Part 2 Close to home
FamilySearch is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For this, the Church calls and sets apart missionaries who work specifically with family history. With an increased emphasis on family history initiatives, the Family History Department is looking to add more missionaries either as couples or singles. There are three different types of family history missionary experiences to help accommodate a variety of life circumstances. Members can serve a family history mission away from home, close to home or directly from home.
There are 14 FamilySearch libraries in the western United States and one in London, England. We have one in St. George at 162 North 400 East on the 2nd floor of Building B. FamilySearch missionaries help people find their ancestors, help them learn to research, teach them how to do indexing and how to use family history software. A commitment is required for these missionaries to serve, as they serve anywhere from 15 to 30 hours each week. They assist patrons as they walk in and ask questions. Many of these missionaries have a sense of fulfillment and life changing experiences. Most of them continue serving for years. Candidates wanting to serve at one of the 15 FamilySearch libraries must live close to one of them.
Another close-to-home opportunity to serve is in a Records Operation Center. There are several locations, mostly in the western United States, and St. George has one of these as well. Here the missionaries will do anything from helping prepare genealogical content for indexing and publication to scanning books and creating a digital copy. Missionaries in these “Roc” centers as they are called love the work and get to know others working in the center. The Records Operation Center in St. George is located in the old Distribution Building in the parking lot north of the St. George Temple on 200 East.
Part 3 will appear next week.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com (435) 628-4900.