Week of February 12, 2017

Sunday was a typical Sunday. Ted and I went to the choir broadcast. It was a repeat of several selections from the Thursday night program. Dallin Bayles was soloing in a song and came on tightening his tie and singing before he got to the microphone. He had obviously been late for his cue, and the orchestra was playing well into the song before he ran on stage. Funny. In the evening I reviewed for my classes for the week. I needed to put together a Power Point for the class on Monday because I have lost several files I thought I had. It was not easy to reproduce and it is not nearly as good as the original.

Monday I taught the Memories class. My Power Point went OK. It was a good class and I think we all enjoyed it. I completed the lesson on Catalog so I’m ready to certify on Wednesday. I also worked on the “How to” guide we’ve been asked to do and got the content finished. We need to get a couple of people to test it and we should be able to turn it in. Ted got me roses. Very sweet!

Valentine Roses!

In the evening we went to a friend’s house for dinner. We knew the wife when we lived in California and our kids played together. We had a wonderful meal and a good visit. I showed them the FamilySearch Memories app and they caught fire. I’m sure they will be using it often.

Tuesday we started our Capstone 2 class. Ted did a good job with Temple Submissions. I spent the evening reviewing again the lesson for Wednesday—it is such an important lesson and it really needs to be taught with the Spirit. I also reviewed for my certification testing Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday went well. I felt the class was with me. We teach the students how to do Find, Take, Teach by using their own family tree so they can prepare to help others. We did not find someone that was ready for temple work for everyone, but we found someone they could each use to create a lesson plan.

My certification went well. I learned later that the man who certified me is one of two that it’s better not to try than to have him as the certifier. I thought he was great. There were a couple of questions where the wording confused me, and the computer misbehaved in the middle or was super slow and I got impatient, but he said I passed with flying colors and did a great job. It made me feel good. Even then, it took nearly the entire hour to do the three units I did. He said most don’t finish in the allotted time.

Wendy Watson Nelson spoke at the Mission Conference in the afternoon. It was really good. She talked about us finding and fulfilling the commitments we made in the pre-mortal life. She had us recite a couple of quotes by Elder Jeffrey Holland. One of the quotes was a statement he made at the new mission president’s conference when he bore testimony of the Savior. The summary of that statement is that the thing that energizes the doctrine of Christ, the thing that informs the doctrine of Christ, is the Life of Christ. We should love everything He did, everywhere He went, everything He said, and everything He is. It was truly an amazing experience.

Thursday I taught the class on creating the lesson plan from the worksheet we did Wednesday. We had really positive results from the class. They did the role play well and were able to do OK with it. We had a couple of students demonstrate teaching the lesson plan and they did a great job.

In the afternoon I went to the library to do some research, hoping to find more information on a couple of Ted’s ancestors. As I walked into the International floor, the missionary at the desk called me over. She had been in our classes in December then they decided to extend their mission. She had just had her first Find, Take, Teach experience the previous weekend and was really excited about it. She was so grateful for the class and the opportunity to share with others. She went on and on about how excited she was. It really made my day.

After I had looked at things for a few minutes I asked a missionary to look at what I’d found to see if I had the correct person. He didn’t say I was wrong, but I needed to connect the birth record with the marriage record. He suggested a couple of things. I had already looked through the earliest parish household record for the wife twice because she was previously married. He suggested I look there and in another parish. There was also a large gap between when the couple married and the first child I had found so he thought there might be some missing children.

I got about half way through the parish records and found the wife. The record indicated she was married in 1787 to a man who died the same year they were married. I found his death record. They had a son born in 1788 who also died in 1788, but I couldn’t find either birth or death records for him. However, on the same page was the record for the second marriage, an indication they married, and three more children for them, two born before the first one I had. All three of these children died as infants. That was a bonanza. I still was not able to find any earlier records for either the husband or the wife, but I had the family and her previous marriage. I’ll keep looking but the records where they were living did not begin any earlier, so they must have been in another parish and I have no idea where she came from.

Friday we had a class on Memories and the missionaries got really excited about the mobile app. It is nice to be able to take pictures or record audio and have them go immediately into the gallery on FamilySearch. After a quick lunch I went to the library to meet someone for what I thought was an appointment. He didn’t show--he did not think it was an appointment so he was getting his car serviced. I did some personal research and found a couple of church records of fees the couple had paid. I still have no additional clues as to where to look for more information.

