How to retain the traditions of
my people and still be a good member of the Church--for
me personally, I have found that searching for
parallels between the gospel and something I've been taught
through my whole life through our traditions of the elders and
through my family members--for me, I have found that we
have these traditions, right? We believe in a Creator. We believe in Mother Earth. We believe in the spirit. We believe we're already
a spiritual people, so the gospel for me
has just been a bridge. And they've become intertwined
for me, having the Church and having the knowledge
of our traditions. They've just
complemented each other so well that it's been
easy to find the bridges. It's been easy to realize that
I have a Heavenly Father that loves me, that we have the
gospel, and I can pray to Him. He created the world
for us so that we can have joy, and that
bridges with traditions that we've been taught
from a young age. And for me, retaining the
traditions of my people has been through genealogy work. It's orally taught through
our Native lineage, right? It goes from one generation
to the other through a story. So with that, when elders pass
away, we don't have that story. We don't have that. We don't have any
of that knowledge or any of the names, the
stories, anything like that. So for me and my family, we
have taken it upon ourselves to find those stories
and hear the stories and have them written
and recorded so that we can take the
names to the temple and that we can take the stories
and we can write them down for the future generations. So just keeping those traditions
and finding the bridges for you personally is one way that
I've been able to continue to stay strong in the Church.