He Is Risen!

What a glorious day! I love Easter Sunday. I love having a week to remember such an event. Christ was willing to take upon him all of my sins, my imperfections. Every mean or careless word I have spoken, every thought that was not appropriate. He also willingly suffered all my pain and sorrow, my anguish and grief. As someone said, Christ is not a casual or silent observer in our lives because he knows, understands and feels everything we go through.

This week I have read and reread these words from Melvin J. Ballard:
"God heard the cry of His Son in that moment of great grief and agony, in the garden when the pores of His body opened and drops of blood stood upon Him, and He cried out: 'Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.'"

"I ask you, what father and mother could stand by and listen to the cry of their children in distress, in this world, and not render assistance?...

"I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even He could not endure it any longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child and has to be taken out of the room so as not to look upon the last struggles, so He bowed His head and hid in some part of His universe, His great heart almost breaking for the love He had for His son. Oh, in that moment when He might have saved His Son, I thank and praise him that He did not fail us, for He had not only the love of His Son in mind, but He also had love for us." (Melvin J. Ballard, Crusader for Righteousness, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966, pp. 136-37.)



This painting by Carl Bloch called "Gethsemane" depicts Bloch's interpretation of the scriptures telling us that the Father sent an angel to comfort the Savior during the act of Atonement while in the Garden of Gethsemane. I have been able to view this altar piece three times now and each time I feel more and more grateful that Father did not leave Jesus alone. Likewise I know that we are not left alone when it is our time to go through sorrow or challenges of any kind. He would not ever leave us comfortless. He loves us.

I have felt His comfort and I have felt His love. I have felt His power and I have felt His displeasure with some of my choices but then I have also felt the sweetness of repentance and His forgiveness. How blessed I am.....how blessed we are! Without His atonement and resurrection we would surely be lost. But He does live! And because He lives I can be with my family forever.

Yes! Spring is Here!

Sunday, April 17, 2011
Another day of spiritual feasting and feeling blessed knowing who I am and that I am loved. Aren't we lucky to have a wonderful earthly experience surrounded by so much beauty to enjoy while we work and serve,laugh and love, cry and forgive ourselves and each other. We learn so much each day to help us grow into better people.

I am so happy to be able to finally share photos of the beautiful flowers that have popped up now on The Square. Each day more and more come up, open and show us their colors. Isn't it great what Heavenly Father did to make our surroundings so beautiful. I know there are many others places around the earth that have come to life. I am happy to be able to share this little part.


The red buds are leafing out today but I wanted to share a little of what we had last week. The little pink blossoms are blowing around on the ground today. It is a cool effect too.









The bed looking north is so pretty now.











This is the bed looking toward the south entrance.






This is the bed by the Family History Library, but I won't be seeing it too much during the week as we have moved to the JSMB. When we go for our personal research time it will be fun to watch the change....and on Sunday's, of course.

Our week has been full because of our move. We are completely moved and most of our missionaries are settled in and working away. The Historical Families Reconstitution Zone is no longer. We have been added into the Data Quality Zone but they decided to give us all a new name so we are now HISTORICAL RECONSTITUTION AND DATA ANALYSIS (HRDA). Ed is no longer a Zone Leader but it was made clear that he would basically be an assistant zone leader although he hasn't been officially asked to do that. Our new ZL is Elder Waddoups who is from Preston, Idaho. He is a wonderful man. I like him more and more each day. Our zone meets each morning in the JSMB Chapel for our prayer meeting and Elder Waddoups does a "This Day in the History of the Church" moment in addition to someone giving a spiritual thought. I love learning the little historical information he gives to us.

About a month ago my mother asked if I would like to take a bread making class with her. It is a two hour class from 6-8pm on Tuesdays at the House of Bread and goes for 3 weeks. It started this week and because Tuesday was our huge moving day we were still working at 5pm and I had forgotten about the class but Ed reminded me and I dashed to pick up my mother and my niece, Miriam and get to the class. I was so tired but once we began it was quite fun. The wheat and white bread was delicious and I enjoyed the tips and recipes and the final product that we all got to go home with. I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy kneading dough. I returned home called a couple of missionary couples to come over and enjoy a piece of warm bread before bed. It was a delightful diversion from the move with delicious results. Now I know how to better use my food storage wheat!

