Family Discovery Day

On Saturday, February 11,we headed to Salt Lake to attend the Family Discovery Day at Roots Tech. Because I had a conference with The Children's Center I couldn't make the other days of the conference but we decided at the last minute to take advantage of free tickets to the Discovery Day which was held on Saturday.  It was mainly for LDS families seeking to get motivated and learn more about basic family history.  Mostly it was just amazing speakers, funny performers and great music.  I laughed and cried during every session.  It was an amazing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  And what made it even better was sharing it with Jena and Gary, my sister Valerie and her husband Lance, and my cousin, Dan Gibson and his wife Raelene. Also on our row was Lance's sister and brother-in-law and a distant cousin of Raelene's....learning about family surrounded by family...it was perfect!!!

Sights along the walk from our parking place to the Salt Palace where Roots Tech was being held. These have been there for awhile but it was the first time I took the chance to take pictures of them. They are all lined up one after another---an odd collection of things.

After the street art, we started getting closer to the entrance with the large "Roots Tech" signs.

First picture we got was Jena with the "Family Tree guy".....it matched one that my sister Valerie had taken a few days earlier as they had attended the whole Conference.

Family Discovery Day was a Saturday afternoon designed for LDS Families to come and be inspired about family and family history.  Like my sister Valerie had posted on her Facebook about the whole event-- "Roots Tech was about FAMILY." and that was the theme for Saturday.  We had some amazing speakers and great performers.  We were so busy attending those that we only spent a few minutes in the Expo Hall.  We will have to allow more time for that next time.

The agenda:  (I can't find my notes so I can't write down some of the amazing things I heard) 

Pres. Russell Nelson and his wife Sis. Wendy Nelson:  They talked about some of the ways that they have shared stories of their ancestors with their family.  One of the things I loved was Sis. Nelson took a story from the life of her grandmother and made it into a children's book for the family. Valerie and I had talked about doing that with stories from my mom's life.  The cute thing she did was had different grandchildren illustrate different pages of the story.  She then had it printed.  It was so darling. 

Under the topic:  One Work:  Temple and Family History Blessings, Val Sikahema and Reno Mahe and Sheri Dew did a interview style presentation about temples and family.  Val and Reno are Polynesian and shared some stories from the islands about faith and sacrifice.  Both of them are former BYU football players who also played for the Philadelphia Eagles. Reno is now an assistant BYU football coach.  Last November his three year old daughter passed away from an accident at home.  Their story has been amazing to watch as they had shared their grief and their faith on social media.  He talked about that experience and how it is so motivating to work towards being where Elsie is now.  Sheri Dew talked about meeting the challenge to take only her family names to the temple given to her last year at Root Tech and she has.  Her story was very inspiring as well.

"Home with Hank"--Hank Smith is a youth speaker within the LDS community and he talked about the power of family, traditions, and faith.  He was funny yet inspiring as well.

Closing performance--a concert with BYU a cappella groups--Vocal Point (shown below) and Noteworthy (the women's group) with Jason Hewitt as the MC and hilarious performer himself. Check him out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM4wKKr-eqM to see what he can do with his face plus he sings and dances.  He was so fun.

I don't think you could have packed more laughter and tears into a Saturday afternoon that we had on this day. And again to share it with family was the "icing on the cake"---

Gary and me; Lance and Valerie Ipson; Dan and Raelene Gibson (Dan is my cousin)
and Aaron who is a distant cousin of Raelene and lives in their ward now in Mapleton
(not shown were Lynette and Paul who are Lance's sister and brother-in-law who came a bit later)

And did I mention cake?  The CAKE Boss was there in the morning and did a great job talking about family and traditions and food, etc.  I didn't hear it but it was great, I heard.  Anyway, Roots Tech had a cake contest and one of my neighbors had a cake in it.  She actually got third place in the Birthday category.

Even the elephant is edible!!
How cute is that!

When we walked out of the north end of the Salt Palace to head to our car, this is the view we had.

Perfect---because families are truly forever...and we all are part of one big Heavenly Family....and that is what the temple is really all about!

Next February--be there!!!!!

A final note:  My sister Valerie had said that one of her most favorite talks was given by LeVar Burton.  He is an African-American actor who became famous first for his role in Roots back in the 1970s and then I think he was a regular in the Star Trek series (the second one). So when someone posted the link on social media I took time to watch it (I highly suggest that you do the same).  He talked about Roots and about family.  One of the touching moments was at the end of his talk.  An employee of Ancestry,com came out (he was also African American) wearing ceremonial clothes from Africa and gave Mr. Burton a book with information about some of his ancestors. He shared some of the things they had discovered including some of his early family who were slaves and part of the emancipation after the Civil War. Mr. Burton was so overcome by tears (I am even crying thinking about it and it has been a couple of weeks since I watched the video).  It spoke to the power of family and the real connections we can have with those who have gone before us. HOw lucky we are to know that families are forever.