We have now been here long enough that we are learning that people do actually leave when their missions are over. It is a strange thing to learn to say goodbye to people with whom we have built a relationship. The problem is that I now have a relationship with some of these people. I like them. We laugh together, sing together, experience little miracles and share them with each other. We see them everyday. We work with them everyday. Will our paths ever cross again? How will I know what is going on in their lives, what is happening to their children or their aging parents? Then I think of what it is like with my friends back home in Texas and I remember what it was like a few weeks ago to reconnect with my Thai friends. It will be like that. What a great feeling to know that friends are never lost. We are here doing this work so that families are never lost either. What a great place to be!
Each month we join with the British Zone (after all it is their floor of the library)to say "Hail" to any new missionaries who have joined the zones and "Farewell" to any who are leaving. We have a little meeting and hear from those missionaries and then we all join together in a wonderful pot luck lunch in the little lunchroom. There is lots of great food that the missionaries bring and it is fun to "oooo" and "ahhhh" about the exotic food that is prepared and shared.
We haven't been here very long really, but already I can feel how fast the time is passing by. Each day there is so much to do and we are kept so busy that it makes the time fly. I am realizing that if we only stay for a one year mission, a quarter of it is already gone! This next week we have another Temple Devotional. Elder Maynes of the Seventy will be speaking to us. Friday we have a special fireside where Elder Ballard will be speaking to us. We have just been getting out our calendars to put in some of the missionary activities during the holidays and we have so many things happening it is thrilling. We did not, however, get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Special with David Archuleta, but....I'm okay with that. We have many other things going on here that will be great fun.
It has struck me this past week that we are really enjoying the style of living that we have right now. We are so happy living with so much less in the way of stuff. It has made us re-evaluate our personal situation. Reading Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from conference about what matters most has brought some new thoughts into our heads. We can feel ourselves changing as we get more into our mission and our work.
On Tuesday last week we were in our prayer meeting as always and we began singing the opening song, "On This Day of Joy and Gladness". When we came to the chorus, "Alleluia, Alleluia,
Bright and clear our voices ring,
Singing songs of exultation
To our Maker, Lord, and King!"
All of a sudden I couldn't sing. I choked up and tears just streamed down my face.
Here we were in a little basement room with about 20 other missionaries at 7:45am beginning our day with a song of praise. I was so happy to be there at that moment. There is nowhere else I would rather be. It is wonderful to be involved in such a great work with such great people, all of whom are wonderful.
As far as the work goes, we received the African records we have been waiting for and along with them we received a new Church Service Missionary. This Sister has been working on auditing the records from Ghana and South Africa for a year now. She comes in two days a week and now she will spend those days with us and help get those records ready to go up on "Community Trees" along with the other Oral Genealogies that are going up. She was sad to leave her former area but by the end of the day as we showed her what we were doing and what she would be doing she was very excited. We love it when people catch the vision of what we are all about in "Hysterical Families"! hahaha
The weather has been relatively nice. There has been more snow in the mountains and it rained here in the valley today and probably will tomorrow as well, but it has been so mild for us we are very happy. It has been more cloudy each night so I haven't seen the great sunsets that we saw over the last couple of months.
We did go out yesterday and buy a few things for the Christmas holiday. I'm hoping the icicle lights we bought for the balcony will help keep the pigeons away. They still keep trying to settle on the balcony and I keep chasing them away. I am mean, I know, but I really don't like cleaning up after them.
I have had a few successes with my personal family research this past week. I am getting to know how to get problems solved by having the right sources to share with the Help Center. I like this system. There are going to be some changes coming in the next month or so that will help out a lot. I am really liking the new beta family search site. There are a lot of people working very hard to make things better. I appreciate how hard that is now that I am doing things on the internet.
NEWS FLASH FOR MY CHILDREN: I have actually learned how to do some html coding this week. It is very exciting. Who would have thought I would get excited over being able to talk the computer into putting something up on an internet site in bold orange letters and put spaces in the right places! HA!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Last Leaves
I decided to include the photo I took today of a tree close to our apartment. (That's our building on the right. We are on the 8th floor closer to the middle of the building.)
Today may be the last autumn weather we see. The high today will be about 63 degrees and the high tomorrow will only be 48 degrees so we are at an end for the lovely fall weather we have been having. It has been so beautiful here. I have loved seeing the range of colors which I have missed for many years. Today my favorite thing has been to walk through the leaves on the ground. It is dry and the leaves are crisp and make a wonderful noise as you walk through them. The day is slightly windy so the sound of the wind and leaves falling is delightful. There are still many bright reds mingling with the bright yellows. I also love the green bushes with the bright red-orange berries on them. The contrast of those colors is stunning. Tomorrow the forecast calls for rain,Tuesday partly sunny and Wednesday rain and snow mixed, then a couple more days of sunny and clear weather before Sunday when it will snow again for the beginning of next week.
It has been fun to watch as the preparations for the lights on Temple Square are in full swing. More crews are out now, not just in the morning working on the big trees which are almost done, but they are putting up the wire "trees" and lighting them and wrapping the smaller trees now around the Conference Center. I talked with one of the crew members and asked her if they were on schedule and she said they hoped the weather held so they could finish up. I am very excited to be here when the lights first go on which is the day after Thanksgiving. Then it will only be a month and Ashley and Aubree will be here for the holidays. I am looking forward to it.
We have had a great week. Two experiences have really touched me. The first was in our zone on Wednesday last week. We were working on the Tongan project as usual and when we have questions we go to Sister Kinikini, a wonderful Tongan woman who is a Church Service Missionary and has been responsible for most of the work done with transcribing the recorded genealogies from the audio to written transcripts and loading all the families genealogies into the Legacy program (which is the system we use in Historical Families). She has been working on this project almost every day for 5 years. Tuesday night I showed her how the files look online with the photograph, the transcript and the audio files all connecting to the family members, some of which connect to over 450 other individuals. She was amazed and very touched. The next morning she came to Ed and I and told us, "I want you to know that you are an answer to my prayers. I knew that I had done all that I could do but I don't know enough about the computer to know how to do the last step to make these records available to the Tongans. You are here because I prayed that Heavenly Father would send us someone who could do that." Needless to say, we both were very touched. It is amazing to feel that you are an instrument in the Lord's hands to do something for someone that they cannot do for themselves.
