Merry Christmas!

I met a woman on Christmas Day that made me smile.

We had Christmas dinner at Autumn and Derrick's little house and she had the big meal planned well. Everyone had an assignment and there was a schedule for the use of the kitchen (which is not really large) to make their assigned item(s). Aubree was assigned the rolls. She found a new recipe and all the ingredients were there but it seems there may have been a little problem with the yeast (we are still not quite sure what) and the dough did not rise but was a large, heavy lump. So....Ed and I jumped in the car to see if we could find rolls somewhere. There was only one grocery store open on Christmas Day and it was surprisingly busy. We found wonderful rolls at the store bakery (it turns out to be a "scratch" bakery in Ridley's, not a big name store)and we headed to checkout. We were standing in line and another checker motioned for me to come over to her register so she could help us. She was very cheery and I just felt so bad I had to tell her how sorry I was that she had to work on Christmas. She smiled and looked right at me and said, "Oh don't be! I love working on Christmas! I volunteered to work today. I like it because everyone is so happy and nice on Christmas so I really like being here!" Now, doesn't that just make you smile? What a great attitude! The only problem is, everyone should behave that way all year.

We returned to the house with the rolls and a great attitude and had a wonderful meal with our children. It was a great day. Before we got started on the meal we did open gifts and the first gift we opened was a special envelope from Autumn's OB. They had asked him to not tell them the sex of the baby but to put it in an envelope which they put on the tree to be opened on Christmas Day. All of us agreed it would be the first gift. It's a boy! (sigh) We are so happy. Aubree and Ashley gave gifts to the baby and wrote names on the labels that they would like to suggest to Autumn and Derrick. My personal favorite is: Deidrich Octavian Gibelyou from Ashley, but given that the initials spell DOG I don't think that will fly, but it was fun to hear the names they came up with.

With the girls coming in on Wednesday, we didn't get a lot of missionary work done last week. We have had the experience of being missionaries in a strange land. The mission was shy a bunch of missionaries this past week. Our employee in charge is on vacation so some projects have come to a standstill but we will resume our work and be ready and willing after the first of the new year. It is a little scary to me to think about it too much because I realize that this time next year we probably will be home. Wow! Time is flying by!!!

Aubree and Ashley arrived Wednesday afternoon and we had tickets for the family to see "A Christmas Carol" at the 5pm performance time. We were seated and chatting and then there was a little stir and Pres. Monson came in with people I assume were family members. The Church was a major sponsor of the show I learned later. It was well done and fun. The following night we had tickets to see the Church production of "Savior of the World". It was also well done and very stirring. It was a great way to begin our Christmas Holiday together. Everyone stayed in our apartment until the 24th when we packed up and everyone stayed at Autumn and Derricks. Lots of fun there too.

I guess I can't leave the blog without telling about my first experience directing the Branch choir today. I was so nervous that I forgot to stand the choir. At the last minute the horrified/confused look on the faces of the choir members and the gentle reminder whispered by the accompanist saved me and I motioned for them to stand up....hahahaha I told them afterward that I would get better. I promised.

My family, the Mumford's, came over to our apartment building social room tonight for cookies, singing and a kwanzaa ball. A lot of my family who are here do this every year I heard so it was fun to join in and enjoy the fun with them. This may be a one time event for us since we will not be here for Christmas next year. We sang carols together which for me is a wonderful thing. Our family members can sing and I love singing with them.

The holidays are about family and friends and being happy. I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday and that the New Year will be brought in with much laughter and love. We are looking forward to doing that this week.

A New Job

Last Sunday I was given the assignment of choir director for our missionary branch. I am a little intimidated with all the wonderful musicians in this group. We will see. This is a dream ward choir because of the talent here. It will be fun after I get my feet wet.

I have been training a new missionary for the past two weeks in the Training Zone. It has been a different experience and fun on many levels, but I will be happy to be back in Historical Families again full time. There is a lot going on for us.

Last week I was invited to sit in on a fairly informal meeting about Oral Genealogies. It seems that those priesthood leaders in charge are feeling a pressing need to look more closely at what is happening with these genealogies. They are coming to realize that oral genealogies are prevalent in many parts of the world and that it is a resource that we are losing quickly. The countries in Africa for instance. The young people in the villages are not wanting to stay in the small village and become the "storyteller". They can see more opportunity by moving to the bigger cities, not staying and spending their time memorizing multi-generations of names and relationships.

