August 18 - 24 - Sunday to Saturday

Sunday August 18

We attended Music and the Spoken Word as normal.  When just the women were singing, they sounded and looked like angels. It was beautiful.  

I did some more research on Amelia Eaton. I am documenting the research so I can post it on my Family History Blog.  On Saturday, I started documenting on Powerpoint how I found the family.  I plan to post this research on my Family History Blog.  Amelia married Edmund Towle and they had nine children with 5 living and 4 deceased at the time of the 1911 English census.  The 1881 to 1911 census list 7 of the children.  I was able to find and verify the other two using the www.gro.gov.uk website.

Our Sacrament meeting went five minutes overtime as one of the three speakers went too long.  The talks were all good and I have learned not to stress too much if the meeting goes a few minutes past our 60 minutes scheduled for the meeting,   We walked home with the Dahlin’s and had a good visit with them and invited them to dinner on Monday night.

We ate dinner at mom and dad Senior’s.  I grilled some hamburgers and we had corn on the cob and potato salad.  We watched the last two episodes of the season for the Good Witch on the Hallmark Channel.

Monday August 19

This was not a normal P-Day for us.  We did attend the mission devotional at 7:30am and enjoyed it very much.  At 9:00am we attended a strategy meeting with the zone leaders and assistant zone leaders from the Help Services Zone and the US Canada Zone as we will be combining our two zones.  We came up with some good ideas such as holding combined prayer meetings starting the first week of October.  We will be having a zone party on Monday August 26 to help the missionaries on the two floors become better acquainted.

Elder Tolman attended the 3pm Branch Leadership meeting.  We will likely need to change Branch Presidents before the end of next month as our branch president Elder Sherrill will likely be called with his wife to serve as Zone Leaders on the Discovery Floor.  Sister Sherrill is an excellent Sunday School teacher so she will be missed as well.

Sister Tolman fixed a tasty dinner using the squash and fresh tomatoes that Byron and Peggy left us.  We had our zone leaders the Dahlin’s for dinner and had a good visit with them.

Spent some more time working on a training document showing how to find cousins using descendancy research and documenting the Towle / Eaton family.

Tuesday August 20

The training at our prayer meetings this week is the training that I put together about printing charts and other documents from FamilySearch. Sister Tolman led the training at our 9:30 am prayer meeting.

Sister Chabries asked some questions about how I had combined two documents into one such as the WWII Draft Registration Card that I posted on FamilySearch for my father Glen Hatch Tolman.  The Tolman siblings will recognize our father's signature shown at the bottom of this document.  The document is dated October 19, 1940 which is why his mother is listed as the contact name.

I told her how I use the screen capture tool (Snipping Tool) to copy both images and paste them into a PowerPoint slide and then use the snipping tool to capture the image on one page and then upload it to FamilySearch.  PowerPoint is easier to use to copy and paste information and format images than Word.

I helped Judy from Mesa, Arizona.  I have helped her before.  She visits several times a year.  I helped her with a couple of technical questions that she had.  There were some sources that were attached incorrectly and I made sure that she detached the sources from the three people affected as someone kept reattaching this source that did not belong to her ancestor. She had used the Mesa Family History library for many years and is looking forward to when it will be rebuilt (hopefully by the end of 2020).

One of the senior missionaries, Elder Dalley, asked me to help him straighten out a problem with the guest whom he was helping.  Somehow the parents were not connected correctly to the guest.  We got that straightened out.  Later I noticed that Elder Dalley was no longer helping her and I sat down and asked her if she needed help and she said that she did.  Her name is Debbie and she is from Pennsylvania.  We discovered a lot more information about her grandparents and great-grandparents about whom she knew nothing.  Once we found out some more details about full names and birth dates, we found duplicate records and did some merging and she was able to develop a fairly full tree.  I showed her the mobile apps and she downloaded both the Tree and Memories apps and was excited to be able to share what she has learned with her mother.  Her mother was born about 1930 so she will be excited to learn more about what she had found.   The city where part of her family was from is Sewickley, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

We had our zone leadership meeting from 2 to 3pm.  After the meeting, I was able to visit briefly with Elder and Sister Ostler who will be leaving for Portugal on Wednesday.  Fortunately their visas came quickly so they will be able to help with the temple open house.  We met them last Wednesday and helped them get started helping at the library while waiting for their visas.

