October 21-27 Sunday to Saturday

Sunday Oct 21

As usual we enjoyed Music and the Spoken Word this morning.  We sat a little closer to the front than we normally do.  We talked to a couple from India who just moved to San Francisco from Indiana.  They really enjoyed being there.  We also met a couple visiting from England who have been on vacation for three weeks.  They were baptized about 1968 and were here for General Conference and to see the missionary who baptized them.  When we leave the tabernacle we always see a group of sister missionaries who sing, share a message in their language and then are available for tours around temple square.

Sister Tolman fixed us a nice breakfast of hash browns and an egg sandwich just before leaving for Santaquin to hear JoAnne and Craig Barlow speak in their ward Sacrament meeting at 12:30pm.  It was a wonderful meeting and we all went back to their house to visit and have some snacks.  Byron and Peggy Tolman, Dave and Gerri Coombs, and Glenna and Lori Neilson were all there.  It was also good to see and visit with JoAnne and Craig’s children.  We saw Evan and Kautri, Todd and Kristi, Ryan and his wife and Amy.  Their daughter Heather wasn’t able to be there.  We had a wonderful visit with everyone and left for home at just before 5pm and made it home in just over an hour.

Monday Oct 22

We attended the Monday morning devotional at 7:30am.  We welcomed some new young elders and heard inspiring messages from eight missionaries.  Here is part of what a missionary recently shared.  She attended some of Sister Tolman’s cooking classes at the Mesa Cannery.

*****“My name is Mayumi Nichole Porter. My husband and I have been serving in the Family History Library for the last 6 months.  I was born in Tokyo, Japan. Unlike many of you I have no pioneer heritage. Though we didn't have the Gospel in our lives, my parents taught my sister and me the principles of good righteous living.  When I was about 7 years old, I was very intrigued by the constantly changing clouds in the sky. Not only the sky itself but the feeling I felt when I looked up into the sky. It was something different than any other feelings I had known before. I felt like someone was there watching me from above.

     When I was 21, in order to attend Brigham Young University, I had an endorsement interview with the bishop. Early the next morning I was awakened up by a dream. In the dream I saw a red balloon, growing bigger and bigger until it popped. Then I saw inside the balloon, two Japanese kanji characters, which read “Mission”. I felt the spirit. I knew Mission was the right thing to do instead of going to BYU then. I contacted the bishop later that morning and asked for another interview that night, this time for a mission interview. Needless to say, my bishop was very confused, but was glad for the change of the decision I had made.

    After my mission to Kobe Japan, I met my husband at BYU in Aug of 1984. He had my former stake president as his mission president, which made an immediate connection between us. After 3 months of dating, we were married. Yes, it was a speed wedding.  We spent our first 7½ years as assistant managers in the West Temple Apartments where we live now as missionaries. We have been married 34 years and have been blessed with a son and a daughter. I know my childhood instinct was right. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have been always watching over me from above throughout my life. I am thankful for their love without boundaries or limits no matter where we are.” ********

We said good-bye to a lot of missionaries who are finishing their time here.  After recognizing them, we all sang “God Be With You Til We Meet Again”.  It was very emotional for us as we were reminded of the time when we said goodbye to Kim as a family back in January 2012.  Here we are in October 2018 and it was 7 years ago this month the Kim found out she had stage four breast cancer.  We surely do miss her.

We traveled to Park City for a short break today.  We enjoyed the drive and the scenery.  See some of the pictures we took.  We enjoyed a pizza for lunch with enough left over for dinner and then lunch on Tuesday.  We drove by the place where most of us stayed for a Tolman family reunion in 2006 over the 4th of July.  As we were almost out of Parley’s Canyon on the way back it really started to rain so we exited the freeway just as we entered the valley and took surface roads the rest of the way home.

Tuesday Oct 23

Today is our early day with our shift starting at 8am.  First thing I helped a man who hadn’t visited the library for more than 10 years.  He wanted to start by going through books about his family.  I asked him what he was looking for to see if I could see what was on FamilyTree.  I showed him what I found but it didn’t include what he needed but he will probably want to start working on FamilyTree on Wednesday.  He spent the day reviewing a lot of books about his family.  His name is Rob Marion and he is from Arizona City which is south of Casa Grande.  I ended up helping him from time to time during the week and had a chance to visit several times.  He will be going home early Sunday traveling half way with a stop in Las Vegas. 

