The Story of Jacob Sluisman

I teach the 16-17 year old Sunday School class at church.  Before that I was the Laurel advisor, second counselor and then first counselor in Young Women's.  These youth have grown up with me.  And I can't lie to them.  So a few weeks ago, after giving a lesson on Family History and asking them why it is individually important to them to do Family History work and not just rely on their grandparents to do Family History, I turned to them to bear my testimony of why I personally needed to do Family History, and I couldn't.  I couldn't tell them that I have a testimony of Family History and its role in my life.  And it bothered me.  I am supposed to know stuff and have a testimony but I could not look them in the eye and truthfully say, I know we need to do Family History.

I thought about this failure for several weeks.  How is Family History important my personal salvation?

One night as I sat on Henry's bed waiting for him to fall asleep, I noticed an email from Family Search.  I get these emails every few days or so.  I usually open them and glance through them.  And that's what I did.  This one was for a Maretje van der Linden.  She is the fourth great-granddaughter of my 8th great-grandparents, which makes us some sort of crazy cousins.  Someone had entered her name and information but not requested her temple work to be done.  In my laziness and desire to have something to say to my Sunday School class, I signed into Family Search and reserved her ordinances.  I clicked around a bit and found that Family Search had located some records for her that needed a human to review so I did.  I found a daughter for her--Grietje Leijen, who married Adriaan Sluisman, whose father was Jacob Sluisman, whose father was Jacob Sluisman, whose father Pieter Sluisman.  It was the second Jacob Sluiman who brought me to Family Search.  How do I know?  I don't.  But I am in no way related to him--he is the in-law of a very distant cousin and he's Dutch.   But he wants his work done--he and his whole family.  Finding these names of these un-related Dutchmen from the late 18th century could not have been easier.  Next to their names is a list of documents that Family Search found that needed a human to review; these documents had birthdates, death dates, marriage dates, along with parentage and in-laws.  All sitting, in English, in Family Search.  Jacob did everything he could to make sure his name and his family's name were found, recorded and reserved.  All-in-all, I have 25 names reserved.  I was going to wait for the next Youth temple trip to get the baptisms and confirmations done, but Jacob Sluisman the first doesn't want to wait.  He and his family want the work done now.  So tomorrow, I have to call the temple to see the soonest Greg and I can be baptized for them.

Sunday, yesterday, I reminded my Sunday School class of Alma 32:27--even if you have a desire to believe, experiment upon the words.  And I told my story.  How I had just the faintest desire to believe, to understand why I should do Family History (if only to redeem myself from the embarrassment a few weeks ago) and the Lord and Jacob Sluisman went to work.  I experimented upon the word--I did some ridiculously easy Family History.  And the result: I am happier.  The time I spent working on these names is time I usually spend scrolling and aimlessly clicking through Facebook, finding all the ways that my high school aquaintances' fake lives are more glamorous and exciting than my fake life.  Instead, I clicked through Family Search and found Jacob.  And now, I have a sprouting testimony of Family History and its importance in my life.  It makes me happy.
Here's to you Jacob.