a possibility. Then came Sister Elijah into my life. Camie's mom had always been doing family history and had some cool stories she would share with us from time to time. When I would tell her "all my work has been done" she would smile with the same smile I give my 2 year old when she says "I just built the biggest tower in the world." She was patient with me and kept telling me "you have many ancestral cousins who need their work done." I would look for a few minutes get frustrated with my lack of success and exclaim again, my work has all been done. Then a few months ago she showed me puzzilla.org a great tool to simplify the work of searching your cousins. After a couple of hours playing with this tool I started to find success, people who I could actually take to the temple, lots of people, and stories that brought me to tears. Being guided by those who are anxious to have their work done. I have found the promises of protection to be very real. I neede a place to write down my experiences so I don't forget some of these awesome stories that have happened and no doubt will continue to happen. I have felt the spirit of Elijah in my life and am seeing it drive this work. There is a very real power that can be felt as we work in the important work of family history. I will indicate if the story is from the Denham side or the Sheppard side and how each person I write about relates to me.
