I would like to welcome to the stage Elder Bradley D. Foster. Elder Foster is a General Authority Seventy and the Executive Director of the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And Elder Foster hails from Rigby, Idaho. Thank you, Nkoyo, thank you so much. Yeah, that's right. Some fans out there, some neighbors probably. And Elder Foster brought some--sorry, you were going to say. I interrupted you. We welcome you all to the LDS track, and we're so grateful to have Nkoyo with us. She used to be at KSL, and she sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for many years, the beautiful face. And we're glad to have her today to help moderate our discussion. Thank you. And Nkoyo, we have a kitchen setting for us, and all good conversations take place around a dinner table. I love that. And we're going to invite you to come over there, and then I'm going to introduce you to some of my friends. Is that OK? I can't wait. I can't wait.

We have--Nkoyo, we have some folks that help us in this department, Family History Department, and I'd like you to meet them. They're from around the world. First I would like to introduce Elder Scott Grow, an assistant Executive Director. He's from Boise, Idaho, USA. Thank you. Thank you Next we have Elder Erich Kopischke. He's from Germany, and we're glad to have Erich with us. Hi, nice to meet you. Next, we have Elder Gavarret from Uruguay. Gavarret. Hi. Nice to meet you. Hi, welcome. And finally, we have Elder Ian Ardern from New Zealand.

And to make this traditional, Elder Kopischke, we brought you a German pastry. Erdbeerkuchen! [LAUGHTER] In English, what is it called? Strawberry cake. Strawberry cake. That's good. It looks delicious. It is delicious. Do we get to eat that while we talk? No, wishful thinking. No, don't touch. Well, I have to say, many of our best family memories actually start at the kitchen table and family gatherings. So I would just like to ask each of you, and let's start with you, Elder Foster. Where does your family like to gather? OK. I think our family--a gathering place for our family are special occasions like baptisms, like ball games, like weddings. We're kind of a special occasion gathering group. All right, Elder Grow. Family, we have 47 grandchildren, so it's a little tough to get around the table. But when we get together, they all know before they leave, we will have root beer floats. And I should mention, last week I was doing a conference in Idaho, and my mother cooked a lemon meringue pie, which is my favorite. Lemon meringue pie. My mom likes lemon a lot. Elder Kopischke, what about you? Our families are making music and singing since I'm young, and our favorite gathering place is actually a little island south of Sweden, a Danish island called Bornholm. We meet there every summer since 35 years. That's fantastic. Elder Gavarret? Maybe I can define the tradition of our family with three words: dances, music, and guitar. The guitar was one of the elements of the family, one of the instruments that they used to gather all the family together. I remember when I was a child, seeing my father and the other members of the family sitting around a fireplace in wintertime, and during the summertime in the backyard under the grapevines, listen and hear him--listening, and we hear him to play the guitar. That was a wonderful moment, and also we shared the stories of the family. And we keep in this moment until now; we keep that tradition to gather together and share the story of the family. One of my favorite instruments, the guitar. I love that story. What about your family, Elder Ardern? Well, Sister Ardern and I get to go home to New Zealand. Once a year we go at Christmastime, which is the New Zealand summer. And so we think of sand and sun and family and food, and we do it at the beach. But one of our children lives here, so he's kind of brought in by cyber means and helps connect the family in that fashion. That's fantastic. Well, I'd like to ask--we've heard about music, food, root beer floats, and a special occasion. How are you all preserving those family traditions? I'd like to start with you, Elder Foster. I think it takes a lot of effort to preserve family traditions. But I think more than in any time in our life, our children want traditions and a oneness, a safe place, whatever. I have to tell you a story that changed my view of a dinner table and what it was all about. I was in South America, in Argentina, and I went to visit, with the stake president, an inactive family--a part-member family. We sat down at their dinner table. It was a big table like this, and we were just visiting with each other. And all the children started pouring out of the rooms. I mean, it was like, "What's going on here?" They all come and sit around the table. And I said to the man, I said, "This is just so unusual. What are they doing?" And he said, "Well, don't you realize you're at the family confessional?" And he slapped the table and said, "This is our family confessional." