December 9-15 - Sunday to Saturday

Here is a picture on the second floor in the Family History Library.

Sunday Dec 9

We attended Music and the Spoken Word. The Conference Center was all decorated in preparation for the special Choir and Orchestra annual Christmas program this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Notice the various decorations with wrapped presents and trees and a bow over the organ pipes.

My sister Glenna and her daughter Lori got tickets for the Friday night concert so we reserved parking for them so they will be able to easily walk to the Conference Center.  Our zone provided the speakers for Sacrament meeting today and next week. Sister Tolman and I will be the speakers in our Sacrament meeting on December 30. 

We had four missionaries over for dinner.  Sister Tolman fixed sliced veggies, pulled-pork sandwiches, and macaroni salad along with potato chips.  The young Elders ate two sandwiches a piece and one ate three.  They didn’t have anywhere to go tonight so they stayed a little extra and we read them some Christmas Stories.

Monday Dec 10

We enjoyed the mission devotional this morning.  We heard some powerful witnesses from those who spoke.  We talked with our Zone Leader Elder Dallin on the way back to the apartment.  We will be working the late shift on Tuesday starting next week so we will be back to our schedule from September before Sister Tolman worked at the missionary department.  

We took two of my suits to the dry cleaners and then went shopping at Costco. 

The Book of Mormon class this evening was excellent and inspiring.  President Fenn has such an ability to teach from the Book of Mormon.  We covered Helaman chapters 6 to 12.  He finished with a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us.  He is such a good man.  We really are blessed to have him as our mission president.  Below is a stained glass that is in the fron of the chapel were we meet for these classes.  The chapel is just north of our apartment.

Tuesday Dec 11

It continues to be cold which is normal for this time of year. 

Since Sunday I have continued researching the family of Colin Jeffery Hinson whose endowment I completed last Wednesday.  He is a fifth cousin (our common ancestor is Joseph Kirkham on the Tolman/Briggs line).  I looked at the 1911 census and noticed that there were six children in the family and there were only four children on the tree.   I went to the English website that I use to find children not listed on census records www.gro.gov.uk and found both of the children.  One of the two died as an infant and the other died when he was eight.  I have all the children as of the 1911 Census and all six children are boys.  I looked further and found that Colin’s mother Martha Mary Cooper’s six siblings needed to be added to  FamilyTree,  I found them on several census records.   I will continue to research this area of my cousins as there lots more individuals to add to the tree. What I have found so far is listed below.

Wednesday Dec 12

We went to the temple this morning.  We left at 7:35am and attended the 8am endowment session.  When we came out of the temple at 10:15am there were 2 inches of snow on the ground.  The sidewalks were slippery so we were careful walking home. 

By the time we left for the library at 12:15pm, the sidewalks were clear.  The first person that I helped was Jeff Candelaria (I helped him a week ago Saturday).  He came into the library and asked for me.  I helped him add some new ancestors to his mother’s part of the tree.  He also brought a newspaper article about his grandfather’s death which had lots of names.  We scanned it and added the article to FamilyTree and attached it to several of those mentioned in the article.  We reserved the temple work for his grandparents.

When we were returning from our apartment after dinner, we walked into the library with a young women Emily Martin.  She had been to the library yesterday.  I helped her on and off for nearly two hours and ended up at the end showing her the FamilySearch mobile apps.  We found more ancestors to add to the tree and some who were already there.  We went back a long ways on one of her lines.  She is excited to visit her family in New York and show them what she has found.  She will continue to visit the library for the next week or so.

Thursday Dec 13

We picked up a parking pass for my sister Glenna and then watched Mr. Krueger’s Christmas and “The Nativity” at the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Watching Mr. Kruegar’s Christmas brought back so many memories of watching this 30-minute video so many times as a family at Christmas time.  Here is a link to watch it on youtube.  Watch Mr Krueger's Christmas 

This is also the first time we have seen “The Nativity”.  Here is a link for this video.  Video "The Nativity"