Second was an experience that also reminded me that this work is important to the Lord. One of the Church employees gave the thought for British Zone prayer meeting on Friday and he shared the following account of a Church photographer, Chuck, who was given permission to film the New Orleans parish records. The Church had wanted to film these records for a long time but had never before been successful. These parish records go back 400 years to the founding of the city. They are housed in the 2nd basement of the New Orleans library. Chuck was given a work area in the same room as the records to set up all his equipment in the basement of the library. Then Katrina hit. The following is from an email written by Chuck's dad:
"When Katrina hit, Chuck was at his home in Denham Springs, La. but his equipment, camera, and other things were left in the basement of the library with the records. My wife was able to establish a phone connection with him fairly soon after the hurricane so we knew that Chuck and his family were safe. However, it was about his same time that the flooding of New Orleans came to the attention of the nation. Chuck had no way of knowing about the condition of the library. He studied aerial photos of the building; he talked to the State archivists; he watched the news; every piece of evidence indicated that the records and the Church's equipment were all destroyed. Chuck and I joked about him having to go scuba diving to recover the camera...maybe it would be repairable. A few days ago two of the New Orleans archivists were allowed into the Library to assess the damage. Much to their surprise the basements were totally dry. They emailed Chuck and said, "You won't believe this but the basements are dry and your equipment is okay." They were wanting him back in a hurry. They could have lost everything to Katrina. Chuck then called the State archives to report the news. Their response, "No way, that's impossible, it can't be true." According to Chuck, the only major damage to the library in New Orleans was that some people had broken into the building for a shelter but they hadn't taken anything nor had the been malicious. No one seems to know how the water was held back, but all agree that it was miraculous. I don't believe it was by accident. It seems that the Lord has protected the vital records of New Orleans for centuries - even up to today. The damage to some of the Church's meetinghouses can be replaced. 400 years of records cannot. It is for a very important purpose that those records be made available to the descendants of those who lived there in by-gone years."
I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to be here on this mission at this time and for the testimony I have gained about the importance and sacredness of keeping families together as an eternal plan of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to be here and thankful for everyone who has felt the pull of the Spirit as they have done this work for over the years. I am in awe of the many people who have done so much for their own families and are helping others. Pres. Eyring said in a recent Genealogy Conference that this work is a work of mentoring. That the passion for this work comes to us as we learn and then we want to help others achieve success in their own family work. I have seen that and have received that mentoring. Perhaps someday I will be able to mentor someone also but right now I am assigned by the Lord to the Tongan project and we don't even see patrons in our room and I am not getting much experience in even my own family work. But, I am confident this is where Ed and I are supposed to be. . . even if it is going to snow on poor Eddie. :)
I also had great fun this week with my Thai friends, Mani and Nadda Seangsawan. They are leaving tomorrow for their 2nd mission in Thailand. We had some great plans for dinner but their lives became a little crazy trying to get everything in before leaving, so we only had a couple of hours on Friday when she wanted to teach me how to make Thai Red Chicken Curry and Pad Thai (noodles). I think I was successful. I made it Friday night and we ate it and then on Saturday I made it again and took it to another Thai friend's house for a dinner and they ate it and liked it even though they told me it wasn't really Thai style. So apparently my taste buds are too American to make the real Thai curry. We had such a good time. It has been so long since I saw these friends, two of whom I taught when I was a missionary and one who actually was my Thai companion while on my mission. It has been so wonderful to reconnect with them after 36 years. I have had more Thai food in the past two weeks than I have had in many months. And now I can cook two of my favorite dishes whenever I want to. Thanks, Nadda!
Have a happy week everyone!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
See What We Have Done
http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I2&tree=AmeliaFinauTuitupou
I decided that I would like to share some of the work that we have been doing. I know that I have written about it before, but when we got a few pictures up last week I just loved looking at these cute people. I especially love this cute Tongan lady, Amelia Finau. If you would like to see her, copy and paste the address above (I don't know if it will link automatically when I post this so you may have to actually copy it)and look at her record. This is what we are doing. We have 100 done and I think that as soon as we get more space for our program we will be able to load the remaining 1000 audio records in a short time. As you know we have redone some of the wording and placement, etc. refining over and over again, learning more and more about the program as we have done each new thing. There are still some things that could be better, but it is just nice to have these photos, transcripts (click on the book to see the transcript) and to hear these recordings (click on the headphones to listen to the interview) even if I don't understand what they are saying. I love to listen to some of these recordings and hear the voices in the background, the chickens clucking and the rain on the metal roof. I feel like I am there. Let me know what you think. Explore a little and find more photos. Many of these people are among the royal families of Tonga. Sometimes the names seem strange and that is because Tongan's did not have surnames until a law was passed in 1940 that they had to have one, so they just did the best they could. For some of these families this is the only recording of their families. One of our Tongan Church Service Missionaries who has been very involved in this project told us that her children listened to her father's interview and wept because it was the first time they had heard his voice.
I do love this work.
I have had a great week and today has been the crowning day. We just returned from the home of our Thai friends giving talks in Sacrament meeting before they enter the training zone tomorrow. They are returning to Thailand for their 2nd mission as a senior couple. Mani and Nadda Saengsawan. He joined the church and became a missionary after being a monk for 3 years. He was serving while I was serving my mission in Thailand. She was one of the golden contacts that I helped to teach while I was there. They are the first Thai members to marry in the temple. They have raised their family here and want to return again to serve their people. It was wonderful to listen to them bear their testimonies of the gospel and to hear their expressions of love for our Savior.