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Every night at dinnertime, we confess to each other. If I've had a bad day, I tell the kids. They help me through it. If they've had a bad day, vice versa." And then all of a sudden, I said, "That's what I want for my family, too. I want a safe place where we can talk about anything. Not just eat. We can talk about anything." I'm trying to preserve that tradition. I think it's a great one. I really appreciate that because I do have a confession to make, Elder Foster. I'll tell you right here at the family table here. As a single woman with African heritage that's mainly oral, it's really difficult for my family to do our family history, to trace our genealogy. In fact, I think we only have my mother's parents, and so we're still working on the others. So I'm wondering, you're the Executive Director of the Family History Department. What have you learned about families and how they're gathering and maybe some new tools that will help us? I'm hoping to learn that today. Lots of them. As you've seen this morning, there are some great things going on in the industry. But I think that Heavenly Father wants all of His children gathered back to Him in families. Now, OK, you say you are single. In the Lord's vocabulary, He always talks about multigenerational families--extended families. So even if you're single, everybody has a family. And so don't ever think that. In his definition, that word is called kindred--kindred, extended families. So He wants them all back. Now, He's given us ways to do that. He's provided the priesthood to direct the work--bishops, stake presidents, fathers. And He's given us temple and family history consultants to do that. You talk about a new level for the Church; I'm going to ask Elder Grow. Tell us, Elder Grow, what's happening today with that. Will you please? Yeah. Yeah. Actually this morning, there was an announcement that went out worldwide. And let me just read. I'll read a bit and then just summarize a couple of key points. Is that OK? First point: "The First Presidency has approved changes in family history callings at the area, stake, and ward levels. Please share this information with your stake or ward council." This went to all priesthood leaders. "These changes are immediate and can be summarized as follows." So there are three different things. First, temple and family history consultants--you heard Elder Foster use that word temple in front. In the past, it was just "family history consultant." Now it's "temple and family history consultant." "All family history callings, at the area, stake, [and] ward level, are called temple and family history consultants. No general"--this is important--"no general release of currently serving individuals should be issued." We have over 90,000 consultants right now. Well, we need them all, so there are no releases, OK? "Primary responsibility," number two, "of all temple and family history consultants is to give personalized help to leaders and to families," extended families as well, "enabling them to find [family] names of deceased ancestors, take [those] names to the temple and provide [the] ordinances ... , and teach their family members and others to do the same." And then the third piece that they have is on secondary assignments. It says: "In addition to their primary [assignments], some temple and family history consultants at the stake and ward levels may be assigned as lead temple and family history consultants." Now, at the stake level, these lead consultants will assist a high councilor who's over family history work and provide training, as needed, at the stake and the ward level. And then at the ward level, we have ward lead consultants who will assist the high priests group leader and also help train ward consultants. And then one last piece of information: "Other secondary assignments may be given to some stake temple and family history consultants" to do this: one, "to lead stake indexing efforts"--OK, listen to that--"or stake family history center operations. This supersedes the former stake indexing director and stake family history center director callings." So this can all be found on lds.org/TFHCallings. Thank you. New announcement. That's a great change, and it'll bless the people as they do it. Nkoyo, didn't you have this experience with the one-on-one experience? I was just about to say that. Thank you so much for reminding me. There are a lot of people in this audience, and I'm sure that many of you have callings--many of them have callings to help with family history. And I have to tell you that