I was not there, but thanks to modern technology we can all easily watch and learn from some of the best speakers at Rootstech London without having to fly to England or even pay the ticket.
Interest in the RootsTech conference in the United States has been growing steadily since its launch in 2011. More than 17,000 guests from every state and 47 countries gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and more than 111,000 tuned in via the internet for RootsTech 2018.
The first-ever RootsTech London family history conference, held October 24-26, included an evening with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan K. Bednar, on Saturday, October 26. Taking advantage of the presence of Elder and Sister Bednar in London, a Face to Face with Young Adults was also organized for the day before, October 25.
Several people who attended reported that it was a great experience to be involved in the event in person, but if you didn’t have that opportunity or you want to watch again Elder and Sister Bednar, I am sharing here the links to their two addresses.
- Face to Face with Young Adults (October 25)
2. An Evening with Elder and Sister Bednar (October 26)
Available in the following languages
Česky (Czech) – Dansk (Danish) – Deutsch (German) – English (English) – Español (Spanish) – Français (French) – Italiano (Italian) – Magyar (Hungarian) – Nederlands (Dutch) – Norsk (Norwegian) – Português (Portuguese) – Shqip (Albanian) – Suomi (Finnish) – Svenska (Swedish)
The “Young Adult Face To Face” event the night of Oct. 25 (my birthday, by the way) was an unscripted question-and-answer session. Elder and Sister Bednar answered anonymous questions sent to them via text to his iPad.
On the afternoon of Oct. 26, Elder and Sister Bednar also conducted the “Youth Experience”, meeting onstage with a panel of eight youth and visiting with them about their previous involvement in and experiences with family history.
Later, the panelists and all the audience’s youth were dismissed to spend 90 minutes participating in 15 “discovery activities” before returning for an ensuing discussion on what they had discovered and how they would apply their learning.
In the Oct. 26 “An Evening with Elder and Sister Bednar,” the Apostle and his wife emphasized a “you can do this” theme, as they invited members to help others on both sides of the veil take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving essential ordinances.
Building on President Russell M. Nelson’s teaching of “while salvation is a personal matter, exaltation is a family matter,” Elder Bednar said: “As we all engage in our own temple and family history service, our individual efforts quickly become family efforts and lift us from the realm of ‘you can do this’ to ‘we can do this’ — together, as families.”
Sister Bednar pointed to the unique interests and skills different family members can offer in the “we” effort — grandparents, parents and older relatives know the stories, have the photos, possess the heirlooms and provide the memories; children and youth more comfortable and capable with technology can help collect, enter and compile.
“Each of us is a link in the chain of our generations. … Each person plays a role,” Elder Bednar said, adding the Bednars’ oft-repeated updated phrase of the evening, “together, we can do this.”
(for more details follow this link and the read the article in the Church News)