After their meeting they invited many of their friends for Thai food at their son's home (they have been living with them). It was so fun to see several of the Thai sisters that I knew in Thailand and in fact to meet again one of my Thai companions. My heart remembered how difficult it was to say goodbye to them when I left Thailand and how great I felt to see them again and like Alma, to see that they have been faithful in their testimonies of Christ and the covenants they have made. They are YW Presidents, RS Presidents, Bishops wives, etc. One sister, who lives in Blackfoot, ID brought sliced apples she had dried. That is so funny to me! I made the comment that Blackfoot, Idaho was not at all like Thailand. She said that is what she likes! The dry weather! hahaha
Some have had difficulties and sadness in their lives, but all continue to love the Lord. It was a joyful time. I just wish that I could remember how to speak Thai.
Friday evening and Saturday morning we attended the 39th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium at BYU. We spent the night at Autumn/Derrick's so we didn't have to drive back and forth. I really enjoyed the breakout sessions I went to. The subject this year was the Sermon on the Mount. I'm sure I will be referring to these lectures during the study of the New Testament next year in Sunday School.
Another fun thing during the week was the first snow. Our girls had given me tickets to "Thunder Drums of China" on the BYU campus last Tuesday night. We drove down after work and had a quick dinner with a friend of ours before the concert. The weather looked as if it was going to clear up so we left the umbrellas and Ed's coat in the car. Even walking over to the concert it didn't feel like anything menacing. As we came out of the theatre in the Fine Arts Building all we could see were huge (yes, huge) snowflakes outside. We made it to our car, but Ed had snow all over his suit and it was coming down fast. (I have tried to include a photo but I can't seem to figure out how to get it in the blog. I will work on that this week.)By the time we got to the freeway there was not very much in the way of precipitation so we didn't worry about the drive home. As we got into SLC, however, the snow was falling here and everything around our apartment was dusted well with the wonderful white stuff. (Yeah, we will see how wonderful I think it is in Mar, right?) Well, anyway, I was happy to see it. We would have enjoyed it more if Ed had his coat and we both had umbrellas. Then I would have played. But....there will be another snowfall I am sure. (Hurrah!) By the way, the drumming was amazing! If you ever have the chance to see this group, go. Their precision and the sound they made from all of these instruments was great! I also loved the costumes. One man came out during on piece in a very elaborate costume. By a quick movement of his head (honestly, no hands) he could change his mask. He had at least 4 different masks that I saw as he went back an forth across the stage. At the end, he moved his head on last time and it was his own face, grinning widely. I have no idea how he did it but I was delighted! Thanks girls!
Another great thing about this week was Monday night. I went to a lecture given by Elder Kutcher, the training zone leader. He is a chemist and was part of the BYU team that excavated in Egypt for 15 years. His main job was to document and label everything they found, including unwrapping the mummies they found, labeling every piece of cloth so they could wrap them up and put them back. His slides of the things they found were amazing. The colors were so vibrant still and the cloth patterns were intricate and unique and beautiful. I learned so much just listening and watching for a little over an hour. I hope to hear him again. Just one tidbit. The initially found the bodies (which are buried on top of each other) with the heads toward the west. As they continued to dig down, abruptly the bodies were turned the opposite way, heads to the east. As they analyzed the ground and materials they discovered that the change was made at about 55AD. Christians bury their dead with the head at the west so when they rise up they will be facing east. The time of the change is consistent with the visit of Paul to Egypt to teach the Gospel there. They had been excavating a Christian site.
We said goodbye to Elder and Sister Cook in the Historical Families Zone and Elder Moulder is now in charge. I have only known these people for a few months, but it was difficult so see them go. They have been here for three years! What was fun was having the goodbye luncheon in our room and having the Tongans, Hawaiians, and Maoris all join with us in saying goodbye. The Tongans sang with a ukelele and I just loved listening to them. I could just imagine sitting on a beach with the sound of the waves in the background. It was beautiful but sad watching a very large Tongan man wiping tears away knowing he was saying goodbye to these dear friends to whom he was singing.
I wondered how we would ever stay in touch with friends in the hereafter? Maybe there will be ways to connect just by thinking about each other. Wouldn't that be nice? If so, you would all know I think of you often and hope you are well and wish you could all have the great experience we are having......think hard.....can you hear me? :) If you can, then you know I love you and wish you could all be here with me watching this beautiful sunset on a wonderful Sunday evening.
I decided that I would like to share some of the work that we have been doing. I know that I have written about it before, but when we got a few pictures up last week I just loved looking at these cute people. I especially love this cute Tongan lady, Amelia Finau. If you would like to see her, copy and paste the address above (I don't know if it will link automatically when I post this so you may have to actually copy it)and look at her record. This is what we are doing. We have 100 done and I think that as soon as we get more space for our program we will be able to load the remaining 1000 audio records in a short time. As you know we have redone some of the wording and placement, etc. refining over and over again, learning more and more about the program as we have done each new thing. There are still some things that could be better, but it is just nice to have these photos, transcripts (click on the book to see the transcript) and to hear these recordings (click on the headphones to listen to the interview) even if I don't understand what they are saying. I love to listen to some of these recordings and hear the voices in the background, the chickens clucking and the rain on the metal roof. I feel like I am there. Let me know what you think. Explore a little and find more photos. Many of these people are among the royal families of Tonga. Sometimes the names seem strange and that is because Tongan's did not have surnames until a law was passed in 1940 that they had to have one, so they just did the best they could. For some of these families this is the only recording of their families. One of our Tongan Church Service Missionaries who has been very involved in this project told us that her children listened to her father's interview and wept because it was the first time they had heard his voice.
I do love this work.