the scenario that you just read happened for me, my mother, and our friend who is not a member of our faith, who is also here as part of this conference. And I have to tell you, it was an incredible experience to sit down one on one with somebody who cared about me and cared and had the passion and was so excited to help me dig. And we found my great-grandparents. Wow. Yes, and I have to say that now my mother and I get to take our great-grandparents' names to the temple. And not the names--we get to go with them into the temple. Beautiful. Beautiful. Yes. It's really emotional. For our wonderful people that work in these positions, this is a real game changer. It's a paradigm shift. We have a saying in Germany, Der Name ist Programm. It means "The name is the program." "Family history," "temple and family history consultant"--that explains that it is not just having someone have a family history experience, but have a spiritual experience with that name that they found as they go to the temple and do the work. So the work doesn't stop. It's not just one half. It's both halves of the blessing. I think that's really important. And it's not that we just took the--taking names to the temple. It was the person who was helping me. He was so passionate and so--you would have thought he was working for his own family, and I was a stranger to him. Yes, Elder? So this is a wonderful way to work for some. I was 16 years old, was a teenager. One of the specialists in family history with a program of four generations helped me to understand that wonderful work. And I started to build my tree, family tree. That helped me also to establish a better relation and become to know--came to know better my relatives. So an interesting point now that with that name, we focus, as Erich said before, not only in names but in the end, in the temple. "Temple and family history consultant." This is a key resource for the youth and also for the new members of the Church to start working in this. Maybe this will be the first assignment that the newcomer could receive by the bishop. I appreciate what you said about youth and getting the youth involved, and I think that that might be--to some it would seem like a challenge. Wouldn't you say that, Elder Ardern? I think our youth are born with technology at their fingertips, and we hope that many of the temple and family history consultants will in fact be youth, and they'll reach out and help you in ways that you might struggle. Yes, Elder Grow? Yeah, as I listen to that, I'm remembering a couple of summers ago, we had a big family reunion. It was about family history work, and we have a 14-year-old granddaughter, Vanessa Lake, who was a family history consultant. And so we had her come up to talk to the whole family. That's about 70 of us, just our kids and their grandkids. And she said, talking about her assignment, that she was called. And I said, "Well, what training did you get?" And she said, "Well, I didn't necessarily know what I was supposed to do." I said, "Well, what did you do then?" She said, "I prayed about it." Now, we're hoping that with these lead consultants, we will now have a system in place that will automatically provide training for these young people and for other consultants. Elder Foster, you're nodding your head. We always have to remember that this is the family's responsibility and opportunity. The priesthood presides, and these new consultants will enable and assist. But Elder Ardern, when you think about the role of the family in all of this, in the scriptures it says they're our dead, our family, not "the" dead. And they're our fathers, not "the" fathers, on both sides. And so we can't minimize the role of the consultant is to help the family gather the families on both sides of the veil. At the end of the day, family history is a family affair. And we've got to move from just having a family specialist. We've got to have Mum and Dad and children all involved in family history at varying levels. I mean, look at the opportunity of Memories, for example, to be able to gather some information about a grandmother. Recently I've been trying to gather some information about my grandmother, Mary Elizabeth McCray. She was born in Scotland in 1878. Just a few days ago I saw the first photograph of her. She died before I was born, but to gather the memory and to put it in Memories was a launching pad for me to be able to find out other things about her and her journey through life. And it takes me to this next step, which would be the ordinances that need to be performed at the temple. All family members need to be involved to gather people safely in. I want to hear a little bit more about Mary Elizabeth McCray. Well, Mary Elizabeth McCray, she warms my heart. My mother's mother, born in Scotland, as I said.

