Latter-day Saint Life

LDS 15-Year-Old Helps Find 700+ Names for Temple Work

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What a great example of how much temple work just a few people can accomplish. 

Nate Arvidson has a stack of pink, blue and assorted other colors of temple cards about half a foot high — and counting. Besides the pile of "Temple work completed" cards, there are some 700 of his cards either on file at the Bountiful Utah Temple or in a plastic box at home, neatly divided into temple ordinance categories, that the Arvidson family is working on.

Nate, 15, a sophomore at Bountiful High School, continues to add to the figures. He says he was turned on to genealogical work because an older brother, Jared, was doing it. Jared is currently serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Richmond, Virginia. Nate also was encouraged to pursue family history research through his seminary classes.

But what started as an assignment has become a passion. He spends time every week, along with a group of five to seven friends, searching out names or visiting the temple to do baptisms.

All of the Arvidsons — including Nate's parents, Tye and Shelly; his brother, Sam 12; sister, Alexis, 22; two married siblings; grandparents and a great-grandmother, who is now 80 years old — assist in completing the temple work. With three generations looking for names and completing the binding ordinances, the family makes huge inroads into the standing LDS Church assignment to search out relatives and get them sealed into family units.

Nate isn't alone. Actually, he's part of a growing trend in the church that sees young people, all of them already adept at computers, contributing significantly to the work. It takes Nate about two minutes to show a (really) old newspaper reporter how he does it.

Lead image from the Deseret News
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