There is an African proverb that states: "When a storyteller dies a library is burned". Some of these men/women can recite up to 60 generations of people in their tribes. One of the interviews we put up from the hard drive we recently received from Ghana named 469 individuals. I couldn't name that many people in my own family! She was one of 2500 oral genealogies we received from Ghana and Nigeria on one hard drive. These people have signed releases for the Church to use their information, some with a thumb print because they don't have a signature. So we scan the document and put it up online with the names of the people in their genealogies. I think it is very cool to see that thumbprint. It will be interesting to see how things will develop in the next few months. I think our 200 Tongan records surprised a few people. It is nice to be part of a developing project with such potential for good. There are some different tribes (of the lost 10) that are being identified in far away parts of the world. Interesting, huh?

We are in the thick of the Christmas season here. People are exchanging gifts and there are more and more events. My brother-in-law (former MoTab member) received some coveted tickets to the Choir concert with David Archileta and Michael York for last Thursday, the 16th. It was their dress rehearsal performance, but the tickets were all gone and the Conference Center was full. It was a delightful evening. He has a very nice voice and is so cute. He is very humble about all the attention he gets and was very appreciative but was not at all "idol" like. He presented himself professionally and was obviously grateful for the opportunity to sing with the choir. At one point at the beginning of the show he said, "When I was a little boy I dreamed of singing with the Choir...." We just chuckled because he is still such a little boy. It was rather funny, but endearing.

An interesting bit of information for the Christmas season. Elder Bednar spoke at a local Stake Conference about a week ago and a missionary who was there shared some of what he taught them. He spoke of the symbols of Christmas, the tree, lights and the shepherds. The thing he taught about the shepherds was interesting to me. Some may know this, but I didn't remember reading it before (I probably did, but just didn't remember). He taught that the shepherds where the angels came were not just any shepherds and they were not watching just any sheep, but it was the herd of unblemished sheep to be used for the sacrifices in the temple. Those who were watching them were special shepherds who had been hand picked by the priests to watch out and care for those sacrificial lambs. Not so unusual that the angels would have gone to them to let them know that the "lamb of God" was born that night.
I always wondered about why those shepherds....why that particular flock. Now I know. Bruce R. McConkie apparently taught that sometime ago.

We are looking forward to having our children all together for this holiday. We have lots of great things planned and we will enjoy many traditions in this place like we would at home. One of them is the gingerbread decorating/construction project we have done for 4 years now. It will be a little different, but we will still have fun and we will find someone to judge our work. The girls have decided that since it has now become an annual event, we have to name it so they did....."The Moulder Cup". No, our family is not at all competitive!!! hahaha
Now I just have to do something about a cup!!

We woke up yesterday morning to another light snow, but later in the day it turned to rain. It has rained most of the day today on and off, so all the new snow is gone and much of the packed snow that has been shoveled into little gray piles. I hope that we will have a white Christmas, but it isn't looking like that will happen here this year. Since we will be driving back and forth a bit between here and Provo, it is much better to have clear weather.

Last week we received a wonderful surprise. A big box of goodies from Church friends from home! What a fun thing that was for us. We were like little kids opening the box and oooing and awwwing as we read the cards and notes and saw all the things that had been sent. Everything from gum to CD's and cash to socks. We particularly enjoyed the testimonies of the Sunday School class for us to put into a Book of Mormon to share. We will try hard to accomplish that even though we don't interact with the public in our assignment. Thank you all for your thoughtfulness. It is very much appreciated. We loved feeling like we are still part of the Woodlands Texas 2nd Ward even here in Utah. We love you all.

Christmas time is a wonderful time of the year because we are all reminded of the love of our Father in Heaven and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Because of this we all try to treat others with a little more kindness and show a little bit of the love that the Savior has shared with us. He came to earth humbly to do his great work for us and I am so grateful to know that through Him I can be forgiven for my sins.

I love singing the carols of Christmas with their thoughtful phrases:
"Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay close by me forever and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care and fit us for heaven to live with Thee there." May it ever be so is my pray for us all.

Photos to share

I just think this is a cute photo. Phil and Teri Stalvey are missionaries from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They had family come and visit them for Thanksgiving and took this photo of their grandson. They said he was running around the JSMB for quite some time and then when he got to this spot he just stopped and looked up and stood there for a long time....long enough for Teri to get out her camera, set it up and take this candid photo. Very cute so I wanted to share.