A difficult marriage, divorced, came with a single son to New Zealand in the hope of finding a new life. And while she may not have found it, she certainly laid the foundation for me to find a new life. I know that she overcame struggles and that I too can overcome struggles. It's in my DNA, isn't it? And I appreciate hearing that story. It's really emotional for me to hear your story. I have very strong female figures in my life, and then to hear that you would have that strong female figure in your life to help lay the path for your life. As you said, she struggled, but you are able to see her example and move on. Well, she died when my mother was 13, and my mother took her qualities. And I hope I've got some of my mother's qualities. Any thoughts from listening to that story, Elder Kopischke? In the Book of Mormon, we have that--a voice from the dust. And I think in a very personal way, every single one of us can have this voice from the dust. Just a couple of weeks ago I visited a woman, and I think she was not active in the Church. And I had a feeling that I should just go and open my FamilySearch account. And I said, "Give me any one of your ancestors." And so she gave me her great-grandfather. And I typed in his name under my log-in, and I found him. And he was a member of the Church, and in FamilySearch we found his patriarchal blessing that he received right before he went into World War I from America to Germany and fighting there. It was as if her grandfather was talking and speaking to her. There was a special spirit in the room. So preserving memories, this is more than just building a tree. We want to build a tree, but if we preserve memories from our own family, they talk to us. They speak to us, and they inspire us. And--yes, Elder Gavarret. No, about these, to preserve the memories is very important. Sometimes we think that family history's only related with members of the Church. But we can link and establish that relation with our relatives who are nonmembers of the Church, and also they can provide information. And we can build that bridge between us and our living relatives that will connect us also with our relatives who are on the other side of the veil. So if you're ever feeling real guilty about not getting engaged in missionary work, and you're looking for a tool, look no further than getting your extended nonmember family engaged in family history. It will light a fire. And as I listen to all of you, I'm thinking what comes to mind is looking at these people, our family, beyond just a piece of paper. We have them. Their names are on paper or digitally, but if we look at them through the lenses of memories and how they impact us--wouldn't you say, Elder Foster? Just that it makes them come alive in our world. And what they are, we have to remember that they still live. Their bodies died, but they're still alive. And we're just getting to know them. These memories, these stories can help us to get to know these wonderful people who we're made of. Well, and you said, and I am intrigued when you say they're--yes, they're not alive. Well, no, that their bodies are dead, but they're still living. Sure. That's right. We want these family members who have passed on to--who weren't members of the Church to be recipients of the ordinances of the gospel. And so scripture teaches us that the power of godliness is found in the ordinances of the priesthood. And so surely for those we love, we want the power of godliness. And so we engage in family history. It might start with memories, but it must lead to ordinances in the temple. Elder Kopischke? See, there's a wonderful scripture in the Book of Mormon. It says that King Benjamin said that we should believe in God. We should believe in Christ. We should believe in the Resurrection. And then after it gives all the things that we need to believe, it says, and then you go and you do. So if you think about the plan of salvation, we believe in the plan of salvation. But if we do family history work, we go and we do. If we go to the temple, we go and we do. And that is where the special belief becomes conversion to us, where we have a good spiritual experience with one of our family members. I just had this girl in Idaho that a couple of years ago, we had a meeting on a Saturday night session. We talked about the plan of salvation. Twelve years old, and she came up, 1,200 people in the congregation. And she said, "I love my great-grandmother.

I just went with her to the temple, and the two of us, we had a great time." Now, she has never met her great-grandmother, but the two of them had a great time. I wish that family history and temple work would be something like this. Why do we have to do 10 baptisms or 20 baptisms? Why can I not just find one ancestor, know something about him, and have a good experience with that ancestor in the temple while I'm doing the work for them? I love that story. Elder Foster? I just wanted--I think it's really important. These men have all been leaders in the Church, priesthood leaders. And this role now--brethren, if you were a bishop again, if you were a bishop again knowing what you know now about what the tools are and the people, how would you--how would you do it differently? Well, you know, Elder Foster, that the greatest concern that bishops and stake presidents and Church leaders have all over the place is the youth. How can we help the youth stay converted? And it is the wonderful work that our