How Many "Last's"?

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Sunday the 14th seemed to be the beginning of our final events.  I decided to go to the Tabernacle Choir Spoken Word broadcast in case I couldn't go next week for some reason. They started out with "Give Said the Little Stream," which reminded me of Lena and brought tears. The choir is just so amazing in person. Sister Isaacson went with me and we both had a time getting through it.

After church on Sunday we were invited to dinner at Owen and Brenda's. She had made dirty rice, had Italian green beans and corn, a great fresh salad and a choice of several kinds of ice cream. It was a yummy dinner.

Robert had finally gotten a hold of Sister Patterson, so we were due over there about 7:00. He really wanted to see her again before we leave. When we got there, three of her children were there so we really had a nice visit. I didn't realize they had taken their four children on their mission, so Robert remembered them and they remembered him. They had such fun reminiscing. They asked questions about our mission and we just really enjoyed our time with them. I thought something Sister Patterson told us was so sweet. She said in those days they didn't give the sisters any instruction, just the mission presidents, but one of the general authorities told the wives, "Just love the missionaries like your own children." She said she thought, "But I'll have my children with me. How can I love them like my own children?"  After they got to Vegas they moved into the president's home. Her husband called one day and said that the office staff elders were coming to meet her. She was standing at the window when they drove up. They got out of the car and one was combing his hair, one was trying to brush dust off his shoes, another was straightening his tie. She watched them as they walked up to the front door. She opened the door and said, "I looked at them and loved them like my own kids. That's how long it took." It made me think of our young elders and how much we love them. Then before we left,Sister Patterson asked Robert to give her a blessing. I thought that was so sweet. She hasn't been well. She's been in the hospital and in rehab. Robert and her son gave her a blessing. By the time we left, I understood why she was and is really special to Robert.

Robert with the Patterson kids and Sister Patterson

Robert with sweet Sister Patterson

Monday was "our Aloha dinner" and we worked at the library until 5:00.  Elder Hasler asked Robert to be ODS for him, so we had to wait until the library was completely clear before we could leave. I made the salad that Sister Isaacson brought over here one time--pineapple tidbits, Mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, and marshmallows in a sour cream base. I really like it. I could have added coconut and pecans, but didn't this time. The food was totally "covered dish" this time and there was a good selection and seemed to be plenty. There were quite a few coming in and going out. I managed to get through the songs without just breaking down, but definitely did get teary.

The entertainment for the evening was a trio consisting of Sister Cramer, soprano and wife of our stake president, Larry Gee, concert pianist, and Emily Woods on violin. They did a collection of love songs, from "Till There Was You" from Music Man to "That Wonderful Mother of Mine" to some classical songs to some show tunes. It was very beautiful--some of it not our favorites, but all of it beautiful.

Tuesday the 16th we started Capstone training. This week was Find, Take, Teach, which I thought was basically what we do every day in the library, but it was mostly descendancy research. They showed a video from Roots Tech that was excellent and convinced me that we have to go home and teach this. We only stayed an hour and a half because we had our day planned to be with Bev and Paul and the family at Bev & Paul's cabin. They picked us up here and we got up there about an hour ahead of the others. It's up Parley's Canyon, just outside of Kamas. It was a beautiful drive and the cabin reminds me so much of our cabin at Charleston--in the family for many years, a picturesque setting, tons of memories. It was wonderful. It's right on a creek (and this one has water in it!), has a beautiful front yard with trees and grass and the cabin is made of logs.

Bev had ordered Omaha steaks (I think they had to be filet mignon--sooo yummy!) and we all brought fruit, salads, dessert--all so good. We set up tables in the yard and the day was perfect. We ate and visited and told stories. Bev had Paul tell us about the basketball team he had played on when he was on his mission 60 years ago in Australia--they called them the Yankees and they played teams who were preparing to go to the Olympics! They've made the story into a film that premiered at Park City and it's supposed to come out in October! We all told mission stories and then we had Glen do his magic tricks for us--they're so fun!

We ate til we were stuffed, then it started to cloud over and sprinkle a little, so we thought we better clean up.

 Richard took his dog, Max, and put him in the car as we were loading things up. Max stepped on the door lock and locked the doors with the keys in the ignition! Several of them have AAA, so they called and gave them the address, but it would be awhile. Paul tried to get the sheriff's office, but that took awhile, too. We got everything cleaned up, packed up and swept up before the sheriff finally got there. They cancelled AAA. Finally we were on our way home.

Caleb had called. He had picked up Cuyler at the airport and they were still in Salt Lake. By then we said we'd be home in 5 minutes. As we pulled up, they were walking up the front walk. At the door, a lady from China and one from India, who are both missionaries, were both in a dither because the Chinese lady had lost her apt. key! What a crazy "conversation," if you can call it that. Robert told them we would help them and come with us. He called the night manager and finally they were on their way. We called Owen and Brenda and had a nice visit as a family group of missionaries! Cuyler went in the MTC the next day.

Wednesday, day two of Capstone, was step by step descendancy research. The thing I liked about it was the detail they gave us about each step. I've been shown how to do it before, but never understood "why" each step or what the various symbols represented. I feel I understood it much better. Wednesday is our half day at the library, so when we got out of training a little early, we hurried to do some of the things we hadn't had time to do on Tuesday. We picked up Robert's suit from the cleaners, went to WalMart, got some lunch, and met with Joni on our DNA stuff. I had gotten an e-mail from Leighton Turner, the Turner group administrator, that put me in a quandary. He said there seems to be a "non-paternal event" in our line, which means a break in the line. Jim's DNA only matched with one Turner surname out of 37 matches. That seemed strange. I e-mailed him about the possibility of a Turner (female) marrying a McPherson (male) and then using the Turner name--a family story I'd almost forgotten. Joni got Robert signed up for a Ruggles group and then looked at my responses from Leighton--it's all very interesting and very confusing. We went to mission conference at 3:00 and the Olivers spoke. I knew that would be teary--we all love the Olivers. She told us about her son who had been inactive for years and about 4 years ago decided he needed to return to church--a story I'm sure many of us need to hear. President Oliver used the quote, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened"--VERY appropos. We came home totally exhausted after the second totally full day in a row.

Thursday was our third day of  Capstone and we wrote a "lesson plan" to teach descendancy to someone else, using a person we had found on our line. They emphasized over and over, writing down who we started with and how we got to the person we found. I did it, feeling pretty confidant about my "plan." I found several "green temples" where I could do temple work and felt good about my morning. We went back to the library even though we had thought about going to the COB for lunch for our last chance for prime rib. But they had planned our "going away" party for Thursday. Then we went out on the floor and had the most "normal" day of the week. We came home totally exhausted.

