August 13-16 - Monday through Thursday

Monday August 13

We had our Monday morning mission devotional at from 7:30 - 8:15  am.  This is for all the missionaries in the mission.  Two Zone leaders shared what is done in their zones.  The zones discussed were the TROC (Temple Records Operation Center) and the US/ Canada Service in the Family History Library.  The TROC coordinates all the records operations around the world in collecting and indexing records.

Today was the day for our interviews with the mission presidency.  We had three 7 minute interviews with President and Sister Fenn and the two counselors and their wives.  We expressed the desire to serve in the Family History part of the mission in either the Training Zone which provides training to new missionaries and missionaries before returning home or the Help Services Zone which helps first time visitors and those just beginning research in the US and Canada.

After the interviews we had a chance to visit with Elder Ted Hodges the Mission Executive Secretary.  We met with him when we were here in January.  He will be finishing his mission in September after serving more than three years.

I am reviewing my five generation of direct ancestors for any needed corrections or improvements needed. I am working on my great-grandparents now.  I found a picture of Orin Perry Hatch and Marinda Woodward (my great grandparents) and eleven of their twelve children.  Three of them were not identified so I did a little personal facial recognition study and tagged the three children who had not been identified.  One was my grandmother Lora Elizabeth Hatch Tolman and the others were Ole Woodward Hatch and Carrie Hatch.    This picture is shown below. Here is the link for the picture if you are interested in knowing who is who.

We attended a Book of Mormon class at 6pm this evening led by President Fenn.  He reviewed Alma Chapters 27 to 31.  He is a remarkable gospel scholar and knows the scriptures thoroughly especially the Book of Mormon. His words and testimony strengthened my personal witness of the truthfulness of this book.  I start my day each morning by reading from the Book of Mormon. I love this book and testify that it is true and came to us through the prophet Joseph Smith and was translated by the gift and power of God.  

Tuesday August 14

We continued training activities.  I have continued to work on checking my five generation ancestors.  One thing that I have done is to organize the sources that are attached to these individuals.  In doing this it is apparent which sources are missing.  I noticed that my second great grandfather Thomas Briggs had some extra census records. Someone had attached census records from England which were not him as he came to America in January 1851. I also noticed that the 1900 census source was not attached.  I subsequently found him on the 1900 census living alone since his wife had passed away.  I also read some stories about him and found that he was very generous with his means even though he was not wealthy.  He had an accident and hurt his leg which was painful for a long time until he final had this leg amputated.

Thomas Briggs and Ann Kirkham 

For my great grandfather Hyrum Belnap, I noticed that he did not show up on the 1880 US census. I did some checking and found that he was serving as a missionary during that time. He later served a short 6-month mission in the 1920’s.   The following is a picture of him at the age on his first mission.

We met a sister from our stake (Sister Kate Lucas) for lunch.  She is serving with the missionary department and will be going home in September.  She wants to serve another mission.  During lunch we saw several church leaders including Elder Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Tad R Callister and Devin C Durrant of the Sunday School General Presidency.

After lunch Sister Lucas showed us an underground short cut from the Church office building to the other buildings including the JSMB and Salt Lake Temple.  Right after lunch we visited with Clyde and Nancy Christensen who were visiting family in Salt Lake.  We had a pleasant visit with them.

Clyde and Nancy Christensen

After our training was completed we walked back to the apartment with the Elder and Sister Hill.  They are in the training zone and we have visited with them several times.  Their apartment is right above ours.

Elder Tolman and Elder Hill

I had arranged to play golf with Dave Curtis at the Nibley Park Golf Course.  We started at about 5:15pm and finished about 6:45pm.  It was fun.  We enjoyed the golf and didn’t take it too seriously.  I was doing pretty good with a par, birdie, bogey start until I scored a 10 on a par 5 hole.  We didn’t add up our scores when we finished.