missionaries are doing. And how can we retain them? How can they stay active? And then sometimes families that struggle in marriages after 10 years, 20 years. So I think this application of the plan of salvation that we just talked here is the very key for them to really build strong personal roots in the gospel and the doctrine of the gospel, but also to their families. And so if I would be a priesthood holder, I would use my keys and turn the keys to give these families the room that they can have a special spiritual experience in finding their ancestors and having experience with them in the temple. And that's actually what I was going to ask was about. I love the story that you talked of with the little girl where she said, "I went with my grandmother to the temple. We had a great time." And so how do we make that happen, though? I mean, it sounds good in theory, but how do we help our youth and bridge those--the generation gap, but bring the generations together in this family history work? Elder Gavarret? Well, I think one of the ways that Elder Kopischke said before is that we not only take names to the temple, but to come to know much better those ancestors. And to talk about that, I had a wonderful experience with my first granddaughter with age to go to the temple. We prepared names to go to the temple, and I shared with her something about, that I know about that relative--that ancestor. And that was--that made the difference in that moment. Made the difference and will make the difference for anyone when we take names and talk about their lives, stories of that name. There are stories behind that name. Elder Ardern, you look like you have a story to tell. I have a story to tell. It's going to be amazing. Look, Sister Ardern and I have been out of the country for a long time. We've not had grandchildren around, and so just recently we moved to America. And so our grandchildren who live in Logan--we have three children in New Zealand and one son here. We've been bringing our children up, and they've been--our grandchildren up, and they've been staying with us. And so just a couple of months ago, Charlotte came to stay with us. God bless Charlotte. We love her. And she came, and she has a few learning challenges, but she's as bright as a button. And I said to her, "Charlotte, shall we talk about where you come from?" And she leapt at the chance. And she--I had my family book, and we opened it up to the pedigree, and I said, "Where do you think you are?" She said, "I'm right here, Grandpa." She wrote down her details. And I said, "And what's your dad's name?" And she wrote it down. "And your mum? And what's my name?" And she loves dates. And I said, "And when was I born? 28 February 1954." And she wrote it in. At that moment, Charlotte became more engaged in her family and knowing who she was. Prophets have made promises to us that as our children become engaged in family history, they'll have a better understanding of who they are. They'll have a better understanding of their patriarchal blessings. They'll be better armed in testimony to withstand the fiery darts of the adversary. These were the blessings that were coming to Charlotte at that very moment. Isn't that a good story? It's a great story. I love that story. Elder Kopischke and Elder Grow? And with this new approach, you don't have to be 12 to start this. It can be done in a little age. So we are a divided family right now. All of our grandkids live in Germany. Half of our kids live here with us in the U.S. So last summer, when we met in our gathering place in a summer house in Denmark, and we wanted to do a temple day. And of course, all the grandkids are not in the age that they can go to the temple. So we had a special family home evening, and in that family home evening, we built a tree in the garden. And the tree--we had all these pictures of parents and grandparents and--yeah, parents and grandparents and that and great-grandparents. And so, American family, German family. Now, all the grandkids, they did not know a bit of the American family. They didn't know who Sherry's parents and grandparents were. So they had a big game and how to get who is who. And so we just had a marvelous family home evening in getting to know the people in our tree and bringing the--merging the families together. And then we went to the temple for a couple of them and had a special spiritual experience with them. This is a family affair, as you say. It's a family affair. And speaking of a family affair, Elder Grow? Yeah, as I listened to Elder Ardern, yet again, here a thought came to me of an experience recently. We have the same situation. As General Authorities, our family does not live here. They're all out of state. But we make a real effort to keep the family connected, the living family, as well as reaching back to those who are deceased. And we have a little granddaughter, Lydia, that from the day she was literally born, she's been on FaceTime with my wife. And so--and then I get on there as well, and she'll read books to us. And so she knows us, because these connections are important to maintain even though we're not physically with them. And it was funny because not long ago I did a broadcast, a satellite broadcast to the West and the Northwest of the United States. She lives in Portland. She was there with her mother. She's three now. And so when I came up on the screen, she saw Grandpa up there. And so she held up her book and