Week of March 20, 2016

Sunday we left early from Las Vegas in order to be in St. George to attend the broadcast of the Provo City Center Temple dedication. It was being broadcast throughout the state of Utah. We had a prayer with the family before we left, then we were gone. It is always so sad to me to leave, even though we’ll be back soon. We arrived in St. George and found our way to the temple. The chapel we were looking for was across the street. When I walked into the building, the first person I saw was Susan Balser Bruschke who I used to visit teach in Las Vegas before she moved to St. George. She has now retired from teaching and was just called to be Stake Relief Society President. It was such a blessing to see her.

St. George Temple

We found seats and enjoyed the prelude music and the pictures of temples that were shown on the screen. There was such a strong spirit, even before the meeting started—I felt almost overwhelmed. There were several speakers and the dedicatory prayer--it was a wonderful experience.

A few of the thoughts I wrote down from the speakers were:

We are on a quest for holiness; God is holiness.

God will provide what we lack.

We are not here by chance—we have a divine purpose.

Enter into the Rest of the Lord; the Rest of the Lord is the fullness of His Glory; not moved about   by every wind and whim that comes along, being firm in the Gospel.

After the dedication we drove back to Salt Lake City. I was glad when we arrived home. I was even happier when we had unloaded the car and put all our stuff away. I was glad to be home. It was a wonderful weekend and I feel so blessed to have been able to go.

Monday we started with inservice. Before the class we shared experiences we’d had. One of the sisters that attended our Capstone classes spoke about how much she had enjoyed the classes and how much she had learned. That was a real endorsement coming from a trainer. After the class we went to lunch with the zone and enjoyed visiting. In the afternoon I did some work on my classes, preparing and reviewing for the class I’ll be teaching, and doing some personal research.

Tuesday the two counselors in the mission presidency and their wives were came to tell us how much they appreciate all we do and to release Elder and Sister Newton who have been our leaders. They then announced the calling of Elder and Sister Barber to be the new Assistant Zone Leaders. They will be really great. Elder Barber had given the thought earlier and it was very impactful and touching. I look forward to working with them.

After the announcement we left with one of the counselors for our 4X4 interview. This is an interview after we have been out four months. They asked how we were enjoying our mission and Ted told them how much we enjoyed teaching and that we had testimonies of the work. They then asked about his conversion story and he shared that.

We then went straight to the teaching lab where Ted was the first teacher. His class went well. We only have 4 students this week so we have a high ratio of trainers to students. After classes we went to the temple. It is interesting to see how each temple does things differently. I am impressed that the temple is always so busy. The sessions are much larger than ours and every area seems to keep busy.

Wednesday we had 10 trainers to 4 students. Ted helped one lady quite extensively. She is a sweet lady who came straight from another mission. In the evening we had a dinner with our social group and enjoyed a great time. We played a few games afterward and I really enjoyed it.

Thursday I taught the class on Partner websites. It went well, but I wasn’t able to do anything extra. It is always fun to see what the students find when we turn time over to them to search the newspapers. The lady I was helping found the birthday announcement for her grandmother. Dan Valentine recognized birthdays in the newspaper in Salt Lake City.

After our classes I visited with one of the missionaries who taught her last lesson yesterday and cancelled the luncheon we had planned to say goodbye. She had some interesting insights into the dynamics of our group. She gave me her PowerPoint for teaching the internet searching class. I think that will be a big help if I ever get to teach the class. She’s an excellent teacher and will be missed.

In the evening we went to hear the Tabernacle Choir production of The Messiah. It was amazing. I had not wanted to go particularly, but Ted wanted to so we got tickets. I was amazed. I really felt the Spirit and was so touched by the music. When we arrived the line was out clear to the Temple Square gates on both sides from the Tabernacle doors. I thought we would end up in the balcony. However, we found seats on the second row. That was nice because we could see the soloists and the choir very well. It was great!

Friday we had the class on Irfanview. The teacher always pushes the limits on her teaching. She did a great job keeping the two students we had on course. It was a little tricky. I was sitting next to one lady, but the lady sitting next to her needed some extra help as well so it was a little slow. The ladies did well. There was some discussion about the scope of the course afterward that was interesting. We will see what happens.

Saturday I woke with some thoughts about upcoming classes so I needed to capture that before I forgot. The stake had a light meal before the General Women’s Meeting. Afterward I met a friend to go to the Conference Center. Our seats were fairly close to the front and we could see well. I was very touched when the entire First Presidency walked in. I haven’t seen Pres. Monson at the Women’s Broadcast in quite a while. He didn’t speak—Pres. Eyring was the Priesthood speaker, but it was good to see him there. The speakers were excellent and it was a good meeting.

