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.