June 9 - 15 - Sunday to Saturday

The snow is gone from the lower elevations in the mountains as you can see from the photo below but there is still some snow.

We saw the flowers below at the State Capitol building grounds when we visited there on Monday.

Sunday June 9

We attended Music and the Spoken Word and were able to listen to the full run through and the 9:30 am program. Notice the clouds in the background behind the choir.

I worked on figuring out how to fix a problem in Linda Walden’s tree (helped her and her husband last week).  I had signed up as a FamilySearch helper the first day that she was in the library last week.  I was able to make the correction and get her ancestor connected to the right parents.  Someone had made a mistake in January which disconnected him from the right parents.

We enjoyed our church meetings- Sacrament Meeting and Priesthood / Relief Society

Monday June 10

We attended the Monday morning devotional and enjoyed hearing about the International Zone that covers all the non-English speaking countries.  The Zone is broken into zones by language groups. 

We sent to the State Capitol Building and enjoyed going through the exhibit about the building of the first transcontinental railroad for which we just celebrated the 150-year anniversary on May 10 when it was completed in Promontory Point, Utah. 

We enjoyed the Book of Mormon class led by President Fenn.  He taught us using 3 Nephi 12 as the text.  This contains the first part of the Sermon on the Mount at contained in Matthew 5.  In 3 Nephi 12 Christ is teaching the believers only.  He shared a definition of Meek – “great power under perfect control”.  When the Savior talked about anger, he talked about one type of anger which is speaking evil of church leaders.  His final discussion was related to being perfect.  Perfection in this life is following Christ and being on the covenant path.  He quoted one of my favorite scriptures 2 Nephi 31:20. We need to press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.  He also referred to Moroni 10:32.

Tuesday June 11

I added some of the Eresmann’s to FamilyTree for Don Attridge based on a family book that he asked me to look at.

I helped James and Linda Walden again as this is their last day at the library before returning home to St George.  I straightened out some family members on Linda’s tree and showed her how to send messages to other Family Tree users. One individual was attached to an ancestor and this person had previously been combined with a totally different person along with a many sources.  After they left, I received a text from them. “Thank you mega for all the help.  You have a real gift.  Call if you think on your way through St George if you need a little break.  Thanks again.”  They invited us to stop and see them on the way home in January.

I helped several missionaries complete part of our zone training assignment to find the digital image of a marriage record. I showed Sister Saunders how to add memory sources from sites such as ancestry.com.

We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory for Father’s Day.  We had an appetizer and a piece of carrot cake for dessert.  It was plenty of food.  We used a gift card that we had received from one of our Evergreen Ward members.  We enjoyed a leisurely walk home and stopped and talked along the way.

Wednesday June 12

I led 7:30am the prayer meeting and we had a lively discussion about making sure that we help guests with what they want to accomplish during their visit.  

I helped Sister Chabries and Sister Godfrey.  I showed them how to add photos to FamilySearch from their mobile phones.  This is a way that we can help guests connect with their family as well as their ancestors.  We checked to see if the three of us we were related using the FamilySearch Tree app.  Sister Chambries and Sister were related.  When we looked at their ancestor connection, we found a lot of problems with this person.  He was connected to three parents and had children born before he was born.  Later in the day, I helped Sister Chabries fix the obvious problems but could not determine which of two sets of parents were correct as there were sources supporting both.

Just after lunch, I replaced Sister Godfrey who was helping an older sister (born in the mid 1930’s).  She had a lot of information from her deceased mother and I could tell that the pedigree charts were printed from PAF (an old Family History program).  We verified some of the information and resolved come duplicates.  We were able to print out some temple cards for her.  She didn’t want to learn a lot about the computer and FamilySearch and just wanted to get temple names.  We found some for her using Ordinances Ready and they were names for whom she could reserve all their work.  She will be coming back to the library again for more help.

After our shift at the library, we went to the stake center close by as mom and dad Senior were going over there to see Vanja Watkins, our mission choir director.  She used to work with mom Senior at the Ensign School.  

Lois Senior and Vanja Walkins

We enjoyed a picnic dinner at the gazebo in the courtyard in Garden apartments which are right next to our apartment building.

Thursday June 13

We attended the 8am Endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple. 

We picked up a lunch at KFC at about 1pm on the way to the Great Salt Lake State Park

Both of us went to the Great Salt Lake for family outings when we were growing up.  It was fun to just float in the water without any effort.  I remember that it was not any fun to get water splashed in your face since the salty water stings your eyes.  The only way to get rid of that was to get some fresh water which we always brought with us.  I remember that most often we went to Black Rock Beach named for the large black rock just off-shore.  Here is post card that I found on the internet.

We ate lunch at a grassy area and then went to the Visitors Center.  We watched a very interesting video presentation about the history of the lake.  This Wikipedia Article has most of what was covered.  See the map below with some explanation.

We walked around the park near the lake.   There are at least 9 islands in the lake.  The most well-known is Antelope Island shown below.  The deepest depth in the lake is 34 feet.  The surface area fluctuates greatly depending on how much water flows into the lake.

We stopped at Lucky’s on the way home for some food shopping.

