November 26 - December 1 - Sunday to Saturday

Sunday November 25

We attended Music and the Spoken Word.  We attended the branch meetings where I conducted.  I miss sitting with Sister Tolman during Sacrament meeting.  One benefit of sitting on the stand is that I don’t fall asleep. 

Here a the picture of the Christmas Tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Here is a picture of the Tabernacle choir taken in the morning.  The women look like angels in their white dresses.

We had our monthly 5th floor pot luck dinner and enjoyed visiting with our neighbors the Shaw’s who work in the mission office in the JSMB and Sister Grover who works in the Church History Library handling Patriarchal blessing requests.

After the dinner, we visited with the Silvers in their apartment.  She is the mission housing coordinator and was our first contact as we began our service in the mission.  We are so blessed to be housed in the West Temple Apartments. 

Looking out the Silver's Apartment toway the Conference Center and the Temple

We completed decorating our little four foot tree and her it is.  We do have a little bit of Christmas decorating done.  

Monday November 26

We attended the Mission devotional from 7:30 to 8:30. President Fenn shared his experiences with passing of loved ones including being there when Elder Bruce R McConkie passed away in April 1985 soon after giving his memorable address about his relationship with the Savior in General Conference. President Fenn’s wife is Elder McConkie’s daughter.  He shared how Sister Fenn’s brother Joseph Fielding McConkie gave his father a blessing of relief and he died right after that.

We went to help at the Seniors with Christmas decorating from 10am to 2pm. Sister Tolman's siters Jayne and Marn were there as well.  We went to see the lights at Temple Square in the evening.  Sister Tolman received a text from her brother David showing that mom Senior fell and received a cut right above her eye.  This required 10 stitches.  She is on the mend.  

Looking across the reflecting pond just east of the temple

Tall trees with lights just south of the temple

Manger Scene - Picture taken during the day

Tuesday November 27

We were a few minutes late to our 7:30 am prayer meeting.  We need to get started earlier on Tuesdays or speed up our getting ready process. 

Sister Tolman had an appointment today to get the lesion that she has on her face checked.  The doctor cut out a couple of sections to biopsy.  We received a call later in the week and there is nothing to worry about and she will go in later in December to get it treated.  

I helped a man, Don Attridge, who was looking for another missionary Sister Sanders who lives in his ward to help him.  I sat down since she was not in the library yet and asked him what he needed.  He wanted to find a few more names needing baptism from his family tree so I helped him with that.  He also had a possible ancestor who was connected to his tree.  We did some checking and decided that this person was connected by mistake to one of his direct ancestors.   If this person were a relative, his mother would have been 68 when he was born.   He also asked me to help him with his phone.  I showed him how to access his email and also how to silence the phone when he goes to the temple.  He isn’t used to technology and he is several years older than I am.  He lives in Utah and just moved recently from San Diego.  His career has been in art.  He gave me a Christmas card that he had printed from a painting that he drew which is shown below.

On the way back to the library from lunch, I followed a couple until we got to the library and I started a conversation with them before going inside as it looked like they had not decided to go in the library or the church history museum.  I suggested they start with the library. Once inside, I asked them what they wanted to do.  She had a CD containing a PAF file from her father.  I told her that I could help her figure out what was there.  We went up to the third floor where we work and we got started.  Both she and her husband are church members.  Her name is Sonja Hanson Goodman and his name is Ron Goodman.  I mostly helped the wife and answered several questions that her husband Ron had.  He didn’t like the picture that he had of himself on FamilyTree so I helped him upload another. 

I imported Sonja's PAF file into RootsMagic and started some analysis comparing what her PAF file has versus what is in FamilyTree.  Once she saw how this worked, she decided to purchase RootsMagic continue working at home as well as returning to the library again.  I helped her with her immediate family. Her mother is deceased and her biological father and adopted father are deceased as well.   We did some merging as she had just had her mother and adopted father's ordinances restored.  I connected her to both sets of parents.   She was able to reserve a sealing to parents and spouse sealing and was extremely happy to get this done.  I helped her upload photos of her mother and father and also a funeral program for an uncle who we added to the tree.  She shared with me that she had prayed to find someone who could help her today with what she needed to accomplish.  I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was happy to be an answer to her prayers.