Missionaries in this mission get 4 hours per week of personal research time for their own family genealogy. We have Friday afternoon. One day a month we take 8 hours for a "Temple and Research Day". The idea is that we would work on our own family and prepare family names to take to the temple. Ed is finding so much information on his family, but my family is so long in the Church that most of the work has been done for my 4-5 generations. What I am finding, however, is that some of the work has been done incorrectly so I am enjoying the task of finding sources so I can correct the problems that exist. As I do this I find information about my ancestors that bring them closer to me.

One such ancestor of mine is my great grandmother Mary Jane Baum. She was a young girl born in Provo, Utah in 1854. She was hired by William Wright (born 1831 in England)to help his wife, Jemina Dand, who was ailing from childbirth of their 8th child. Jemina died, and in 1871 William married Mary Jane. At the time she was only 4 years older than the oldest of William's children. She took care of them all and subsequently had 15 children of her own with William, the 14th being my grandmother. She was an amazing woman. I am so proud to be part of her family. It makes my little daily challenges seem so petty and gives me a strong example to look up to.

Yesterday (Sat. Apr 16) was a baby shower for Autumn given by one of her ward friends in Provo. It was so fun to be there and see these young women make Autumn feel so loved. Most of them already have children of their own and they are so excited for her. They were very cute giving her advice and commenting on the gifts she received as she opened them...."Oh you really will need that!" "You never have too many of those..." "This was a life saver for me..." I didn't say anything but enjoyed every moment. We are so excited for our first grand child to arrive. We did wonder on our way to the shower with some of the food if it was a statement about this baby boy to come that we were asked to prepare deviled eggs and not angel food cake??? Only a few weeks to go...



Today (Sunday) I sang in my mother's ward. She wanted me to sing "His Hands". It is such a beautiful song and I enjoyed singing about the Savior's life and His Atonement and Resurrection at the beginning of this holy week. I am so grateful for His Atonement and the promises it brings to us all. I feel so weak at times with my many mistakes, my pride and my ingratitude. I may not have any gross sins but I have so much to improve in my daily walk and talk. I love that I can participate in the blessed Atonement and become better each day. I have such a desire to live each moment so that I can feel the guidance of the Spirit in all I do.

I love the story told by Elder Rasband about being assigned to go with President Eyring to make missionary assignments. He tells of being in the room with the large computers to display the photo of the missionary (or couple) and another screen showing their detailed information including what their priesthood leaders said about them. Another screen shows the missions of the Church and their needs. He tells that Pres. Eyring greets each missionary as their picture comes up just as though they were in the room. He would study everything about the missionary and then look at the missions and then make the assignment. After some time a new missionary came up and Pres. Eyring turned to Elder Rasband and asked him where he thought this missionary should be sent. Elder Rasband answered that he didn't know and had no idea how he would know. Pres. Eyring answered by saying, "Pay attention".
This happened a second time with Elder Rasband giving the same response and Pres. Eyring saying, "Pay closer attention". Sometime later another missionary picture came up and Elder Rasband was immediately filled with a strong feeling that this missionary should be sent to Japan. He didn't know if Pres. Eyring would ask him about this one, but he did and Elder Rasband replied this time with the answer of "Japan". Elder Eyring responded with, "Oh good! Let's look at Japan!" When they looked at the missions in Japan Elder Rasband had another distinct impression as to which mission, Japan Sapporo Mission. Although Pres. Eyring didn't ask Elder Rasband that missionary was assigned to the Japan Sapporo Mission.

I love this story because I learned that if I pay attention and focus on listening to the Spirit I can be guided to do the things that my Father in Heaven wants me to do. I know we were called here for a reason. I pray each day that I will pay attention well enough so that I will know what that reason is and do it well.

Snow, Snow, when are you stalling?????

Sunday, April 10, 2011
Yes.....snow and more snow filled the week. It was weird that one of our missionaries wasn't able to come last week because she couldn't get out of her driveway.....In April??? I have worried about the flowering trees at such a tender stage. I hope that all will be well with them. The redbuds on The Square are gorgeous. Lots of people are starting to say they are tired of the snow, but I am not yet to that point. I know that it will be warm soon enough. I also am grateful to be here when I know it is beginning to warm up in Houston. Our employee called us on Friday afternoon when she was on her way home just to let us know that she had heard on the radio that it was 89 degrees in Houston. It was 34 and snowing in Salt Lake City. Yep....I'm okay with that!

We had a fun week. It began last Monday with a program that I was asked to provide for one of our Branch activities. My wonderful family came to my rescue and we provided 40 min of entertainment to a willing, fun crowd. They loved participating with us and singing some primary songs, particularly "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree". We passed out bubble wrap and everyone had a great time twisting the wrap to make the sound of popping corn, actually it was so loud it sounded more like firecrackers but it was so fun we had to do the song twice. It was a great evening thanks to my great family.

