Monday we started with a new group of three missionaries.
They now do an hour of shadowing after lunch before coming to us from 2 – 4 pm.
It gives us a long lunch, but I was able to pick up some things to take to my friend
in rehab. We enjoyed a good visit and I got back just in time for class. I am
struggling to get my handouts and presentations organized for the two
enrichment classes coming in a couple of weeks. It has been difficult to get a
good direction for them for them.
Tuesday I didn’t teach, but I spent the lunch hour doing a
little Swedish research. I have been following the trail of a man my records
showed died at the age of three months. I was able to follow him for about 28
years—obviously my source was incorrect—to to the point that he was married and
had 4 children. That was the point where the Parish registers stop being
available so I looked for his death record. I found someone with the same first
name and birth date, but there was a different last name. I looked for his wife
and found someone with the same first name and birth date but a different last
name. I was a little frustrated but the thought came to me that I should look
for that last name, which I realized was the same name on both people, and I
got a list that included the husband, wife, and two children with the correct
birth dates for the family and also a brother of the husband. It was a little
odd to me that a family—or two families—would change their last name when they
have already established themselves under another name.
Wednesday I taught the Historical Records class which is one
of my favorites. I was asked to attend an inservice on the Find, Take, Teach
program in the other part of the zone, so Ted taught the second part of the class
for me. It was a good meeting and I got some ideas, but I’m not sure exactly
how many of the ideas should be incorporated into the classes. I feel we may be
trying to give the students everything we have instead of just what they need
to get started. During the afternoon I was able to do a bit of work on one of
the classes I’ll be teaching. It is a real challenge to adjust a prepared handout
to meet my own approach, but I was too far into it when the frustrations set in
to start over. I think it will work out.
At lunch I went to the international floor and asked one of
the elders about the name change in the Swedish family I’d been working on. He
said it was fairly common for families to change their names and it was an easy
process. He said the name didn’t really have meaning but it was possible it was
the farm the family lived on. The other possibility was that they just wanted a
more Swedish name since the previous family name was Finnish. He showed me a
Swedish website that listed people. We looked up their new name and found the
oldest son who is still alive. It gave his address so I figured Ted could write
to him. He took me to another website that listed people’s addresses and phone
numbers and found the first son—still no phone number—and the second son with
address and phone number. I’m really excited that Ted may be able to contact
the family, connect with them, and possibly ask about the name change. I was
told they probably would not speak English since they were born as early as
1931, but their children and grandchildren would be able to translate for them.
Exciting!
In the evening I attended a presentation by a lady who has
restored and created several quilts that are used in historical sites such as
the Joseph Smith home in Palmyra. It was fascinating as she described various
blocks on a quilt she called the “Joseph and Emma” quilt. She wove Church
history into each block as they represented various times in the early part of
the Restoration. She also displayed some of her notes and patterns and told us
that we were welcome to take pictures and copy anything she had done. I didn’t
particularly want to copy them, but I did enjoy seeing them and getting the
ideas from them.
Thursday I taught the Guest Assistance class. It went well.
This is the closing class for each group where they get to respond to actual
questions asked by guests to the library. At the end I shared my testimony of
the work and told them they would each do a great job. We have been able to get
much closer to this group because it was so small and one lady had tears in her
eyes as we closed. As we were working on something one day I noticed her user
id was her name and a male name and asked if she and her husband shared an
account. She got a little teary as she told me they always did the work
together. I think he must have passed away fairly recently. I am amazed at the
strength of some of the single sisters.
Friday we didn’t have any classes so we went to the library
to work. Ted was able to get some help from a different missionary than usual.
I was not aware that he had been able to extend the Finnish lines out about 4
more generations. That’s amazing. I worked on my classes for a couple of hours.
While I was trying to get some screen prints for one class I did a search on the
husband in the family I’d been working on and found an additional birth record.
I began researching one of his sisters and came upon a dead end where I
couldn’t figure out where to go next. As I was searching in a third location
for a marriage record for her I found the marriage record for her sister that I
had not been able to find previously. The Lord works in mysterious ways. It was
a real blessing to find this because the sister died young and I didn’t want to
lose her records. It has been a real testimony to me of the hand of the Lord in
this work. When I come to a dead end, I pray and I frequently have success
finding what I was looking for or something else I needed to find. It is a real
blessing to be part of this work.
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| Martha Ann Brockbank Hales, my Great Grandmother |
In the afternoon we drove to Spanish Fork Cemetery to see the grave sites for some Hales family members. I found the graves I knew were there, but I had hoped that the headstone for one of the families would list additional children that I have been unable to find. We then went to the Payson Temple. It is beautiful. I especially love the stained glass windows. After that we went to an open house for our nephew’s son and wife. It was a fun party in their backyard and we really enjoyed it.
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| Payson Utah Temple, stained glass windows |
Saturday we drove to Logan to the temple. It is the 2nd
oldest temple in Utah and the 2nd oldest operating temple in the
Church. As would be expected, the temple grounds were busy with people
attending weddings. Afterward we went to The Bluebird, a restaurant that has
been in Logan for about 100 years. The drive to and from was beautiful as we
drove through the canyon. Fun day!
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| Logan Temple, 2nd oldest temple in Utah |
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