April 14 - 20 - Sunday to Saturday

We enjoyed a visit on Friday from our daughter Michelle Green and her family.  Below is a photo taken on the Discovery Floor at the Family History Library.

L to R - Talia, Sister Tolman, Elizabeth, Elder Tolman, Savannah, Michelle, Brooks, Austin

Sunday April 14

We attended Music and the Spoken Word today.  We enjoyed the program as always.  Today four winners of a Facebook contest about the choir’s new CD “Let Us All Press On” sang during rehearsal and during the run through of the broadcast that happens each Sunday from about 8:35 to 9:05.  These four were introduced before the broadcast at 9:30am. A picture of two of them is shown below.  Read the full article about this at this link.

We attended our branch meetings and before Priesthood meeting, Sister Sessions asked me and her zone leader Elder Rudy to give her a priesthood blessing which we did.  She later told Sister Tolman to thank me.  Sister Sessions used to live in Arizona and has several friends with whom we worked at the Mesa Family History Library. 

We walked home from the meetings with our Zone Leaders, the Dahlin’s.  We invited them over for ice cream after dinner.  For dinner we finished the pizza that Sister Tolman fixed on Saturday night.  The Dahlin’s joined us at 6pm and stayed until about 8:30 pm.  We enjoyed visiting with them and found out that Elder Dahlin likes ice cream as much as Elder Tolman does.

Monday April 15

It has been raining all day.  We attended the mission devotional and the program was excellent with an Easter theme with a narrator and our Elijah choir singing musical numbers along with a quartet and a violin solo.  The program is listed below.

Today I was reading an email containing brief life sketches written by missionaries in our zone. I read Sister Abernathy’s and she shared the following. ”One Sunday, I decided not to attend my Relief Society meeting. I knew I was temporarily rebellious, and I committed to be more faithful in the future. As I attended Sacrament meeting the next Sunday in the auditorium of what is now BYU-Hawaii, I listened intently as Noelani Webster, a Polynesian student with the most pure soprano voice, sang “O Divine Redeemer.” The spirit fused through my soul so powerfully, that I was overcome with the spirit. I shed tears of joy, and the spirit bore witness that Jesus Christ is my Savior.” 

As soon as I read this account, I knew that Sister Abernathy was talking about the sister from Hawaii, Noe, whose maiden name is Noelani Webster. I was reminded of her maiden name last Saturday when I was helping her as we found a lot of information about her father.   I talked some about Noe in last week’s blog.  I sent Sister Abernathy a text and talked to her at our mission dinner tonight.  She plans to contact Noe and share this experience with her.  Here is what Sister Alexander replied to my text. “Amazing!  What a small world.  Most likely she has no knowledge of the impact her presentation had on me.  I would like to tell her.”  Read more about what happened next in the Wednesday entry for this week.

We attended a mission dinner at 4:30 pm followed by a mission conference.  The dinner was really good with salad, rolls, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and vegetables.  For dessert Sister Tolman had blueberry pie and Elder Tolman had carrot cake.  After dinner we talked with Elder Hodges who is the Executive Secretary for President Fenn.  He has served for four years and plans to finish the end of May.  He said that I was one of the persons that he has recommended to President Fenn but the drawback is that he needs someone who will be here longer than we will so we don’t expect a change in our assignments. 

The mission presidency planned on taking a picture of all the missionaries but it has continued to rain so we went right to the devotional from 6 to 7:15pm at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  The subject was witnesses of the resurrection of the Savior.  President Fenn and Sister Fenn were at the podium together and alternated talking.  The Savior appeared 10 times mentioned in the New Testament around Jerusalem after he was resurrected starting with Luke chapter 24 where he appeared to 10 Apostles and one week later when her appeared again and this time Thomas was with them.  The Book of Mormon contains additional witnesses as the Savior appeared to the Nephites.  He later appeared to Joseph Smith several times including the First Vision in 1820, at the Johnson Farm as documented in D&C Section 76: 22-24 and at the Kirtland Temple in D&C Section 110: 4, 6.

I share my personal testimony and witness that Jesus Christ was resurrected and lives today and is the Savior of the World.  During the week Sister Tolman initiated a conversation where we shared our personal experiences that strengthen our person witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Sister Tolman mentioned how her witness is strengthened whenever we watch the Mesa Easter Pageant and the song is sung “He Lives”.  My reading and study of the Book of Mormon continually strengthens my witness and testimony.