Rob Marion and Elder Tolman

I helped Mike Boyd who is Chairman of the Historical Committee of the House of Boyd Society in Australia.  He has visited the library before and I reminded him how to find all the books in the library about his Boyd ancestry using the “Catalogue”.   I helped him get started and answered questions off and on for the next hour or so. He stayed in the library until about 4 or 5pm.  I ended up helping him from time to time throughout the week.  Here is a picture of his card.

We had a missionary appreciation lunch at the Church Office Building from 11am to 12 noon.  We enjoyed a lunch of chicken cordon bleu, salad, potatoes, and vegetables.  We both had a chocolate éclair for desert.  After lunch Elder Tolman went to see where Sister Tolman works on Tuesdays in the Missionary Department.

With all the missionaries taking turns going to lunch between 11am and 1pm, we were short of helpers so I needed to help a couple myself.  There are from the bay area south of San Francisco and have Chinese ancestry.   Their names are Louis and Deborah (Wong) Chinn.  I really enjoyed helping them.  First we looked for records and found information on ancestors for both of them so they would get a feeling for what was available to see.  Then we set up FamilySearch accounts and added several generations.  We found several ancestors who were already on the tree.  As they had limited knowledge going back further, we stopped looking and they will check with some living relatives to find out more when they get home.  I showed them what they can do with their family pictures.  I helped them get the FamilySearch mobile apps downloaded and showed them where to get help once the get home.  They wanted to document their visit and took a picture of the three of us.  I also took their picture.

I helped a young sister print her pedigree chart.  She will be starting her mission within a week or so.  She had said that she didn’t need help but I didn’t believe her and I ended up helping her.  

A man and his daughter were having trouble getting his account setup.  I found out he was a church member and already had an account on LDS.org.  He then was able to sign in with the same username and password.

Wednesday Oct 24

We attended the temple in the morning.  Sister Tolman completed 10 baptisms and confirmations. I acted as a witness for the baptisms and was voice for the confirmations.  Elder Tolman completed ten Initiatory ordinances and Sister Tolman was only able to complete three as they were too busy there for her to complete more.  The women are limited in number that can be done to three.  We finished at 11:45am which just gave us just enough time to get back for a quick lunch before getting to the library at 12:30pm.

I substituted as Assistant Floor Manager for the first hour and kept busy going back and forth getting missionaries to help the arriving guests.  When the hour was up, I helped Robert Hendershot who visited the library yesterday with his wife and wanted me to help him.  He is a long-time church member and is a retired engineer so we tend to think alike.  I helped him for over an hour and was able to show him a lot about FamilySearch and the various training sites including my blog.  He asked if he could see information about his own ordinances and I showed him how he could see that on his LDS Tools app.  He was amazed at what was available there. 

David Marriott was in the library again today scanning his wife’s scrapbooks that he plans to give to his children for a Christmas present.  See the picture with him and Sister Tolman. They became friends over the past several days.  David's wife is Neill F. Marriott former counselor in the General Young Women's Presidency. They will be serving a mission soon in Portugal helping with the Young Single Adults.

Just before our dinner break, I helped a sister missionary who works in the Church History Library learn how to find ancestors on the tree who need temple work completed. I showed her my latest blog training that I put together recently and helped her review some of the material related to doing descendancy research.

After dinner, I was Floor Manager again and assigned Sister Tolman to help a couple with some research challenges.  She helped them all she could and then took them down to another floor where they could receive more specific help.  On the way out, the couple asked me if I was related to this wonderful woman and I said “Yes”.

One visitor needed help with connecting her laptop to the WiFi.  I checked back with her and she had things working.  She had some background with family history and FamilySearch and I showed her some of the recent changes.  I am always looking for opportunities to help and teach.

Thursday Oct 25

Sister Tolman went to the Church History Library for some training but it turns out that she will not be able to help them.  We went food shopping at three stores. We remembered to take our reusable bags.    We also had lunch at Burger King and had the two for one Whooper Jr Meal.  After returning home we went to Deseret Book.  I purchased the latest Gerald Lund book “Out of the Smoke”.  The Seniors gave me a gift card to Desert Book for my birthday which paid for most of the book.

We were at the library from 6 to 9pm.  I did some indexing and reviewing.  I also helped a new missionary, Elder Abernathy.  I helped two sisters one of whom was a Family History Consultant.  They had questions that the Young Elders were not able to answer.  Fortunately I was able to answer their questions. I also emailed them the link to my family history blog.

I was Floor Manager for the close.  I talked to Elder Nilson who has been working at the library for 5 years.  He lived on Princeton Ave and attended all the same schools that I did including grade school (Emerson), Jr High (Roosevelt), High School (East), and the University of Utah.  He graduated from high school in 1947 when I was one year old.