We started working at the library at 6pm.  By 7pm it was still slow with not many guests so we got permission from the floor manager to try the standby line for the Tabernacle Choir Christmas program.  We were in line in the cold for about 45 minutes but were able to watch the concert in the tabernacle.  It was really a spectacular concert with the Choir, Orchestra, Bells and the individual performance by Kristin Chenoweth.   I can see why the concert is broadcast a year later at Christmas time.  The program lasted over 90 minutes and the PBS program is an hour which requires a lot of editing. Since the concert is held for three nights, they probably take the best parts from each night.  There is a picture below showing Kristin Chenoweth, the guest artist.  Also here is a link with an interview with her and the choir director. Interview with Kristin Chenoweth

Here are quotes from this interview.  Performing this week with the world-renowned Choir — along with the Orchestra at Temple Square and Bells on Temple Square — is a Chenoweth “bucket list” moment.  The Tabernacle Choir’s music “draws me in every time,” she said at a Wednesday press conference at the Relief Society Building. “For me, it’s part of my DNA and I’m so honored to share the stage with (Choir music director) Mack Wilberg… we’re making music and celebrating the birth of Christ.”

Friday Dec 14

The snow we had on Wednesday cleared out the bad air and it is still mostly clear in the valley this morning. See the picture below.  Lately we have not been able to see the mountains out of our bedroom window.

We were excited to here the age group change announced today with an email to church members.  We talked to our daughters Michelle and Angie about this change.  This will mean that our grandson Austin will be able to be a Deacon this coming January and not need to wait until April.

Both Sister Tolman and I have visited with Doug and Diane from Colorado.  They are experienced genealogists and visit the library here several times a year.  They are both in their 60’s and had careers in IT work and now their passion is searching out their ancestors.  I shared with them the Family History Guide Resource which may help them some.  They will be back in January.

Sister Tolman’s experience on Friday.  I walked over by the greeter’s desk about 3:45pm. I was talking to some missionaries when a lady walked in.  I really put our training of listening to understand to the test.  The lady said that she had a family book and she was told that she could come into the library and scan it and add it to family search.  None of the three of us at the desk completely understood what she was wanting so I kept asking clarifying questions.  I asked if she had a flash drive to copy the book to and she said no, why would she need one?  I asked if she was intending to turn the book over to the family history library and she said no.  We kept asking different questions and through one of the questions it dawned on me what she was wanting to have happen.

She had a book and it had several generations of family in it starting with a great-great-grandfather and coming down to her.  She thought that if we scanned the book it would automatically add all of the names in this book to her family tree and her tree would be built.  This kind of blew me away that anyone would think that.  However, with that information I could now devise a plan.  I explained the plan and no one had any clue what I was talking about.  So the floor manager told me to just take her to a computer and do it.

I told her we were going to go back to her great-great-grandfather and put in his name and see if it was on family tree.  We did and it was.  Then we opened the book and found the names of his children and we checked them off against the list that was on family tree.  It matched exactly except that one child was missing.  She was going to add that.  Then we opened Henry Brown’s tree up and followed it down until it came to her.  She suddenly said that’s me.  How could this be?  We went back to Henry Brown and found a name of someone that had been adding names.  She was elated.  She said that a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders because she didn’t have to add all of those names.  I showed her how she could add some of the stories that were in the book to the individuals.  She needed a bit of information on doing something that I don’t know how to do and I connected her with Sister Isaacson who showed her how to do that and she was on her way.  She left a little before four and again thanked me for lifting that burden.  It often doesn’t take very long to help people if we can first find out what they really want.  This was a sweet experience and I was glad to have helped her.  I realized that I didn't even get her name because we were so involved in trying to help her.

Saturday Dec 14

We were very busy at the library from 1 to 4pm.  As soon as we arrived to start our shift, we were both busy helping visitors. We also had a neat experience as the young Elders who work with us gave us a Christmas card and a framed picture showing all of them by the Christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. This is such a blessing for us to have these young Elders as part of our mission experience.

I helped a senior couple, Elder and Sister Ellis, who are currently serving as service missionaries at the Conference Center.  They wanted to get started with learning FamilySearch now that they will have some more time on Sundays.  I got them both connected to their Family Trees and showed them the fan chart, person page, photos, stories, sources, etc.  It took a while for Sister Ellis as she needed to reconnect with her account and needed help from account services via phone.  They were excited to learn more about their families and start adding memories for their recent ancestors.