This is a photo taken by another missionary (my friend, Eileen Bailey from Georgia). She took this picture one morning recently from the window of our Sunday School classroom in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with her phone. It is such a beautiful picture of the "Cedar of Lebanon" in front of the Temple. I learned recently that this cedar tree is carefully nurtured by the master gardeners on Temple Square. It is the only on left of a pair of cedars. Since Christmas lights tend to damage the tree (probably the heat as well as the climbing around to put them on the tree) it is lighted only every other year. It was lit last year so that is why there are no lights this year. I think it is beautiful enough alone and the snow adds to that beauty.

The Angel

I would like to share with you a Christmas story that was shared in prayer meeting last week in the Training Zone. The story is written by Tamara Stitt and is an account from the diary of her great grandmother. She presented this account at a Relief Society Christmas Party in Rexburg,Idaho in December of 1990. The story is true.

"The true meaning of Christmas is charity. And the true meaning of charity is the unconditional love of Christ, which is the unconditional love of our fellowman. My great-grandmother, Beth, left me this story, which has had a tremendous impact on my life. she kept a detailed journal and this entry took place in the year 1900...

Carl, my great-grandfather was a rough, tough old trapper man who homesteaded what's called Burnscreek, Idaho, which is 15 miles above Heise, above Kelly Canyon. He took a team of horses and a sleigh and he built the road that you travel on today. He trapped furs for a living and sent them back east to Boston every fall, and every fall the fur trader in Boston would send him a check for the furs that he had received, until the year 1896, the fur trader had no money. But he was a man of honor so instead of sending him money, he sent him his 17 year old daughter as a mail-order bride and she was to become my great-grandmother. I think the reason she kept such a detailed journal is that's the only way she kept her sanity, as she wrote how badly she hated Burnscreek, Idaho. What a cultural shock it was from Boston, Massachusetts, and how she never could quite forgive her father for doing this to her.

In December 1900, when she made this entry in her journal she was 24 years old and pregnant with her fourth child. She wrote that she had asked Carl to take the remaining furs to the valley and trade them for the things she'd asked for in her Christmas list. She was embarrassed at how much she had wanted that year, for on her list she'd asked for three things: peppermint, chocolate, and a little piece of yard goods to make her only little girl a dress for Christmas. She wrote that Carl had heartily agreed to take the furs to the valley and to trade them for supplies and for the items on her Christmas list. He told her that he would be home early on Christmas Eve morning and that he would bring with him a tree that he would stop and chop for his children. He left her in fine shape with lots of wood chopped and that the only thing she needed to do every day was to go out to the barn and milk the old cow.

The first day was delightful. They made ornaments for the tree that their father would bring home. They also made Christmas pudding. Late that night a tremendous storm hit the mountain. It snowed and it blowed like nothing she had ever seen before. The storm did not subside until early on Christmas Eve morning. When it finally died down enough that she could hear herself think, the wind was still howling, but she could hear that poor old cow in the barn bellering to be milked. She wrote how she tried to get the front door of the cabin open and physically pushed and worked for one hour and ten minutes. She could not get the door open. She knew that something must have frozen on it from the outside. Even though logic told her to stay calm, she panicked and she took the axe from beside the hearth and chopped the hinges off the door to slide the door over. She was faced with a tremendous ice strip that had fallen off the top of the cabin, so she took her axe and shopped a hole through it, big enough that she might step out to the other side. She couldn't believe the devastation that the storm had left, how high the drifts were, and how hard it was still snowing, and how hard the wind was still blowing. She could hear that poor old cow in the barn bellering to be milked, what empathy she had for it. She said that she was afraid that she couldn't make it out to the barn herself and back again. So she tied one end of a rope to the doorstop and one to her waist and started out towards the barnyard. She got less than a few yards when she realized that being with child she dare not go any farther because the snow was over waist deep, so she stopped in her tracks and said a silent prayer to her Heavenly Father that Carl would hurry home early that day and that the poor old cow might forgive her. She spent the rest of the day waiting for Carl in great anticipation...Christmas Eve came and ...went and Carl had not returned home. She was just about to put three cranky children to bed when she heard someone outside the cabin. They all rushed to the door where she slid if off its hinges once again to peer out the little hole of ice. She anticipated seeing Carl.