said, "Look, Grandpa," as if we were still communicating. I didn't answer, obviously. But those connections here are important, because we talk about families gathering families. It's the extended family, not just one person doing family history work. And thanks to Facebook, Dropbox, and [INAUDIBLE], we can merge even though we are divided. But there are other things to that--other ways of getting children, teenagers involved in family history. You were talking about indexing just the other day. Yes, well, indexing is a great activity and opportunity to bring the Spirit of the Lord and is an act of service. We prepare information that others can use for their own tree. And also it's interesting, regarding these [INAUDIBLE] of the social media and the internet, that these now, we have no distance. We can reach everyone and obtain information from everyone. And you all have talked about reaching the youth and people with different technology, of course, meeting them where they are. But what about people like me, who, like I said, my genealogy, doing my family history is a lot more difficult and can be a bit daunting to think about it? And then those who are not members of our faith, who want to--I mean, for us we hear this all the time, and it's family history. But outside of our faith, it is seen as a hobby. So how do we reach people where they are? How does the priesthood, how do our wonderful people with these great callings--how do they reach people where they are? Elder Gavarret. Let me share an experience about this point. One of the ways that we preserve the memory of our family is through the new generation. My son and his cousin started, eight years ago, a type of family newspaper. We are almost the only members of the Church, but we share with our relatives, nonmembers of the Church. And in that news, family newspaper, we put some comments from President Monson, talk about this wonderful work, and share information about our ancestors. And that is the way that we can establish and build a good relation with others, relatives who are not members of the Church. I love that suggestion. Elder Foster? I just think we can do everything we can, especially with new converts and our people, to connect with them. New converts are so important. Sometimes they feel like they're the only member of the Church when, if they understood the plan of salvation, they would know. When did you convert to the Church? I was nine years old, right here in Salt Lake City. Were you nine? Thanks to some great--a ward couple who were ward missionaries. Yes, great. I just think family's a natural affection for the whole world, and people are drawn to that. Elder Kopischke? No one wants to be alone in heaven, and no one wants to be alone in the Church. And yet many of our new converts, they come as only members of their family into the Church. And so often it is not possible for them to interest someone of the immediate members to the gospel, but they can immediately start doing their personal missionary work in their families by doing family history and temple work for them and sharing some of the experiences that they have. I think there are many people--as you said, the connection point is the family. And if we share these family experiences--we often say that new converts have to be rooted in the gospel, but I think they also have to be rooted in their families. And as more as we have this rooting going on, as better it's going to be and as more safe someone is in the church. That's a great choice of roots, [INAUDIBLE]. Elder Kopischke, nobody wants to be alone, either, in doing their family history. I mean, this new announcement of our priesthood leaders here, that we now have temple and family history consultants at the ready. They're going to work one on one. Nobody should feel alone. They have great power as they tap into temple and family history consultants. They have great power as they tap into the power of prayer to assist them with their family history. That power increases as they listen carefully to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. That power increases as they engage other family members. Family history truly is a family affair. And family goes beyond the veil, right, Elder Kopischke? And don't you think that our discussion here today has changed and given a lot of ideas that temple and family history consultants should do, more than just finding names? I mean, is not everything that we're discussing here an expansion of their vision? What they should do, and that this is a spiritual experience, that it's about building family. It's about completing families and sealing them and bringing them to the ordinances. Well, it's an experience that begins with prayer. There's now lesson plans online, aren't there? As I'm listening to all this, the thought I had--we have this new pamphlet that our full-time missionaries are using. Talk about converts. And within that pamphlet talks about the Church, explains things to them, but it has a four-generation thing. They can start with their own families. And all of this--all of the money we spend on FamilySearch, all of this digitization that we have, everything online--until they have their first few generations, they can't connect to that. So missionaries can really help with new converts, but also all members. In fact, three-fourths of our members really don't have those first four generations. So that's--another thought I had is thinking of being alone. President