LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Watching the Gathering Unfold - The Incredible Story of RootsTech: Rachel Matheus - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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What if you had a front-row seat to literally watch the Spirit of Elijah sweep across the earth?

In this powerful episode of Latter-day Lights, we sit down with Rachel Crump Mathews, a devoted disciple, Relief Society president, and one of the inspired leaders behind the global RootsTech conference.

What began as a temporary job over a decade ago soon became a sacred calling—one that placed Rachel on the front lines of helping to grow and expand the Church's family history and genealogy efforts.

With humility and deep spiritual insight, Rachel shares how she followed promptings, overcame uncertainty, and witnessed miracle after miracle as RootsTech grew from a small Utah-based event into a worldwide movement - helping millions connect to their ancestors.

If you’ve ever wondered whether the Lord is truly directing His work in these latter days—this story will leave no doubt.

*** Please SHARE Rachel's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/q3yhip7RG6Y

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To VISIT the RootsTech website, go to: https://www.rootstech.org

To VISIT the Family Search website, go to: https://www.familysearch.org

To READ Scott’s book “Faith to Stay,” visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

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Scott Brandley:

Hey there as a Latter-day Lights listener, I want to give you a very special gift today my brand new book, faith to Stay. This book is filled with inspiring stories, powerful discoveries and even fresh insights to help strengthen your faith during the storms of life. So if you're looking to be inspired, uplifted and spiritually recharged, just visit faithtostaycom. Now let's get back to the show. Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how one woman's pursuit in helping others with family history is showing her just how much God is involved in His own work. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we're really excited to introduce our special guest, Rachel Crump Mattheus, to the show. Welcome, Rachel.

Rachel Matheus:

Thank you.

Scott Brandley:

Did I say your name right Excited?

Rachel Matheus:

to be here today.

Scott Brandley:

Is it?

Alisha Coakley:

Matthews or Matheus.

Rachel Matheus:

It's well. If you're going to get technical, it's Mathews. It's like a good sneeze. That's wrong. But Matthews is good too. So my husband is French, by way of Peru, okay, and his ancestors came from France, immigrated to South America. After his mission he moved back, but interestingly enough, the spelling is not the French spelling of Matthews, it's the Portuguese spelling, and so my running theory I can't prove it yet is that they immigrated through Brazil, and at the time the Brazilians didn't like the French, so they changed it to the Portuguese spelling. But when they went then from Brazil to Ecuador and then on to Peru, they didn't go all the way to Mateo. So whichever name you get to, at the end for us it's Matthew. So, um, and so my kids just say Matthews. But I've heard Mateus and Matthews, and and you know it's part of why I keep using crump because everyone can spell it and say it Isn't that?

Rachel Matheus:

so funny, and I mean it's part of why I keep using crump, because everyone can spell it and say it Isn't that so funny?

Alisha Coakley:

And I mean, it's kind of perfect too, because we're going to be talking about like family history and stuff today. But I think it's funny. My maiden name is German, right Predominantly German, and it's spelled S-C-H-U-C-H-A-R-D at some point. So I pronounce it shoe hard, my brother pronounced it shoe shard. Uh, my mom pronounced it shoe word, my dad says shoe hard, and so it's kind of like whoever you talk to, same thing, different pronunciation. And then we realized in family history at one point there was a T at the end of it, so it was like D T, shoe heart, I don't know. And someone along the line dropped the t and I, it's just, it's interesting. You're like what?

Rachel Matheus:

no, I think we get caught up in names and spellings and we forget too that it's only really been in the last century and some change that that people as a whole are highly literate and can write their own names, right, and so spellings can be really widely varied. So there's your family history, your genealogy. Tip don't get hung up on the spelling. Listen for how it sounds in your head when you're reading it. That might be your answer.

Alisha Coakley:

So there, you go, I love. Sorry, we kind of went on a tangent before officially introducing you. Rachel aside from family history stuff and your husband's last name being pronounced multiple different ways, do you want?

Rachel Matheus:

to tell our guests.

Alisha Coakley:

Just a little bit more about yourself.

Rachel Matheus:

Sure, I'd love to. So, like I said, my name is Rachel Crump Matthews. I was born and raised in Salt Lake City or Salt Lake County. I went to BYU. After BYU I lived in Seattle for seven years and then the company I worked for brought me home to Salt Lake and I've been in the Sugar House area ever since. I have two children. So my oldest is 17, almost 18. She just graduated from high school and we're exploring all the new things about having an adult child. I'm not sure I was cut out for that, but we'll figure it out. And then my youngest is a boy and he is 14, turning 15 and in quite the fun and adventurous stage of being a teenage boy, so also learning a lot about that right now and it's thrilling.

Rachel Matheus:

I'm the Relief Society president in my ward here in Salt Lake and I love serving with the sisters in my ward and getting to really try to be of help to them and an instrument in the Lord's hands in their lives. But for the last 12 years, 13 years, I have been at work in the Family History Department for the church or Family Search International. It's the same thing, just names that we use out in the general public and names that we use internally inside of the church, and I work on the RootsTech conference. So, in addition to now having family history as a hobby, I love to garden, I bake and in the pandemic I got a smoker and I now am like a meat aficionado. And I now am like a meat aficionado and I like to smoke all kinds of meats and it makes me feel like I'm growing my apocalyptic skills. So you know when you don't need me on your computer in your community, I can make jam, I can bake my own bread and I can make bacon. I know how to make bacon.

Alisha Coakley:

So I feel like I'm going to need you to be part of my zombie apocalypse team, because I'm only there for like humor, you know, and for like fate, like I'm like the one you want to keep around in case you've got to get away, and then I'll just not. I'll just be such a slow runner, but I like the idea of you being able to cook all the things.

Rachel Matheus:

No, it was perfect timing to acquire a new food hobby was when we were all at home. I sit here in my office working from home and be watching my smoker right out the window so it's great timing uh to get way in on on something new, but uh you can never. You can never have enough fun with your smokers, yeah.

Scott Brandley:

Well, we're excited to have you share some information about family history and RootsTech. I think there's a lot of things that people just don't know about it, and also some stories, so why don't we turn this time over to you and tell us where your story begins?

Rachel Matheus:

All right. Well, I'd love to tell you a little bit about that, so I will actually begin my story with an ending of a story. So I used to work for Mrs Fields Cookies. I was their franchise trainer. So if you bought a cookie franchise, you'd come to Salt Lake for two weeks of cookie school and we'd hang out and we'd talk about all your product and we would talk about how to run your business.

