Week of October 30, 2016

Sunday Pres. Cecil Samuelson of the Salt Lake Temple spoke to our branch. It was really uplifting. We helped with Preach My Gospel. It was a bit of a zoo due to some new missionaries that weren’t on the list. When we were finally assigned to some elders, we had a very quick lesson and were done in 5 minutes. 

Monday we had our first Tree class since the previous couple went home. We had only a couple of students. We expected the numbers to be lower because we are not registering people or sending repeated emails to students to remind them. The classes are also taught stand-alone and not as a series any more. I think some of the missionaries came to get one class and had to attend all 6 to get the 1 or 2 they wanted. This is a better approach, but it will take some time to stabilize again. 

Tuesday I taught Basic IrfanView. We had a full class with just a few empty seats. It was a good group and we were able to cover all the material in good time and give them time to do a project using most of the things we had taught. It went well and I felt good about it. In the afternoon we had a class on merging. It was a really good class and I know the students learned something. 

Wednesday I taught Correcting Relationships in Family Tree. I hadn’t taught it before and there wasn’t a presentation already prepared so I put together a few slides to introduce the topic. We had the students sign into Beta so they could practice without messing things up royally. A couple of students couldn’t get into Beta and that was a concern. I think the students grasped the concepts and learned something, but I would change things a bit if I teach this again. 

City Creek Canyon

I stayed at the library after class to work on some personal research. I need to get back to the Swedish records while I have access to the library facilities. I can do most of the Finnish families at home. It all ties together, but the Finnish records are not as complete. 

Thursday I did some research during the morning and afternoon classes because the students didn’t need any help. After class Sister Barber wanted to get an idea of what I would be teaching for Descendancy Research next week so I walked her through the plan. I gave her a copy of the handout so she could review it to see if it makes sense. She was hesitant about my using Landscape view to do the research, but I think I convinced her that it gives people another option. 

City Creek Canyon

Friday was our T&R day. I got to the library about 9 am and sorted through my research notes so I could begin working on some of the descendant families. After lunch I began to find the records to document the families. I thought I’d get through 2-3 families, but I only got one family completed and then I only found the records—I wasn’t able to get anything into the Tree. 

Saturday we had our monthly Swap Meet. We have several people that come to help set up that aren’t on the committee. It really helps. We really moved a lot of things. At the end we took a truck full to the DI. We need to get rid of more than we did—we ended up with several tubs of clothing and we should only have about three tubs to start with.

Elder Roeth up City Creek Canyon

After the Swap Meet we walked up City Creek Canyon. The leaves were mostly gone, but there was some color left. I’m afraid we missed most of it.