We had a Facebook messenger chat with Angie and Robert and their children. It was so much fun to see all of them and talk to them for about 30 minutes as part of their Family Home Evening activity.  We miss our family but know that we are serving where we are needed at this time.

Tuesday April 15

I helped Don Attridge.  He already knew the story of his great grandfather that I shared last Saturday.  We printed out some temple cards for him as he wanted to complete baptisms, confirmations and initiatory.  I found an aunt of his who was born in 1915 and died before 1920.  I found her on the 1915 New York census.  We didn’t have a chance to review this today but will do so next week.

I helped Elder Don Clarke.  We reviewed his temple cards and list to make sure which ones he could do sealings for today.  He is able to officiate in the sealing sessions.  I helped him add three children to a family from England.  He reserved the temple work for them. I answered a lot of questions and helped him for over an hour.  I really appreciate Sister Tolman handling the 9:30 am prayer meeting on Tuesdays so I can help these two men.

We went to Seniors for dinner and had taco salad.  We enjoyed watching a Hallmark movie with them.

Wednesday April 17

I led the prayer meeting at 7:30am and then returned to the apartment so I could help Sister Barker get her car started.  I have the battery pack that does battery charging, tire inflation and other functions.  It came in handy today.

I helped two women who are here with a third friend.  They visit the library every year.  I helped the one print several fan charts which show the countries where her ancestors were born and the other with some questions about books.

I helped two women who are third cousins and visit the library at least yearly.  One is from Maine and the other one from North Carolina.  I helped the one from North Carolina add to her tree and resolve some duplicates.  It was very enjoyable to connect them and show their relationship on FamilyTree.  To do this, I selected “View My Relationship” on her cousin's person page.  I also went back to their common great-great grandfather and from the descendancy view on the one page showed both of them descending from him.  She was excited to show her cousin what she had found.  She didn’t understand relationships such as second or third cousin so I explained that to her.  I have given this explanation to a lot of people.  

Here is how I explain cousin relationships.  First, I explain first cousins since everyone can understand who their first cousins are.  I ask them who is the common ancestor with their first cousins.  When they think about it, they come up with their grandparents as the common ancestor.  Now when you go back to one more generation to great-grandparents as a common ancestor, the cousin relationship is second cousin.  Going back another generation to great-great grandparents as the common ancestor, the cousin relationship is third cousin and so forth.  

I helped a man with a strategy to figure out how to find an ancestor who lived in England using census records, birth records and the gro.gov.uk index.

As a continuation to what I shared on Monday about Sister Noe Maleaki, she came to the library and said hello and wished me happy Easter.   I told her that she needed to meet someone.  I took her to meet Sister Abernathy and what a joyful reunion this was.  Sister Abernathy told Noe the impact that she had on her life.  It was such a wonderful experience for me to see how a more 50 year-old wish by Sister Abernathy to thank Noelani Webster for how she helped her actually happened today in the library.  I don’t think it was a coincidence that I helped Noe last Saturday and read Sister Abernathy’s story the next day and was able to connect these two women.   The picture below shows Sister Abernathy's mission picture, Sister Noelani Maleaki's current picture, and her 1963 yearbook picture from the Church College of Hawaii.  

We had dinner with Byron and Peggy and daughter Raquel and her husband Nylan at the Chuck-A-Rama Buffet where we both had our wedding breakfasts.  The food was tasty and we enjoyed visiting with them for several hours.  I had bread pudding for dessert which reminded me of the delicious bread pudding that my father fixed for the family.

Thursday April 18

Soon after we awoke, we noticed that the full moon was just setting in the West.  See the picture below. 

We enjoyed a phone visit with our daughter Laura which normally happens on Thursday morning at about 7am. We attended the 8am Endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple.  On the way back we walked through the area right next to the temple and couldn’t resist taking a few more pictures of flowers.

I went to lunch with my brother Byron and our Garden Park Ward friends.  After we played 9 holes of golf at the Rose Park Golf course.  Due to all the rain we have had recently, riding in a golf cart was not an option.  I got the last push cart so I didn’t need to carry my golf bag.  We enjoyed the round.  Byron played a lot better that I did but I managed to get one par.  I didn’t add up my score for the nine holes.  I enjoyed visiting with Byron and the others in the group.