I guess we wrote our plan on Wednesday because on Thursday we tried to teach it to a partner. I thought I had written everything down so carefully and I hadn't written down the first three steps and had a dickens of a time getting to the person whose line I actually wanted to follow. Sister Cornelson helped me trace it back and I realized the importance of what they'd said the day before--WRITE IT ALL DOWN!

Friday, the 19th, was our last day of training, but Elder Sorenson, our Zone Leader at the library, had asked us to come into the library for 7:30 prayer meeting. I wasn't sure what they had planned, but I couldn't help but think, "You can't put anything else into our crammed full week, folks!" We went to prayer meeting and all went as usual, then they called us up to get our card they had all signed for us and a certificate thanking us for our service and a book of Elijah moments. They asked us to each say a few words and we were both teary doing that. I told about Lola saying everyone would remember Robert and I would be the lady with him. But also told that being here is like being under a waterfall of blessings, they just come in torrents.

At training they went over writing stories, which is one of my favorite things and yet I've done very little of it. I wrote one about Uncle Delbert and his red baseball cap and one about Paul locking Grandma in the bathroom. I wanted to add pictures to them, but was told they had to be on my flashdrive so I could put them in the gallery. I was sure that was wrong and decided I'd ask the young elders at the library. But I was thrilled to find that Caleb had written a story about going to Grandma's when he was little and watching the dancing Santa. I was so tickled that he had done that. I hope to encourage several of the kids and grandkids to write stories when we get home.

We went on to the library and had a busy day. I got to help a man who was so deeply into it. He had his son, maybe about 22 or 23 with him, and the son wasn't into it at all. I feel sure the dad could have stayed until 9:00 (they came in about 3:00), and the son clearly was ready to go before 4:00. I tried to finish up with the dad and show him how to get help at home, knowing I had to leave at 4:00 to help with a tour group. Then with the group I got a lady who said she had a lot of information on her family, but she wanted to find information on her husband's line to share with her kids. She was so thrilled when we found census records with information she didn't know (her husband is deceased). She thanked me over and over and wanted to go home and continue working. Then back on the floor, I helped an Hispanic lady who was just in tears when we found her mother on a 1940 census. I gave her a copy of it and attached it to her record. She kept saying, "My mother would have loved this." Then we found a 1930 census and then switched to her dad. She told me she and her daughter had stopped at Cove Fort on their way here from California and the sweet missionary lady had given them a tour and told them all about our history. She was so touched by it all. I felt I had been given wonderful "going away" gifts of people to work with that afternoon--all so sweet, so grateful and really so typical of so many of the people we've worked with. The only black cloud involved was that I didn't get relieved at 6:00 and Robert got really aggravated about it, which I couldn't understand because we didn't have to go anywhere or meet anyone. Why did it matter? He just didn't think it was right for three missionaries to be visiting and helping each other when I should have been relieved to go home. It kind of put a negative feeling on the day.

Robert says whenever he leaves a job or gets ready to start something new, all heck breaks loose and he's learned to try to be as early as possible. I think it's because he gets so stressed out over things and brings a lot of his problems on himself. I know it's a good thing that he tries to get things organized early, but our stress attacks each of us physically where we're the most vulnerable and for me, physically, it's my ankles. For him, he seems to get kidney stones, or is afraid he is, and then he hurts and he's a bear, and it's no fun for anyone.

Saturday we didn't have to go to the library early to clean because starting Monday they'll move everyone upstairs and no one will be using the computers downstairs--YEA! Happy Going Away to me--cleaning early on Saturday is NOT my favorite thing to do.

I could sleep in, so I got up at 5:30 and started another round of packing. It never fails when I CAN sleep in I can't! I packed up my jewelry (have worn so little of it since we wear lanyards every day--and that was one of the stupid things I worried about), I packed up my nightstand books and more stuff on the bookshelf (me and my books and papers--never ending), then started in on dishes and kitchen stuff. The thing that had propelled me out of bed was that I thought, "We have to take our leftover food to the elders. This is the last day we work with them. And I have to take my baking stuff to Sister Disque."

Sister Isaacson brought Robert liver and onions for lunch, which was a good thing, because we forgot our lunch. We've been eating all week off the leftovers Brenda sent home last Sunday. We just have too much on our minds to remember anything else. Right after prayer meeting I asked Elder Ransom if he could help me get pictures off of Google to put on my stories. He said, "Sure," and helped me do it. I must say I was proud of myself when I added pictures to two more stories. It was a pretty normal Saturday schedule, except the library was much quieter much of the day than it usually is on Saturday. I was scheduled the last hour on the phone, which seemed like a funny place to spend my last hour at the library. Brenda Hare came in about 3:30 and I worked with her a little bit before I had to go to the phone. She came in to go to dinner with us and Owen and Brenda--one more "one last time." She had asked if we wanted to go to some place in Brigham City that everyone raves about, but all 4 of us said, "Heck no! Not after a day of working--that's 65 miles away and it'll probably be an hour's wait to get seated." We ended up going to The Garden at the JSMB and it was very nice. Owen treated, which was very generous and we had a great time and enjoyed our food--all so good.

A Prayer Answered

Sunday, August 14, 2016

I keep thinking about President Richards telling us, "Woe, woe, woe if you're not writing things down" and thinking of things I need to be writing. So much for sleeping in on Sunday morning, which I love to do. . .

When we went to the temple last Tuesday, we were a little early and they asked us if we'd like to sit in the Celestial Room for a few minutes. We said, "Sure," and I took the opportunity to pray about my Turners. I had come across the talk that Sister Naylor, in Access Services, gave before she left. She had told about Elder Waller giving a spiritual thought that Sister Disque had shared. We've worked with both of them, so it caught my attention. Sister Disque said when she went to the temple, she had prayed and asked one of her great-grandparents for help on finding people in the family, that she wanted to do their work, wanted to give them the opportunity to accept the Gospel, but she needed help in finding them. That resonated with me. I've discovered all of this Turner information since I've been here, but some of the families on FamilySearch can't be correct because the mother was having children for too many years, some of the kids are probably grandkids, but I can't figure out who belongs where. I ran off probably 200 pages of findagrave information from the Turners in Rockingham County, Virginia, but I know that isn't always completely correct or complete. I've been putting the families together from that info the best I can. But while I was in the temple I prayed and told James Turner and his wife Christina that I really needed help. This is their family as well as mine and I wanted the families to be sealed together correctly.

Wednesday, the next day, I found two more books on the Turners--one of them a book that Pat Turner Ritchie mentioned in the material of hers that I just found, and another one on the Brocks Gap Families. The "Long John Turner" book she mentioned isn't copyrighted and I copied all of it. It wasn't way long and the Brocks Gap book has information on the Cherryholmes family that we run into through marriage and the Beerys that John Turner married into in Ohio. Then getting Jim's DNA test back was wonderful. I got to sit down with Joni and she had me join three groups--a Turner research group, a Cumberland Gap group and another one. I'm really getting info back and so excited to spend some time on it. Maybe it's all just coincidence, but I feel my prayer was answered and I'm finally getting the help and answers I've needed. The time thing sure is putting me in a crunch, though.