Rachel Matheus:

But in spring of 2012, Mrs Fields announced that they were moving the company headquarters to Denver and as I started that year, I had been praying for how can I get more work done? I was really concerned about keeping up with work. My youngest was two years old at the time and I realized that I had been praying for the wrong thing, that I needed to be praying for how to spend more time with my children and to be a better parent and mom. And so in the thick of that prayer, they announced to our entire company that they were relocating the company headquarters to Denver and about three hours after I thought I had just been laid off, I found out that I hadn't been laid off, that they were going to allow me to continue to work from Salt Lake, which was a huge relief because the network that allowed me to be successful at my job was all here and my tribe that helps me was helping me with my kids and everything else, and and so I was going to be able to work from home, which felt like this great answer to a prayer, and I I was going to be able to stay here in Salt Lake and in the midst of of relocating, Mrs Fields was also in the process of reformulating the cookie, which you wouldn't think is a big deal, but it basically was changing everything about store operations, and so our research and development team had like four years to redo the cookie recipe and I got six weeks to make it operational in stores and with all the ripple effects.

Rachel Matheus:

So my job at the time was to abuse cookie dough and figure out how to bake it and then figure out how we were going to roll it out into stores because it and try it.

Alisha Coakley:

What's up to try it or, like all of us, no.

Rachel Matheus:

I had a doctor say to me once I suppose I can't tell you to not eat cookies anymore and I said no, literally it's my job to eat cookies. I sort of haven't forgotten that it's not my job to eat cookies anymore. But so I, all these things had gone really well. I, we were rolling it out, I was traveling quite a bit and I was kind of on my last leg of some big travels. I'd been gone a lot and I could just feel that something was changing in my life. So this is fall of 2012. So late in the fall of 2012. And, and I just had this very strong feeling all week long that something was was changing and it was going to be dramatic. And the following week I was flying to Denver for meetings and I got off the plane in Denver and again this feeling of well, let me back up.

Rachel Matheus:

The Saturday before I flew to Denver, I was standing in my kitchen and I can still tell you just the angle the sun was coming through the window. It was a really important moment in my life and I heard this thought in my inner monologue that said you need to look for a new job, rachel, and you need to look for a company that's firmly planted in Utah and I thought that's kind of a weird way to talk to yourself, and but the accompanying feeling was not the dread and fear that normally goes with getting a new job. There was peace and there was joy in it and I was like, but things are going so well at Mrs Fields. I felt like I was doing the best work Denver on Monday and found out that they had decided that I needed to either move to Denver or not be laid off the following spring. And I already knew what my answer was. I knew, before it was even said out loud, that moving to Denver was not what the Lord wanted us to do. But it's pretty scary when you're the primary breadwinner in your family to say, oh, I'm going to take unemployment. But I'd had a very clear prompting that I needed to stay in Salt Lake and so that was my answer back to them. I grieved the job. I remember weeping for hours in a hotel room and, even though I knew it was going to be fine, the people that I was leaving behind and the security and the knowing of what it was that I was going to do. To venture into something completely unknown was really scary, but I'd had experience with those kinds of promptings and I knew that it would be okay.

Rachel Matheus:

So, fast forward to April of 2013,. My job ended and I started looking for a new job and, and I was looking, I had interviewed with some companies I had one that I was like, yeah, this is looking really good. And they said, hey, we really like you, we want to hire you, but we can't give you Salt Lake. Can you move to Denver? Or sorry, not to Denver, to North Carolina or to Chicago? And I'm like, no, I can't. And my husband's like are you sure? Because I'd be okay with us moving. And I'm like no, the answer is that we need to stay here.

Rachel Matheus:

And a few weeks later, a colleague of mine that I had known in my Mrs Fields years called and said, hey, we've got a temporary position on my team working on RootsTech. And I didn't know what that was. Maybe some of you still don't know what that is, but RootsTech is a family history conference sponsored by FamilySearch. But it's an industry conference sponsored by FamilySearch, but it's an industry conference. And so all of the major players come to the conference and are part of it in the genealogy industry. And I and they said, hey, we just need someone for six months. And I thought, well, this pays better than unemployment.

Rachel Matheus:

While I continue to look for what the right move is, and I think within a few hours of starting, I was like, oh, I really want to stay here, because it just felt like I had come home, and and so I started working on that. And a few weeks later, a few weeks into it, the company that I had that had offered me a job in out of state announced that they were laying off a whole bunch of people in that position that I had been interviewing for. And I thought, ah, there's why. Here's why I needed I needed to know that I needed to stay right in where I was, because I would have taken that position and I would have been the bottom of the food chain and I wouldn't have been able, financially, to just come back home. Uh, and so it. It was this tremendous blessing and one of those moments where you're like, oh, I get to see the immediate rewards of following through on a prompting, but I I didn't know then how many more immediate blessings were going to flow. Um and and so I started working on RootsTech and at the time so in 2000, I was hired in the fall of 2013 to work on the 2014 conference.

Rachel Matheus:

That was the third RootsTech, fourth RootsTech, and it had started as an opportunity to bring together genealogists and technologists and the people that were developing technology for family history, to get them in a room with the people who were doing family history and get them to talk to each other. And that first year they planned the conference in like six weeks and 2,000 people came and they were super excited about what had happened there and this synergy that was starting to happen, and so they decided to do it again a year later and they spent a little more time planning at that time and they doubled in size and then in 2013, they almost doubled in size again and so they just kind of kept growing and they were trying to figure out what was happening, and that's kind of where I came on the scene. So that very first year that I came to work on RootsTech, one of the first things that I found out was that they had never gotten a keynote speaker that wasn't a genealogist before that, and that year we asked Reed Drummond, the pioneer woman, to come and keynote speak at RootsTech, and Stephanie Nielsen, who had that fantastic story of recovering from that plane crash came and was a keynote speaker at RootsTech and Dr Spencer Wells from the National Geographic Channel and he's talking about human migration. But I remember I was answering emails from people attending RootsTech that year and I was still hearing from people who were saying things like why do I have to use a computer to do genealogy? And you think, oh gosh, I can't even imagine not doing it on a computer today. But at that point in time there were still people who were doing it on paper and with typewriters, you know, and maybe they put it into their old personal ancestral file. Some of you might remember it, some of you may still be keeping your personal ancestral files on a floppy disk somewhere. But the internet was definitely where everything was going and we were trying to kind of persuade people that technology was the way to do it now, and so it was really fascinating.

