Past visitors to the Church’s Humanitarian Center were treated to a film showing examples of the Church’s humanitarian efforts around the world. At one point in the film, a nearly blind sister in her 90s showed how she could still serve others by making simple quilts to warm people who had been displaced from their homes by war or natural disasters. As she would finish each quilt, she would hold it to herself and hug it in an effort to convey her love and concern for the recipient—a person on the other side of the world whom she would never meet.
If she had been an indexer, I can imagine this sister looking at each name, wondering who each person was and what made these people special and unique. I can see her striving diligently to be sure each letter was deciphered and recorded correctly. And I can feel her gratitude for being the one who was helping someone to be found and remembered and her joy at the thought of that person receiving and accepting the ordinances of the temple performed in his or her behalf.
I aspire to be that kind of indexer, one who can consistently look beyond the data entry, the arbitration results, and the difficult handwriting to feel, every time I index or arbitrate, the Spirit bearing witness to me that I am doing the Lord’s work on behalf of His precious children. I want to feel with every batch I submit that my work is approved and my efforts truly do have eternal significance. I’m not there yet, but I have experienced enough of the wonder of this work to really struggle when I hear negative, nonconstructive criticisms or see examples of thoughtlessly sloppy indexing or learn of efforts to game the system to inflate one’s numbers.
None of these negatives causes permanent harm to the work. The Lord will see to it that things keep moving ahead on course and at the right pace. But I worry about individuals who participate without feeling blessed, who miss the point of the work in their haste to satisfy some other need.
Indexing is the Lord’s work. It is not the work of man, but we are privileged to be able to participate and contribute. Along the way lie tremendous blessings for those who approach the work with thoughtfulness and motives that are pure.
As stake indexing directors, you are in a position to help others realize these blessings. Teach those you serve the eternal significance of this work. Teach them that their efforts can literally free people from spirit prison and the burden of sin that they bear. Teach them of the joy they provide to others who are able to discover long-missing ancestors. And teach them of the spiritual protection they will receive and the heart-turning spiritual connections they will make with their own ancestors as they continue to serve.
As those who know will testify, indexing and arbitrating in the Lord’s way changes lives in beautiful, positive ways. May you be blessed with an enduring testimony of this work that you can use to help others realize all that indexing is meant to be.
