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.