Friday was a day of so much news we could hardly take it all in. We just had to get one piece at a time and keep going with what we were supposed to be doing. Ed called that morning wanting to get a hold of Alton to tell him about meeting Alton's companion from his mission in Scotland while Ed was in Vermont. Robert told him Alton is back in the woods and may not get calls or texts. Robert called Becky to see if he has another number and Becky told Robert that Alton had butted heads with a burro and was in the hospital with a cracked neck (again) and 17 staples in his head, but no concussion and should be o.k. But she didn't know how she was going to get him and his truck home. Wow. Robert called Arthur Ray to tell him about Alton and AR said he was taking Aunt Gladys to the hospital to be checked out--she was having chest pains and they were afraid it was from the penicillin the dentist had given her for a tooth problem. That worried us. We went to the library.

At the library, I worked with a young guy from Hill AFB named Pizzo. He wanted info on his grandfather. We found him on the 1930 census and then nothing. We tried several spellings, several states, combinations of all of them, nothing. Then I had him go to Ancestryinstitution.com and we found a social security record where he had registered as Pizzo then used Pitts for several years and then went back to Pizzo. We also found the immigration record for him and his wife! We tried Pitts and found him on the 1940 census! I couldn't believe it--we would never have just "come up" with that name. In my mind, I said, "Thank you, Elijah." That was amazing to me that we found that. We definitely had help.

Later I was on the info desk and Susan Hopkins came by and said, "You heard about Elder Birch, didn't you?" NO! He collapsed on the second floor and they took him to the hospital. What? What's going on?

Then a guy came in with almost no info. We looked and found a little on his family, but not much. He didn't know names or dates or places (and it's a little tough to do genealogy without Some of that!) and when we would find a record, he didn't know the names well enough to know if the record was for his family or not! He knew he needed to go home and find more information. He was from Florida. An older guy was with him and I never quite figured out the connection, but the guy was really interested and was trying to help him. But they both liked what they were doing and wanted to go home and get more information and get into it. I showed them how they could add pictures and stories and they just ate it up. I felt really good about the experience and they seemed so happy, even though we found so little. We parted with positive inner glows all around!

I talked to Sister Thomas when we were waiting to help guests. She told me that for several days she had seen three little spirit children near us, two girls and a boy, who called us "Gwampa and Gwamma". I know different people have different gifts and I try not to be skeptical of the things she says, but somehow I tend to take it with a grain of salt. I should probably be more believing. I'm just too practical I think.

When we left the library, we wanted to go to the hospital to check on Elder Birch, and kept trying to get a hold of Paula. We tried a new (to us) place for a bite to eat and it was good--some Oriental folks run this hamburger place and also offer Rice Bowls and yummy ice cream goodies--what a combination! And it's close to the apt. We picked up Sister Isaacson, took her up to Ensign Peak and finally talked to Sister Birch. E. Birch was in ICU, they were running tests and their kids were all coming in, but she sounded o.k. He had collapsed at home on Wed. and Paula gave him CPR and tried to call 911, but she was so rattled she didn't push "send" on her phone and the call didn't go through. When E. Birch came to, he said, "Why were you screaming my name." She told him and he looked at her phone and pushed "Send" and the ambulance crew came--what a story! We saw her yesterday and she said he's going to have an angiogram today because their oxygen machines in the OR weren't working properly. He's still in ICU and being monitored carefully. Her son was with her in the library and they both seemed very upbeat and feelings things would be fine.

I talked to Bev last night and things are on for Tuesday at their cabin. I'm so glad to be with the family one more time before we go. I also called Sister Isaacson to see if she wanted to go with me to the Choir broadcast today and we're meeting in 45 minutes, so I need to get ready. Robert is trying to pass another kidney stone again. It never fails when we have something big going on that hits him. I hate it for him.

Down to Two Weeks

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

To where oh where is our time flying? It's going way too fast. When August arrived I started to feel the crunch tof all that needed to be done--the things we still wanted to do, the packing, the information to be found here. Robert had started telling me back in early July that we would run out of time, we needed to do this and this and this. He's always one to do things way ahead and my natural tendency is to take a day at a time and leave things until later. Luckily, I've mostly learned to do things, at least partially, his way, and it's always a good thing. He started wanting to go through things weeks ago, which I felt was way too soon.  But now, anything that's already been done, is a good thing.

Sunday the 31st was the fifth Sunday and President Klopfer gave an excellent lesson about the miracle at the temple when the signers of the Declaration appeared to Pres. Woodruff. He gave us a 2-page handout and then gave us scriptures and more information to go with it. It was excellent. I could have listened another couple of hours. We got a handout for Owen. He would have loved it too.

We had the young elders for dinner and had round steak and gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, red Jello salad with pineapple and cherries and pineapple upside down cake. If I do say so myself, it was great! Guess it was all things I was hungry for. The elders were very appreciative and said, "You've really outdone yourselves!" We sent them home with extra cake for them and their roommates.

Monday, the first, Caleb and Celine Gentry came in. They had asked if they could stay here and we were glad to have them. She will be teaching somewhere between here and Provo and Caleb is planning to transfer to Provo I think. They have an apartment there, but can't get in til the 4th and she had meetings on the 1st. We enjoyed visiting with them. They're sweet kids.

At one point we were supposed to go to Bev and Paul's cabin on the 2nd, but Paul had hernia surgery, so it's been postponed until the 16th. We decided we'd better use the 2nd to do some of the "need to do's" before we leave. We had borrowed a Parkin book from Jim Parkin a couple of months ago, took it apart and scanned it, then realized when we went to copy it that the pages weren't in order. I wanted to get the book back to Jim, so Robert wrote down the first few words on each page, we returned the book, but still hadn't put it in order. So we went to the library and finished copying it, which was a big, slow job. Sister Hunter had called and asked me if I could help with a VIP group that Jason had coming in. I hadn't done one since the problem with the printer card, but I told her I would. It was a Navy chaplain and his family coming in on Wed. afternoon, but I needed to meet with Jason about it before that. I also decided we hadn't made any headway in a year on the Ruggles line, so I wanted to meet with one of the staff professionals and see if they could help us. So lots to do at the library. We got our shopping done and went there. It was crazy trying to dove tail it all. I met with Jason and the couple had sent some family information that they found and Jason had done some more work on the lines and asked me to take the wife and he would work with the husband. I tried to familiarize myself with it. Robert worked on copying the Parkin book and I copied more of the Turner findagrave pages. Then I went to B1 to meet with the guy who's good on Canada and northern U.S. (I was told).  He asked if we had a birth town in New Brunswick and I told him no, but we have her on census records in Maine, and he just kept telling me how I needed to find this and that and whatever and do this and that, but never sat down with me, never gave me suggestions as to how to find it, did say GenWeb might be helpful. I kept telling his what we DO know and he kept telling me what I need to find. I know what I need to find, that's why I came to him, for help! I was quite aggravated and went back to the second floor and asked for someone familiar with Maine. A guy came down and again kind of told us what to find. I didn't find either of them very helpful. We're so used to sitting down and working with people one on one and that's what I was expecting. Tim, on staff, had done that before, and that's what I was hoping for. I did find two new collections on Maine cemeteries that were new in 2016 in familysearch and checked those out, but no luck. Guess we're shelving it again for awhile.