Saturday I did something that was of significance. I started to type the personal histories I’d written years ago, before Heather was born. Just as I started typing the thought came to me that maybe I could scan the histories and do OCR on them. I tried this a few years ago, but there were so many errors that it took more time than it was saving so I put the project away. As I turned the printer on and prepared to scan I noticed one of the options was to read the document using OCR, so I decided to give it a shot. I scanned one and looked at it on the computer. There were very few errors. I was elated. I hurriedly scanned the other documents and started doing the corrections. I was able to get through all three boys’ histories in just a very few minutes and part of the time was spent adding things I’d left out previously. Some had more errors than others, but it is going to work very well and save me tons of typing.

Week of February 5, 2017

Sunday during Sunday School in the family history class I helped a missionary upload documents from her phone to FamilyZearch. The mobile app is really great to use for uploading memories.

Monday we had two classes. Ted taught in the morning and I taught in the afternoon. I think my class went well. We had about six people in the class. It seems like our classes are either packed or tiny, never just a moderate number. A lady in the class taught me something I didn’t know. When the computer says there is no image available, she has been able to find the image through the catalog about half the time. She had no idea what was the deciding factor of whether there was an image or not, but that definitely opens doors we didn’t know about.

Tuesday was a little crazy. I did the laundry first thing in the morning while Ted went to devotional. He also picked up a couple of coats at the library for the swap meet from a lady who got one from someone else. He got home in time for us to hustle to the temple. The session was huge—probably about 120 people. We thought it would be really late when we got out, but it was still right about noon. We hurried home, grabbed a bite to eat, and rushed to the library where Ted taught a class on Temple Submissions to one student. It worked really well because the man is a good learner but needs lots of help getting the concepts. We were able to take the class at his speed and give extra help when needed.

After class we went home just in time to meet my sister who is here for Rootstech. We attended the buffet and program for the missionary appreciation event in the evening. It was about like last year, with masses swarming the tables to get the food then sitting on the stairs to eat. The program was the One World Children’s Choir, which was good. We also had short talks by FamilySearch staff and Pres. Tate. I enjoyed it. We visited for a while then went to bed.

Wednesday we picked up our packets for Rootstech. There was already a long line by the time we got there, but we had a good visit while waiting in the line. In the afternoon we attended two classes and enjoyed them. We met another sister and her husband who went with Ted and me to a restaurant for dinner. We had a short wait before we were seated, but we were able to order fairly quickly. That was the end of the positive experience. About 45 minutes later we asked the waitress when we could expect our order to arrive. After several attempts to get that information, we left. It was a sad disappointment since it was now after 8 pm. They had missed two earlier trains to Provo and we still hadn’t eaten.

The rest of the week we spent at Rootstech. We thoroughly enjoyed it. We were able to learn many new things. Thursday we invited everyone to our apartment for dinner so we wouldn’t have a repeat of Wednesday night. In the evening was the opening program in the Conference Center. We had tickets for three different sections, but we were able to all sit together. The program was amazing. Oscar Hamerstein III was there to tell the story of his family and Dallin Bayless was soloist on several Rogers and Hamerstein songs. It was totally enjoyable and we were thrilled.

Friday was the cultural celebration in the evening. Saturday the keynote speaker was Buddy Velastro, the Cake Boss, and the MC was Jason Hewlett. They were both very entertaining. Jason did singing and impersonations of several popular singers. He was hilarious. It was a good experience.

Week of January 29, 2017

Sunday we attended the homecoming talk for my niece’s son who recently returned from the Philadelphia PA mission, Spanish speaking. He started by playing the piano and singing “How Great Thou Art”—I was impressed. He apparently developed his piano skills on his mission. He gave a great talk, sharing his experiences and his testimony.

Monday we had a couple of classes. I taught FamilySearch Partners. We had nearly a totally full classroom, so that makes the teaching so much more fun. We have had a really hard time recently keeping a classroom for our lessons because we have low priority. The schedule needs to be revised nearly daily. We’ll be moving to the Joseph Smith lab starting in March so we shouldn’t have too many problems, but for now we need to make a sweep of all our classrooms before every class to make sure we don’t have students that are lost. Very frustrating.