We worked at the library from 6 to 9pm.  I was floor supervisor at 6 and assistant at 7.  I helped Kevin and Debra Buckmaster from Phoenix.  Helped Kevin get an account set up and he was able to connect to one line easily.  It took some effort to connect to the other line.  They only had 30 minutes so to end the time I had him install the Memories app and upload a picture that we took of him and his wife.  After they left, I worked on resolving a duplicate record for an ancestor and once that was done his ancestor lines opened up even more.  

We had a power problem at about 7:30pm and all the computers shut down and restarted.  I checked the other floors and went down to the main floor.  Kevin and Debra were still there as it had really rained and they decided to stay and learn more about their families.  I showed them some more using the fan chart view so they could see when their first ancestors arrived in the US.  It was really good that I went down to the main floor and found both of them as I was able to help them learn a lot more about FamilySearch and increase the likelihood that they will continue once they return home.

Friday June 14

Sister Tolman fixed a wonderful breakfast – Eggs Benedict.  It was tasty and excellent.  We did out weekly house cleaning and then went to Seagull Book.  Sister Tolman bought a father’s day gift for her father and me.  It was the book that I picked out.  It is the latest book written by Jerry Borrowman.  I enjoy his book and have most of them.  

I led the 12:30 pm prayer meeting as is my normal schedule.  Don Attridge visited the library about 1:30pm and I helped him for about 45 minutes.  We found some temple names for him (baptisms, confirmations and initiatory) to complete temple work for.  I helped him order a DNA kit from ancestory.com after helping him get his free account.  It was on sale for $59 instead of $99.

After Don left, I found some corrections needing to be made for Don’s great-grandfather.  I was able to add one son who was not on FamilyTree.  We found an unusual situation with a 1900 census record put together incorrectly for the family.   The family members were on two different pages with the parents and two children at the bottom of the page and on the top of the next page was a child from a totally different family.  We found the rest of the family on an image several pages following.  A young elder, Elder Foxsworth, was working with me when we found what had happened.  He was really excited that we were able to solve the mystery.

I helped several people with various tasks:  connecting a flash drive to the computer, finding a book, sending in a request to change a woman's 94 year-old uncle’s record on Family Tree to living status and not deceased. 

As we were leaving the library, I noticed an older couple and I guessed that they were French.  We exchanged a few words including when library opens in the morning.

Saturday June 15

Today is the 104th anniversary of my mother’s birthday.  It was 46 years ago yesterday that she passed away just one day short of her 58th birthday.  I miss both of my parents but have so many wonderful memories of my parents.  I was so blessed to have a wonderful family growing up.  

46 years ago Sister Tolman and I were on the way to Michigan to start a new job and a new life situation.  Looking back on that time of our life, it is hard to believe what we were thinking as we didn’t know what would happen with where we would be after I graduated.  Sister Tolman shared with me that we had faith that things would work out for us and it has.  Logical thinking would say that we were a little crazy to start our family when we were just finishing school and did not have a job lined up much less know where we would be living.  We left Salt Lake City in June 1973 driving in our little yellow Ford Maverick with Sister Tolman being 8+ months pregnant and a 2000 mile drive ahead of us.  Here we are back in Salt Lake City serving a full-time mission together,

Today is the Block Party at the Family History Library from 10am to 2pm.  West Temple is closed to car traffic between South Temple and North Temple with all kinds of fun activities on the street and in the Library.  We were there from 10:30 to 11:30am and walked around outside and inside and then enjoyed a Korean BBQ lunch consisting of rice, beef, pork and cabbage.  It was filling and tasty. 

Sister Tolman with the Relative Race car on West Temple

President and Sister McKnight and  Elder Benton on the 3rd Floor in the FHL

On the way back from the library, I met a 3rd cousin who descends from Judson Tolman and Sarah Lucretia Holbrook.  She descends from their son Wallace Holbrook Tolman.  She and her husband live in the same apartment building as we do.

Our shift at the library is from 1pm to 9pm.  I helped Damian and his son.  Their family is her from Florida.  I helped him find family members on various census records and we were able to build his tree back several generations. We found a 1910 census that contained three generations which was exciting for him.  I had him install the FamilySearch Memories app and I took a picture of him and his son and we added the picture to them on FamilyTree.  His son was very observant and noticed a census record for a family member before his father and I did. 

A man, his wife and his wife’s sister asked for help.  The two women watched while the man and I worked on his tree.  He was having a hard time remembering his mother’s side of the family.  He knew her last name (maiden name) and where she would have lived in 1940.  Since the last name was unusual we completed a search on the last name and in a city in Kansas and only four records showed up with the search and one was his mother.  From that record we added his grandparents. 

A woman from California came to the floor and wanted to find out about her family.  We found her parents on the 1940 census and two of her great-grandparents on Family Tree. We printed out the 1940 census, a pedigree chart and family group sheet of her great-grandparents containing her grandmother one of the children.  She went away very happy with what she found and learned.

Tonight Sister Tolman saw a young family who was leaving and looked said.  She checked with the wife to see if she could help as she had not been able to find what she came for.  Sister Tolman sat down with her, helped keep her young daughter happy coloring, and then helped her find what she was looking for.  I took some creative searching but she was successful.  The wife went away happy and plans to visit the library next week.