Rachel Matheus:

But that was the first year of what's called Family Discovery Day. So Elder Anderson came and spoke and we had specifically designed that as a youth experience that year, and that's where he gave the temple challenge and he said I want to challenge you to find as many names for the temple as you do baptisms in the temple. And just a year earlier Elder Bednar had given a prophetic talk where he'd spoken about our youth have been unique, were uniquely not designed but uniquely prepared to be involved in family history because they knew how to use the technology and they had research skills. And Elder Bednar had made some really strong promises about that. They would be shored up against the influence of the adversary, that their testimonies would be strengthened, that they would understand their patriarchal blessings better if they would just get involved in temple and family history work. And Elder Anderson kind of stood up and reinforced that message and he said I want you to take this temple challenge that if you will find as many names as you take to the temple, you'll be blessed for it. And he promised that they would have a sure witness of the Savior and that they would be able to know that life continues beyond the veil. And and I remember sitting in that at the back of that room and and when I'm on site at RootsTech I there's very little of what's said that I can take in because I've got a radio in my ear and my phone in the other ear and there's always somebody talking to me. But in that moment I remember him saying that that that we would have a sure witness of life continuing beyond the veil and that we'd have increased faith in the savior, and and and taking that away.

Rachel Matheus:

And we came back from RootsTech and everybody said, okay, well, what's next? And and I remember Elder Anderson meeting with some of the leaders of the family history department saying it was great, how are we taking it to the whole world? And at that point in time we had we were really a very North America, almost Utah centric event and we had a program that we were piloting that was called the Family History Fairs and you could take content from RootsTech and we'd written a guide and you could do something in your own word or stake and share that. And and shortly after RootsTech, that became my baby. I got to take care of that project and nurture it, but we had translated content into 10 languages.

Rachel Matheus:

I'm not sure that the Ancestrycom class about British research and Chinese was super helpful to people in China, but it taught us a lot about how to approach the world with family history and there were a lot of very smart people in our department that already knew that. But from the conference side. It was an early miracle ground to understand what do people need? And I remember Elder Anderson Elder Enrique Falabella was one of the assistant uh directors of the family history department and he turned to him and he said Elder Falabella, does what's been planned work for the people in Latin America? And he said no, it doesn't. And so we got to go back to the drawing board and really start looking at how we could teach people outside of what the sphere of what I knew a little bit about, and prepare things that were going to be more useful to people around the world. And I remember in that moment and through the course of that year, realizing how, how important the work was and really like starting to understand the scriptures that teach about it.

Rachel Matheus:

So we talk about Malachi 4 all the time and the hearts of the children turning. But if you look at it all through the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord references those verses. In fact, when the angel Moroni stood at Joseph's bedside in D&C 2, he talked about the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the priesthood, and then he quotes Malachi, which to me is that reference to the coming forth of temples and the proxy work that the Lord would ask us to do and that the world would be utterly smitten with a curse if we weren't turning our hearts to our fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children. But I came to really understand what that meant from a doctrinal standpoint. But I had not done any family history. My patriarchal blessing actually talks extensively about it. The patriarch had all but said amen when he reopened my blessing and said the books will be open to you, rachel. You'll get involved in the work.

Rachel Matheus:

And I didn't ever think much about it because I felt like there were lots of genealogists in my family and a very full family tree. But there was more work to be done. And there was more work for me to do. And a couple of years into my time in the family history department working on RootsTech, a colleague of mine said it's time for you to learn, rachel, and he started teaching me how to do family history and how to find names and prepare them for the temple. And I don't know that I got to add to the family tree that we all share and, coming off of that experience and wanting to call my own family and teach other people how to do it, and then I realized that that was my opportunity in what I was doing every day because, at its its core, rootstech is an opportunity to learn more about family history, to keep going on something you already know or to get started on that process, and we have content for everyone.

Rachel Matheus:

But RootsTech just continued to grow. We got to be about 20,000 people on average in the Salt Palace 2019,. We had another global learning opportunity when, on the prompting of leadership in the family history department, we decided to hold RootsTech London. So if you can think back to what were you doing in the fall of 2019, nowhere in your mindset was the coming COVID-19 virus. But we did a second RootsTech in that year in London and I remember being on site at that event and the local members had come. They were helping staff the conference and they were so awesome, like they just were on fire and people were so drawn to what was going on. Just a funny story we shared the building and they had the other uh, and there was a barricade wall between the two events and we didn't care. We're like anybody come through our side, but comic con they.

Rachel Matheus:

They wanted to make sure everybody had their tickets and they were in the right places and so uh as, as they were getting off of the tube at the end of the building where we were at, because the lines were shorter, people were coming through in costumes that I'll never be able to unsee in my life, you know, as they were coming into Comic-Con and embracing these stories and these characters and and, and we knew they were going to be coming through our side. So we put up pedigree charts for the Star Wars. You know, the whole Skywalker family tree was up, and the Simpsons family tree and I'm trying to think, some of the other fun ones. There was a Harry Potter family tree and we had those up on giant posters as they were walking through and of course they were delighted by it and we all wore these T-shirts. They were bright blue and they said on them ask me anything. So they're stopping us and asking questions about Comic-Con. We're like, oh well, you want the other side, but let me take you down there. And we were talking to him and engaging with these people. Well, they wanted to come downstairs, they wanted to come to our expo hall and we're like, great, let them come. But security in London is a lot tighter than what you see it in Salt Lake, and so the security people just kept saying, oh no, this is not for you, you need to go that way. And they just really wanted in.

Rachel Matheus:

And I was like what would make someone coming for Comic-Con want to come and be part of a genealogy conference? I mean, you know this, this doesn't seem like they go together. And then I remember watching this group of people walk through and suddenly there was this clarity that it was like what are we seeking? What are people doing cosplay seeking? Well, they're seeking a story. They're seeking connection with other people. They want to. They want to figure out what out, what special powers they have and where it might have come from. And I was like what does family history offer to us? It offers us connection. It offers us a part in a bigger story. It offers us an opportunity to break bad cycles in our own family tree or to perpetuate the great things about our family tree. But it was like, oh, this is a work for our time, this is a work for the age that we're in, where we feel so disconnected and our technology is taking us further away from our own stories and our own identities. And here we are doing family history online and it's bringing us closer and it's bringing the Holy Ghost into our lives.