Tuesday Ted taught Navigating FamilySearch.org. He did a really good job. Our attendance has been down quite a bit so it makes some classes easier to teach, but it also seems very sad to me that missionaries can’t take advantage of the classes offered.

Wednesday we had a staff meeting to start the day. We have one new elder that transferred from the other half of the Training Zone because of their changes. The major thing we did was revise the March schedule. Our Assistant Zone Leader thought we should offer our beginning classes twice in a month, but I pointed out that our attendance in those has been quite low so it may not be worth the effort. We decided instead to offer a couple of Family Tree Workshops where students can come and just get specific help on what they are struggling with. We will also offer a workshop on Irfanview so anyone can get help with just the parts they have questions about. I think this will be a good opportunity to help missionaries with their weaknesses instead of shot gunning the teaching. After our afternoon class we attended the temple and enjoyed it.

Thursday I taught Correcting Relationships in the afternoon. The computers had been down in the morning so I went to the office and worked on the assignment we’re assigned. I got it mostly completed down to the practice exercises which need to be cleaned up. In my class we worked in beta.familysearch.org and it didn’t function the way it was supposed to on replacing relationships, but I think the students got the idea. We went over several examples and had them try several things to give them practice.

Friday was our T&R day. I went to the library shortly after 8 am and worked on trying to clean up some of my research notes. Another missionary came over a couple of times to ask about things, and I had two appointments to pass off units of the certification program. (The procedure I’m writing is for students who don’t pass certification, so I thought it would be good to do the classes.) At the first appointment I sat outside the cubicle and listened to the lady ahead of me. The certifier was very generous in helping her remember the thrust of the lessons. In mine I was given the same support for which I was grateful. I have learned a few things, but mostly I’m learning that I need to think differently than I do and not over-think the questions. I was able to clean up a few things in the research I was doing, but there are so many loose ends that I need to fix before we are done here.

Saturday was the day of our monthly Swap Meet. Rain has been forecast all week, so I’ve been praying to have it clear just from 9:30 to 1 so we could move ahead. It rained during the night but had cleared up. When we started setting things up a few drops started to fall. I told them to leave paper and clothing in the sheds for a while and get everything else out. Soon the skies cleared and we were abundantly blessed with a beautiful day. I had some hand warmers for the workers, but the weather was so warm we had no use for them. I was thankful for the Lord’s answer to our prayers and for the beautiful day. We had a great turnout and got rid of a lot of stuff. One couple that just started working with us was called to be assistant zone leaders and will be working most Saturdays so we need to find someone else. They were scheduled to take Saturday, so one of the other elders said they could do it. We work with a wonderful bunch of people.

Week of January 22, 2017

Our mission presidency developed a reading program for the next 13 weeks that is intended to focus our lives on Christ. Sunday we had our first lesson in Relief Society based on our reading program. It was really great. The teacher asked six sisters to share life experiences that had brought them closer to the Savior. It was amazing and I was very touched by the strength of the women.

Monday at inservice we had a man from the Granite Mountain Vaults come to talk with us about what they do. The young elders pull and re-file about 3000-4000 microfilms every day. One young elder alone had done about 36,000 while he worked there. Apparently, they have to climb very tall ladders to access some of the films. The man spoke very highly of the young elders and the opportunity to work with them.

In the evening we had our Hail and Farewell dinner. It was the first time for the new branch so there were many who had not been there before. At the end the young elders sang to us and it was touching, as usual. I am not sure what it is about these young men, but they have a great spirit about them that touches my heart.

Tuesday at inservice Pres. Larson spoke about the history of the change to the training zone and his testimony of the work. The training zone will be using computer-based learning from now on, starting with the new group of missionaries that come next week. They piloted the program with 7 seniors in the last group and it worked well for all ranges of experience and ability. Some of the trainers will be reassigned to other zones, some will be lab helpers, some will be checking the learning of the trainees. There will be no one-on-one training as it has been in the past. There was a good feeling during the discussion, so I’m assuming there will be a fairly cooperative spirit when it rolls out.