Yesterday I noticed that the domain name for our East High School Reunion Website expired. I was contacted and asked to get it renewed which I did.  I still do a little bit of work on the website from time to time.  On Saturday, I was talking to one of our church service missionaries and realized that she had graduated as part of my graduating class.  When I was talking to her, I saw a picture of her when she was younger and recognized her as I remembered her class picture.  Once we got the website back up, I checked and she had not registered.  I will encourage her to do so when I see her later this week.

We attended the concert at the Brigham Young Park.  The group entertaining was the Bonner Family.  We really enjoyed the concert.  Read more about them on their Website.  We went earlier than normal and found seats in the shade as the temperature was in the high 90’s.  The attendance was more than normal as this group is well known in the area.

We talked to our daughter Julianna and had a good visit with her.  We enjoy talking to our family.  Time continues to go by quickly and on Friday the 23rd we will have only five months left on our mission.

Wednesday August 21

We attended Mission Conference this morning from 7:30am to 8:45am.  President Fenn took the entire time and taught us about covenants and the importance of keeping covenants. He talked about the doctrine of Christ as taught in 2 Nephi 31 and shared two of his favorite scriptures which are also my favorites. These are 2 Nephi 31:19-20.

“19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”

President Fenn shared the story of when he accepted the call to serve as mission president in Chicago.  At that time he gave up a very lucrative position with Century Link.  Both he and Sister Fenn struggle with health issues but are still able to serve.  We are so grateful to have them lead our mission.  They have blessed the lives of so many missionaries during their years of service.   

  

I went over the training for this week with Sister Chabries and Sister Godfrey.  I helped a guest use the Snipping Tool to print out part of a story that she found in an archive.

I helped Sister Christiansen who lives in our apartment building and visits the library regularly.  She had a difficult problem to resolve with combining several versions of the same parents.  We looked at the 1880 and 1900 Census records and findagrave.com which gave a lot of information about the family.  She is at least in her mid-80’s and her memory is not as good as it used to be. I showed her what the three sets of records showed and how these records would help straighten out the family.  She wanted to go to the temple today.  I told her that I would straighten out the family on FamilySearch while she went to the temple.  I was able to get the family merged and straightened out.  I will show her what I did when she visits next.  There are still a few children to add to the family and I will let her take care of that.

After coming back from lunch, I was surprised to find Ira Gentry in the library.  He stopped by for an unplanned visit.  He was on the way to Arizona to visit family when his vehicle stopped working just as he came to an exit in Nephi.  He figured out what was wrong and managed to get his Chevy Suburban to a place in Orem to get the transmission transfer case repaired. He picked up the “Front Runner” from Orem to downtown Salt Lake.  It was not busy at the Library, so we were able to visit for a couple of hours before he needed to leave for home.  It was good to visit since we have not had a chance to catch up for several months.  I showed him my presentation that I am working on and I found some interesting information about the family.  I found some duplicates for family members and the end result was that all but one of the family members for Amelia Eaton and Edmund Towle were already on Family Tree.  

We attended a musical concert at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  Bishop Gerald Causse, the Presiding Bishop of the Church and Nicolas Giusti played.  They played on separate pianos and it was a very enjoyable evening.  Many friends and family including at least five members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were there.  To learn more about their friendship and music see this link.

Nicolas Giusti and Bishop Causse

Thursday August 22

We talked to Laura this morning and visited with her.  She is getting her final preparations completed before leaving for Sweden on Friday.

I received a picture via text from our neighbor Nate who lives just to the West of our home on Golf Ave in Tempe.  He took a picture of a fox sitting on the wall on the West side of the house.

We attended the 8 am Endowment Session at the Salt Lake Temple and then participated in a Sealing session afterwards.  We were in a beautiful sealing room that is connected to the Celestial Room.  The natural sunlight from the outside is all the light needed for the room.  We have wanted to see the room and they used to keep it open so many people used to go there but now it is only available for sealings We completed two couple sealings and six children sealings to parents.  We really enjoyed being in the temple.

After returning to the apartment we left for a drive to Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  It was about a forty-minute drive.  As part of our connect pass, we have a ride on the Tram which goes to the top of the mountain.  It was a beautiful.  The temperature was cool at the base of the mountain but a lot cooler at the top at 11,000 feet.   

The Snowbird resort area at the base of the mountains

Little Cottonwood creek

We took a lot of pictures of the surrounding area. From the summit the view is beautiful in all directions.  We saw some good size patches of snow.  We were able to see the Salt Lake Valley to the West and the Uinta Mountains to the East. 