Elder Tolman with Sonja and Ron Goodman

Wednesday Nov 28

We attended the temple this morning.  Sister Tolman did Initiatory and Elder Tolman an Endowment session.

I helped Corey and Miquelle from Nebraska who were here visiting Miquelle’s grandmother for Thanksgiving.  Today was Corey and Miquelle’s first visit and exposure to FamilySearch.  The grandmother has experience with FamilySearch.org and they are church members.  I showed him a lot about how FamilySearch/FamilyTree worked.  He had already figured out a lot.  We added some photos. I then helped Miquelle connect her tree to deceased ancestors by adding her grandmother’s parents.  They are in their late 20’s and didn’t have any trouble picking up how FamilySearch.org works.

I helped Marietta Morgan who has already learned a lot the past year since her last visit to the library.  She was working with her notebook computer and the library computer at the same time.  I showed her how ancestry.com can help her and also showed her the benefits of a personal ancestry account.

I helped Susan Palermo visiting from Las Vegas with a friend.  At first she was just watching her friend but then decided she wanted help as well.  I helped her get an account which was challenging since she didn’t bring her cell phone with her.  We added her family and with some work found her grandfather whom she knew nothing about.  We found his death certificate with some sad information about his death in 1927.   He was a miner and committed suicide using dynamite.  A note on the death certificate indicated that alcoholism was a contributing factor.  We learned more about her family and now she can access her information from home.  Sister Tolman and I ended up meeting Susan and her friend on our Thursday outing to Heritage park.

I helped an older couple, the Springers, who had been working all week trying to get past brick walls in their family lines but without success.  I showed them some things they could do so they could feel like they were accomplishing something including adding descendants of their known ancestors and adding family photos.  On Saturday night, I talked to them again and they had printed out their color 7 generation fan charts and I helped the wife add a picture to FamilyTree,   We used the mobile app and found that the husband and I are 8th cousins and the wife and I are 10th cousins.  She gave me a hug before they left on Saturday night.

I helped one of Sister Fenn’s cousins. I shared my blog with him and he indicated that he would return to the library.  I saw him on Friday night as well.

As missionaries, we received the following Christmas letter from the First Presidency. 

Thursday Nov 29

We went to the CHRISTKINDLMARKT at Heritage Park (This is the Place Monument).  Sister Tolman purchased some Christmas ornaments- wood carvings (some for our tree and some for her mother for Christmas). We also bought some apple beer which is like root beer (non-alcoholic).  There were lots of craft and food vendors.  We enjoyed lunch- soup in a bread bowl and crepes. 

It was quiet at the library from 6 to 9pm

Friday Nov 30

We did our weekly cleaning in the morning.  We attended a mission devotional hosted by the church starting at noon in the theatre at the Conference Center.  The CEO of FamilySearch Steve Rockwood conducted.  Elder Joaquin and Sister Renee Costa from Argentina, Elder Bradley and Sister Sharol Foster, and Elder Gary Stevenson were there and all addressed us.  

left to right- Sister & Elder Costas, Elder Stevenson, Brother Rockwood, Elder & Sister Foster

The Costa’s shared with us their experience with Christmas traditions around the world as they have lived in 20 homes in 29 years of marriage.  

The Foster’s shared a Christmas story about the Poor Little Match Girl who tried to sell matches on Christmas and how a tragedy turned into a glorious reunion with her grandmother.  Here is a version of the story on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16L8S_w7wRQ

Als this is a summary of the story. “On a cold New Year's Eve, a poor, young girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is already shivering from cold and early hypothermia, and she is walking barefoot after losing her two large slippers that had belonged to her mother to an impertinent pedestrian. Still, she is too afraid to go home, because her father will beat her for not selling any matches, and also as the many cracks in their shack can't keep out the cold wind. The girl takes shelter in a corner formed by two houses projected further out into street and sits down.

The girl lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow she sees several lovely visions, starting with a warm stove, then a luxurious holiday feast where the goose almost jumps out at her, and then a magnificent Christmas tree larger than the one at the rich merchant's house. The girl looks skyward and sees a shooting star; she then remembers her late grandmother saying that such a falling star means someone is dying and is going to Heaven. As she lights the next match, she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness all through her life. To keep the vision of her grandmother alive for as long as she can, the girl lights the entire bundle of matches at once.