She wrote how her heart sunk, for there on the other side of her doorstep stood the dirtiest, straggliest old trapper she had ever seen. But to three little children on Christmas Eve, an old man with red long johns, a long white beard, a tree in one hand, and a pack over his back, was a most welcome sight in their home. Those children gleefully explained, "See Mother, Santa did find Burnscreek, Idaho after all!" She said that he looked at her and must have felt her great anticipation of where her husband was, and felt her hesitation at letting him into her house so he stared her straight in the eye and said, "Beth, don't be afraid. Carl's at Table Rock at Spaulding's trapper cabin with a lame horse." He said, "I was out on snowshoes this night and told him I was going to check my own lines and that I'd stop off and tell you that he was alright, that he'd be home early in the morning and bring you this straggly old tree and this pack that he'd sent from the valley." So she brought him in the house and fed him stew from her fire. She wrote he helped set up the tree and helped the children decorate it. She judged him to be a man of fine character because he could recite the story of Christ's birth by heart from the Bible. He carried the children to bed and helped her putout her meager Christmas gifts. The old trapper chopped more firewood and milked the cow. he told her he had no family of his own, but thanked her sincerely for letting him spend such a wonderful Christmas Eve with her family. He asked if it might be all right if he spent the night in the barn and he would leave early in the morning to go on up Black's Canyon to check his traps. She told him only on one condition, that he join them in the morning for Christmas breakfast. He heartily agreed, thanking her once again before retiring to the barn.

She wrote that that was the very first time that she'd had a chance to look inside the old, worn, leather pack that had been sent by Carl. She went to bed a happy woman, for there inside the bag was peppermint, chocolate, and little piece of yard goods.

She woke up the next morning to the children's gleeful sounds underneath her tree and it grew late into the morning before she realized that the old trapper had not joined them.

Just as she was going to the barnyard she noticed Carl was coming over the horizon. They all gathered at the front door to welcome their father home in wild anticipation and to tell him, "We have Santa locked in the barn!" Carl looked stern and tired and sent the children into the house. He asked her who was in the barn. She said, "Well, Carl, it was just the old trapper who came last night and brought me the tree and the pack and to tell me that you would be home early this morning." He said, "I never even made it to the valley. I made it as far as Table Rock when the storm hit, and I went to Spaulding's trapper's cabin and tied my horse to a tree. Another old trapper had tried to water his horse at the river and had fallen through the much ice. It took three of us to fish him out, and we could tell he was a goner but we took him into the cabin and rolled him in blankets, and laid him by the fire and stayed with him until early on Christmas Eve when the storm broke. We hesitated and pondered what to do, but all three of us were anxious to get to the valley so that we could return home to our families on Christmas Eve. So we stoked up the fire a little, wrapped him a little tighter, and left him lying in front of the fire. We saddled up our horses and started down the lane. But I got less than a few hundred yards when a tremendous feeling came over me that I could not leave that old man alone on Christmas Eve to die. I sent the other two trappers on to the valley and I returned to the old boy where I held his head in my lap. Once in a while when he would regain consciousness I would tell him about you and about my children and how much I loved them and how disappointed you'd be that I never made it to the valley to get the peppermint, the chocolate or the little piece of yard goods that you'd so desperately wanted for Christmas. Early on Christmas Eve night the old boy died in my arms, but it was too late for me to come home so I waited until today."

She said right at this particular moment she couldn't understand what was happening to her as she ran to the barn to show Carl that there was an old boy in the barn. So Carl followed her out, showing her that there was no man in the barn and there were no snowshoe tracks. She stopped, she pondered, and she prayed, and she got a wonderful peaceful feeling as she said to Carl, "I read in the Bible once that when you show charity to a fellow man, Heavenly Father sometimes lets you entertain an angel in your home. (Hebrews 13: 1-2) Carl, I think I had a blessing last night to entertain an angel underneath your roof."

Carl scoffed at her and told her there had been no angel in his home, until she took him by the hand and led him into their home. She showed him the tree and underneath the tree she pulled out an old worn leather saddle bag, and inside showed him a small bit of peppermint, chocolate and a little piece of yard goods.

Sixty years later, in 1960, great-grandmother was at my parents house when she died on Christmas Day. I was just a little girl and my great-grandmother left me her diary, this story, and a little piece of yard goods wrapped in white tissue paper with a note, 'This is never to be used.' It was fabric from an angel and a reminder that true charity and the true love of Christ was to be shown 365 days a year."

We are now in the holiday season and I love how we can all be caught in the spirit the season brings, but it is a great time to remind ourselves to be a little kinder, a little more Christlike in our words and deeds everyday, not just during the holiday. You never know if you might be entertaining an angel.

I love this poem by President Thomas Monson:

"I have wept in the night
For the shortness of sight
That to somebody's need made me blind;
But I never have yet
Felt a twinge of regret
For being a little too kind"

I am certainly the recipient of many kindnesses from friends and family. Thank you all.

