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.
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| Robert with the Patterson kids and Sister Patterson |
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| 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.
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.
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