RootsTech 2018, the world’s largest genealogy gathering, was once again amazing and inspiring. Many of us were able to participate in person or online. The Leadership Session, informative individual breakout sessions, Discovery Day, the multitude of exhibits, along with the personal connections made, were all helpful and motivational in both temporal and spiritual ways.

What a joy it was to experience the video presentation shared by President Dallin H. Oaks, which highlighted youth and families from our very own Family History Center. The presentation clearly demonstrated that when engaged in this sacred work, our youth feel a transforming power with an almost instantaneous joy and increased confidence. President Oaks: They become more connected to their families. They no longer feel so alone. They begin to feel a celestial kinship. They learn what it means to feel the Spirit.

Sister Kristen Oaks added, Family History has eternal significance in the life of each person you serve, but it can also have very immediate blessings in the life of the person performing the work. I would assure each of you that these blessings hold true for young and old alike. We were reminded by President Oaks, If you want a happier family, retell family stories. He added, Those who search out their ancestors’ actions and words will receive strength and direction in their own lives.

I have personally felt this to be true this past month in learning more about some of my relatives and ancestors through online searches, which have strengthened my connection to them. I loved looking at photos of my father while he served in the US Marine Corps and was touched in reading a heartfelt handwritten letter sent to him by his father, my grandfather, at the close of WWII.

May we each move valiantly forward utilizing the new approach: DISCOVER – GATHER – CONNECT, that our personal conversion will be more firmly rooted so to withstand the turbulence and challenges which lie ahead.        –Glen Steenblik