In the afternoon I taught “Searching Historical Records” which I really enjoy teaching and haven’t done for several months. As I reviewed the material in preparation it occurred to me that sometimes names are difficult to find because the handwriting is hard to read so they have been indexed incorrectly. I suggested the students write some names, very quickly and very sloppily, and see how they could be misinterpreted.

Wednesday afternoon we had a class on writing stories. This was Elder Stokes last class. I spent the time trying to write and edit a story about my Grandma Farnsworth and when we used to play Rook at her home. It was a fun exercise and I think it turned out pretty well. I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on some of my personal memories and try to get them expressed. I really need to get my personal history written or when I am gone there will be nothing of me left.

On the way home today I stopped at the swap meet sheds to put a few things away and spent some time reorganizing a few things so it wasn’t so cluttered. I was supposed to walk with my friend from France, but when she got there it was too late to walk. Instead she asked for help repacking her suitcase because she was leaving in the morning and she’d had a suitcase that was over the limits. Ted and I helped he reweigh her suitcases and rearrange a few things in them. By the time we rearranged everything, we were able to pack her picture of Christ she didn’t think she’d have room for. I will miss her and the opportunity to learn from her.

When we finished and got home it was later than hoped. I still had to finish reading my readings for the day and I still had to review my lesson for the morning. I was glad I did because I had some inspiration about what I needed to add to the teaching to make it better. I suggested that if there is a difficult name to find to think of how it may have been pronounced by the ancestor if he had a strong foreign accent and how an unfamiliar ear might have heard and written that name. Compound that with an unfamiliar eye reading the word. How might it have been said, then heard, then read.

Thursday after I ate part of my breakfast I hurried over to get the rest of my friend’s stuff before she left. I gave her one last hug, took one last walk through the apartment after she left, and turned out the lights. I went home, finished getting ready, and went to work. It was a good start to the day to be of service to someone.

At inservice we had several of the engineers from the mobile apps area come to help us learn to use the family tree app. I had trouble getting wifi on my phone so I was a little limited in what I did, but the app was great. I went to the mezzanine to pick up a different network and got connected. I sat in one of the nice chairs and looked at the app for a few minutes. I had been there about 5 minutes when a lady next to me suddenly asked, “How long have you been sitting there?” She was the hostess at the desk and hadn’t noticed me. I hadn’t noticed her either. We had a good visit but it was weird we had neither one seen the other since we were only about 3 feet apart. It was interesting and I shared with her some of what we had learned. One of the startling things the engineers had told us was that internet access from mobile devices exceeded that from desktop computers for the first time in November 2016. Incredible.

After that I worked on an assignment two of us had been given. I had received an email saying I needed to meet with the lady in charge of library training to discuss our request for access to the training material, so I tried to find her. I was able to meet with her and an assistant. They didn’t want us to take the approach we had planned on but we could have access to the training material and the certification questions. And the scope of what we are doing is much more limited than we had thought.

My class started with about 5 students, but the classroom filled almost completely before we were very much into it. I think it went well and I enjoyed teaching the class. A couple of people came up afterward and told me they had really learned a lot and appreciated the class. That is always nice.

Friday we had a late class. It allowed me to take a little more time doing things so I wasn’t so rushed. In class I was assisting an elder. The biggest problem we had was finding a source for one of his ancestors. We practiced the process being taught 4-5 times, then tried to straighten out his Ancestry.com account for which he didn’t know the password, using the email account he couldn’t remember the password for. We also signed him up for another account. He was pleased. He was a quick learner so it was fun.

I spent about 45 minutes with another trainer writing a rough draft for our assignment. I continued to work on it while she taught her class. I got it all the way to the end, very rough, but at least a basis of what we need to do. I came up with some activities that were unique for the assessment part of the assignment and I sent it to her for review.

Saturday it was our turn at the swap meet sheds. We spent a couple of hours organizing and receiving things from several people for the swap meet next weekend. I spent most of my time hanging clothes, sorting them as I went so we didn’t have to spend time doing that. I did all the clothes I found so we should be a bit ahead. Ted reorganized the second shed. People had put furniture right at the front so nothing more could get in. We were able to move quite a bit over from the first shed. He then sorted bags of stuff and was able to clear up several things off the floor. Ted went out later and shoveled the snow in front of the sheds—there is still a lot of ice left there.