I have had a great week and today has been the crowning day. We just returned from the home of our Thai friends giving talks in Sacrament meeting before they enter the training zone tomorrow. They are returning to Thailand for their 2nd mission as a senior couple. Mani and Nadda Saengsawan. He joined the church and became a missionary after being a monk for 3 years. He was serving while I was serving my mission in Thailand. She was one of the golden contacts that I helped to teach while I was there. They are the first Thai members to marry in the temple. They have raised their family here and want to return again to serve their people. It was wonderful to listen to them bear their testimonies of the gospel and to hear their expressions of love for our Savior.
After their meeting they invited many of their friends for Thai food at their son's home (they have been living with them). It was so fun to see several of the Thai sisters that I knew in Thailand and in fact to meet again one of my Thai companions. My heart remembered how difficult it was to say goodbye to them when I left Thailand and how great I felt to see them again and like Alma, to see that they have been faithful in their testimonies of Christ and the covenants they have made. They are YW Presidents, RS Presidents, Bishops wives, etc. One sister, who lives in Blackfoot, ID brought sliced apples she had dried. That is so funny to me! I made the comment that Blackfoot, Idaho was not at all like Thailand. She said that is what she likes! The dry weather! hahaha
Some have had difficulties and sadness in their lives, but all continue to love the Lord. It was a joyful time. I just wish that I could remember how to speak Thai.
Friday evening and Saturday morning we attended the 39th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium at BYU. We spent the night at Autumn/Derrick's so we didn't have to drive back and forth. I really enjoyed the breakout sessions I went to. The subject this year was the Sermon on the Mount. I'm sure I will be referring to these lectures during the study of the New Testament next year in Sunday School.
Another fun thing during the week was the first snow. Our girls had given me tickets to "Thunder Drums of China" on the BYU campus last Tuesday night. We drove down after work and had a quick dinner with a friend of ours before the concert. The weather looked as if it was going to clear up so we left the umbrellas and Ed's coat in the car. Even walking over to the concert it didn't feel like anything menacing. As we came out of the theatre in the Fine Arts Building all we could see were huge (yes, huge) snowflakes outside. We made it to our car, but Ed had snow all over his suit and it was coming down fast. (I have tried to include a photo but I can't seem to figure out how to get it in the blog. I will work on that this week.)By the time we got to the freeway there was not very much in the way of precipitation so we didn't worry about the drive home. As we got into SLC, however, the snow was falling here and everything around our apartment was dusted well with the wonderful white stuff. (Yeah, we will see how wonderful I think it is in Mar, right?) Well, anyway, I was happy to see it. We would have enjoyed it more if Ed had his coat and we both had umbrellas. Then I would have played. But....there will be another snowfall I am sure. (Hurrah!) By the way, the drumming was amazing! If you ever have the chance to see this group, go. Their precision and the sound they made from all of these instruments was great! I also loved the costumes. One man came out during on piece in a very elaborate costume. By a quick movement of his head (honestly, no hands) he could change his mask. He had at least 4 different masks that I saw as he went back an forth across the stage. At the end, he moved his head on last time and it was his own face, grinning widely. I have no idea how he did it but I was delighted! Thanks girls!
Another great thing about this week was Monday night. I went to a lecture given by Elder Kutcher, the training zone leader. He is a chemist and was part of the BYU team that excavated in Egypt for 15 years. His main job was to document and label everything they found, including unwrapping the mummies they found, labeling every piece of cloth so they could wrap them up and put them back. His slides of the things they found were amazing. The colors were so vibrant still and the cloth patterns were intricate and unique and beautiful. I learned so much just listening and watching for a little over an hour. I hope to hear him again. Just one tidbit. The initially found the bodies (which are buried on top of each other) with the heads toward the west. As they continued to dig down, abruptly the bodies were turned the opposite way, heads to the east. As they analyzed the ground and materials they discovered that the change was made at about 55AD. Christians bury their dead with the head at the west so when they rise up they will be facing east. The time of the change is consistent with the visit of Paul to Egypt to teach the Gospel there. They had been excavating a Christian site.
We said goodbye to Elder and Sister Cook in the Historical Families Zone and Elder Moulder is now in charge. I have only known these people for a few months, but it was difficult so see them go. They have been here for three years! What was fun was having the goodbye luncheon in our room and having the Tongans, Hawaiians, and Maoris all join with us in saying goodbye. The Tongans sang with a ukelele and I just loved listening to them. I could just imagine sitting on a beach with the sound of the waves in the background. It was beautiful but sad watching a very large Tongan man wiping tears away knowing he was saying goodbye to these dear friends to whom he was singing.
I wondered how we would ever stay in touch with friends in the hereafter? Maybe there will be ways to connect just by thinking about each other. Wouldn't that be nice? If so, you would all know I think of you often and hope you are well and wish you could all have the great experience we are having......think hard.....can you hear me? :) If you can, then you know I love you and wish you could all be here with me watching this beautiful sunset on a wonderful Sunday evening.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
First Mountain Snow
Our weather has been turning colder and more clouds are in the sky all day. Friday night we had our first mountain snow that we could actually see on Saturday. Just on the high mountains and we only saw it for a minute but it brought a smile to my face and excitement to my heart. Snow! It's been a long time since I have lived in the light white stuff and I have some fears about driving in it and the icy conditions of the streets and sidewalks some days, but we have been assured that the City/County/State are very good about keeping the roads safe and that the Church keeps Temple Square and the surrounding apartments for the missionaries very safe as well. We are a little worried because we are walking around at 6am in the morning going to choir practice and I'm not so sure the walkways will be clean by then, but we will see. They say we will not have much snow in the city until late December or Jan. It will be interesting!
We had a fun week. It began with my birthday on Monday and so many birthday wishes from all around. Thank you to all who made it a special day. We were going to take the day off of work but there was a project to get done so we could move to the next level of posting our Tongan genealogies so we elected to work instead. We had a fun time at my mom's for cake and ice cream that evening with lots of family members who could make it, complete with the trick candles.