Rachel Matheus:

We were on a train one morning as we first got to London, and it was morning commute. In London. The conference hadn't started yet, but it was morning commute. Train was wall to wall people, but there were like 12 of us wearing RootsTech gear on this train and as we got further out from the city city I was able to sit down and this woman looks over at me and and she did not have a British accent, she had a Brazilian accent. But she said are you with with this? Uh, what did she call it? Uh, she didn't say conference, but some other word that I've been seeing all the adverts for, and I was like I didn't understand a word. You just said I know it was English, but it took me a second and I said oh, you mean RootsTech. You're asking if if we're part of RootsTech and I said yes, and she starts.

Rachel Matheus:

She got very animated and I was like, oh, my goodness, what's going on? And she said I just just today found out this week that in my family history there were slavers and she was trying to reconcile what it meant to have that in her history and that one of her great uncles had been involved in the slave trade, going to Brazil and, and she was devastated by that. But she also was so engrossed in finding these generations of her family and so we're talking about it. She says when can I go to learn more? I'm like, well, you need to come to RootsTech, we can help you learn more. And she says, no, I want to get a degree in this. And I'm like, well, byuaho has an online program that you can do.

Rachel Matheus:

And we're talking about all of these things and I found myself thinking what are the odds that, in millions of people that flood into London every single day for her work, that this woman gets on a train with 12 people from RootsTech that could help answer her question? And as I was talking to her and we were telling her about what we do and why we love it, I kept feeling this prompting that she wasn't seeking genealogy as much as she was seeking the Lord, and genealogy was going to be that path to finding him. And I thought what a miracle that I get to be that instrument, that I got to sit by her and that I happened to be wearing something with a logo on it that helped her identify an opportunity to find herself and to find the Lord. And he can do his work. He can do all the temple work himself I'm sure he can. But because of what it does for us, he lets us do that work. And for, as flawed as we are at it and maybe not as temple-minded, that lady wasn't looking to do anything for the temple. But as she finds her family and she adds it to family trees A member, cousin somewhere says, oh look, here's family history work that's already been done and I can now take their names to the temple. I mean, and in this season of temple building it, like I just sat there going, wow, I get to be an instrument in the Lord's hands every single day. And and in the middle of London, where I didn't know anyone except the people I was traveling with, he put me in that path and he's done that over and over and over again in my time in the family history department.

Rachel Matheus:

So we had an incredible conference. We came back, we did RootsTech Salt Lake in 2020. And we were just three weeks. We were the very last event held in the Salt Palace before the world shut down. In fact, on that Saturday I remember someone saying to me they just announced they canceled General Conference. I'm like we don't cancel General Conference and it was no, they weren't holding it in person. But even then, I don't think any of us could have comprehended that, that we would all go home and leave our workplaces and our offices and and what was going to happen in the next two years to all of us, um, but somehow we were not a super spreader event and, uh, and we had the highest number of people in the salt palace that year as we'd ever had.

Rachel Matheus:

And we were put in a perfect spot when the pandemic started to decide whether we were going to go back, try and go back in person in the spring of 2021 or go online. And pretty quickly, we knew we were going to have to be online and that revelation would come. And pretty quickly, we knew we were going to have to be online and that revelation would come. And we knew that if we went online, we needed to be global and it couldn't just be in English anymore, and that we needed to be free so that anyone anywhere could join in with what we were doing. And then we knew nothing else about what we were doing. We had a pretty good idea of what RootsTech was. But we didn't have a platform, we didn't have a website that we could manage. We didn't have, we didn't know how we would get all that translation work done with the same size budget as what we had from the year before.

Rachel Matheus:

But I remember being really concerned about it and, in particular because staffing was my key responsibility at the time just really being concerned and really being prayerful about how are we going to do this, how are we going to staff this. I don't know how many people we're going to need, I don't know what jobs we're going to have. I just knew that wherever people get a chance to talk to people in the family history department, they've got a lot of questions about genealogy. And I remember very clearly in June of that year, the Lord being very comforting and saying Rachel, you do everything you can do. You bring your five loaves and your small fishes and I will take care of the rest. And I thought, okay, I can do that and I will do everything that I can do and I will research as much as I can, and I just know that the rest of it will sort itself out.

Rachel Matheus:

One of the key things we were doing at the time was looking for a platform that we could put our content out on and could function in languages and wasn't going to cost our entire year's budget. And we were just a few days away from signing a contract with a company that, for every person that joined us, it was going to cost us a dollar, which doesn't seem like a lot until you get a lot of people on Right. And we hadn't signed that contract, but we'd sort of launched a quasi registration and on the first day of registration we had more people sign up on the first day of RootsTech registration in September of 2020 than we had attend the entire conference the year before. Oh, wow.

Rachel Matheus:

That's fast. So all 30,000 had just signed up and the really smart business intelligence people were like doing forecasts based on how ticket sales had gone in past years and and, and their projections said we should expect about 300,000 people to come online to RootsTech and we were feeling pretty good about that. But we were like, wait a minute, this contract we're about to sign, we're not prepared for that. So we started talking and at the time, elder Bednar was the head of the Temple and Family History Executive Council and Elder Hamilton, who is going emeritus this summer, has been our executive director for the last seven years and he went in and was reporting back to Elder Bednar and Elder Renlund and he said this is what we think is going to happen. And Elder Bednar went off mute in their meeting and he said I think that's wonderful. I think that you need to be thinking about a million people. Wow, and that's a little daunting, yeah.

Rachel Matheus:

And when this was reported back to our team, we all went what?

Rachel Matheus:

And then we were told about the spirit that was in the room in that moment, that that it had changed from just setting a goal to it feeling prophetic and and knowing that at the head of our, our team, our prophets, seers and revelators.

Rachel Matheus:

We said, okay, and I work with the best people in the whole world and our engineering team, the head of engineering, a man named Craig Miller, who is just a giant among people, looked at our contract and looked at the platform we were looking at and what we needed done and he said I think, with the Lord's help, we can build this. And we were literally flying the plane as we were constructing it, but every engineer in our whole department stopped what they were doing and turned and built RootsTechorg and it was MacGyvered together. It was built with duct tape and bubble gum and bailing wire that year, but we were able to do it and it didn't break. And, and to go back to my earlier story, we had all the staffing we needed and then some and people were asking us questions and and other people were helping answer the person who was answering the questions. Questions and miracles were just happening to us right and left, and 1.5 million people from 242 countries and territories around the globe joined us during RootsTech in 2021.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow. So how many years was that from start to finish?