Hinckley said that every new convert needs three things: a friend, a responsibility, and nourishing with the good word of God. And I'm thinking of your situation with that consultant. I love to hear that because that consultant really linked in with you one on one, and that's what we're hoping for. And so I hope that--was it a she or he? Tom Nelson. Tom, Tom. Thank you, Tom. I hope he became your friend. He's my best friend now. And then all members, particularly new converts, will now have a responsibility for family history work, and they will be nourished by that spirit of Elijah, which is the Spirit of the Holy Ghost testifying to the eternal nature of family. And it's a bishop that will turn that key. It will allow that to happen in his work. It takes a lot of concern from the bishop regarding the things that he's worrying. If he would get this going with every new convert and he would have a responsibility there, he would not have to worry so much. Well, yes, sir? To add to what Elder Kopischke says, with missionary work, the missionaries started with a prospective member of the Church talking about temple and families. So their first contact with this wonderful work of family history--temple and family history--starts with the full-time missionaries. The prospective member received that information, and after, they can continue with this process, with the vision and the temple and family history consultant. Elder Grow? Can you think of the blessing if you have a consultant working with a new convert, and within a month, they help that convert find family names and take those names to the temple? That has great retaining power for a convert. Well, that's what I was just going to say. I mean, just think about my experience with Tom Nelson, and I had never met him before. And now I feel so close to him because he had so much--it was like he was another member of my family. So I can only imagine those with Church callings and bishops and other leaders in the Church and with those callings to get that personally involved with some--one another's family history. But I have to ask, is there something that in the 20 years, Elder Kopischke and the rest of you Elders, in your leadership--is there anything that you foresee that could be troublesome, worrisome, maybe a stumbling block in this process that we could address right now? Yeah, as I said, it is that people need conversion, not just a testimony. They need real conversion, and this work fosters conversion. It really turns you around. It changes you. And I think there is a reason for that. President Eyring once gave this talk, and he said that talking about our ancestors in the other world is that their hearts are bound to you, to us. Their hopes are in your hands. And I think it's for us the other way around, too. Sometimes when we are having a stressful situation in a family, and we want to get something done, then our hearts all turn to them and our hope sometimes is in their hands, because the Lord said that "I have [charged] my angels [regarding] you." And many prophets have told us that the angels that are charged regarding us may be our kindred, our friends, our relatives. That's why I think this work is so important. And it is something that a bishop should actually use. He cannot do this alone. He needs the Spirit. He needs to pray, but he also needs the hosts of heaven to help his little flock to stay successful in the gospel. And when can we start this? On Sundays? Sunday's a great day, but the conversion comes in the doing. I have dabbled--this is confession around the kitchen table. I have dabbled--I have dabbled, Dad, in family history in the past, but it's in more recent times where I have become involved in the doing. It's the doing that brings the conversion, right? And you can do family history any day of the week. We've been asked to make the Sabbath a delight. That's a prophetic call. And there's no more--surely doing family history is one of the better ways of making the Sabbath a delight, by doing it on the Sabbath without excluding other days of the week. That's true. Elder Gavarret? About doing and conversion, we can follow the counsel from President Nelson and make the Sabbath day a delight when we work in family history and provide this wonderful work for the family as an activity and a family activity during the Sabbath day. We mentioned also that we have other activities. For example, indexing is one of the other activities that we can do on that day. When we find--work with the family, for example, to find the name of our ancestor, and now we have a great resource with FamilySearch and the FamilySearch partners, so we can find names and documents and help other members of the family or other relatives to build that tree. These activities of "find, take the names, and prepare the name to go during the week to the temple and teach others" will bring us a spirit of reverence in this holy day. And I want to circle back to what we were talking about, traditions and preserving traditions. What I've been inspired--listening to all of your counsel, I've been inspired to look at my family, those who have gone on, because they're not dead, right, Elder Foster? They have just--they're just somewhere else. But I've been inspired to not look at them as a piece of paper, but literally what was--I'm named after my grandma. So what was she like? Do we have the same traits? Actually learn their stories and make them come alive again.