On Wednesday we went with our missionary social group to the State Capitol Building for a tour. It has been years since I was there and the entire building has been restored to the original condition. They did this at the same time they decided to "earthquakeproof" the building. It was quite an undertaking. It is a beautiful building. There is one thing that I had not remembered that I liked. Apparently Seraph Young, one of Brigham Young's daughters, was the first woman in America to vote. There is a painting depicting the event. We just don't hear about it much because at the time Utah was not yet a State, but a Territory. Utah tried 7 times to be admitted as a State but was denied until the 7th time. The conditions to becoming a state included, among other things, that the Church had to divest some portion of its land holdings in the area and Utah would have to repeal the right to vote for women. At least we got that back!
Friday night we listened to a concert by the Orchestra at Temple Square. It was a wonderful evening. I feel so happy to be here and to take advantage of all the wonderful programs and concerts that are offered for free. There is something to do every weekend. There are even more concerts during the weeks before Christmas. We have put in our request for tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. This year the guest artist is David Archuleta so the tickets to this event are a hot item. The Church does a random selection process of the people who submit a request. Last year there were over a million requests sent in for about 50,000 tickets. I don't hold out a lot of hope that we will be selected, but you never know. We did get tickets for our family to go to The Savior of the World program. All of these tickets became available last week. I can't believe that October is almost over and Thanksgiving is around the corner.
Here in Utah Halloween will be celebrated on Saturday evening. I wondered if we would get any trick or treaters in our apartment and the answer came today. There is a flyer in the elevator with a little envelope of small paper pumpkins. If we want them to come to our apartment we are to tape the pumpkin to our door. So I guess there will be kids running through the halls knocking on doors. I wonder if it would be against the mission rules to dress up like a witch to greet the kids as the come??? I don't think the badge would look real good on the costume. hahaha
It has rained much of the day today and I wasn't able to see up into the mountains but I am certain there is a lot more snow on those high peaks. I wonder how low the snow will go this week. We have more rain in the future and maybe even some snow on Thursday. It will be another great week for us here. Hope the same for you all.
We had a fun week. It began with my birthday on Monday and so many birthday wishes from all around. Thank you to all who made it a special day. We were going to take the day off of work but there was a project to get done so we could move to the next level of posting our Tongan genealogies so we elected to work instead. We had a fun time at my mom's for cake and ice cream that evening with lots of family members who could make it, complete with the trick candles.
On Wednesday we went with our missionary social group to the State Capitol Building for a tour. It has been years since I was there and the entire building has been restored to the original condition. They did this at the same time they decided to "earthquakeproof" the building. It was quite an undertaking. It is a beautiful building. There is one thing that I had not remembered that I liked. Apparently Seraph Young, one of Brigham Young's daughters, was the first woman in America to vote. There is a painting depicting the event. We just don't hear about it much because at the time Utah was not yet a State, but a Territory. Utah tried 7 times to be admitted as a State but was denied until the 7th time. The conditions to becoming a state included, among other things, that the Church had to divest some portion of its land holdings in the area and Utah would have to repeal the right to vote for women. At least we got that back!
Friday night we listened to a concert by the Orchestra at Temple Square. It was a wonderful evening. I feel so happy to be here and to take advantage of all the wonderful programs and concerts that are offered for free. There is something to do every weekend. There are even more concerts during the weeks before Christmas. We have put in our request for tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. This year the guest artist is David Archuleta so the tickets to this event are a hot item. The Church does a random selection process of the people who submit a request. Last year there were over a million requests sent in for about 50,000 tickets. I don't hold out a lot of hope that we will be selected, but you never know. We did get tickets for our family to go to The Savior of the World program. All of these tickets became available last week. I can't believe that October is almost over and Thanksgiving is around the corner.
Here in Utah Halloween will be celebrated on Saturday evening. I wondered if we would get any trick or treaters in our apartment and the answer came today. There is a flyer in the elevator with a little envelope of small paper pumpkins. If we want them to come to our apartment we are to tape the pumpkin to our door. So I guess there will be kids running through the halls knocking on doors. I wonder if it would be against the mission rules to dress up like a witch to greet the kids as the come??? I don't think the badge would look real good on the costume. hahaha
It has rained much of the day today and I wasn't able to see up into the mountains but I am certain there is a lot more snow on those high peaks. I wonder how low the snow will go this week. We have more rain in the future and maybe even some snow on Thursday. It will be another great week for us here. Hope the same for you all.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Grand News
So the post today isn't just mission news. Autumn is pregnant and we will join the ranks of "GRAND PARENTS" in mid May 2011.
When we were finalizing our mission papers to submit we were told very clearly from Autumn that if we chose not to request a mission to SLC, Utah and we were sent somewhere else and she had a baby and I couldn't come she would be angry at us. She said she would get over it, but she would be angry; so she began praying that we would be called to a local (SLC, Utah) mission. At the same time, my mother (who lives in SLC) began praying that we would be called to a SLC mission also. We did not include any request on paperwork, with our Bishop or our Stake President. We just wanted to serve a mission wherever the Lord wanted us to serve. We came here and my mother has been very happy to have us here and to give me her family's genealogy to start working on. Now Autumn will have their baby during our mission and we will be able to take some time and help her and be with her and see our first grandchild at birth. We are all very grateful.
It has been another week of redo's in the Historical Families Unit. We are fairly certain that there isn't much else for us to change before we get it right and are able to continue adding the remaineder of the Tongan Oral Genealogies and the other recordings that are ready to put up online. There were some major breakthroughs this week with the Community Trees where we have been posting to Family Search, and we now think that there will be enough space for all of these valuable recordings. We are happy to be part of the process. Ed and I are quite invested now in these records. I can see where it is very easy to feel like you don't want to leave until the work is done. The problem is, the work is never done! But, we will probably extend for a few months now we know that Ashley and Aubree will be graduating in December of 2012.