When we went in Wednesday, I waited with Jason for the Navy chaplain. The wife and two daughters came, but he had to be elsewhere. That had to have been disappointing for Jason, after all the work he'd done, but he talked to them for a bit, gave the background on the library, the vault and some of his family work to show what can be done in FS, then we took them into the lab and I worked with the wife and he worked with the daughters. I think it all went fine. The wife said she could stay all night, and Jason helped the girls find some great stuff.

Sunday was our last fast Sunday in the branch and I should have thought about bearing my testimony, but I hadn't. Brenda came to be there, I'm sure because she thought we would speak, but neither of us did. A lady from another country (I don't think a missionary, I think a visitor) told of an experience she had with a friend who was not a member, but was interested in the church. The friend died and this lady wanted to do her work. She asked the daughter, who said no. She waited awhile, then prayed and told her friend that she'd have to go to her daughter and get her to change her mind if she wanted her work done. About a week later, she called the daughter and asked and the daughter told her that her mom had come to her about three days before and opened the drawer by the bed and got the book out and threw it across the room. It was the Hindu book the girl had been studying! And she told the girl to give her friend permission. Quite the story! I only got about 3 or 4 words of it because of her accent, but Brenda told me the story on our way home.

The Olivers are leaving when we are and they bore their testimonies, which was very sweet. Pres. Richards (LeGrand's grandson, in our stake presidency) told us, "Woe, woe, woe to you if you aren't writing down the things you're hearing and the experiences you're having." Made me glad I've been trying to keep track of the wonderful experiences we've had. He said, "The Hebrew language doesn't have superlatives, so one woe is bad, two woes you're in trouble, and three woes is serious."

Monday at the devotional, zone leaders from the history library and from the Canada zone in our library both spoke and they were really good. I was surprised how funny the Browns were--from the Canada Zone. I really don't know them.

Yesterday I got up early and started sorting my clothes--what to pack now and what to leave out to pack just before we go. Then I went through the computer desk and then filed more paper into the manila folders I got. I just can hardly part with a piece of paper--I'm so bad about wanting to save everything. Robert went in and packed my stack of stuff into suitcases and we called LeeAnne to see if they are really thinking about coming. She said no, so we stripped the spare bed and washed the sheets. Robert took the pictures off the walls and packed them, so there are several areas done.

 Ruggles Bed and Breakfast is closed

About noon we decided to drive out and see if we could get close enough to Kennecott to get some pictures. The GPS gave us crazy directions, but we finally got fairly close. We had seen online that it's not open for tours, but wanted to see what we could see. It's so interesting. The layers and layers of earth and the dozens of shades from off-white to orange and everything in between. Pictures don't do it justice. We didn't get very close, but enjoyed getting out. Robert had wanted pictures of the huge trucks out there to show the grands, but couldn't get close enough.

Wish the beautiful colors showed up better

We went for late lunch on the way back, put off grocery shopping, and came home and changed to go to the temple to do sealings.That uphill walk is still hard for me. I would think I'd be a little better at it, but I'm not. We took 10 sealings to do and several others had probably that many. There were only 4 men, so we did a lot of kneeling, and Robert and I both have a hard time with much of that. We got them done, and were glad for that.

A funny thing happened the other day. I had mailed off about 30 cards to Reba for baptisms to be done. She had called to tell me they were done and she mailed them back. When I got the envelope, there was ONE card in there and it looked like the envelope had been opened. I called her and she said no, she had mailed a stack and sealed it herself and sent them.  A day or two later, about 10 cards, no envelope, appeared in our mailbox and had obviously gone through the post office. They must have come out of the envelope and they found these and delivered them because this address was on the cards. It's not all of them, but at least some of them came back. I'll have to re-print the others.

We need to go shopping today and then I want to go to the library early. I found the Turner info I brought with me that Patricia Turner Ritchie had sent me a couple of years ago. She has info that I've been looking for recently and mentioned a book that's online that I need to find today.  The DNA test Jim did just came back, so I want to talk to Joni about that.

Fireflies, Floats and Family

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

After church Sunday we met with two of the ladies we needed to see before they leave. We were glad to have that done. We went to Owen and Brenda's for lunch. Robert was glad to have the jambalaya and I enjoyed the ice cream.

Monday our Fireflies group met. We had pulled pork sandwiches, several yummy salads,potatoes, watermelon and mock eclair cake--all so good. We shared "tender mercies" afterwards. The Birches have had some major ones with their kids. Their son was drug my a horse and kicked in the face. It could so easily have had tragic consequences and he was only off work a week--no serious, permanent damage.  Elder Lane said two of their sons have come back to church, which is amazing.

Tuesday we went by the library and ran off the Temple cards I had reserved. I asked Elder Lathan last week to show me how he does descendancy research and I'm not really sure what he does that's different, but somehow I felt that I could and should be doing this. I'd added about 40+ names to my reserved list, so I had them printed and put them in the mail today to send to Reba to get the baptisms done.

Then we went to Sandy and saw the floats that will be in the Pioneer Day parade next Monday. There were dozens of floats and they were beautiful! It was crazy that it brought me to tears, but I loved seeing the floats. They were so pretty and I loved the bright, happy feelings they conveyed--I loved the moose on one, the waterfall on another, the missionaries on another. There was a high school marching band playing and games for the kids, face painting, and food. It was free to get in and so much good, clean fun. I just thought how fun it was to be there and couldn't help but feel bad that it's all coming to an end.

The theme of the parade this year is "Pioneers--
Inspiring Today's Generation!"

I loved the wind turbines on the front of this float and the real waterfall on the back of it.

They call the children's parade "the happiest parade on earth" and I think it is. The floats in it are smaller and things kids love.

The wheels on this train actually went round and round!

We came back to do our shopping and then met Richard and Carolyn at our apartment and went to Park City with them. We went to the museum on Main Street and told the lady we would like to know where the Judge Mine was. I had looked in Glen's book and found that that was the mine where he was the foreman. She pulled out a map and put an X on it and said that was about the place. She called a lady who works nearby and has done a lot of research on the area. The lady was nice enough to come down and talk to us and brought us a map of the mines in the area. There is something like 1200 miles of mine shafts underground in the area!