I have had an interesting and full week. Three things have stood out.
First: We lost a wonderful missionary Sister this week. Naomi Jergensen was out to dinner with a family member. She came out of the restaurant, sat down in the car and suffered a massive heart attack but it was like she just went to sleep. She worked in the training zone, sang in the Elijah choir, directed the Elijah choir on at least two different occasions. She was 80 years old and had the most beautiful clear soprano voice. She was very helpful to me when I first arrived and had my two weeks of training and also when I was asked to be a trainer. I'm sure she is so happy to be together again with her sweetheart who died 15 years ago. She has missed him a lot but dedicated herself to serving and has done so much good. I'm sure it was a sweet reunion for them and all those people for whom she did genealogy work. We will miss her association and her beautiful voice. Her funeral was a wonderful celebration by her children - all six of them spoke as well as her Bishop and good friend, L. Tom Perry. The Elijah Choir sang and it was a wonderful celebration.

Second: We had a great meeting on Wednesday with Osei Bonsu and Paul Adjei from Ghana. They are so excited about the work we are doing with the Oral Genealogies that they have been collecting. They were very receptive to some of the changes that we suggested for their field workers and clerks that will make our job much easier and hence get the orals up online much faster and in better condition.
Along with the Ghana people we had a Church employee from South Africa at the meeting also because he wants to see what the process is, etc. He was very impressed with the process that is working in Ghana and how we have standardized it so it will work anywhere in the world. He is very excited to get started on it there but realizes that it will take some time to get things going there. He wanted to know when Ed and I are finished with our mission here and if we were planning on another mission. When we answered he told us to let him know when we were ready to put in our papers, that he had a place for us! Ha! I would love to go back to South Africa!

Third: I appreciate all the prayers on my behalf over the last couple of weeks. I have had some strange pain that the doctors were sure was gall bladder but every test/scan/picture, etc. has reported that all my organs are fine so no one seems to know yet what the pain is. But because of prayers I believe that the pain has subsided a lot and it very tolerable now so.....as long as I know that everything inside seems to be working properly I will just carry on! I am hoping no more tests will be ordered. I am on a first name basis with the cute girl in the radiology department at the hospital who registers the outpatients. After my third visit last week I told her it was nothing personal but I hoped never to see her again. She laughed and said she heard that a lot. I did not like the nuclear test I went through. It was way to close to an MRI tube and I had to lie still for an hour. I just kept singing hymns in my head and repeating the words "steadfast and immovable, steadfast and immovable....". And this after it took them half an hour, two nurses and three tries to get a line in my veins. Oh well, we are all just doing the best we can, aren't we? I see the doctor again on Monday and we will move ahead from there. Again, thank you for your prayers.

Cute Sister Mapu's book was completed on Thursday afternoon at 2:45pm. She was so cute. We high fived each other over and over again. She cried, I cried, everyone cheered and we all laughed. Now she will take a week or two and go through the entire book from start to finish and note any corrections she finds so we can get it in the final stage and to the printer. She is so excited. I have absolutely loved getting to know this humble, sweet, Tongan woman and the faith that has held her up in her life.

The zone is getting packed up and ready to move. This is a big deal for us. Zones don't usually move around much so we are unique. Ed organized it very well so we will move a row of people each day, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then everyone will be set up and we will take a few days to clean out the old place and it will be done! I am very excited to be over in the JSMB to work since we start out there three days a week at choir! It will be especially nice to have windows! I will, however, miss our friends in the British Zone.

I do enjoy walking The Square, but I'm sure I will still be able to do that. I enjoy being able to walk into the Tabernacle with groups practicing. Last week I sat for a while and listened to a choir and orchestra practicing a special Easter program that was written by someone in Arizona. The vocalists were very good. People are able to walk in and out the back doors when rehearsals are going on. Just one more of the many cool things about being in this place.

Below are the latest picture of the flower beds on The Square.









Change is everywhere and I love being a part of it. I love learning more each day about how our Father In Heaven and our Savior are in the detail of moving forward their work through us. I know that there are little miracles each day, blessings that help us do what we are here to do and sometimes we miss them. I am trying to become more aware of those miracles in my life so I can enjoy those moments. This is such a happy time of life for us. I love being here with Ed and doing this work.
I know it is His work and I am humbled that we get to be here.