Rachel Matheus:

So 2011 to 2021.

Rachel Matheus:

So 10 years 2000 to 1.5 million and we had people give us content. Our site was only translated into 11 languages, but we had people give us content in 23 separate languages and and like they were coming out of the woodwork with here I can help you teach in I'm trying to think some of the unusual languages. One of them was uh, it's a South American language and I can't remember the name of it right now, but like languages I'd never heard of before, and we had people. We started watching our registration numbers towards the end and the dots on our map where people were coming in from, and we were seeing people across the Middle East. We were seeing people coming in from Russia. We were seeing people coming in from North Korea and places where the church cannot be today, and they were signing up to come and be a part of RootsTech and to learn something about their own family story. And I quite regularly wonder when people are going to figure out that I'm an imposter and I don't belong in the chairs that I've gotten to sit in. But I'm grateful that the Lord lets me be an instrument in his hands.

Rachel Matheus:

So we did two years online and we've continued to grow. So this year we had over 10 million join us from again 243 countries and territories. There aren't very many left that, uh, that we don't have a pin on the map. Um, we used to fight to get all 50 States. There was always somebody from one state that was missing. One year it was Connecticut, one year it was West Virginia. We seem to get all 50 States now without any trouble, um, but but literally like everywhere on the map, and people are joining us and and it is just incredible, in 2023, we went back to being in person too, and I think the biggest joy of that year for our attendees, I think it was to be back in person, but for us as the family history department, it was the first time we got to all be together in one room again after three years of being distributed and separated, and it was like the best family reunion you've ever been to, to watch us find each other again and reconnect, and it just this joy that just comes with this work. But we've seen incredible growth in the time that I've been here.

Rachel Matheus:

Going back to the pandemic, you know, a lot of industries died, but not genealogy, like at FamilySearch, we saw huge growth in people creating new accounts, you know, and while we were all sitting at home trying to figure out what to do with ourselves, a lot of people those of our faith and not of our faith are like, hey, let's try out this genealogy thing, and because FamilySearch is free, it's an easy entry point and you've got collaborative people out there to help you. And so we've just seen this incredible growth and, oh, what DNA is doing for our industry. It's just mind blowing what people are able to find and the connections they're going to make. I this is my own personal opinion it's not anybody, uh nobody has has said this, uh directly, but I really believe but the for those who come from diasporas that are impossible to trace your culture back, in particular African Americans, that they can't find their way back to the continent through records. I think that as these DNA databases get better and better, that will be the ticket to them finding their families and finding where they come from.

Rachel Matheus:

And currently FamilySearch has massive efforts across the continent of Africa and in other cultures where oral genealogy and oral history is how they do things. We're gathering those names and we're talking to village elders and they're telling us their family story and we're recording it in their voice and transcribing it and someday somebody will say, okay, I'm from this village in Africa and they'll be able to go to FamilySearch and find that village and hopefully connect to that family line that's been lost for so many generations. In fact, in 2017, I got to go to Africa for the department and we went out into villages and I watched this oral genealogy happening and we were in one quite large village and they said, oh, there's a lady a couple of roads over who remembers the names of her ancestors that were taken in the slave trade. Would you like to meet her? I'm sure you can imagine our response was yes yes, please.

Rachel Matheus:

And we got to sit with this woman as she, in her tribal language that we couldn't understand, recounted the names of her ancestors and people whose names were lost.

Rachel Matheus:

Their history was lost in those unspeakable things and yet they're still remembered and now those names are preserved and and hopefully somebody in their posterity will be able to make that connection and perform their ordinance work. It was in the, the Accra Ghana temple, that I really understood the scriptures in Ezekiel 47 that talk about the waters flowing forth from the temple and how they bring healing and they bring life. And I've never stood in a room that was completely empty, because it was Monday and they were cleaning the temple. It was completely empty and yet it was full. The baptistry was full of people who were waiting for their posterity to come and to perform that ordinance work. And, and it's just, it's the most magnificent season to be a part of that work and to be helping the Lord do what he needs doing, and knowing that I get way more blessings from it than what I've ever, what I've ever, put into it. So that was a lot of talking.

Scott Brandley:

So now, nowadays is it, do you do the live version and online at the same time? Is it kind of combined?

Rachel Matheus:

Yes, we do, and it's. It's challenging, you know, because the audience in front of you is easier to remember than the ones online, but the ones online there's so many more of them, and so we just, you know, we actually we take our engineering team and even though we're all sitting on computers including me, we're in the salt palace, so we get to see the people in front of us, um, but we're, we're up all night fixing problems and and things. It's just amazing. I mean, we published 1500 new pieces of content in three days, uh, in February, in March of this year, and we have incredible partners in the church's publishing department that help make that happen, and people who bring their talents, like they just, you know, it's amazing what they learn, what they teach, the languages that they do it in, and how it can be just the thing that somebody else needs.

Rachel Matheus:

And every time we get to hear a story of somebody breaking down a longtime brick wall or starting their family tree from scratch and putting in what they know, it's just amazing.

Rachel Matheus:

You know, and we can all add what we know, like, even if your tree is full, you can add a photo and a story that brings that to life for your kids or your grandkids you think about. You know someone that you love that's passed on and what you wouldn't give to hear their voice again. Well, somebody is going to feel that way about you someday. So add what you know and you can put it in the tree. And and you can always take a family name from the family search app when you hit that ordinances ready button and it will get you a family name that you can take to the temple every time and feel those blessings that come from being there for your own family and and perpetuating that. I listen way better in the temple when I know it's for one of my own relatives and just to leave them off the desk. So I get way more out of the experience when I'm there that way too, yeah.

Scott Brandley:

Wow, it's kind of turned into more than just record keeping. It's a lot more personal. I know that you can add stories and pictures and different types of files and things, so it's almost like a keepsake.

Rachel Matheus:

Yeah.

Scott Brandley:

A way to record and store someone's legacy in a digital version that people can refer to.

Rachel Matheus:

Oh yeah, and you can keep. Like you know, I know people who are curating their own family search person page. I know people who are curating their own family search person page so that, when they pass away, the photos that were important to them are there and the stories that they want their family to remember about them. You can do all of that very privately. You don't have to share it with anyone until after you're gone, but it's there.