We were able to follow the map, as well as talk to a guy cutting tile outside of his house, and found the sign for the Judge Mine right across the street.

This is the marker for the Judge Mine

This is the opening to the Judge Mine (but the opening is covered)

My grandparents may have lived on this hillside, but no beautiful condos in those days!

And finally, this is where we ate lunch in Park City:

What a fun day! Loved the floats, loved being with family, loved seeing places where my grandparents once lived and where my mother was born.

On Wednesday we went back to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We were there last winter with snow on the ground, but there definitely wasn't any snow this time!

A Pops Concert, A Scary Talk and a Dumb Mistake

Thursday, July 14, 2016

It's been quite the week.  Sister Isaacson was offered tickets to the Pops Concert by the Salt Lake Symphony at Abravenel Hall. The tickets were free. I had seen it advertised and thought it would be great to go, but hadn't gotten the tickets, so I was thrilled when she invited me to go with her. It was the symphony, the Choral Society, Kenneth Cope and a young Cowboy Poet. It was on the 8th and 9th, so in between July 4th and the 24th. They did wonderful patriotic music and pioneer music and it was just a great concert. They played the Armed Forces medley and asked people to stand for each branch of the service, or if you had someone who served in that branch. I stood for the Army song since my dad was in the Army and that always puts tears in my eyes. Sister Isaacson's dad was in the Navy.  Kenneth Cope was wonderful. He sang a song that Sister Isaacson knew and loved that's on a Tabernacle Choir CD and I really liked it. I think I'll try to get the CD. They ended with Battle Hymn and then Come Thou Fount. It was a really uplifting evening. I'm so glad I got to go.

Sunday was the long awaited/dreaded talk in Sacrament Meeting. It doesn't usually bother me that much to talk. I'm not crazy about it, I don't volunteer for it, but I'm o.k. with it. I think part of the problem this time was that we knew so far in advance. We'd been asked back in May to speak June 20, which was going to be hard. Then Pres. Klopfer said they needed that Sunday for the Moldenhauers because he was being released from the branch presidency. So they moved us back to July 10th. That was just too much time to think about it. I wanted to talk about the quote from April conference, "What will we do about the gleam in their eyes?" because it reminds me of our young elders. And I wanted to talk about Elder Anderson's talk in Oct. conference about the kids who came running into the yard and including those who feel left out. I wrote and re-wrote and added and left out. I was afraid it was too long and afraid it was too personal and afraid it wasn't scriptural enough--I was just about a basket case over it. Robert wanted to speak on the excuses people give for not serving missions and examples from our mission. I said, "These people are serving missions. How does that apply to them? He said he wanted them to go home and tell people how those excuses don't work and talk about the blessings of serving. After Relief Society, I found out that Sister Murry was speaking also, then I was really worried about the time! It all turned out fine. I had worried that Pres. Klopfer might not feel our talks were appropriate and he was very complimentary and seemed really pleased, so then I felt I had a huge weight lifted and I came home feeling waaay lighter!

Our sweet President Klopfer

We had signed up to feed the young elders Sunday and also invited Owen and Brenda, so I'd decided to have ham, sweet potatoes, vermicelli and rice, stir fried vegetables and cherry cheese cake for dessert. We asked Sister Isaacson, too, and she brought rolls. It had been a pretty good while since I'd had a real meal with all the tooth business. I'd been on soup, mashed potatoes and cottage cheese for at least 5 days, so every bite I took tasted so good to me! I couldn't say, "Hmm, umm, umm," with every bite, but I sure felt that way!

That evening the Johnson's called. They're the couple who came in the library several months ago and asked me about serving here. I was hosting and we talked for ages. Robert couldn't figure out why I spent so long with them. I gave her my phone number and she has called 3 or 4 times in the process. They got their call and moved into West Temple Apts. over the weekend. They had more questions--about internet service, TV, and that type of thing. They're really nice people. I can't believe he's 81, he surely doesn't look it. She's a little fireball. We enjoyed talking with them.

Monday morning at the Devotional, Robert took their picture. Our zone leaders, the Sorenson's had spoken and I thought they did so well. The Human Resources zone leaders also spoke and with all the full-time missionaries, CSM's and people who answer the phones at home, etc., there are 4100 missionaries who I guess are considered part of the Family Search Dept. missionaries!

Tuesday we decided to go to Oquirrh Mountain Temple, but I didn't want to get up at the crack of dawn to do it. Robert said o.k. (surprise, surprise!), so we decided we could leave here at 9:15, do the 10:30 session, and have plenty of time for my 2:00 dental check up. We got there at 10:00 and the 10:30 was already full. Anyone who complains about how many temples there are in Utah has no idea how heavily they are used--every hour, every day, it's crazy! So we went to the 11:15 session and still felt we'd make the dentist appt. I didn't realize until I got back to the dressing room, but I hadn't taken with me the key to the locker where my clothes were! It was my first time ever in that dressing room, so I wasn't sure where my locker was. I really thought it was on the inside, not on an outside wall, so I circled that area at least 3 times, opening every door that I could open, looking for my clothes. I was getting panicky! Time was marching on, and I knew Robert would be having a conniption fit waiting on me. The ladies who work there were trying to help me. No one could find the right locker. It was crazy. I couldn't just say, "I'll leave and come back later." I couldn't walk out of there in my long white dress! Finally a worker came and said, "Someone turned this key in and said there were clothes in the locker. We tried it and they were mine!! I tore my clothes off, then on and whooshed out of the temple. Robert was very calm and said, "It wasn't your fault." I said, "Yes, it was. It was all my fault. I'm so sorry!" We had a time getting the address in the GPS, I called the dentist office and apologized and they said I could come on in and they would make it work. I was so embarrassed and they were very nice about it. He said I'm healing fine--no sign of any problems or infection. Whew!

Wed. is our 1/2 day. Matthew had sent me a request from Isaac Anderson to look up a book with information about his great grandmother, so we decided to go in early and do that. Then I got an e-mail from Kathy Buckmaster to see if I could find a microfilm with death information on someone. So we went in about 12:00 and worked on both of those projects. I found the microfilm, and e-mailed it to Kathy. Then I found the book and copied several pages that went back to the 1600's for his great grandmother. When I went downstairs Robert asked me if I had looked at our schedule. "Not yet." "We're off all day." WHAAAT?!? We left and went to WalMart. I decided to make an eclair cake for Fireflies on Monday and needed some ingredients. I mailed the info to Matthew for Isaac and then we decided to go to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and use the gift card Josh and Blanca left us last summer!

Lady Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake--talk about AMAZING!!!

More Celebrations...

