“[Jesus Christ's] Church provides patriarchal blessings to give each recipient a vision for his or her future as well as a connection with the past, even a declaration of lineage back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” - Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Covenants,” October 2011 General Conference
Just before the New Year, the Church announced two new online tools that will help Latter-day Saints across the world obtain, view, and share patriarchal blessings easier.
Church members can now request a copy of their own patriarchal blessing that will allow them to view it online—anytime, anywhere. They can also request a copy of blessings from deceased ancestors, which they will receive via mail or email.
The second tool helps priesthood leaders and patriarchs streamline and simplify the process by allowing priesthood leaders the chance to submit patriarchal blessing recommendations online. Patriarchs can then view these recommends and, once the blessing has been given, submit the text digitally.
So far, this tool has been released to over 50 percent of the Church's stakes in three languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), but there are plans to make it available to every stake and in 14 languages within the next year, according to the Church History Library.
To request a copy of your patriarchal blessing, go to apps.lds.org. Here, you will find a new landing page that has been created to help members easily access their patriarchal blessing. In the right-hand corner, you will find options for members to request, view, or submit blessings (this last option is reserved for priesthood leaders and patriarchs).
If you have not already requested your blessing, stay on the request page. Here, you will click on the blue "get started" button.
If you have not already signed into your LDS.org account, the site will prompt you to sign in now. Once you are signed in, you will be taken to a page with your personal contact information. Here, you can choose either of the two green buttons to request your own blessing by clicking on the green circle above your name, or request an ancestor's blessing by clicking the green circle to the right. After you have requested it, the button will turn gold.
Here, you will be prompted to fill in information needed to help locate your blessing (the name of the patriarch who gave your blessing, the stake you lived in at the time, your approximate age, etc.). Once you have filled out this information, hit "request." This will send your request along to the Church History Library, which will then locate and upload your blessing.
The Church stores patriarchal blessings in the Church History Library's digital preservation system, where it's kept in multiple formats and in several locations, including their underground Granite Mountain Records Vault, which is one of the most secure sites in the world.
Once the blessing has been located in one of these places and uploaded, you can find it under the "view" tab in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
And that's it! That's all you need to know to get your blessing online.