Rachel Matheus:

I had a sister in my ward a few years ago who she knew she was dying. She'd had a really, really colorful life and I remember her handing me her personal history and saying I want you to scan this and I want you to put it on the family tree on my page. And I said OK, and I started going through it and the stories that she was preserving about herself. I was shocked by, um, they were things I thought only happened in tv movies and and I thought, is this really what she wants saved? And then I, and then the spirit chastened me a little bit and said yes, she wants her family to break these cycles and she wants them to have a chance to know what she overcame and that she had been to the temple and that she had recovered and I was so grateful to get to help her with that and to see that from a totally different angle. Um, but it's. It's really a powerful tool too when you're grieving.

Rachel Matheus:

Um, both my paternal grandparents have passed away. In the time that I've worked in the family history department and as my family was grieving, as my children were grieving, my cousins were grieving, we started putting our pictures up and I saw pictures that I had seen in my grandparents' house. But I started seeing pictures I'd never seen before and pictures from my childhood that my aunts and uncles had taken but I had never seen, because you remember the old days when we did film and they got developed. But as we were scanning those photos and putting them up, it brought such peace and comfort to see that we were all together grieving and that we were all feeling my grandparents, that closeness to their story, um, and how very thin the veil is. I I'm pretty sure my grandma was was also trying to curate which photos went up. Some of the ones I know she didn't like I have not seen yet.

Alisha Coakley:

That would be me Like. Don't share that one.

Rachel Matheus:

Not that one, not that one. In fact my mom's mom, I have one on that. I put on that it is just so. It is so her, like she was the one always behind the camera, not in front of it, and and a lot of that was because she really didn't like having her picture taken. But as she she's standing there, somebody took a picture of her with their camera in her hand and it is not a flattering photo of her and I know she would hate that picture, but it just speaks volumes of who she was to me and I can hear her in my mind saying oh Rachel, you character, what are you doing with that?

Rachel Matheus:

You know, and because that was something she'd say all the time and I, you know, and my kids didn't get to know her, but I can share that little bit of family search with them and I can share that history of who we are and we can take it back and we can go back generation after generation. And and it's funny because maybe your kids have said this too but my children believe that anything that happened before the Internet included dinosaurs and I'm like, no, there were no dinosaurs in the 80s. But but you know, as, as I think about the things that I have lived with and and what the world was like for me as a kid versus today and, and it seems pretty ordinary to me, like things, I've even forgotten that we did right Turning the dial on our TV.

Rachel Matheus:

But but the world has changed a lot and and what a horse and buggy was to my great grandparents, so normal, was so like wow to me the idea of it and and our normal. You know the idea of it and and our normal. You know, driving our own cars and not self-driving cars to our grandkids are going to be so different from each other. And so your story you might be like, oh, I'm boring, I'm ordinary, but you're not, and your history and your day-to-day is inspiring to people in generations yet to come. You know, they know we don't know what, what will be normal to them that we're like what you know they'll never know what. When pantyhose came in plastic eggs and and paper towels in a bathroom, where those actual towels that you remember, you pull them, them down, and they were always wet, yeah.

Scott Brandley:

Oh yeah.

Rachel Matheus:

In the bathroom.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh man, that's so funny Time time.

Scott Brandley:

I mean, yeah, things happen quick. My grandpa's still alive, he's 94. And I have a Tesla and I was driving him in the car and it was driving itself and as we were driving, he was telling me how, when he was young, they used to ride in a horse and buggy.

Rachel Matheus:

Yeah.

Scott Brandley:

And I'm like oh, grandpa, you went from a horse and a buggy to a self-driving car in your lifetime.

Rachel Matheus:

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Scott Brandley:

It's crazy.

Rachel Matheus:

And you think about it and I think it was President Hinckley that talked about. You're the middle link, you're in the middle of all that and you're that connection from the past to the future. Several years ago, rosemary Wixom, when she was primary general president, spoke at RootsTech. Several years ago, rosemary Wixom, when she was primary general president, spoke at RootsTech and and she talked about how her mother, her mother, her, her mother's grandmother, so her third great grandmother, was Brigham Young's daughter and knew Brigham Young and and so her mother knew people who knew Brigham Young and then knew her own great grandchildren.

Rachel Matheus:

And in these modern times, and you think, oh, that Brigham Young, that was so long ago. And yet there's this connection, this binding link between these generations, and we are that link today. We are those people and and what do we owe future generations? Well, we owe them a story. Um, I often think, wouldn't it be great if every one of us, in our family search profile page, shared our testimony or wrote the story of our baptism day and what you remember about it? And it might not be very much, but that was a moment in your life where everything changed and and you know if you've got pioneer ancestors or not so pioneer ancestors. Somewhere in your tree is someone who chose god, who, and?

Rachel Matheus:

and you look at that person and say, oh they, they changed the trajectory of our whole family right and they changed our history, and but you're also someone changing the history of your family and changing that story. And it might be that you were the first one to go to college or you're the first one to get a self-driving car, but you're changing that narrative, you're changing the course of your family story and you deserve to be remembered too, and your stories will be important to generations that nobody knows.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, I love that. So where do you with AI and things? Are you seeing how that's going to kind of work into family history or RootsTech?

Rachel Matheus:

Oh yeah, well, we already are. We've joked about all the people who were just couldn't get enough DNA classes a few years ago are now torn between do I go to the AI class or the DNA class at RootsTech? We already are. So one of the amazing things. So when I started working in the family history department, you know we've been gathering records for one hundred and fifty six years If I've got the numbers right, someone in my department will correct me and I probably got this wrong but it used to be that we went out family history People who are helping with family history would go out and they go to record holders and they'd say, can we have your records to help people do genealogy? And they'd literally bring the stacks of paper back to salt lake, um. And then, in like the 1920s, microfilm was invented and we look at that and think that's pretty old technology, but in the moment it was revolutionary, um.