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

On June 20th we met at the Birch's for our Fireflies get together. Our theme was "Salads and Sundaes." There were yummy salads and we had taken two gallons of ice cream and toppings. We also had rolls and chips--there's always plenty! Sister Birch had emailed us that she didn't have a game--to come with ideas. I think Lanes brought some games, but as we finished eating, someone asked, "Has anyone had an Elijah moment they haven't told us about?" and different ones just started sharing. They were such sweet stories; several brought us to tears. Elder Birch told about the lady who came in who works at the temple and she had a child she had been looking for for a long time. She knew the family had 6 boys and two girls, but she could only find one of the girls. She had been fasting and praying that she would find her. She and Elder Birch found a Findagrave record on one of the children. They attached it. Then as they were about to look for another record, the one for the little missing girl just popped up! The lady was in tears, Elder Birch was in tears trying to tell it--a special story. Sister Murray said, "We have those a lot in our department. We call them 'computer glitches.'" She works on the third floor of the JSMB. It ended up being the nicest evening.

On the 21st we picked up the big computer from Revo--again. They had installed the Norton stuff on it when we had problems. We picked up things at Zurcher's for the Price's party, and then we headed to Manti. There wasn't much to see on the way, but when we turned off of the freeway and drove through the countryside, I was surprised that people seemed to have a lot of horses, but not a lot of cows.

We put this on Facebook and Brenda Kendrick said, "It's a Texas tornado in training."

 We got there in time to go to the temple. We hadn't been to Manti in a good twenty years, and I was so glad to get to go. It's beautiful inside as well as out.

We got out in plenty of time to have dinner and then get seats at the pageant.

These seats in front of us were reserved. I love the fact that we can always hear everything because it is recorded and played over these big loudspeakers. The actors just have to act and mouth the words.

It was wonderful.  I loved the Book of Mormon scenes and the crossing the plains. The Angel Moroni on top of the temple is still a highlight.

We drove back to Salt Lake after the pageant. We were warned that traffic would be bad, but it wasn't awful. We knew there would be no place to stay near there because those are reserved months in advance, so we just made up our minds to make the drive and if we got too tired, we could pull over, but Robert can drive forever at night, so we made it home about 1:20 and slept in the next day. It was our whole day off for temple/research so the timing was perfect.

We took flowers to the Christmas Box Angel on Wed. for Katie because we had been working Monday and went out of town on Tuesday. I'm glad to be able to take them there. It looked like Lena had taken flowers in Silsbee. I guess it will never stop being a hard day.

Thursday I attended a class on "Honoring our Immigrant Ancestors." It was really interesting and I think a good thing to do when we get home. Elder Campnell had done research way back on one of his ancestors. He found out why they had gone to Brazil and then the U.S. (persecution of the Jews) and the history of that group of Jewish people. Then he researched two of his wife's ancestors. He summarized the stories on what he calls "banners" but I would call them "bookmarks." He put them under a big timeline so you can see how they fit in the history of the world. So interesting. His ward worked on it for about 18 months. I sent the idea to Louise and she loved it--wants to take the idea to Pres. Wagley and maybe use it at a genealogy conference in November. I'm excited about it.

Friday I helped with the VIP group that came in. There weren't quite as many as expected, so Jason didn't have to split them and I didn't have to do any presenting. That was fine with me. It was a Chamber of Commerce group from the Salt Lake area, so many of them had accounts and had been on before. I helped some, but not as much as usual with out of town groups.

That night the Concert in the Park group was bagpipers and dancers and I wanted to see them, so I stayed at the library for awhile after we got off and Robert went on home. I walked up to Brigham Young Park and it wasn't too bad. Starting at the library and walking through Temple Square made it pretty pleasant. I enjoyed them. The dancers were from a school somewhere and some were pretty young, but so cute in their plaid kilts and knee socks. It was a nice evening. I walked home with Sisters Isaacson, Reuser and Murray.

Saturday after work was the Hosting Zone Farewell party for the Price's. It went really well and we had so much fun. Robert did a good job on his assignment. He told little stories about the Price's and embellished them with things we had gotten at the party shop and involved other people. My favorite was the "flyover" he had the young elders do. He got a package of little plastic airplane whistles, put them on wooden skewers, told everyone to listen for the roar of the engines, and the elders blew the whistles and jumped up and circled the Price's table! We didn't get a picture of it.

Then he told how Sister Price was "teaching school" in Vegas when Elder Price was stationed at Nellis AFB and I went up with a boa and put it around her.

She wouldn't let Sister Isaacson take her "Big Hand" we had made for her out on the floor, so we made one for Sister Price and had everyone sign it. Now she has her very own.

Elder Sorenson presented them with a packet of "Elijah moments" from the library.

The young elders sang "You are my Sunshine." It was really a fun evening.

I had had a tooth bothering me off and on for several days. I kept hoping maybe I could hold off doing anything until I got home, but decided I better go in. I got an appointment for Tuesday, the 28th with the dentist who had filled a tooth for me several months ago. He x-rayed it and said the nerve had died and I could make the decision whether to have it pulled (it was the same tooth he had filled) or have a root canal done. I've heard such horror stories of root canals and it would be close to $1000. I talked to Elder Birch the next day and he said if I was in my 30's or 40's, he'd definitely recommend the root canal, but all things considered, it should be o.k. to pull it. I got an appointment for July 5th.

Thursday the Ratcliff's came by! It was so fun to see them.  I told Emily and Maecy to start on their immigrant ancestor research so they'd be ready for the genealogy fair in November. They both do Family Search.

On Saturday the 2nd we helped with a tour group at 4:00 and came out to find what seemed like half of Silsbee Ward standing in the foyer of the library!

The four ladies had driven in and walked around Temple Square. They'd called Owen and Brenda, who met them at our library. It was so fun to see them all!  They were going to get a hotel and Robert told them to come to the apartment. Owen and Brenda left and went to the store and got fixings for sandwiches and chips and veggies and we had watermelon. It was a fun evening. Robert called Sister Mulevi and she was just leaving the Salt Lake Temple. She came right over. She and Sister Williams were so glad to see each other!

The ladies were so disappointed to learn the Salt Lake Temple would be closed for two weeks--that was their #1 reason for coming out here. So we went to bed Saturday night and I got up Sunday morning to find them at the kitchen table with a map spread out. They decided to head for Nauvoo! They left shortly after that and made it. They even got reservations at a Super 8 in Keokuk and both pageants are there--the Nauvoo and the English and the temple is open. I know they will love it.

We'd made plans to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on the 5th with Judy and Michelle and then go to Park City with Richard, but that was the day the doctor could pull my tooth, so the other had to be put on hold.