After running out of matches, the child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the girl dead in the nook, frozen with a smile on her face, and guess the reason for the burnt-out matches beside her. They feel pity for her, although they had not shown kindness to her before her death. They have no way of knowing about the wonderful visions she saw before her death or how gloriously she is celebrating the New Year in Heaven with her grandmother.”

Elder Stevenson shared his testimony of the Savior and quoted from Isaiah 9:6, First Nephi 11:15-21, Mosiah 3 (King Benjamin), Alma 7 and Helaman 14 (Samuel’s testimony).

The meal after the devotional was excellent with salad, shrimp, ham and other fixings and really good desserts.  We didn’t need dinner.

I talked with an experienced missionary on our floor, Elder Oliphant, about training and using GEDCOM input into FamilySearch.  I will investigate this further.  He made suggestions on how to provide training to our missionaries.

I helped two people today.  The first was Denise from Mesa, Arizona.  She is a church member and needed help getting her deceased father’s information corrected. I worked with her for over and hour and we were finally able to get the information corrected for her father as someone had made some errors on this information.  The change took 30 seconds but the pre-work to see what had happened and get her comfortable with what needed to be done to make the correction took an hour.  Her mother is still living but we couldn’t see her mother’s parents.  Denise was sure that this was the case previously.  I believe that she had seen the connection when she was with her mother was looking on her mother’s account.  We made the connection and when she was able to see her tree fill out with her grandparents and beyond she cried.  I helped her update her FamilyTree mobile app so she could see the updates on her phone.  What I thought would be a short visit lasted nearly two hours.

Right after Sister Tolman asked me to help Elizabeth Lewis from Minnesota. She is being baptized here in Salt Lake City on Saturday December 1 and the missionaries had told her to wait to get her FamilySearch account until after she was baptized.  Sister Tolman and I both told her why she should go ahead and set up her account now so she could take pictures and record her testimony at her baptism and add these to FamiySearch/FamilyTree.  I showed her how easy it is to convert her account to a member account by adding her membership number and how to get her free Ancestry.com account. We added some of her family and found great-grandparents already on the tree and a cousin who has added him to the tree and is likely a church member.  She sent a message to this cousin.  This was very enjoyable to see Elizabeth’s excitement to be baptized and start completing temple work for her ancestors.

Saturday Dec 1

Our schedule changed for today and we worked from 1 pm to 9 pm as the library will be open late on Saturdays at least through the end of the month.

Sister Tolman found a coat and some clothes at the swap meet today.  The coat will work well for the colder weather as it also has a hood.

While Sister Tolman made cookies for those who will be working tonight from 5 to 9 pm, I went to the JSMB to use the Giving Machines.  There is also one in Gilbert Arizona see the link https://www.mormon.org/christmas/giving-machines for exact locations.  I purchased some soccer balls.  The giving machines give individuals the opportunity to purchase commodities — food, clothing, medicine, hygiene supplies, wheelchairs, sporting equipment and even livestock — for individuals and families in need. Partnerships are with CARE, UNICEF, WaterAid, Water For People, Eye Care 4 kids, Utah Food Bank and Utah Refugee Connection.

Giving machine at the JSMB on Saturday morning

After we arrived at the library, I spent some time finishing some branch and mission work including getting the 2019 sacrament meeting and Sunday lesson template ready for the mission leadership to review and update.  I shared the template President McKnight.

I was talking to one of the senior sister missionaries and she shared with me that she and one of the young Elders had a difficult time last night trying to help an individual and that he was planning to come back again to get help.  Sure enough he did and I was assigned to try to help him out.  It ended up being a really good experience.  Once I figured out what he wanted, we printed a lot of pedigree charts for his ancestors (over 20 4-generation charts).  His name is Jeff Candelaria and he is a member who grew up in Salt Lake City and went to both East and West High in the early 1970’s.  When we finished the printing, I asked him about his wife and he told me that she died several years ago.  He showed me his membership information and I was able to find his wife’s record with her ordinance information on FamilyTree and then we merged that record so it was connected to him on FamilyTree.  His next step is to be sealed to her in the near future.  What I thought was going to be a difficult situation ended up being a tender experience as we talked about his plans to soon be sealed to his wife.