Rachel Matheus:

And so we started microfilming records and instead of taking people's records, we took pictures of them and and we brought them back to Salt Lake and we kept master copies of that microfilm and then we'd make copies of it and send it all over the world to help people. And then digital photography came and we started digitizing the records in the collection. Started digitizing the records in the collection, but we also were still out digitizing records within, you know, archives and churches and all over the world. Well, I think it was I'm trying to remember what year I think it was 2018, maybe uh we finally finished digitizing the collection that was already here in salt lake city and converting all that microphone to digital images. But we continue, but none of it has been most not none of it. I should back up. Much of our collection had not been indexed yet, which meant you couldn't go online and search for it, and when I started working in the department, I think I remember hearing an estimate that there was 30 lifetimes, at our current rate of indexing, before we would have the collection we had, right in that moment, indexed, you know, and putting metadata on it. Thank you, thanks for helping somebody find a family name and being able to search for it online. But because of that, we started working with other industry people and they were helping us index and we're like, ok, this is going to speed the work up, but it was still a lot of lifetimes at our current pace. And then came AI at our current pace. And then came AI and we've been using for about the last 10 years. We've been developing what we call computer-assisted indexing. And just to give you context, when the 1940 US Census came out, it was the fastest indexing project of that size that had ever been done and I think they got the whole thing done in six months. When the 1950 census launched with computer assisted indexing, it was done in six hours, holy cow. And then we got to just review names and make sure that the computer had gotten it right. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, there are people out there developing, you know, tree models that figure out okay, if this, then this, and they look across sites and across records and they're using it to help develop family trees.

Rachel Matheus:

Now we still need to be involved in the work. I think in fact I know it was President Eyring. He says we don't know what marvels the Lord's going to inspire to assist in this work, but we do know that it will still require the spirit working in people like you and me, and so I still see that need every single day and it's amazing what can happen. But even five years ago, I didn't know enough about AI to think that it was going to be that powerful. But what it's doing and what it's helping people to learn and to do quickly, it's just amazing. And the Lord says I'll hasten my work and my time. I have no doubt that he will hasten with AI. We just have to keep up with it. So it's pretty incredible what's out there and what's happening. And we're just on the cusp. It's really only just beginning, wow that's so cool.

Alisha Coakley:

So tell me, what do you think like? I guess I'm sure you guys have a bunch of ideas of what you'd like to have happen with RootsTech in the future, right, like like, what type of new technology might you like to have or what type of problem are you still trying to look for a solution on?

Rachel Matheus:

Oh well, I mean, I think one of the key things is is knowing that we've got the right content for the people that we're serving. We've got the right content for the people that we're serving. You know, because we family history, your family history journey is is so unique to you and and I've I've talked to people all over the church that they're like oh, I've taken all these family history classes. We used to do them in Sunday school, remember? And yeah, and I've taken them and I still don't know what to do.

Rachel Matheus:

I don't know where to begin, and part of the issue is that every one of us has a unique starting point where we're at and, fortunately, through the Holy Ghost, you can find that beginning spot. But as an enabler of that, as one of the few that spends my whole life trying to help other people be able to do their family history, I'm always looking for do we have the right thing? Do we have just what you need, alisha, to keep going and you know, and what's got needs, because your trees are different and cookies would help me Cookies would help.

Alisha Coakley:

Me Cookies would help cookies would help me.

Rachel Matheus:

Cookies would help. You should just make a connection. I will say this anytime I help somebody with their family tree, I always have to end with a treat, because because god wants us to be happy and all things and, and you know, when we've done his work, we've earned a tree.

Rachel Matheus:

When the saints meet, we always eat right I'm all for that I love that logic so um, anytime we've got a missionary going out of my ward or whatever, if they need help getting that part of their, I'm like, come on over, I'll help you and then we'll have a cookie. But yeah, I mean it's just. There's so much to just wanting to make sure we've got the right things for everybody, that it's accessible and meaningful to you, because I think a lot of people are like, oh, it's so boring and for some people it is. You know, I, I, it turns out I'm one of those people that was born to do it. Like I get really excited about oh look, I remember this from my high school history class and it's helping me all this stuff. But but the other thing is thing is just that we keep it simple for people, and one of the main things that we work on in fact, it's one of our quality standards in the family history department is always am I making it easier for you, even if it's harder for me? And I love it, because I love being able to say to somebody hey, we're going to simplify this journey for you and we're going to make it better, and we're going to make it easier for you to act in doctrine and to receive those blessings, because I started this by quoting a whole bunch of apostles and blessings that they've promised. There's way more, more promised blessings for this and I have felt every one of them in my life. I thought, oh, this is nice, one or two of these will come my way. Every single promised blessing that has been uttered out of the mouths of prophets about what happens when we get involved in Temple and family history work. I have felt it in my life and, oh, it just makes things so much better. And the Holy Ghost is there. I mean, he will guide you through all of it.

Rachel Matheus:

I remember hearing President Eyring give a talk where he talked about his dad being in Australia and wanting to go to church, but he didn't know how to get there and how. He walked out on the street and the Spirit said turn left, turn right, walk straight ahead. And he ended up at the church. And, as I've done genealogy, I've been in the tree and I hear the Holy Ghost say change the spelling of the name, do this, do that, modify, and suddenly I'm at just the right person and the one that I know has been waiting for their opportunity to be found and to have their temple work done, and that deep relationship with the Holy Ghost has empowered every aspect of my life. I feel more confident in my calling, in my parenting skills. All of that because I know the Holy Ghost speaks and that he'll point us in the right direction and that all roads lead back to our savior.

Rachel Matheus:

And there's no other place where we get to act as a savior for somebody else the way we do when we're in the temple for someone in our tree, and and so it just. You know it just keeps going and going and getting better. And how do I make it easy for you so that you don't go into the family history coma or just sit there and say, oh, don't talk about it. I feel too guilty, like I want you to feel, just like oh, it's pure delight, it's pure joy. Be in the Lord's hands. And and yeah, bring on the miracles. Bring on the miracles, bring the comfort when you're grieving, bring whatever, whatever blessing you need. The Lord is offering it through his work.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, it does feel a lot easier than it has ever been and like even when you go to the temple now you can they'll find you a family name on the app.

Rachel Matheus:

It's two clicks on your app. You say I want a name, this is the ordinance I'm doing, and then it's print the card or have the people at the temple print the card, either way, and you know. And you take it a little deeper and you say how am I related to this person?

Scott Brandley:

And.

Rachel Matheus:

Oh, maybe I'll look at the sources or the memories and find out a little something about them. And then, suddenly, your temple experience. It's like oh, I'm not sitting here by myself, they're sitting right next to me and and they're real. Like you know, it's not just a name, you're there for, it's a person. And and the Lord doesn't let his sparrows fall, he knows where they all are and and if you're banging your head against a brick wall, just know, maybe it's not their time yet. Go work on something else. So yeah.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow, you know it's funny, my mom, my mom's always been really like big into family history and I've always kind of just said that's great mom, because she wants me to do all the time and I'm like you do the family history, I'll just go do the temple work. You know what I mean. And now it's now I feel a little bit more open to it, especially after talking to you just um, because my mom is um passing away and so we're getting ready to go. Uh, tomorrow actually we're going to well, when this airs it will have been last week, but um, we're, we're going to Georgia to go um, have my kids say goodbye and everything like that.