You're nodding. Yeah? One day I hope--right now we're living by, as I said, by Dropbox and by FaceTime. Yes. And we have these video clips of little musical numbers that we have done as a family over the years. And honestly, I hope that one day I can just put them into FamilySearch.org and then just think about the five-year-old Helen singing her favorite Christmas song. And then 100 years from now her great-grandmother is--granddaughter is going to see that and say, "Wow." And so we have possibilities today that we didn't have 100 years ago. I hope there are some innovators out there listening to that. That's a great suggestion. Elder Grow, some of those? Yeah, I'm thinking. I'm going way back to an ancestor who was baptized, actually, on April 6, 1830. That's kind of the beginning of things here. His name is Orrin Porter Rockwell, and I'm a direct descendant of him. In fact, my wife says when I get really intense, she says, "Don't look at me with those Orrin Porter Rockwell eyes." So you've got to watch that. But he grew up just down the road from the Prophet Joseph Smith. And when he was a teenage boy, Porter would gather berries and then sell those berries. And he gave the money to the Prophet for the translation of the Book of Mormon. And then, as you know, he later became a bodyguard to the Prophet Joseph and then Brigham Young. In fact, when Brigham was--when Joseph was Carthage Jail, I'm confident Porter would have been there had he not rowed Joseph back and forth across the river to Iowa the night before, and Joseph said, "Stay home." I think he would have been a martyr. So I feel that I have--you know, we're talking about genes and genetics here. I feel that I have the genes of a love for prophets that's come from the knowing that history of my ancestor, and that's something that's instilled in me. And I'd like to hear from each of you, and we'll start with you, Elder Ardern, about the blessings of doing family history work, especially in your calling, and especially for those who feel that it's kind of a daunting task. Look, the blessings of temple and family history work have settled on me in recent times. I have felt an increase of connection with those who went before me. I have felt impelled through them. I have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost in my life more readily. I have had an increase in faith in Christ through my work in family history. I have been drawn nearer to God. I now can say I am grateful for family history work. Thank you. And we have just a few minutes left. Elder Gavarret? Well, when we are doing this work, we receive blessings in different ways. I think the most--for us as a family, for me as a father and as a husband, father, and grandfather, one of the blessings is the blessing of protection against the adversary. It's interesting that when we preserve the memory of our ancestors, when we take their names to the temple, a special spirit comes to us. We learn more about the doctrine of the plan of salvation--goes to another level of understanding when we do that. And the Spirit of the Lord helps us, and through the Holy Ghost, we receive that spirit of protection. When I think about family history and temple work, I think about miracles. I honestly think my ancestor are close by. Sometimes they're giving me hints, helping me, guiding me, so I feel that divine protection. Elder Grow, in our last minute here. One thing I've found is, Elder Foster always encourages us to remember, it's families gathering families. And we have an extended Grow family, and we held the reunion in the Tabernacle. Henry Grow was the architect of the roof there. And we had over 3,000 there. And a cousin of mine, not a Latter-day Saint, had told his mother that he always wanted to sing in the Tabernacle Choir. She said, "You can't do that if you're not a Mormon." Well, we held the Tabernacle Choir for the Grow family in the Tabernacle, and David was there singing with us. And I think there's a bonding that takes place, and we remember this as families--not just a person or one or a group, but it's a family affair. Thank you. Elder Foster? Nkoyo, please tell us what you felt today. I have just felt inspired to start my own family history work. Or I should say continue, after I have continued--started with Tom Nelson. Great, thank you. I think Heavenly Father wants us as families to gather our families, first around the confessional, and tell each other about the stories and the photos and find names. And then He wants us to put them in the tree so they're recorded. And then He wants us to gather them safely in the temple and do the ordinances. There's blessings for those on the other side, but there's blessings for those here. And let me tell you, in our family we have a tradition. And Sharol and I, whenever the grandchildren reach 12, we bring them around the table, we find some names for us, and then we take them to the temple to do baptisms when they turn 12. A few months ago our grandson Con was ready to turn 12. And we'd found some names six or seven or eight generations back. I was so excited we found them. These are German names. They were hard to find, Erich. We'd found them, and it was a grandfather and some grandsons. And so we were going to go. And I was telling Con, "Now, Con, about these people, and they're waiting!" And I had him so nervous. Sharol kept saying, "Calm down. He's only 12. He's only 12." He said, "Well, Grandpa, what should I say? What do I need to do?" And I said, "All I want you to do is just feel." So he got there. We went into the baptismal font, and I baptized him. And he came out of the water, and he hugged me. And he said, "Grandpa, I felt something." To me it was complete joy as a grandfather. That's all I ask in life is that they feel something, because I know they will. This is Heavenly Father's plan for all of these children, no matter where or when they lived, and we get to do this work. I bear you my testimony to that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Thank you so much. I've been inspired, and I hope all of you have been inspired as well to continue doing your family history callings and also to begin and continue where you left off. Thank you so much for joining us.