Sister Klopfer gave our lesson in Relief Society and told about her great (another great?) grandfather, John R. Winder. He started Winder Dairy here and Richard worked for them at one time, so I was interested in the story. She told how he'd prayed when he was a little boy of 6, still in England, and was to keep the birds out of their crop, but he couldn't see his house and he got scared. After he prayed, he felt better and always remembered that the Lord was mindful of him. He was put in charge of finishing the inside of the Salt Lake Temple in one year after the capstone ceremony and many of the workmen said it couldn't be done. He told them if they felt that way, they could collect their pay. It was finished in a year. He served in the first presidency and felt they should build a memorial to Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Some wanted to build a hotel on the property. It was decided the memorial in Vermont was enough. But 70 years after the hotel was built and went up for sale, the church bought it and now it's the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, where we meet every Sunday. I love these pioneer stories.

Henry and Michelle had been planning a "pig roast" for us on the 4th of July since Easter and we'd looked forward to it all this time. We went down with Richard and Carolyn and they had a yard full of people.  They roast the pig on top of the ground, on hot rocks. They said the bonfire had been 6 feet in the air! We missed that part. But were there to see them uncover the pig. He had several Polynesian friends helping him, and they do everything in the traditional way. It's quite the undertaking.

Henry presented each of us with these. I guess
they're considered leis. I love them.

Besides the pork, he had done beef flank, and several whole chickens, which were delicious. The things wrapped in foil are taro, which is a root, and taro leaves with coconut milk, but we didn't get to try it. Lots of salads, corn on the cob, desserts. Michelle had made lemonade with strawberry and lemonade with mint from her garden--really good. Judy had made a peanut butter cake and an almond cake and people brought lots of cookies. I'm sure no one left hungry.

All three of Judy's kids were there and her grands (except Michelle's son who is on a mission) and two great grands--they're absolutely darling--Jude and Micah.

Judy and Michelle and Sarah had gotten together and made me a gift--wooden cut outs that say "HOME" and the "O" is different for every season. It is so darling and I know was so much work. I love it.

When we got home we watched fireworks from the comfort of our living room--all over the valley from the vantage point of our 5th floor living room. Such a great view and so comfortable.

Tuesday I had the tooth pulled. It wasn't a piece of cake, but I survived. We stopped at WalMart on the way home and got the prescription filled for the pain medication--good thing! I lay on the couch and sort of watched TV, sort of napped off and on. I had some tomato soup for lunch and some more for dinner. I put the ice pack on it several times. I had taken a pain pill at 1:00 and by 3:00 I was counting down until I could take the next one at 5:00. I took one more at 10:00 when I went to bed and slept straight through until 6:00. Haven't had any more today. Think I'll live.

Blessings Come Like Ocean Waves

Wednesday, June 8, 

Matthew and Meghan came in on Tuesday, May 31st. They had really enjoyed their trip here and I'm so glad they got to see all that they saw--the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, and Zion. We had taken our kids to those things when they were younger and I wondered if they remembered them, and Matthew said he did. Mason seemed to have done pretty well for all the traveling and sight seeing. I know they tried to take some breaks and let him out to run and play. All that being cooped up is hard on a little one.

They had things they wanted to do here that they hadn't done in December. We went to work Wed. afternoon and worked Thursday and Friday, so they took Mason to the park and splash pad one day (it's warmed up considerably), the Clark Planetarium, the Church History Museum, our Family History Museum, Temple Square and shopping one day. They did a lot while they were here and we enjoyed visiting in the evenings.

For the reunion Robert had cooked pulled pork, pulled chicken, hot dogs, and links and had them all frozen in the frig and ready to go. Friday night I made a Texas Sheet Cake and Saturday morning a big fruit salad. We headed out Saturday morning by 9:00, all loaded up with food and cameras and cords and games. It was a beautiful day--couldn't have been nicer. We had borrowed Sister Isaacson's cart to take the crockpots down the hill to the pavilion we had reserved.  The park people had it all cleaned up and washed down for us, so we started moving tables a bit and putting on the table cloths that Richard and Carolyn had brought. They also had centerpieces for each table. By 10:00 we pretty well had things ready to go and people started coming in. Bev came with a big poster of Grandma and Grandpa Parkin in the top center, then each of their kids across under them, then family pictures under each of them. It was really a good idea so people could see how they fit into the family.
Bev and Paul had worked really hard to update a family directory. Bev felt really strongly that it needed to be done and she had spent hours calling people, getting the information, and Paul spent hours typing--even on his 80th birthday!

Linda (Taufer) Ziemer had flown in from California and was staying with Bev and Paul. That was really a treat. I hadn't seen any of them (the Taufers) in 50+ years and had been devastated when I got here to learn that Bruz and Brent, Linda's brothers, had passed away.  Her brother, Kim's, daughter, Brittany was there with her husband and two kids. She's a darling girl and her kids look so much like Kim I couldn't believe it. They were absolutely darling. They visited quite a bit with Matthew and Meghan and their little boy was close to Mason's age.

We'd asked Lucky to bring his sound equipment and we had planned to square dance or line dance at l0:30, but people were coming in, greeting each other, getting name tags--it just didn't happen. We'd planned to play games at 11:30 and eat at 12:00, but we got way off schedule. The men hadn't thought we needed to plan anything more than to visit, which I kind of agreed with, but Bev felt we should have things planned so that people felt their time was well spent. We ended up playing one game before lunch, then ate and then had Glen's magic show. It was cute. I think the kids enjoyed it. He really does well. Then we danced and we had pretty good participation considering we had little kids and it was hard to push the tables out of the way. I thought we really had fun. I enjoyed talking with people and the Magic Show and the dancing. People came and went as they needed to do.

Can you tell we're square dancing? Meghan was taking pictures, so Matthew is my partner.

Matthew and Mason are watching the magic show. Bev and Paul brought a cooler full of popsicles, which were a big hit! Those are Brittany's two cute kids next to Mason. I wish you could see the little girl's face--she's such a cutie.

Here I'm helping Glen with the magic show. He turned a mama duck into a whole bunch of baby ducks! Judy (my sister)is on the far left with her Polynesian son-in-law, Henry, to her right. My brother, Richard is to the far right. It has been wonderful to do lots of things together. It's never happened before and means so much to me.

After we got home, unloaded, and rested up a bit, we took Matt and Meghan and Mason to City Cemetery where so many of the prophets are buried. It's such an awe-inspiring place--rolling hills, streets and cross streets and so many names we recognize from church history. Then we went for frosties from Wendy's and back to the apt. to pack their car with a bunch of our stuff to take home--a big tote full of winter clothes, a suitcase with our winter coats, the Christmas wreath Paul and Aimee had sent us--treasures we just can't leave behind.

Meghan had been "the packing Nazi" when they left home so they could everything of theirs, plus Mason in his car seat, in their back seat and save all of this room for us! We filled it up.
It was hard to see them go Sunday morning.