Alisha Coakley:

And when we were speaking earlier about um, you know just how you knew that your grandmother wasn't going to be appreciative of. You know, having that bad picture up and stuff like that. Like my mom was that for for us. Like she was always behind the camera. She never liked being in front of the camera. There's a lot of pictures of everybody else and not really a lot of my mom, and in this whole process of of her terminal cancer and getting to talk to her about some of her life stories, it's amazing to me to hear how much I didn't know about my mom. You know what I mean. Like it's like she's my mom, but man, my mom, my mom was also a woman.

Alisha Coakley:

you know my mom was a child, teenager. She was a real person. She was a 20 year old at one point. You know what I mean. Like it's it's kind of it's like the older I get now, the more I'm kind of shifting towards that. Like I can understand now why my mom loved family history so much, because for her it really made her family members real and and, and I think that, um, you know, as we move forward with this tough transition, it's almost like one of those, uh, you know, maybe I can still honor my mom by kind of taking over something that she loved and maybe that will also help me to feel that, also help me to feel that connection. Oh, you will.

Rachel Matheus:

You know you will and she will be with you. I'll tell you, my grandparents have a way of making themselves known on a regular basis. I'll wake up some days with just this absolutely urgent feeling. You got to get to the tree today, rachel, and I don't always know why I'm going, but I start with a prayer and I say, okay, point me to where I'm supposed to be.

Rachel Matheus:

And, without fail, every time it's on my grandparents lines and I find things and I add names and and I know when I'm done and I've done what I'm there to do. And then they come and they sit beside me for a second and I don't see them. I know this sounds a little crazy, but they're there and they sit in the room with me and I know what they feel like in a room. I was 40, some odd years old when they passed away, and so I know what it feels like to be in their presence. And they come and they speak the things that need to be said and I know that they are diligently doing missionary work and they are adamant that the people they're teaching get baptized.

Rachel Matheus:

And because I'm listening, they let me help them and then I get to be with them again, and so that promise that, knowing that life continues beyond the veil, there's no sorrow in their passing, their sadness, but there's no sorrow because they are still very much involved and and it just I look forward to those moments. Now I'm like, okay, it's been a while since we talked. Will you come and? And the Lord puts them on his the errands they need to be doing, and they'll get it done through their family and and I just get to reap the blessings and and, yes, that connection with your mom, and she won't stop being her on the other side. She's still going to be out there going all right.

Rachel Matheus:

I need your help Get this done, because she knows that she can count on you.

Alisha Coakley:

Sorry, I'm just a mess, oh man.

Rachel Matheus:

Rachel, I'm all red.

Scott Brandley:

I think this is timely and, you know, if you had a message that, a final message you'd like to share with people that are watching this, what would that be? Rachel?

Rachel Matheus:

oh, it would be. Seek the Lord, what does he want you to do in the work? And then be that instrument in his hands because he will work miracles. And he will work miracles for others through you. And there's no greater blessing than that and being that person that gets to help him do what he needs done. And I know he could do it without me, but he lets me help and he'll let you help too. He'll help you go ask for help from your neighbor, your friend, the consultant in your ward. They'll help too. But we're all we get to be that person and through the spirit he'll help you to do what you need to do.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, I love that and I love that and I love that. I don't know, I was just thinking this, but I was like the Lord has really made it possible, especially through what's root, what root Texas roots tech is doing, and like family search and all that anybody, member or not, and no matter where your, where your level of membership might be or your level of your testimony might be at the moment, there's something for everyone to do. Right, you could be taking the names to the temple and doing the work, or you could be finding the names, or you could be finding the stories associated with the names, or you could be working on the tech end or translating something for someone, or you know what I mean. Like there's just, or just like submitting information. You can help verify your names and records. Yeah, yeah, exactly, so it's.

Alisha Coakley:

It's been pretty enlightening. I, like I said I just you know being younger and stuff I just never really could get into it and I I really appreciate you coming on today and just sharing your story and your thoughts and everything like that and, most importantly, just for you being in a, in a place where you have the spirit with you so strong that I could feel that spirit and I could feel my, my testimony growing more about family search and history and and and all the things that you know. I'm sure the Lord is like come on, alisha, do something. So I really appreciate you coming on today.

Rachel Matheus:

So no, it's a pleasure yeah, I agree with Alisha yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah, I agree, oh, awesome.

Alisha Coakley:

Well, miss rachel, we really appreciate you coming on today and sharing your story and your, your knowledge and your testimony and everything like that. Um, if anyone is interested in getting involved in roots tech, where should we point them? Like?

Rachel Matheus:

so I would start with rootstechorg. There's there's classes all over our library. We do a live webinar every Thursday on a different topic throughout the year, but you can join us on rootstechorg anytime. If you've got questions about it or what's coming up next, you can email us at info at rootstechorg. Go talk to your consultant in your ward, talk to someone you know who does family history and say, hey, I want to get started, will you help me?

Rachel Matheus:

It's always better with a friend and my friend that started me. He just kept needling me and I finally said yes, and it took me a while and I'm like what took me so long. It's been like the greatest gift of my life and and the depth of my gratitude to him for what he brought to my life and what has come since then. Like it, it just it's. It's endless. It's the cycle of goodness that that the world needs. And so go find a friend that will, that will walk you through it. We'll all talk too much because we get really excited about it, but but say, okay, this is my goal and they'll help you through it. We'll all talk too much cause we get really excited about it, but but say, okay, this is my goal and they'll help you get there, um, and help you do what you need to do Awesome.

Alisha Coakley:

All right. Well, you guys heard it here. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today with Rachel and with Scott and I. Um, we just want to remind y'all, hey, if you have a story to share or if you know someone who has a story to share, something that can really bring some light to the world and help others to build their testimony, please, please, please, reach out to us. You guys can head over to latterdaylightscom and fill the form out at the bottom of the page, or you can email us at latterdaylights at gmailcom. We would love to hear from you, um, and lights at gmailcom. We would love to hear from you, um. And. And, of course, we would love for you guys to help us spread light by doing your five second missionary work, clicking that share button and getting Rachel's story out.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome. Well, thanks again, rachel for coming on Really appreciate it and thanks everyone for tuning in and we will see you next week with another episode of Latter-day Lightsday lights. Until then, take care, bye-bye.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host