Sister Tolman went to lunch with her sisters Jayne and Marn.  They went to Zupa’s and plan to make this a monthly activity on the third Thursday which is when I have been going to lunch with my Garden Park Ward group. 

We went food shopping with a stop at Seagull Book and ended the evening watching a Hallmark movie together.

Friday April 19

We were able to stream the live broadcast of the news conference announcing the Salt Lake Temple Renovation.  It is amazing what is being planned.  We will enjoy continuing to attend at the Salt Lake  Temple until the end of December of this year.  For the last month of our mission in January 2020, we will attend at other temples in the valley.  If you missed it, here is the link.  

Had a wonderful visit with our daughter Michelle, husband Brooks and our four grandchildren Talia, Austin, Savannah and Elizabeth.  They are here for a wedding for Brooks’ family and staying in Lehi.  Sister Tolman fixed a delicious breakfast of French toast with strawberries, whipped cream, and several types of syrup.

Sister Tolman fixed Easter bags for each of the four grandchildren.  After breakfast we walked through Temple Square, the Tabernacle and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Visited the library and went to where we serve on the third floor and then finished at the Discovery floor.   The picture at the beginning of this blog entry was taken on the Discovery Floor.

On the steps of the Salt Lake Temple, on the 3rd floor FHL and in JSMB on the main floor

We walked back with them to the apartment to pic up their Easter bags and then walked back to the library.  Michelle took a picture of us which is shown below.

I helped Mary and Jesse from Wisconsin.  After receiving help from another missionary, I asked them as they were leaving if they knew about the FamilySearch phone apps and Memories.  They did not, so I spent some time showing them.  I helped the wife download the apps and then upload a picture from her phone of her and her husband.  We tagged them and then used the photo as their portraits.  They were grateful for the help as they have a lot of photos at home and this will give them a way to share with their extended family and preserve all that they have done. They said they don’t have children and this gives them a way to pass down their heritage.  Mary indicated that the sister missionaries used to visit their home in Wisconsin.

Saturday April 20

We slept in a little this morning with Sister Tolman more than Elder Tolman.  We enjoyed a 30 minute phone visit with our daughter Julianna.  Today is our late day at the library starting at 1pm so we did our weekly cleaning in the morning.  We walked to Kneaders around 11:15am to get some gift certificates.  When Sister Tolman checked out they had a drawing and she won a prize which she redeemed for a large piece of carrot cake.

Yesterday the high was in the 70’s and it felt a little warm.   I am afraid we are getting used to the change in climate so we will probably be a lot warmer this summer than we were last August here in Salt Lake City.

We both spent a lot of time at the library with assignments as Floor Supervisors as we have several missionaries who are off this week.  It wasn’t as busy today which is probably due to the Easter weekend.

I helped Rodger Rosenberg for several hours and then off and on for a while longer.  He is Jewish, dyslexia and had a big black service dog with him.  The service dog was well trained and I forget it was even there.  We added his tree to FamilySearch using information from ancestry.com where he had done some research.  We worked together and got his family back four generations and then he continued on his own adding to his tree.  He has some tragedy in his family as his mother was killed in Southeast Asia in 1965 just after he was born which was in the Philippines. His father was in the CIA and was involved in some clandestine operations which caused his mother’s death.  He also has many relatives who didn’t survive the WWII holocaust and most died in 1944.  He father was not the ideal father so he was adopted by his grandparents.  His tree is interesting showing his grandparents as both his parents and grandparents.  We had some fun with what ancestry.com had suggested as a connection for one of his ancestors who was born in Russia about 1880.  All the sources we had for her on FamilySearch agreed with her being born then.  Somehow, he had her living with parents in Alabama in 1870. It took several iterations but he finally agreed that the family in Alabama in 1870 was not his even though some of the names matched.

I helped Mary from South Jordan, a member sister, work with her FamilySearch and Ancestry.com accounts to share information back and forth.  I showed her how to add from FamilySearch to Ancestry.com and with that information she was able to take names from her ancestry.com tree to FamilySearch.  We also resolved some duplicates.  She has now added a lot more names to FamilySearch.  I shared my blog and showed her the catalogue, research wiki and ancestry.com card catalogue.