On Sunday evening we were invited to Bev and Paul's for dinner so we could all sit and relax and visit with Linda before she headed back to California. Paul had done ribs and they were so good.  l loved Bev's salad, I have to have her tell me what all she put in it and we had birthday cake for Richard. We told stories of growing up, asked each other questions, shared memories and laughs and a tear or two. It was such a good evening. We took one last picture of the cousins.



Left to right is Bev, me, Linda, Richard and Judy. You can tell "shortness" runs in the family and I'm not the shortest!

On Monday Bev and Paul were taking Linda to the airport and came by the library. Paul sat down at a computer with Robert and in just a few minutes, he was "hooked"! He said, "I'm coming back. This is fun!" Robert helped him print off  a fan chart--one of his favorite things to do and Paul has a lot of genealogy done because he goes back to George Q. Cannon on one side and William Clayton ("Come, Come Ye Saints") on the other side. We all went to the Nauvoo Cafe for lunch and then they were off.

Tuesday (the 7th) we were ready for PDay! I called Jim Parkin and asked to borrow the Parkin book he had at the reunion. I had never seen it before. We took it to the library and took the spiral ring off of it and scanned the pages onto a flash drive, but because we put the pages into the scanner a few at a time, they were mixed up and then we had a heck of a time trying to get them to print out--it was just crazy. We finally left about 3 hours later because Robert was about to lose his religion, and that didn't seem like a good thing to do at the library!

Wednesday morning I got a message on the computer about a virus and to call a number they gave me for Microsoft. We didn't call that, but looked up the number for Microsoft and called that. It took the guy awhile, but finally he said it was o.k. and then wanted to sell me protection for 3 years for $500. We said, "No thank you," and immediately left for the computer guys at Revo. We took both computers in and asked them to check them out and be sure they were o.k. We returned Jim's book to him, ate lunch in Sugar House, and went to work.

Brenda Vaughn had foot surgery on Thursday, so I'd made some soup Wednesday evening and we took it to them. The Relief Society had already been there and people from their social group, so we knew they were well cared for. She seemed to be doing well.

Friday morning I had the spiritual thought in prayer meeting and I gave a little thought in last October's Ensign about using our time well. That's something I feel I could improve. Robert took hot dogs and corn dogs to the library and fed the young elders. He enjoys doing that and they appreciate it.

Saturday was the Family History Block Party and we had barely missed it last year, so we weren't sure what to expect, but felt there would be crowds of people and we're usually super busy on a normal Saturday. The staff people had done a lot of work setting up tables and computers for a Discovery Center and then a big picture taking area. We weren't sure how it was all going to work. At 10:00 I stepped outside to watch the bagpipers come marching down the street and they were wonderful! I loved it. There were lots of people coming in, especially families, and I was hosting, so I would suggest that they go to the Discovery Area or the picture area, which they seemed to enjoy. Then it started to rain and the staff people brought the audio equipment inside. I was on the info desk by then and they were setting it up right in front of me--yea! Works for me! So the western group performed and they did several old songs--"I've Been Working on the Railroad," "Yellow Rose of Texas," etc. We all enjoyed singing along.

When my hour there was up, I went on the floor to help. A man who had been in the day before was looking for someone who may have been in the Revolutionary War. He had one ancestor verified, so he knew quite a bit about that time period. We were looking for a name on Fold 3 and found several possibilities.  Then the Polynesian Dancers started performing. They had young men and women, a darling little girl, some older dancers and a lady who told some stories. I really enjoyed them.

At the end of their performance, they sang "I Am a Child of God" in Tongan, and then in English. The room got very quiet as they sang. I was looking at a record of a "Fifer" who had gone home during the War to plant crops and then came back to take blankets to another general's troops. He fought at Fort Ticonderoga and it all seemed very real as I read one muster roll after another. I told the man I was helping, "I hope this is your guy. I like him." He said, "I do, too." As the performers sang in English, all the missionaries, ours, the ones from the International floor, the girls from Temple Square, and the members all joined in with them in such a quiet, reverent way. I sat there with tears streaming down my face. It was such a sweet experience.

We had oodles of people that day--I have no idea of the count, but I know it was a lot.

 We managed to take a picture of just us and then with a whole group from our floor. We dear love these people and will always cherish our time with them and appreciate so much all that we have learned from them. We went home at the end of the day exhausted, but feeling it was one of the best days ever!

On Sunday we fed the young elders--just two, but the e-mail said one of them can't have gluten and can't have dairy. So I planned meatloaf, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and broccoli, but I couldn't think of a dessert without flour or milk! So we brought out some chocolate covered gummy bears and orange slices and they were good!

Our Aloha party on the 13th was a piano/organ concert by Pres. and Sister Klopfer. They performed in the chapel of the stake center and asked us to come in Sunday dress. The music was beautiful. They each played solos, then duets. It was mostly songs we recognized like "Autumn Leaves" and some show tunes, and some classical songs I didn't know, but it was all beautiful. they played for about 40 minutes and then we went into the cultural hall to visit and introduce those coming in and those leaving--every time there are more that we know, and it's so hard to see them go. We'll be in the next group to go. I feel a little more ready than I did in May, but it's going to be hard, I know.

President and Sister Klopfer are so dear to us. We love them dearly.

President Moldenhauer was president of the Texas Houston East Mission a few years ago and he and his wife came here to our mission the month after we came. They have been serving in the Branch Presidency/Relief Society Presidency and are leaving the end of June. He has been called as first counselor in the Star Valley Temple presidency. Such fun, great people.

Monday I was asked if I could help Jason with the VIP tours on Thursdays and Fridays when Sister Hunter is off. I said, "Sure," then met Jason and found out that my first one will be this Friday--a Chamber of Commerce group and there will be too many of them for one room and so we will split the group and Jason will do part of them and I will do part of them--WHAAAT?!?  I've never run the computer from up front before and he likes to take them into historical records and show them how to Browse Records--I don't usually do that--I've got a day and a half to learn!

Yesterday we went to Revo to pick up our computer, went to WalMart and came home to eat a Subway sandwich and collapse! We did the Chesterfield weekend, the reunion weekend, the Block Party, with working the weeks in between, and I justcouldn't go another step. We sat down to watch some TV and both fell asleep. We were just exhausted. When we tried to put the anti-virus program on the computers last night, we ran into problems, so took them back today--there's just no end to it. He was able to get the laptop back to me, but had to keep the PC.

Today was mission conference. President and Sister Larson were the main speakers and were great. He talked about the change in his life when he was diagnosed with cancer and the atonement became very real. President Tate spoke about smiling, helping others, showing gratitude and asked us to pray the next 4 days and just express thanks without asking for anything. I've done that before and I have so much to be grateful for, I can do that, but it always seems that I want to ask for blessings for my family, too, but I'll try it because we were asked to.