Wednesday August 15

We had a wonderful mission conference this morning from 7:30am to 8:15am at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  We heard from Elder Bradley D Foster of the Seventy.  He is executive director of the Family History department for the church.  We have enjoyed listening to him over the past several years.  He talked about the importance of connecting with our ancestors and understanding their stories.  Sister Tolman found the link for one of the videos that he shared.  The link is Hank Smith Video

The mission choir (Elijah Choir) sang.  They were seated in the loft and we couldn’t see them but it sounded like angels singing from heaven.

Here is a story shared by Elder Foster and transcribed by Sister Tolman

    “There was a man that lived with his father and his son.  The father was too old to work.  It was the custom in the village that those too old to work were of no value to the village.

The man found his son’s sled and was getting ready to put his father on it.  The young son asked what the man was doing.  He said he was putting his father on the sled.  The son asked why.  The man said that he was going to take him into the woods.  The boy asked why and the man did not answer.  The man put his father on the sled.   The son asked to go with them.  The father agreed. 

They went into the woods and the man turned to leave.  The son asked why they were leaving grandfather.  The man said that it was the custom and they couldn’t go against custom.  The son again asked why they were leaving grandfather because if they left him he would die.  The man did not feel good about doing this but it was custom and he was not going against it.

The son then said we can’t leave I need to get my sled because when you are old I will need something to bring you to the woods. The man stopped and returned to his father and pulled him back home.  He hid him because of the custom. 

    A famine affected the village and the people were affected as it continued.  The man would take food to his father but it was less and less each day.  Finally he took his father a crumb of bread and told him what was going on and that they had used all of their grain and there would be no more.

The father told the man to take the thatch off his roof and take half of it and glean the grain to feed his family.  He told him to take the other half and plant it.  

As he did this he had a fine crop and his neighbors wanted to know where he got his crop from.  He said his father had told him how to do it.  They said that was not possible because his father was dead.  He showed them his father was alive.   From that time on they respected and revered their old people because of their wisdom.”

As we entered the Joseph Smith Memorial Building after the conference meeting, I looked in the Nauvoo cafe on the first floor.  I saw Ron Tanner who is the senior product manager for FamilySearch including Family Tree, Memories Search and Record Hinting.  He is the architect of all the changes that have happened over the past 6 years.  We thanked him for all he has done for Family History and I shook his hand.  It was wonderful to be able to meet him in person.  I have heard him speak and give presentations many times.

Ron Tanner

We continued training. I have been working on eliminating duplicate entries on Family Tree for relatives within my 5 generations.  

We had an interesting class about how to reserve and records that have not yet been indexed.  For these cases we have to browse through images.  I found several references to ancestors on the Tolman and Kerr lines.

We enjoyed dinner and visiting with Rowland and Lois Senior.  David Senior also joined us later.  It was good to see him.  Our plan for now is to see them once a week.

Thursday August 16

We spent time doing our own family history training.  I was able to solve a puzzle on my Kirkham cousins who stayed in England.  When I finished I added four families to Family Tree and put a child with the correct parents (not part of my line).   The families are William Kirkham and his wife Mary Elizabeth, their two children and their families plus a grandchild and her husband.

We ate lunch outside on what used to be Main Street but is now a plaza between Temple Square and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It is a nice shaded area.  The wind was blowing a little so we didn’t have too much trouble with the bees bothering us.   Elder and Sister Hill joined us for lunch.  Their apartment is right above ours.  They are a couple that we will continue to interact with.  

A counselor in the mission presidency, President Buffington talked about how our mission assignments are made. I know we will be put where we are supposed to serve.  We will find out tomorrow morning.

From 2pm-3:30pm we watched some 30 minute Meet the Mormon videos in the Legacy theatre.  We watch “The Entertainers”, “The Craftsman” and “The Horseman”.  I had seen “The Craftsman” before at the Mesa Temple Visitors Center.  Here is a link to see a trailer for the Horseman

Today is Christina’s birthday.  We wished her happy birthday by Facebook, text and email and then talked to her tonight while she was on the way to dinner.  Earlier we had a good phone visit with Julianna and also with Becky.  We are trying to talk to all the family once a week.