Elder and Sister Tolman at the summit (patches of snow on the mountain)

Looking South from the Summit

 

Looking down to Little Cottonwood Canyon from the Tram going down

Michelle called while we were at the summit and we enjoyed visiting with her.  We ate lunch at the restaurant on the summit.  I had a ham and cheese sandwich and Lynne had a turkey sandwich.  We added chips and water to drink and the total bill was just over $30.00.  The food was a little pricey but location was great.

Looking West to the Salt Lake Valley from the summit

View of the tram going down from the summit (taken by Sister Tolman)

We worked at the library from 6pm to 9pm per our normal shift.  Sister Tolman was at the desk for two of the three hours but managed to help a couple.  After they left, she noticed that they left a flash drive.  She hurried down to the first floor and managed to find them  to return the flash drive.  See their picture with Sister Tolman. 

Cristyn and Glen with Sister Tolman in the middle

I helped a couple that I have helped already several times this week.  The wife had some questions that I was able to answer.  They were very grateful for the help.

Friday August 23

We talked to our daughter Becky for a few minutes.

I continued research on Amelia Eaton and Edmund Towle and their children.  I now have the parents and nine children on Family Tree and now am researching to find and some of the children’s spouses and Edmund’s parents and siblings.  After merging the duplicate records, I updated a lot of birth and  death information for family members and attached sources since I had researched the family thoroughly before starting the process to add the family to Family Tree. This is what I have so far.  Only daughters Elizabeth and Edith need temple ordinances completed.

I showed Sister Torkelson how to access the East High class of 65 website easthighleopards65.com.  I found out last week that she graduated the same year that I did.  She lives in Salt Lake City but has not attended any high school reunions.  She may decide to sign up so she can see all the information about classmates from our class.

The Floor Supervisor, Elder Carter, asked me to help one of our Senior sister missionaries Sister Reuser learn how to use her Google Photos along with her Gallery on FamilySearch to add photos of her family members.  She had been very frustrated at home try to do things the wrong way.  Once I showed her the easy way and had her adjust a photo on Google Photos and then upload it to FamilySearch she was happy.

I visited with Judy from Mesa who is leaving on Saturday for home.  Here is a picture of the two of us.  

I helped several other people.  Elder Peterson and I took over helping a couple from Houston.  I helped the wife.  We finished adding her aunts and uncles from a census record.   I showed her where to get help from a local library and showed her about Memories.  She didn’t have much memory on her phone, so we only installed the Memories app and not the Family Tree app.  I helped her upload a photo from her phone to FamilySearch and we looked at the photo on the library computer.  They plan to visit the library again when the husband is here in Salt Lake City on business in September.

Saturday August 24

Today is our day to work from 1pm to 9pm at the library.  There is a group of missionaries who golf most Saturdays.  I have golfed one time with this group and arranged to golf again today.  We played 18 holes at the Canyon Golf Course at Mountain Dell in Parley’s Canyon.  The tee time was at 9:15 am so I ended up being a little late to the library arriving just after 2:15 pm.  I enjoyed playing and managed to hit the ball pretty well and only lost one golf ball.  Sister Ritchins who was part of our group told me that I wasn’t getting to hit the ball as often as the others in the group. For me that is a good thing.

Sister Tolman called me just before I left the golf course and indicated that there was someone who needed my help at the library.  A church member, Don Caruthers, who is a Lead Ward and Temple Family History Consultant was visiting from Wisconsin and wanted my help.  Sister Tolman showed him my family history lessons blog and reviewed some of the material with him.  We talked about what he is doing in his ward and he is doing all the right things.  I gave him copies of the PowerPoint Presentations which are sometimes easier to use for training.

I helped Sister Christensen several times during the afternoon.  I showed her the updates I made to her ancestor and she added several children to the tree based on a census record that I had found and attached to the parents.  I helped several others with questions including three sisters who had been helped several times by our missionaries but had a few additional questions and Sister Sherrill who is a missionary on the Discovery Floor.

From Sister Tolman for Saturday

I was floor supervisor tonight and I was just about due to be relieved.  A guest walked in and Elder Tolman told me to go and help her.  She was looking for death information of an ancestor that died within 1-2 years of arriving in the United States in about 1848 in New York.  We looked in the Wiki and found some information and then I looked in the catalogue and found a book reference.  She went to find the book and I kept looking.  She found it and I went back to the desk.  She let out a little scream and I went over to see what was the matter.  She said can I hug you?  I found the information.  She gave me a hug and we set about adding this source to memories from her phone app.  Technology is so amazing and she was so excited.  It made our night.