I have found it very interesting this week how easy it is to live without things. Our apartment is decorated in "early missionary" style but we really have everything we need (except my books.....I miss my library and a comfortable bed). We are so busy with our genealogy that there isn't much time for other hobbies. We try to exercise every day, we eat simply, we work 5 days a week and do our own genealogy in the evenings and on weekends interspersed with getting together with family and friends, attending the temple and concerts and an occasional movie or play (we loved Secretariat!). There are so many things to do here. Between the free concerts on Temple Square, there just seem to be so many things to do. There are lots of social things between our missionary group (August group) and the ward activities and mission activities. We are actually too busy to do all the things we would like! It is such a great life.
The weather this week has continued to be wonderful. We have enjoyed the mid 70's again after a wonderful fall chill of about 44 degrees when we head out the door in the morning. It is very dark now when I go to choir practice in the morning but I have only had to break out a coat one day so far. I realize it will soon be cold enough for a coat each day.
Yesterday we headed up into the mountains to drive the Alpine Loop and see the fall colors. The weather has not been cold enough to get the reds, but the yellows were great. For those of you who are familiar with the Loop I know you will find this funny, but we actually got lost. We made the turn to Cascade Springs thinking that was the correct way but we ended up going across the mountains to Heber instead of through the canyon to Sundance. We didn't care. It was a beautiful drive.
At prayer meeting on Friday one of the missionaries who is British (Elder Cox) shared some information about Joseph of Arimathea which was fascinating to me. He first showed us a little book that came from the stacks on our floor of the library (British Floor) called "History and Antiquities of Glastonbury" and published in 1794. He told us that this little book, probably the smallest in the library (it was only about 3X5), tells about a very significant place in the story of Christianity and the place that England holds in the story of the Restoration. Then he gave us the following information about Joseph of Arimathea: He was one of the richest men in the world at the time; he owned a large fleet of ships because he was an importer of tin mined from Cornwall, England (tin was used by the Romans as an alloy for making weapons); he was made the guardian of the Virgin Mary by John when he is banished to Patmos; after the Sanhedrin (of which he was a member) launched the persecution of Christians he took the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, the Bethany sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus and others to England where he was greeted by his daughter, Anna who is the wife of Prince Belinus, youngest son of King Bran the Blessed; the King gives 12 "hides" of land (sized sufficient to live off) to them and the Domesday Book (1086 AD) records that he granted it to them tax free forever. The place where they settled is now called Glastonbury, but then it was called....Avalon. The gospel was established in that place by devoted followers and family of Jesus. In 156 AD King Lucius established Christianity as the national religion of Britain. No wonder that the gospel restoration message was taken quickly to England and so many faithful saints came from there to strengthen the restored church in America. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Have a great week!
When we were finalizing our mission papers to submit we were told very clearly from Autumn that if we chose not to request a mission to SLC, Utah and we were sent somewhere else and she had a baby and I couldn't come she would be angry at us. She said she would get over it, but she would be angry; so she began praying that we would be called to a local (SLC, Utah) mission. At the same time, my mother (who lives in SLC) began praying that we would be called to a SLC mission also. We did not include any request on paperwork, with our Bishop or our Stake President. We just wanted to serve a mission wherever the Lord wanted us to serve. We came here and my mother has been very happy to have us here and to give me her family's genealogy to start working on. Now Autumn will have their baby during our mission and we will be able to take some time and help her and be with her and see our first grandchild at birth. We are all very grateful.
It has been another week of redo's in the Historical Families Unit. We are fairly certain that there isn't much else for us to change before we get it right and are able to continue adding the remaineder of the Tongan Oral Genealogies and the other recordings that are ready to put up online. There were some major breakthroughs this week with the Community Trees where we have been posting to Family Search, and we now think that there will be enough space for all of these valuable recordings. We are happy to be part of the process. Ed and I are quite invested now in these records. I can see where it is very easy to feel like you don't want to leave until the work is done. The problem is, the work is never done! But, we will probably extend for a few months now we know that Ashley and Aubree will be graduating in December of 2012.
I have found it very interesting this week how easy it is to live without things. Our apartment is decorated in "early missionary" style but we really have everything we need (except my books.....I miss my library and a comfortable bed). We are so busy with our genealogy that there isn't much time for other hobbies. We try to exercise every day, we eat simply, we work 5 days a week and do our own genealogy in the evenings and on weekends interspersed with getting together with family and friends, attending the temple and concerts and an occasional movie or play (we loved Secretariat!). There are so many things to do here. Between the free concerts on Temple Square, there just seem to be so many things to do. There are lots of social things between our missionary group (August group) and the ward activities and mission activities. We are actually too busy to do all the things we would like! It is such a great life.
The weather this week has continued to be wonderful. We have enjoyed the mid 70's again after a wonderful fall chill of about 44 degrees when we head out the door in the morning. It is very dark now when I go to choir practice in the morning but I have only had to break out a coat one day so far. I realize it will soon be cold enough for a coat each day.
Yesterday we headed up into the mountains to drive the Alpine Loop and see the fall colors. The weather has not been cold enough to get the reds, but the yellows were great. For those of you who are familiar with the Loop I know you will find this funny, but we actually got lost. We made the turn to Cascade Springs thinking that was the correct way but we ended up going across the mountains to Heber instead of through the canyon to Sundance. We didn't care. It was a beautiful drive.
