We had a treat this week of witnessing part of an awesome symposium on the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the topic of preserving church history. We got to learn what efforts have been made in South America in preservation, though the Church has been growing there in most areas for less than 50 years, and those that are saving old records of special events to the members are not trained historians, but regular members and local leaders concerned about preserving a legacy.
Preserving history has always been important to God, who has mandated the recording of his revelations since the beginning. As far as we know, one of the first records of anything being written was God himself taking Moses aside in the wilderness, and writing His commandments on stone tablets, and giving them to Moses for law, but as a great example as well. And isn't it obvious that it is important for Him since have the Bible today, even though no original documents prevail? The Bible is a long history, a chronology of social, political, and spiritual events.
Just as preserving history in ancient times was important as an eternal principle, it was important to the Restored Church when in April of 1830, as one of the Lord's first directives to the newly organized church, He revealed: "Behold, there shall be a record kept among you..." (D&C 21:1). Since then, He has called historians to keep the records of everything that is done officially in His church.
Even today we are called to keep a record, write a journal, remember what's up and what we are learning in this human experience. It shows that we appreciate our experience. I know that God lives and evidence of his love is all around. Principally it's in the records that have been kept that tell us how Christ gave his life out of love for us, and in the beautiful families that God has established to raise us righteously. So in the end, remember, history means everything that's happened, and someday today's textbooks will look like memos compared with the worlds of libraries that God's knowledge will reveal to his faithful children.
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I agree with you, the symposium definitely hit on the importance of keeping a record (although, I wished the speakers had been more . . . enthused). My disappointments with the general tone of the symposium had nearly lulled me into forgetting Elder Jensen's remarks on the importance of personal history: he really did a good job - guess that's why he's a 70.
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