December Begins

It is amazing to think that it is already December. I know that I have been watching the lights and Christmas decorations as they have been displayed, but for some reason I am not ready for December. December always goes by so fast and then it will be 2011! I think I would like to enjoy this a little longer, maybe stretch out the days some? Oh well.

It has been a busy week and a little unusual. We celebrated Ed's birthday on Monday, the 29th. He had a hard time blowing out the candle because of his age. (hahaha) He is 62 now but I think he gets better looking as he ages. Don't you think so? I love the picture of him all bundled up to go out in the cold. What a cutie!

Each missionary is asked to present a 3 minute sketch of themselves to the mission at the Monday morning devotionals. It was our turn on Monday, the 29th, Ed's birthday! I struggled over what to write down (we are told to write them down and practice them because if you go over 3 minutes they ring a bell and you have to close immediately and sit down). I ended up with two very different sketches but I thought I would just take them both and wait for inspiration. Well, inspiration came all right! We were the last two and as I listened to the others give their life sketches I decided I needed to rewrite mine. I asked Ed for a pen and began to scribble, cross out, draw lines, etc. In the end, what I gave was so different from what I had prepared, but it was under 3 minutes and well received so it was fine. Ed was also under 3 minutes which was great since his first draft was 6 1/2 min. He told of his conversion which was very appropriate. He did a great job. We are both very glad that it is over!

The hard thing about this last week has been to watch what happens after it snows. It was so pretty immediately after the snow last weekend (I hope you liked my pictures), but then it started getting cleared away and along the streets and walkways the snow is shoveled and piled and then it gets grey and then black and what had been a picture of beautiful snow ends up being quite ugly. The sun comes out and slush follows soon after and then a little sprinkle of rain and it isn't pretty anymore. I think my "uglyness" attitude began last Wednesday when I was waiting for the crossing light to let me cross the street between Temple Square and the Family History Library. Since it was my first winder here in a long, long time I had forgotten the main rule after a snow.....don't stand too close to the street.... Yep, you guessed it. I got splashed with the ugly black snow slush first thing in the morning. Not a great way to start my day but I rallied and learned from my experience. I have not done that again. Most of the snow is now gone. The weekend was warmer and last night there was another slight rain so snow is actually difficult to find. (We actually saw snow along the streets being scooped up and put into trucks to be hauled away last week.)

On Friday afternoon I did my first training, welcoming the new missionaries. I will be training most of the day for the next two weeks going back over to the library for an hour or so after 3:30pm to work on the Tongan project for a couple of hours each day. We have received our own Oral History space on the Community Trees site now so I will have to move all of the links to the new place so I want to get started on that as quickly as possible. It should be quite easy.

We also had a new Young Elder start in our zone last week. He is very sweet and learned quickly. He works with us until 2pm each day. Our 2nd Young Elder will begin on the 13th. They certainly add a lot because they are good on the computer. It will be a big help in our zone.

On Wednesday night Autumn came and stayed with us because her husband was out of town and she had a meeting downtown. It was very fun. We met in the Salt Lake Temple and did some sealing work there for an hour and then we had dinner and came back to our apartment and spent some time planning our Christmas holiday when Ashley and Aubree are here. We are going to have lots of fun together. It will be a different holiday for our family. We are looking forward to it. We then went to sleep and Ed and I left early the next morning before Autumn had to get up. She showed up at our work room a little before 9AM and announced that her car battery was dead. Sir Ed of Historical Families to the rescue!!! It was such a good thing that this happened when she was here with us. We were happy to be there to help her when she needed it. Even though she would have been able to get it done, it was just nice for her not to have to do it alone. We think this was a tender mercy from the Lord (although Ed was not happy having to change out a battery while wearing a suit, but oh well). It all worked out.

Yesterday Ed and I went down to Provo for the day to help Autumn and Derrick decorate their little house for Christmas for the first time. They had never put lights on the outside of the house and had never had a big tree so it was fun to be with them. We then went out to dinner to celebrate Ed's birthday and Derrick's birthday. It is the first time we have been in Provo for a couple of months. We really thought we would be going down more often, but we have been staying very busy and haven't had the time and now with winter weather here we will probably not be doing much except when the girls are all here.

We have put a string of lights on our balcony rail and a little lighted tree in our apartment. Most of the other doors on our floor have a wreath of some kind so I decided to do something different and put up a stocking. Maybe I will get something from Santa in it.....what do you think?

P.S. I have discovered that the cold weather does affect my arthritis. Hmmmmmm.