At prayer meeting on Friday one of the missionaries who is British (Elder Cox) shared some information about Joseph of Arimathea which was fascinating to me. He first showed us a little book that came from the stacks on our floor of the library (British Floor) called "History and Antiquities of Glastonbury" and published in 1794. He told us that this little book, probably the smallest in the library (it was only about 3X5), tells about a very significant place in the story of Christianity and the place that England holds in the story of the Restoration. Then he gave us the following information about Joseph of Arimathea: He was one of the richest men in the world at the time; he owned a large fleet of ships because he was an importer of tin mined from Cornwall, England (tin was used by the Romans as an alloy for making weapons); he was made the guardian of the Virgin Mary by John when he is banished to Patmos; after the Sanhedrin (of which he was a member) launched the persecution of Christians he took the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, the Bethany sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus and others to England where he was greeted by his daughter, Anna who is the wife of Prince Belinus, youngest son of King Bran the Blessed; the King gives 12 "hides" of land (sized sufficient to live off) to them and the Domesday Book (1086 AD) records that he granted it to them tax free forever. The place where they settled is now called Glastonbury, but then it was called....Avalon. The gospel was established in that place by devoted followers and family of Jesus. In 156 AD King Lucius established Christianity as the national religion of Britain. No wonder that the gospel restoration message was taken quickly to England and so many faithful saints came from there to strengthen the restored church in America. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Have a great week!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Zone Leader for Real
Last Friday Ed was announced as the new Zone Leader for the Historical Families Unit. We knew that since the current Zone Leaders are leaving this month that this was coming, but now it has arrived. Ed is called as the Zone Leader officially but we are a couple so they announce us as the Zone Leaders. What that really boils down to is that Ed has the responsibility for everything except the "Love and Support" part. that is my job, along with the monthly time report we make for the Presidency. No problem, I can add up the time sheets.
Another fun thing happened this week. We finally were able to get together with my Thai friends at their home for a Thai meal. I was so surprised when I heard from them and so pleased to see them after 36 years. The last time I saw them before I left Thailand I told him to take her to the temple. She was my Golden Contact. We taught her and she had a strong testimony right off. She believed everything we presented to her. Now they are married and have 4 children who are active in the church and grandchildren who they adore and they are leaving for Thailand on their 2nd mission there the beginning of November. I am thrilled for them, the look so happy together.
I am still feeling good but I am losing the battle for sleep. I fell asleep during scripture study with Ed. I was reading and said, "It is....." then I just stopped. Ed waited a few seconds and looked up at me and said, "Did you fall asleep?" I answered that yes, indeed I had and I thought it was time for me to get to bed.
We continue to enjoy the fruit in the area. Wonderful peaches which are gone now, but Autumn and Derrick's Asian Pear tree has produced so much fruit this year they are sharing with everyone. We love that!
At work we are redoing a bunch of work still, trying to get it to look the best for the patrons when it is available to them. I think we are real close to being there, but I spent most of last week changing one day's work the following day. It is very tedious work but I am enjoying the challenges immensely.
Yesterday the crews of Young Men and Young Women came to the temple grounds and dug up all the flowers. Walking to church this morning through Temple Square it was so sad to see the flowers gone. I am anxious to see if they leave the beds dirt through winter or what. It is exciting to anticipate the holidays here in this wonderful place. Anyone coming?
Another fun thing happened this week. We finally were able to get together with my Thai friends at their home for a Thai meal. I was so surprised when I heard from them and so pleased to see them after 36 years. The last time I saw them before I left Thailand I told him to take her to the temple. She was my Golden Contact. We taught her and she had a strong testimony right off. She believed everything we presented to her. Now they are married and have 4 children who are active in the church and grandchildren who they adore and they are leaving for Thailand on their 2nd mission there the beginning of November. I am thrilled for them, the look so happy together.
I am still feeling good but I am losing the battle for sleep. I fell asleep during scripture study with Ed. I was reading and said, "It is....." then I just stopped. Ed waited a few seconds and looked up at me and said, "Did you fall asleep?" I answered that yes, indeed I had and I thought it was time for me to get to bed.
We continue to enjoy the fruit in the area. Wonderful peaches which are gone now, but Autumn and Derrick's Asian Pear tree has produced so much fruit this year they are sharing with everyone. We love that!
At work we are redoing a bunch of work still, trying to get it to look the best for the patrons when it is available to them. I think we are real close to being there, but I spent most of last week changing one day's work the following day. It is very tedious work but I am enjoying the challenges immensely.
Yesterday the crews of Young Men and Young Women came to the temple grounds and dug up all the flowers. Walking to church this morning through Temple Square it was so sad to see the flowers gone. I am anxious to see if they leave the beds dirt through winter or what. It is exciting to anticipate the holidays here in this wonderful place. Anyone coming?
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Conference Weekend
Sunday evening of General Conference and the Church "campus" is a very different place than it has been the last two days. Very quite, no large satellite dishes on the street, and no crowds of people moving about. It was a quiet evening as the sun went down tonight.
Ed and I drove up into a Lamb's Canyon (east on I-80)just to see if we could find any of the famous fall colors. There was some, but it hasn't been cold enough to see the really bright colors. We took my mother with us and she suggested we come back through Emigration Canyon which was also lovely. It has been many years since we were on that road.
We enjoyed watching General Conference. We had tickets for Saturday AM and they were on the far left (facing the podium) but the 3rd row in that section. I saw Stan Ellis and asked the Guest Services woman standing behind the rope if she could tap him on the shoulder and let him know that we were there and would like to say hello. She asked the security guy and he said yes so she did and Elder Ellis was surprised and pleased to see us. He looked right at my badge and said, "I like how that looks!". We didn't know that they had been brought back from Brazil and are now in SLC and he works at Headquarters. So he said that we should have lunch sometime which would be lovely, but I'm sure he is very busy.
One of my nephews, Jared Hinton, is married to a sweet young woman from a Micronesian island, Chuuk (pronounced Chook). She was invited to translate for a couple of the talks in both the Saturday morning and the afternoon, but there was no accommodation for her husband, Jared. The translators are kept together between sessions and are fed and then they go back and are given the transcript of the talk they will translate to study. Anepo is 8 months pregnant so this was a difficult day for her but she really enjoyed the experience. Jared came to our apartment between sessions and we fed him and then we all watched the afternoon session on our little TV. It was great to have him with us.
Ed went to the Conference Center for Priesthood Meeting Saturday night with Derrick (our son-in-law) and his brother Seth while Autumn and I hung out together and then went to my mom's. We had many of the Mumford clan over to her condo for the traditional ice cream feast after Priesthood Meeting. It was great fun.
