Week of September 25, 2016

Sunday we went early to hear the Tabernacle Choir dress rehearsal they do before every broadcast. It is just the same as the broadcast except there are no pictures on the TV monitors. After the broadcast we took my sister to the airport and dropped her off. We drove to Orem to attend church with my sister Sue since we were having dinner afterward with my brother Wayne and his family who had come for the reunion. We enjoyed a good meal and a good visit.

Monday we had a class in the morning then I met my brother and his family to do some family history afterward. I helped his daughter find some family names she didn’t’ know about and my brother worked with a missionary to find the parents of Margaret Morgan. It was fun.

Tuesday we had another class. I did some work on the Finnish records. I’d found a man who had 20 children with two different wives. I knew that several children died as infants, but when I did some more research I found only 3 of the 20 lived to be adults. That would be so heart breaking for anyone. 

My brother had asked me to look up some information on a supposed mother of Margaret Morgan. I checked a couple of things but wasn’t able to find an answer for him. I found that the source on the record that tied her to our Margaret Morgan was for a Margaret Morgan born 15 years after ours. I also found a history of Margaret Powell by a granddaughter that gave a brief history of Margaret Morgan. It said she only had one sibling. The family in Family Tree has five children, two Margarets and two Davids, each of which overlap the others in their lifetimes. I was able to find some parents that probably belong to our Margaret Morgan’s mother, but they don’t belong to the mother in Family Tree. We need to find the sources for the correct lady then fix the Tree. I emailed my brother to let him know what I’d found and so he could take care of it.

Utah State Capitol Building

I copied the handout for my class on Wednesday then headed over to Temple Square for the Salt Lake City bus tour our zone was doing. We rode for about 1 ½ hours in an open air bus around the city. It felt so enjoyable to be in the open air. When we got back we stopped to say goodbye to our Finnish friends then went to dinner with Elder and Sister Shurtz. We have been their home teachers and friends while we’ve been here. After we got home we went to help a friend move things to her car. She leaves for home tomorrow.

University of Utah

Wednesday I taught my IrfanView class to a full room. They did well and I enjoyed it. One of the ladies told me that one of her coworkers had said that when she found I was teaching the class she was glad because she thought I was a good teacher. That made me feel good. I did a little work on the Finns again before the afternoon class on temple submissions. I was able to complete the work on one of the families.

Thursday we had another enrichment class. In the afternoon we had a group discussion about Certification of Family History Consultants with Mike Sandberg. Afterward he recorded the experience of one of our missionaries in the Capstone class. It was very rewarding to hear her comments and what it has done for her to learn this technique for helping others. (Capstone classes are taught to missionaries getting ready to go home as a preparation for their possibly serving in family history callings in their home congregations.

Friday was another enrichment class on City Directories. It was really good and I learned some good things. After class we drove to Provo to attend the Provo City Center Temple with my sister Sue and her husband. It is a beautiful temple and we enjoyed being there.

Saturday we had tickets for the morning session of General Conference. Our seats were in Plaza 1, the farthest section to the right at the very front, right where all the General Authorities and their families came in. It was amazing. We had to look at the speakers’ profiles, but we enjoyed seeing so many of the people we’d only seen at a distance before. It was an amazing session and I really enjoyed it. In the afternoon we watched the second conference session on the computer. It was also really good. I’m grateful for the opportunity to hear from our leaders. In the evening Ted attended Priesthood Meeting at the church across the street. I listened to part of the meeting while I did some things at home. It was really good.