Week of February 14, 2016

This week started with a snow storm on Valentine’s Day. We served pink pancakes to our grandchildren who had stayed with us overnight. We tried to make them heart-shaped, but it didn’t work well, so they were just plain round PINK pancakes. At church the youn

g elders sang to us in Relief Society to make the day special. They sang “Love at Home”, which reminded me of my mother. She really disliked the song because I would sing it when things went awry at home. But it was a fond memory for me. After church we invited four elders for dinner. It was an interesting meal. We fixed Taco Salad and I know they could have eaten more, but we did ok. We had a good visit with them and we learned much more about how the young elders serve in the mission.

Snow storm outside our apartment Sunday morning

Monday was Presidents’ Day so we had the day off. We took the opportunity to get some things done at home and then go out to lunch. Late in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk. We were trying to find a gelato place our kids had gone to. We must have been confused on the location, but a kind man looked up the address for us—fortunately, he knew the place since we didn’t have a name. It was really yummy. However, it was growing dark when we left, so it made me nervous to walk home on the street we were on—sort of shady. We went a different way that went by the Family History Library—better area--but we still ran into a man trying to get money.

We were teaching with our Capstone classes this week. These are classes for missionaries getting ready to go home. We had 22 students which was an amazing crowd. It was a good group to teach. Ted did a really good job with his first class, in spite of some questions that were a little off the wall. Most of the students had a really good grasp on what to do and not to do. I spent time preparing for the class I taught and doing some research. Our family records really need some work getting things straightened out. I taught a new class and felt like it went well. Our supervisor asked me to prepare to teach another new class in March so more preparation. Ted also taught the class on temples at the end of the week. This was a new one for him and he really did a great job. He relates so well to the people and has a clear understanding of what he is teaching. I feel like I am more of a technician when I teach, but he always reaches out to the class members.

We typically copy class handouts for the week onto the students’ flash drives so we don’t have to print so many things. I am usually the one who heads up the project. With such a large class, it took quite a while to get done. In the middle of the week, a trainer handed out a new handout that was not in our files. When several of the students asked for an electronic copy I had to do all the flash drives again. We realized we needed to update our handouts on file so they correspond to our revised classes. One of our trainers was also sick and we had to do a last minute substitution. Our supervisor wants us to have better backup for each other so I got assigned more new classes to prepare for the next six weeks. I am learning a lot in the process.

During one of the classes we had the missionaries and guests from the Family Search Center next door come into our training room. Apparently, there was a suspicious package they were investigating, so the Family Search Center had been vacated—it was weird. I guess our “bubble” is not very far removed from the rest of the world.

Thursday the day started out a little cloudy. We had planned to go to the library in the afternoon, but there was a full-blown blizzard going on outside. It was really crazy so we stayed at the lab in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to work. When it was time to go home the weather had completely cleared and the ground was mostly dry. Very unusual.

Saturday we went to the library to do some research. Ted spent quite a bit of time with a lady there and found his grandmother’s birth record in Sweden. He also found some Swedish household records for his family. We created a couple of sources and attached them to the family so that is at least documented. He was pretty excited about that. It seems there are quite a few records for Swedish research which is what he needs. I’m really thrilled that he’s beginning to learn how to use the records and finding family information.