The Hearts of the Children

For this assignment I was given the opportunity to watch a devotional by Brother Michael R. Otterson.  His devotional was about the importance of Family History work.  He emphasized the great blessing it is that we have the technology that we do.  Especially because of how it helps us to further our family history work.  He spoke about how we know, far better than our parents, how to use the internet and how to create results from using it.  This is so true!  The Internet really is a tool that I can use to further my family history work, and I do know how it works quite well.  He also spoke of how if you are feeling unmotivated to do your own family history work to try to think of the stories of those who are waiting for that work to be done.  I often do this as I am going through the Temple for somebody else.  I imagine their life, their love, what they were interested in.  I have thought about these things for my own ancestors as well.  I often wonder what it was like for my Great-Grandmother to grow up as the daughter of Norweigen parents in the 20th century.  I wonder what another Great-Grandmother felt moving from her home to Oklahoma a place that is nothing like where she came from.  This does help to make family history more "real" to me, and it gives me a further desire to give them the one thing that can save them.  The Gospel.
Brother Otterson also spoke about how we need to write down the history of our own parents and the importance that their stories hold to posterity.  It gave me a great yearning for all of those nights when I was a little girl and my Dad would tell us stories about his childhood before we went to bed each night.  We always looked forward to hearing them, and I am sure that I will tell some of those stories to my own children.  It is important to have those stories preserved before it is too late.
Once again I have found that my testimony of family history has grown, and that my urgency to find certain ancestors has increased.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to listen to this talk tonight.