by David E Bay, High Councilor

On our recent vacation, we spent some time in Seattle, one of the places I had lived while growing up. My sweetheart, Coleen, was very good-natured, even though she was probably less excited than I was to see the places. We stopped and saw the houses that I had lived in. We drove by the schools I attended; the track where I really learned to run. And I even showed her the paper route I’d had as a 12-year-old, where I first earned money from sources other than my family.

Showing some photos of the family home to my siblings, led to a lot of discussion about what we learned while we lived there. We remembered a big tree, now gone, that had a rope swing, and the neighbor’s bandy rooster that terrified my brother who was only three years old. We also discussed changes in the neighborhood since we moved away.

I grew up as a baby boomer. My parents lived during the depression and shared many of the mindsets that they had learned during that struggle. Like my parents, those of us today are also going through times and struggles that are unique in history. And as I look at scripture, I suspect there may be more unique situations and struggles to come.

One big question is, “Are we using our experiences and those of our forbearers to motivate us to learn and to prepare for what is to come?” Another is “What unique qualities did you develop or inherit from your ancestors that may help accomplish this?”

One of the big emphases in our Stake Council is preparing the My Family booklet with our own family and stories for every council member and eventually to each stake member. I am working on mine. The most important part is to be for each of us to be able to connect with stories from our forbearers lives that will help us and will bind us closer as families.

As we look forward to things that are prophesied and back to trials of our grandmothers and grandfathers, we can learn to find motivation to prepare for those things that are to come. What have you learned from your forbearers that has been helpful to you? For those of you who have children, what lessons from your life do you want to leave for them?

I know for me, seeing how those who have gone before me were able to endure trials and tribulations, helps me want to be prepared at least as well as they were.

For those who are interested in working on your own My Family booklet, get in touch with your Ward family history consultant or with Barbara Washburn, the stake family history consultant. Let our own family history help us each make progress towards our own self reliance.