Unit History Tool Is Helping Saints Preserve Stories of Faith

More than once when addressing questions from members in 2025, Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder, was asked about the vast number of individual, family and unit histories collected annually by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What happens to those records, and are they accessible to Latter-day Saints?

Responding to a member at a September 19, 2025, devotional in Palmyra, New York, Elder McKay explained that for many years, members were asked to compile and submit unit histories. The Church has received these histories and preserved them, but they are not accessible due to privacy laws and other barriers. It’s a concern that sometimes has kept the Church historian up at night, he said.

“I feel like the prophet Mormon in a cave. I am surrounded by records. We have so much historical data, and we would like to get it into a document, book or record that is accessible for the purpose of persuading people to come unto Jesus Christ,” he said. “Our vision is that one day we will be able to share our stories around the globe so our children and grandchildren will be fortified and strengthened. ... We are working on it.”

Elder McKay then encouraged the use of the Unit History Tool, a feature designed to improve and simplify the experience of capturing and preserving stories of faith and historical significance that was launched in January 2024, replacing the old process of submitting unit histories.

“Now we can capture history as it happens, and it is available to members in the ward or stake for a period of two years,” Elder McKay said.

‘A Record Kept Among You’

On April 6, 1830, the day the Church was organized, Latter-day Saints received the Lord’s command to keep a record: “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you” (Doctrine and Covenants 21:1).

Since then, preserving records, such as meeting minutes and historical accounts, has become a top priority for the Church, as noted in a BYU Studies article by Wayne Crosby and W. Tyson Thorpe. Crosby serves as the director of the Archives and Area Support Division for the Church History Department.

“These minutes, histories and reports are an indispensable source for understanding the history of the Church. They provide insight into the experiences of everyday Latter-­day Saints as they live their religion,” Crosby and Thorpe wrote.

The Church’s General Handbook states: “Keeping a history is a spiritual work that will strengthen the faith of those who write and read it. Documenting stories throughout the year will improve the quality of the history” (33.7.1).

Here is a timeline of how the Church has kept records:

• 1830 to 1924: Church units kept minutes of meetings and submitted them to Church headquarters, while Church Historian’s Office staff traveled globally to compile scrapbook-style local unit histories.
• 1925 to 1983: Church standardized reporting, including historical reports, which were collected quarterly and then annually, added to local unit histories. In 1978, the practice of submitting meeting minutes was discontinued, and a new approach was implemented.
• 1984: Wards and branches were no longer required to submit reports.
• 2000: Wards and branches began sending reports to their stakes. Stakes and districts forwarded all unit reports to Church headquarters as a single annual history.
• January 2024: Church replaced annual histories with the Unit History Tool.

Unit History Tool

According to Crosby and Thorpe, despite their value, there were issues with the annual unit histories. Leaders and unit historians often didn’t know what to write, who their audience was or if the histories would ever be read. Once submitted, the histories were rarely accessed by local members. Additionally, leaders found the submission process cumbersome and desired an electronic method.

The Church responded by creating the Unit History Tool.

A letter sent to local leaders on Jan. 11, 2024, outlined the key changes:

• Unit histories will now primarily consist of stories submitted electronically.
• Stories can be written by leaders serving in ward and stake callings and will be approved on a local level.
• Approved stories will be published individually by stakes and wards throughout the year instead of the stake compiling and sending paper or digital copies of an annual history to Church headquarters.
• Members can view the stories at UnitHistory.ChurchofJesusChrist.org (Church login required) immediately after they are published.

“The benefits of the tool include having members access their history, making it easy to do in real time and allowing more people to contribute,” Crosby said.

The tool is available in more than 30 languages. Members are encouraged to submit their stories in their native language.

Once published, the stories remain available on the Church website for two years. Afterward, they are accessible through the Church History Catalog, where they are safeguarded for privacy.

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Since the Launch

Since the launch of the Unit History Tool in 2024, more than 260,000 stories have been published, with 74% of all stakes and districts having at least one unit that has contributed a story.

“The Unit History Tool was designed to make life easier for leaders, move away from the clerical once-a-year submission process and allow people to write and access their stories in real time,” said Crosby.

In 2025, approximately 150,000 stories — an average of 12,000 per month — were published using the Unit History Tool, written by more than 77,000 unique contributors.

“Momentum is growing. This is an amazing scope of perspectives being captured,” Crosby said. “Compared to the old approach, more content is being created, and the type of content is more likely to have a gospel focus.”

The Church plans to make the tool available to missions so missionaries can write stories that will be visible to current missionaries in that mission.

Stories That Strengthen Faith

Members are encouraged to create stories that reflect on, recognize or capture important experiences or events that strengthen and inspire faith in Jesus Christ.

In the BYU Studies article, Crosby and Thorpe provided examples of stories the Church hopes members will submit.

In one story, Marc Haws described how members of the Ontario Oregon Stake demonstrated faith as they showed up for a service activity despite rainy weather. When members arrived, the rain stopped, allowing them to complete a three-hour project. As they departed, the rainstorm returned.

“Lesson learned,” Haws wrote. “We need to stop second-­guessing outcomes, have faith and let the Lord work little miracles in our lives."

Verônica Moretti, Young Women president in the Itapuã Ward, Salvador Brazil Imbuí Stake, shared a spiritual experience that inspired her and her family to save and prepare for a 16-hour bus trip to the Recife Brazil Temple to be sealed together.

“The entire time I felt the hand of Heavenly Father guiding us,” she wrote. “It was an incredible experience. I could feel Heavenly Father’s love for our family and gratitude for giving us the opportunity to be an eternal family.”

How to Create a Story

To create a story and see your own unit history, go to UnitHistory.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, and log in using Church account credentials.

Click on the “Create Story” button, and follow the on-screen prompts to submit a story. The steps to create a story are also available in a YouTube video.