Week of March 13, 2016

I taught the Photos and Documents class to Capstone this week—missionaries getting ready to go home. This was a new class for me. The day before I taught I reviewed the PowerPoint I was using and planned to make a couple of changes when we got home but I forgot. I needed to put in some different icons to illustrate what the Memories section of FamilySearch is all about. I woke during the night and was mentally reviewing the lesson. Suddenly it dawned on me that I hadn’t made the changes. I got out of bed about 3:30 in the morning and found the photo and clipart I was looking for to make the changes.

We had some new people in the class that hadn’t been in for other lessons during the week. One lady said she really just wanted the classes today because that was what she needed most. It was interesting during the class to see her “getting it.” She asked several questions so I figured she understood what we were doing. Another lady kept making comments about how great this was. She told me at break that she was so excited to get home to show her son everything she would be able to do and all the pictures out on the memories. She was able to do some of her own work while she was there.

During one of the breaks one of the missionaries came to ask me how I was related to the Hales family. I had talked about a naming convention for files and said we had so many Stephen Hales in our family we had to add the birth year to keep them straight. He is related through my great-great-grandfather’s sister. It was interesting. I keep running into people who are related. 

Brynn and Scott Leedom - Baptism Day!

After class we gathered our things and were able to get on the road quickly. We went to Las Vegas for our granddaughter’s baptism and were able to attend a couple of other birthday parties as well. Our mission is really good about encouraging us to support family events. I helped with some of the preparations and was able to give a talk at the baptism so it was a good experience. It is always good to see one of our grandchildren being baptized and Brynn was so excited. It was really good to be with family and have some time to visit. 

Steven and Braden - Braden birthday - 2 years old!

Week of March 6, 2016

At our staff meeting this week we discussed that our new class schedule won’t start for a few more months, so we are trying to take advantage of the time to teach some other things. We will do some Enrichment classes for the last week in April and move another class around so it isn’t so rushed.

A friend wanted me to help her learn to make cinnamon rolls, so we finally got together this week. Heather gave me her recipe which is yummy and we set to work. We didn’t use a mixer to make the dough so my friend will be able to make it on her own. She was so excited and they turned out really good. It was a lot of fun.

Yummy cinnamon rolls - first try!!

We taught our new class of Church Service Missionaries. They are a good group and seem to be fairly computer literate. It is really interesting to me to observe my fellow teachers and see how they present the classes and what they choose to include or not include in the teaching. Ted did a great job teaching as usual. We had a couple of our new trainers teaching. One taught about the Help Center on FamilySearch and a really great job. Usually I sort of tune out some things, but she had the whole group participating in a good discussion and it was very enlightening. Her husband taught a class that I have really enjoyed teaching. I gave him my notes and several files for class handouts. I hadn’t gone through the notes and when he was teaching I realized there were a couple of spots I probably could have given him better instruction on what the notes meant. It was really good though and I think I might change my approach a bit when I teach it again.

When I went walking with my French friend we found the West High School track was busy with some sort of practice. We just walked the neighborhood, going farther than I’d planned. When we turned to return home I found the streets all had a fair incline to them so we began climbing a bit at a time. When the next street was too steep, we’d take a downhill road for a block until we reached a less challenging road. We finally got home, but it was amazing to me how hilly this part of Salt Lake is. And it was such a maze of roads—totally unlike the main part of the city. It was very interesting.

Thursday I taught the entire morning. I taught the unit on FamilySearch partners such as Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com. It was the first time I’d taught it and it had some hiccups along the way. I don’t think anyone else was aware of them, so it went OK. The students were very good at following along on the exercises. I did have a couple of questions thrown at me that I couldn’t answer—can’t remember what they were—but I got through it. I felt good about it anyway.

Friday was our Temple and Research day for March. In the afternoon I went to the international floor of the library and spent quite a bit of time with a lady from Finland. She tried to help me learn how to research in Finland. I’m not sure I will be able to do much on my own just yet, but we did find some good information. I asked her to help me with Sweden as well and I think I’m a little better at that area. I found several records this week in Swedish records. I need to do something with the information I found then talk to her again. I need to spend time on my family cleaning it up, but I also need to do research while we have these records available.

Saturday we went with my cousin and her husband to the graveside service for my uncle that passed away last week. It was really nice and I was very impressed with his life and accomplishments. I was not aware he was part of a bomber crew during the war. The crew flew 45 missions but none of them were injured. He attributed it to the fact that they all lived their covenants. I’m sure he’s right.

