Starting in November 2021, personal temple reservation lists will have a new maximum of 300 rows per FamilySearch user. This update is intended to encourage members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use all the resources available to complete their ancestors’ temple work in a timely manner.
In a letter dated 8 October 2012, the First Presidency stated, “Some Church members have large numbers of family names reserved so they can personally attend to the temple work. We encourage them to release these names in a timely manner so the necessary ordinances can be performed.”
When Latter-day Saints find more temple opportunities than they can reasonably complete themselves, they can share them with family members or other Church members around the world to help complete the ordinances.
Helping Each Other in Our Sacred Obligation
President Russell M. Nelson and other modern prophets have emphasized the importance of hastening the work and gathering Israel:
“These surely are the latter days, and the Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel. That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty” (“Hope of Israel,” New Era supplement, June 2018, 8).
As Latter-day Saints share family names, other relatives and Church members can help participate in the gathering, even when they may not have available opportunities in their own family lines. In this way, Church members help each other fulfill sacred obligations to our deceased ancestors.
More about How the Update Works
If your temple reservation list has more than 300 rows of reservations when the update is put in place, none of your family names will be automatically released. They will remain on your reservation list until they are completed or shared or until they reach their assigned expiration date. When the reservation expires, the ordinances will be shared with the temple.
Family names can be shared with a family group, shared by email with family members and friends, or shared to the temple inventory (sign in to your FamilySearch account to view these links). When family names are shared to the temple inventory, they don’t expire from the temple’s list. Relatives of those deceased people or other members doing temple service can find the reservation using Ordinances Ready and by other means.
If you have more questions about this recent update, visit “Answers to Questions | Personal Temple Reservation Lists, New 300 Maximum.”
Read More about Updates to Temple Ordinance Reservations