At end of the evening, I talked to a couple visiting from Colorado.  Their last name Kerr and their family came from Ireland.  There is probably some family connection back a ways as some Kerrs moved from Scotland to Ireland at some point.  

The leaves are turning all around us know and it is really beautiful.  Here is a picture that Sister Tolman look right outside our apartment.

Friday Oct 26

I helped Rob Marion find how to access a book that he remembered seeing when he was here a lot time ago.  It is not currently available as it is being digitized.  We did find out to see it via microfilm which he didn’t have time to do.  He is leaving Sunday morning to return home to Arizona.   Later in the evening we visited briefly before he left for the day. 

I worked on updates to my lesson on Temple Ordinances as some changes and update are needed with changes to the Family History Guide and the temple application added to the Family Tree app.  I updated my blog with these changes.  GKTFamilyhistorylessons.blogspot.com  Here is the link to 

Elder Foster's video about the changes to the FamilyTree app

I showed my family history blog to our zone leader Elder McKnight.  He indicated that Sister Tolman and I have an appointment to meet with President Buffington on Sunday just before church. 

I helped a sister get access to the LDS Tools app to see her membership information.   I showed her all that was available for her to see in her ward and stake and she found out that the Relief Society President and husband are her ministering sister and brother.  She was grateful for the help and gave me a copy of her conversion story that she shares with people who help her.

Sister Tolman and I helped a couple with Jewish heritage, the Kushners.  They had been helped earlier by other missionaries.  I helped the husband find some more information about his grandparents and Sister Tolman helped them learn about adding Memories.

I helped a new Family History Consultant know how to help her ward members.  Elder Benton assigned her to me for help as he knew that I could help her know what she can do.  I showed her the training resources on lds.org and the Consultant Resources on familysearch.org.   She was excited to see what is available to provide individual help to her ward members.  I also showed her my family history blog.  I shared with her that the most effective help is done one-on-one and not in a classroom setting. 

I was the Floor Supervisor at 7pm and assigned Young Elder Skaggs to help a man since he had not had a chance to help anyone today.  He ended up being excited to help and was successful.

Saturday Oct 27

I was the Floor Manager during the first hour.  We only had two people needing help.  I talked briefly to Mike Boyd who has been here all week visiting from Australia and today is his last day. I also talked to Rob Marion as today is his last day also.   I answered a few questions and showed a young women how to get the FamilyTree app just before she left the library.  I did a little indexing before having lunch (Sister Tolman fixed a sack lunch for us) early so we could be available to help and didn't take our normal one hour lunch break.

A young couple (probably late 20’s or early 30’s) visited the library and indicated that they were fine and didn’t needed help. After a few minutes, I checked with them.  I showed them how to access Ancestry.com as well as FamilySearch.  The wife whose name was Marsi McLaughlin, wasn’t having much success looking for information.  I asked her about a specific ancestor and I found this ancestor’s father on FamilyTree.  She decided she wanted to set up an account which she did.  We connected her to her parents and to the ancestor that I had found on the tree.  They didn’t have a lot of time so I showed them how to continue at home and how to get additional help.

I showed several missionaries how Ancestry.com can support their efforts with guests when they are trying to find their ancestors.  I used this process today when helping a man connect to more of his ancestors.

Experience shared by Sister Tolman.  "Elder Tolman called me to help with one of a family of four.  The man I helped was Rick.  He had just turned 80 and said that it was on his bucket list to visit here and find his family, so we got busy.  He could remember his parent’s names but no dates and only a couple of places.  He only remembered one grandfather’s full name and no dates or places.  We started with that and were able to find information that added people to his family tree back one more generation.  He was really excited.  We looked at census records and World War I draft registrations and find a grave.  Then we switched to his mother’s side and we were able to do the same thing.  We found a possible census record that could take him back one more generation but he needs a little more information.  Hopefully he can find that when he gets home.  They were all happy and excited and so glad that they had visited the library today."

We attended the Fall Masterpiece Concert by the Orchestra at Temple Square.  We saw a lot of our missionary friends there and also saw Sister Sidney Lee from the Grandview Ward in our stake who is visiting here.  She and her husband recently served a mission here.  The concert lasted from 7:30 to 9:15pm.  There were three main pieces:  Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor by Antonio Vivaldi, Petite Symphonie by Charles Gounod and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.  We liked the Fifth Symphony the best.