It was really a good occasion with the opportunity to visit with cousins I had not seen in many years. I didn’t recognize all of them, but then they didn’t recognize me either. We took a picture with all the Hales cousins then my aunt and her husband took us to lunch. That was also fun, recounting stories about the family and sharing memories. Either then, or when I was visiting with my cousin on the way, I was sharing my memories of my grandpa’s house and the annual events, such as the 4^th of July barbeques and the genii party on New Year’s Day. She remembered the genii party, but had no memory of the barbeques. Maybe they had stopped by the time she was old enough to remember.

The Hales Clan at Uncle Bud's Graveside Service

We discussed how impressive a bunch the family is. Almost every one of the grandchildren has at least one college degree and several have multiple advanced degrees. Education has always been a real hallmark of the family and everyone has been expected to do their best and get as much education as they could. My aunt commented that she felt Grandma Hales was possibly the motivator behind that, encouraging Grandpa to get his degrees and seeing that their children understood the importance of education. I’m grateful for the motivation I have had in my life to do things.

Week of February 28, 2016

Sunday we decided to join the branch choir. I had been doing some indexing in the morning and it took much longer than planned so we were nearly late—always a good way to begin something. As it turned out, they were singing in church. I hate it when people come on performance days that have not practiced. Fortunately, they were singing “Consider the Lilies” which we have sung before so we weren’t totally unprepared. We had a pair of elders over to eat with us. They were both very sweet and we had a good visit. After they left our home teachers came. We had a really good visit and I feel like we got to know them a little better. Their assignment is to process senior missionary couples’ applications and prepare them to be presented to the brethren. What a job! It does sound interesting.

Monday we had a staff meeting. We went over all the assignments and shifted many around. I traded one of my assignments with another trainer so I repeat teaching the Partners module. I think that will be better for my teaching. I am not teaching as much as I would like, but I have several assignments on the side to help with some administrative things so I will have plenty to do. I will be teaching four new modules I haven’t taught before—everyone is getting new assignments so we can have better backup on our teaching. This group has had quite a bit of sickness and unexpected absences so it is good to have extra people ready to teach every class. It will also give me a better understanding of all the areas of our teaching.

In the afternoon I redid all the calendars. I had to resend the calendar that goes out to the zone leaders because one of our classes got bumped from the classroom in March and we had to move to different days. I had to redo the teaching schedule calendars so they reflect the changes we just made. I also had to download the parts of the Partners module and the Research Process module I’ll be teaching so I can prepare my notes. I think I have everything else I need for the other two classes.

Tuesday was spent working on the new classes I’ll be teaching. I went to lunch with a lady (and her husband) I’d known since Kindergarten. It was fun to rehash old memories. At our high school reunion last summer she gave me a picture she had of the two of us in Kindergarten—what a long time ago!

Wednesday we attended the Training Council meeting since our Assistant Zone Leader was out of town. It was really an interesting experience. They discussed the revisions to the teaching program. I feel like there will be a good program moving forward, but I’m not really sure what part we will play in it. The way they described our function was introducing modules then leaving the room and letting the students discuss things among themselves. It will be interesting to see what actually happens. I think our position may go away, at least as it is now, but it won’t happen before it’s time for us to leave probably, so someone else will have the opportunity to deal with that.

I went walking with a French sister in the evening. She needed a haircut, so we walked to the salon. The original plan was for me to come home while she stayed. It was a fair piece and not in a very nice neighborhood, so I decided I would wait for her and we’d walk back together for both of our benefits. I think that was a wise choice.

Friday morning at our devotional, the video “Only a Stonecutter” was played. That is such a touching video about a man who was a stonecutter on the Salt Lake Temple for 25 years. I was very touched by it even though I have seen it multiple times. The scripture and prayer were given by a new CSM missionary Sister Phillips who is deaf. Her interpreter spoke while Sister Phillips signed the scripture. She then shared her testimony about how thrilled she was to be here and she wished she had done this years ago. At one point she said she “was so excited there were not words to express it—or signs.” We all chuckled at that. Her prayer was such a sweet expression of her faith and her love of the Lord. It was very touching and we were in tears. I was so grateful for the opportunity to be there.

I started to work on a second new class I’m teaching. Ted was doing some research next to me, so when he began asking me questions about how to document things I helped him. He was able to connect several Swedish sources to his family. He has begun to look for Simeon Brown. He’s his New Jersey great-great grandpa who has avoided being found. I’m hoping that doesn’t get us off track on the Swedish and Finnish lines, but he is a difficult nut to crack.