"Moving" Along

There has been so much happening. First the update on flower beds on "The Square". Although yesterday was a beautiful, picture perfect day (70 degrees) for the 1st of the 2 day General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I wasn't fast enough with the photos. Last night we felt the temperature drop, the rain came and by morning there was a couple of inches of snow everywhere. This is what the beds looked like this morning....

The roses are really trying to start some growth but the snow keeps coming...


The flowers coming up in the bed next to the roses.....











This is the bed I see when facing the north (toward the conference center)

















And this is the bed facing south from the same spot










The warning signs were out again today, heeded by all the conference visitors















We have been waiting for word that our zone move has been approved and it finally came last week so we will be begin getting our missionaries ready to move from the Family History Library to new office space in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We hope to have the move completed within 2-3 weeks. It will be very nice to be in a space with windows although I will miss being in the Family History Library. We have become quite close with some of the other missionaries on the British Floor and I will definitely miss the devotionals. We will join another zone and may actually collapse the Historical Families Reconstitution Zone altogether. We will see. First of all we need to get moved and that will not be a small thing.

I have been working with one of our cute Tongan sisters who is putting together her personal life story. Her name is Pianola Mapu. The more I do with her on her book the more I am amazed at this sweet woman. I know that she is special to Heavenly Father. She is an incredible person who has had many manifestations in her life of the great love Heavenly Father and Jesus have for her. She and her husband had a traveling show called "Sounds of Polynesia". They worked all over the country performing and raising their family. Her husband died about 30 years ago and her only son, who was a football star in Altoona, Iowa, was killed one year later. He was killed in a car accident after a championship game by one of his teammates who was drunk. She has amazing faith and hope and it has been such a pleasure for me to help a little with this wonderful project. I feel it a privilege to spend a little time with her and hear her stories. We will finish her book this week. She will not be moving with us to our new office and I will miss her.

Over the past two weeks we have enjoyed listening to two wonderful speakers at special firesides. The first was Brother Klopfer who spoke about his escape from East Germany with his mother and sister when he was young. I will write about that in more detail another day. The second was last week where we were able to listen to the story of Michael Kennedy. He is the first of the direct descendants of Joseph Smith to receive the priesthood. It is so interesting to learn about what happened to Joseph's family after the saints left Nauvoo and Emma, but Brother Kennedy's story is very interesting and inspiring all alone. Once again we learn that there are no coincidences and that the Lord is in the detail of our lives.

Autumn and Derrick came up from Provo for conference. It is so fun to see her body change with the growth of our first grandchild. She is feeling well and it is always great to be with them. We feel so blessed to have been called close by so we get to see our first grandchild soon after he arrives.

We had a funny experience last week that I just have to share. At some point in his life Ed developed a reflex to let out a loud and frightening yell when he is startled with something. It is very loud and when heard it sounds like he is hurt to the point of death. Last Tuesday we were leaving the apartment building with a little cart of food for a zone luncheon and Ed was pulling the cart behind him. He does not do real well with gauging space and as we came around the corner from the elevators into the little lobby where the offices and the front door are he didn't clear the corner and one of the wheels of the cart caught it and the cart stopped short while Ed kept walking. Ed felt the handle leave his hand at the same time he felt and heard the crash of the wheel and dropping the handle it crashed quickly to the ground with the dishes and food clattering away. But all the clatter of the dishes, etc was dimmed by the loud, scary death yell that came out of Ed's mouth. I have never gotten used to that sound, nor am I likely to, but I have heard it before so I turned around to see that Ed had everything under control. Unfortunately, the woman in front of me had never heard the Ed death yell sound before and she was so startled by it she let out a little scream herself.

Now all of this happened within less than 5 seconds but I wasn't prepared for the next thing that happened. Rushing out of the social room came the apartment manager and 4 other staff members who were having a meeting and heard the death yell and subsequent scream from the other lady. The look on their faces was priceless! I'm not sure what they expected to see when they came around the corner, but these 5 adults were ready to call 911. I don't know how Ed could ever stop death yell because it is such a conditioned response, but he may find that one day he is responsible for someone having a heart attack! ^_^

It is late and I need to get to bed. I can tell it is late because I usually am in bed when the trains go through and I have heard the train whistles. It's not really a whistle anymore, more like a horn. I used to think it was just one tone, but I have since learned from my sister that it is a tri-chord....three tones that sound as one. I like to listen from the bed and feel all comfy and cozy as I fall asleep dreaming of trains. Did you know I love trains?

Well, now you do.