Week of November 15, 2015

Sunday I worked on family history until church at 2:30. I am feeling almost driven to work on the records and get them cleaned up. My trainer told me I need to go through my first 5 generations and make sure the dates and places are all standardized then make sure there are sources.

Monday it was a little colder in the morning and the forecast was snow. It rained but it wasn’t cold enough to snow even though it was quite blustery. I always have questions for my trainer and everything we look at seems to uncover a can of worms. Today we looked at a record that had three wives with the same name, all born in different years. We began looking at the children for clues because the lesson had been on correcting relationships. We looked at a program that identifies problems in files and found that there were duplicate records for my grandmother and my great-grandfather. After working on these my mind was beginning to swim. I stayed up late researching the problems and found a few clues to help.

In the evening we had a branch dinner called “Hail and Farewell”. They have it every other month when the new missionaries arrive to welcome them and say goodbye to the ones leaving in the next two months. The young elders’ choir sang “Army of Helaman”. I was so touch when they sang, “We have been born . . . to goodly parents who love the Lord. We have been taught, and we understand, that we must do as the Lord commands.” They have some serious issues in their lives and yet each of them is dedicated and serves with distinction. They are amazing.

Tuesday we spent more time trying to fix records. I am learning a lot so I hope I can remember it all. I wasn’t feeling well due to lack of sleep and a sore throat. I went to bed early and slept most of the night.

Elder and Sister Roeth in training lab

Wednesday Sister Pilz took me to the Family History Library special collections to look at records. I was able to definitely clear up at least one confusing record. We had zone conference in the afternoon and talked with a lady from my sister’s ward that found an entry in a journal that added more information to our research saga. At home I worked on an assignment for Friday’s devotional. I should have gone to bed early again, but it got late faster than I could get everything done.

Thursday I had two sessions with my trainer. I started to work on a family that we had worked on last week, but she told me it was too complicated and I should work on something more straight-forward. I don’t think she realizes that I am losing sleep over some of these people and I need to get them straightened out.

Friday was a wonderful day. Ted and I were assigned the thought, scripture, and prayer for the devotional. I shared some thoughts by Elder Packer and Elder Bednar about family history and then shared some thoughts about moving forward in faith to our new assignments. After a couple of preliminary items we assembled in the chapel with Pres. Tate and the rest of the presidency for our “Go Forth” ceremony. He talked for a few minutes about being positive and looking for the good. Then the assignments began. He had missionaries stand in groups, announced which zone they would be assigned to, and had the zone leaders stand so they could see each other. I was not at all surprised on any assignments. He called our name and another couple and told us we were in the Training zone. I know I made an audible gasp and grabbed Ted’s sleeve. I may even have started to cry. All week as we were in training, I was thinking how fun it would be to be in that zone, but I felt it was presumptuous to request it. I had been praying all week that the presidency would assign me where I could be of most value and that my heart would be accepting of the assignment. I am so thrilled! Pres. Tate came down to shake hands with each missionary. He asked if we were OK and I told him how excited I was. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father’s tender mercies in my life. It wasn’t important to me to work in the Training zone, but it was something I really thought I would like. What a blessing in my life!

After the Go Forth meeting, all of the trainers and missionaries went to the temple. Sis. Pilz took us through a tunnel I had never known about before. As we were walking down the tunnel, there was a wedding party ahead of us visiting. As we got closer one of the ladies turned around—it was my sister-in-law Marci Hales in the temple for the marriage of one of her nephews. We had a good visit then her mom arrived and we visited a short while longer. What a small world!

Saturday was a busy day. I went through my notes from training to organize them. In the afternoon we attended “Savior of the World”, a musical play in a small theater in the Conference Center. The first act is about events around the birth of Christ and the second act is about the crucifixion and the resurrection. It was wonderful. After the play we invited some missionaries over for soup. We enjoyed a good visit for a few minutes. Another missionary had given us tickets for the 10^th anniversary performance of the Bells on Temple Square. It was really fun, not just to listen to, but to watch. Some of the performers had 2 or 3 bells in each hand and rang them all separately depending on whether they moved their hand sideways or front to back. It was fascinating. We have really enjoyed some beautiful events in addition to the missionary things we do. (I can’t really say missionary work since we have been in training since we entered the MTC and have not actually done anything to contribute. I’m sure that will change quickly.) This week we’ve been watching the Christmas decorations go up on Temple Square. I’m excited to see it all lit up.