We had been given tickets to the Symphony in the evening. They had a guest composer and conductor so we were excited to hear him. His piece was first and it was “Idyll for Orchestra”. It was possibly the weirdest piece I’ve ever heard. I kept waiting for it to get off the ground, but it never seemed to go. It just seemed like a bunch of disjointed stuff that didn’t really blend or entertain. The other three numbers were great. There was a piano concerto and the pianist was amazing. We enjoyed it, but I was glad the end was better than the beginning.

Saturday we had the monthly swap meet. It’s mostly just fun to visit with others and see what people have left when they went home. I found some stuff one of the other missionaries asked me to look for. We went to the library in the afternoon, but I felt we never really got things going. I began looking for John Van Winkle who had some connection to Simeon Brown’s family and left his estate to the children of Simeon Brown. I did find a new part of his estate papers that I didn’t have before that listed each of Simeon’s surviving children and noted they were either “niece” or “nephew.” That is really significant new information. I have suspected there was a relationship for a long time, but I couldn’t quite prove it. I couldn’t find the other documents I had found years ago, but this is a good direction for me.

Week of February 21, 2016

Sunday when we attended the Choir Broadcast they sang “Lead, Kindly Light.” It was a very moving experience for me. I came to love this hymn while I was in Scotland, partly because of the words, which have a Scottish flavor, and partly because when we walked home at night we would sing it softly as a comfort and feeling of safety when it was so dark. I felt today like it was sung just for me and I really felt a sweet Spirit with me.

In the evening we went with another couple to a fireside where Ty Detmer was speaking. He was the quarterback at BYU many years ago before he joined the Church. He was the Heisman Trophy winner one year and played professional football for several years. He has just been hired to be the Offensive Coordinator at BYU. He shared his conversion story and testimony then answered questions for about half an hour. After he was finished, a member of the Seventy that was presiding spoke for a few minutes about the impact of LaVell Edwards as a coach and drew the analogy to Pres. Monson as our coach. It was really a very neat conclusion to the evening.

Ty Detmer and Elder Roeth

Our class this week was 18 full-time missionaries. They were very close as a group and very friendly. They were also mostly computer-literate, some slow but proficient. Ted does such a good job teaching and is totally calm with the class, even when they are boisterous. I really enjoyed teaching my classes. I was able to get a little bit more into one class on document editing so that was fun. I also felt like my Records module went well. Everyone was able to stay together and they had a look of understanding in their eyes. When I passed out the lab assignment and started to go over it, I discovered I had copied the old version. That concerned me because last week we had buried the class with it. It had been revised to simplify it, so I went through it with them and cut out the parts we’d eliminated. They got through it without the major tension we experienced last time and I think they actually enjoyed it.

We offer a help section at 7:40 am and we’ve had a good crowd all three days. We thought we had everyone signed up for the partner sites, and we checked most of the ones that had questions, but we still had several that were having troubles when it came time to use them. Some accounts didn’t appear to be linked to FamilySearch Accounts, many of which we had checked earlier but were malfunctioning for some reason. I helped one sister between classes to link up a source she had saved—it is a little tricky linking external sources and I was really glad I had practiced it a few times so I could help her. Another lady found a newspaper article during class about her grandmother that she said would resolve many of the questions their family has had for at least three generations. She was in tears and was so grateful she could hardly speak. It is these moments that make this so 

rewarding.

We had the opportunity to visit with my sister Jan and her husband Tom this week. They were in town for a couple of days. It was really good to see them. We also had the opportunity to go to Provo and attend the temple with my sister Sue and visit with her and Roger. It makes it not so lonely when we get to see some of the family occasionally.

Friday was our Temple and Research day so we spent it at the library. I was able to nearly finish the cleanup and review of one family—there were so many sources that weren’t attached and some real issues that needed to be cleaned up, but I think they are nearly finished. Ted was able to work with a couple of consultants and found some good documents on his family. He found the emigration record for his grandma’s sister when she left Sweden. He is still looking for the record for his grandma, but he has found several family records that are very helpful.

When we arrived at the library in the morning there were three men in black suits in front. They asked to inspect our bags, so we let them. I asked what was happening and the man told me there was a special meeting there today. As it turned out, Joe Biden, the US Vice President, was coming. He was presented with five volumes of family history. He was speaking somewhere in the vicinity around noon. We were joking that we were under siege because no one was able to function normally. The missionaries that came early were sent a different way to get to the door, but they weren’t inspected. Maybe because our badges were on the inside of our coats we got inspected. Very interesting!