We also had a great week with our Tongan project. I have become faster and more accurate so that is good. There are 1100 records to get online and I have completed 85 of them. It would have been more but we didn't work on Friday because we attended a funeral. There are only 487 with image (pdf) files to put up so after I get those up it will go faster just putting up the audio (mp3) files. We may be able to be done with this part of the project by the end of November. There are some classes we are going to and devotionals, etc. so we don't have full days, but we think this is reasonable. We are very excited. I must admit that it still makes my heart do a little flutter when I make an entry and I get the little notification box that tells me I have just changed 482 records (or whatever the number is). I just hope that I am doing this stuff right!!!
I was talking this week with a missionary in the Church History Library and was told that it wasn't a day that they enjoyed because Wednesday is the day the anti-Mormon information they have is reviewed. I didn't ask too much about it so I don't know exactly what they do with it, but I do know that the Church keeps a copy of each and every piece of anti-Mormon literature (including op ed, pamphlets, lead articles, books, etc.)that is published anywhere they know about. It is important to know what is out there against us, but I am happy that I am not the one who is to review it.
The good weather stayed with us just long enough for General Conference weekend so we are preparing for a little colder and maybe even a little stormy weather this week. The high will be about 67 degrees. I don't remember what the lows are going to be, but it will be interesting to see how Ed reacts. He just does not like being cold at all. Oh well!!!
On Tuesday last week we had a special Temple Devotional for full time missionaries. It is really nice because it is held inside the large chapel of the SL Temple. Marlin K. Jensen again spoke. He gave a great talk about the importance of preparing ourselves to listen with our hearts to the words of the prophet. He cited some great examples of revelation given to prophets over the years that addressed issues that are now much more controversial than anyone would have thought. The most recent example he gave is the Family Proclamation which makes issues of gender very clear for the Church. At the time that was given, no one would have thought anything about a Prop 8 or taking the issue of marriage to the Supreme Court of the nation. So.....I tried to listen carefully. I am excited to have the Nov issue of the Ensign so I can read and re-read the talks given.
Until then, I will work on being worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I think that was a prominent theme that I heard. Anyone else have a topic that touched them? It would be great to share.
Ed and I drove up into a Lamb's Canyon (east on I-80)just to see if we could find any of the famous fall colors. There was some, but it hasn't been cold enough to see the really bright colors. We took my mother with us and she suggested we come back through Emigration Canyon which was also lovely. It has been many years since we were on that road.
We enjoyed watching General Conference. We had tickets for Saturday AM and they were on the far left (facing the podium) but the 3rd row in that section. I saw Stan Ellis and asked the Guest Services woman standing behind the rope if she could tap him on the shoulder and let him know that we were there and would like to say hello. She asked the security guy and he said yes so she did and Elder Ellis was surprised and pleased to see us. He looked right at my badge and said, "I like how that looks!". We didn't know that they had been brought back from Brazil and are now in SLC and he works at Headquarters. So he said that we should have lunch sometime which would be lovely, but I'm sure he is very busy.
One of my nephews, Jared Hinton, is married to a sweet young woman from a Micronesian island, Chuuk (pronounced Chook). She was invited to translate for a couple of the talks in both the Saturday morning and the afternoon, but there was no accommodation for her husband, Jared. The translators are kept together between sessions and are fed and then they go back and are given the transcript of the talk they will translate to study. Anepo is 8 months pregnant so this was a difficult day for her but she really enjoyed the experience. Jared came to our apartment between sessions and we fed him and then we all watched the afternoon session on our little TV. It was great to have him with us.
Ed went to the Conference Center for Priesthood Meeting Saturday night with Derrick (our son-in-law) and his brother Seth while Autumn and I hung out together and then went to my mom's. We had many of the Mumford clan over to her condo for the traditional ice cream feast after Priesthood Meeting. It was great fun.
We also had a great week with our Tongan project. I have become faster and more accurate so that is good. There are 1100 records to get online and I have completed 85 of them. It would have been more but we didn't work on Friday because we attended a funeral. There are only 487 with image (pdf) files to put up so after I get those up it will go faster just putting up the audio (mp3) files. We may be able to be done with this part of the project by the end of November. There are some classes we are going to and devotionals, etc. so we don't have full days, but we think this is reasonable. We are very excited. I must admit that it still makes my heart do a little flutter when I make an entry and I get the little notification box that tells me I have just changed 482 records (or whatever the number is). I just hope that I am doing this stuff right!!!
I was talking this week with a missionary in the Church History Library and was told that it wasn't a day that they enjoyed because Wednesday is the day the anti-Mormon information they have is reviewed. I didn't ask too much about it so I don't know exactly what they do with it, but I do know that the Church keeps a copy of each and every piece of anti-Mormon literature (including op ed, pamphlets, lead articles, books, etc.)that is published anywhere they know about. It is important to know what is out there against us, but I am happy that I am not the one who is to review it.
The good weather stayed with us just long enough for General Conference weekend so we are preparing for a little colder and maybe even a little stormy weather this week. The high will be about 67 degrees. I don't remember what the lows are going to be, but it will be interesting to see how Ed reacts. He just does not like being cold at all. Oh well!!!
On Tuesday last week we had a special Temple Devotional for full time missionaries. It is really nice because it is held inside the large chapel of the SL Temple. Marlin K. Jensen again spoke. He gave a great talk about the importance of preparing ourselves to listen with our hearts to the words of the prophet. He cited some great examples of revelation given to prophets over the years that addressed issues that are now much more controversial than anyone would have thought. The most recent example he gave is the Family Proclamation which makes issues of gender very clear for the Church. At the time that was given, no one would have thought anything about a Prop 8 or taking the issue of marriage to the Supreme Court of the nation. So.....I tried to listen carefully. I am excited to have the Nov issue of the Ensign so I can read and re-read the talks given.
Until then, I will work on being worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I think that was a prominent theme that I heard. Anyone else have a topic that touched them? It would be great to share.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)