News Story

Tongan Youth Catch the Spirit of Indexing

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Young Women organisation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, young women all over the world were invited to do 150 acts of service.

In the Halaliku Stake (group of congregations) in Tonga, they did this through Family History indexing, and involved not just the young women, but all who wanted to help.

 

Indexing is a worldwide volunteer transcription effort that requires human eyes to look at valuable genealogical records and enter them into a digital database. They can then be freely searchable online at sites such as familysearch.org

Satini Lolo, Halaliku Stake Family History Director said, “some of the young women in the stake who frequent the Family History Centre wanted to participate by indexing 150 names or more.” The excitement caught on and other young women wanted to help, and many young men wanted to join in as well.

In just a few months, 23 youth, including two younger boys, completed the goal of indexing 150 names with some reaching 1,000 names.

Mapa ‘Alovili shared a video about the Young Women organisation and her experience indexing names.

                             

Leona Funganitao, from the Church’s Lavengatonga Branch, said, “I feel closer to Heavenly Father and am proud to be in the Young Women program.”

                                   

Mrs. Lolo said, “A lot of the youth shared how they feel more productive at school and at home when they work at the Family History Centre. They understand that by doing Family History work they are building the Kingdom of God.”

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