BYU Family History Conference

     This past week I attended The BYU Family History Conference in Provo, Utah. It was an inspiring week with my good friend Mary Morrow, also from Mesa, Arizona.

     It was if I traveled back to my youth and back in time. We stayed in the dorms at Helaman Halls on BYU campus.  I was accepted to attend Brigham Young University back in 1979 after I graduated from Ricks College, now known as BYU Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho. I did not attend BYU as I was a young newlywed and my first husband Steven Wayne Dawson had also been accepted to BYU. We mutually decided that I would work and Steve would attend the university. That however, is a story for another time. 

     It was heavenly to be back in Utah and on campus for this conference. It was four days jam packed with remarkable keynote speakers and five classes each day with accredited genealogists and others who shared their expertise in various genealogical areas. I was thrilled to hear the story of Jeff Marks as he traveled to Haiti, Wyoming and Yugoslavia experiencing many miracles along the way as he searched for and found his ancestors. We were also blessed to here from George Durrant  a favorite of mine from the past.  He is a former BYU professor with a humorous touch and spiritual depth. Susan Easton Black is married to George Durrant and she spoke with him. She taught at BYU for 37 years and has written 160 books.

     I learned so much and I can't wait to implement what I took away from this conference.  I just don't think there are enough hours in the day to get it all done.  

     We couldn't leave Provo without attending the Provo City Temple.  After the last class on Friday afternoon Mary and I took an Uber ride to the temple.  It was a sacred experience and the temple is absolutely stunning. We did sealings and our temple sealer was A. LeGrand Richards the grandson of LeGrand Richards an apostle of God. The battery on my phone died so we were unable to get an Uber ride. We ended up walking back to our dorms. Mary was barefoot because her shoes were giving her blisters. She enjoyed walking barefoot through the green, lush grass in Provo.

     We walked miles and miles and miles while on campus and off.  Every evening after our classes and dinner at the BYU Commons we took a 2 mile walk on campus and most of the pictures below were taken as we walked around campus. We even saw an obviously intelligent deer grazing on campus as we walked. We trekked from our dorm to the Commons where we had our meals. We hoofed it to the conference center each day for our classes. We ran to the BYU bookstore so we could shop.  I didn't make it to the gym this week but I managed to meet my exercise goals.

     "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Malachi 4: 5-6 Searching for our kindred dead, uniting families and having their ordinances done in the temples around the world is THE SPIRIT OF ELIJAH.