December 1 - 7 - Sunday to Saturday

Here is a picture taken on Thursday at the Christkindlmarkt at Heritage Park.  The Christkindlmarkt ended on Saturday night but on Monday through Saturday, December 10 until December 23, the Candlelight Christmas event is held from 5pm to 9pm also at Heritage Park.  We plan to go one night. 

Sunday Dec 1

Music and the Spoken Word had a Christmas theme as will the rest of the broadcasts for this month.  The choir really knows how to do Christmas. 

As this is the first Sunday of the month, we held our Fast and Testimony Meeting.  Our Sunday School lesson was 1 and 2 Peter from the New Testament.  Here is the tree that is now displayed on the main floor in the JSMB.

After church Sister Tolman fixed dinner (cheese and vegetable chowder) and we took this to mom and dad Senior and shared dinner with them at their house.  After dinner we watched “Christmas Jars” which was shown on BYUtv.

I worked on research for John Woodruff’s family whom I helped on Saturday.  I think I spent too much time working on that today and should have spent more time with Sister Tolman.  I sent a message to John letting him know what I had done.  Here is the message that I sent and his response that came in on Monday.

Message to John

“John, I was able to straighten out the information about Janet Lilian Bird's parents (especially Elizabeth Jane Clay) and found additional ancestors. I also found details about Frank Morley's parents. The 1861 census shows that Frank had seven older siblings who can be added to his parents.  I was able to confirm that Lilian Bird's older sister Florence was born in Germany. The 1861 census confirms this information showing she was a British subject born in Berlin. There is still a lot to discover about your family. Enjoy searching.
Elder Tolman”

Message from John

“Elder Tolman, thank you so much for getting me started and finding clarity about my great grandparents. This is so much fun.
John Woodruff”

Monday Dec 2

We attended the 7:30 am mission devotional.  We learned about Sister Sandra and Elder Danny Tippetts who are our next-door neighbors in the West Temple Apartments.  It was interesting to hear how they met after he had graduated from BYU and as she was recovering from a failed marriage and had a two-year old.  

We went shopping at Seagull book.  Sister Tolman purchased dish towels and a Christmas book for mom Senior since it is her 92nd birthday today. We stopped by their home around noon to wish her a happy birthday and give her the presents.

We enjoyed a large bowl of store bought clam chowder for dinner.  It wasn’t quite as good as what Sister Tolman makes.

We got the apartment ready for our MTC group.  We watched the movie "Christmas Jars" (yes, we did watch this movie yesterday).  Everyone enjoyed the movie and its surprise ending. 

Sister Seve, Sister Stephens & missionary friend, Sister Ashcroft, 

Elder and Sister Turner, Sister Tolman

I helped Sister Seve with her TV and carried it back to her apartment.  It was heavier than I thought.  I can see why she didn’t want to carry it back tonight and was going to do so later in the week.

Tuesday Dec 3

We attended the prayer meeting at 7:30 am.  Helped Kathryn from San Diego who is visiting with her mother.  I helped her with some questions she had about FamilySearch.  I really enjoyed helping her as she was anxious to learn more.

As I was walking around, I noticed a woman who appeared to need some help.  I stopped by and she was working on her laptop.  She was having trouble accessing her FamilySearch account.  I helped her recover the account and then helped her get started with moving her ancestry.com tree to FamilySearch.  She indicated that FamilySearch was easier to use and thanked me for helping her.  Her name is Marilyn and I helped her several more times during the week.

Just after helping Marilyn, we left the library to attend the combined Temple and Family History Christmas devotional. Elders Gary E. Stevenson and David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve attended along with Elder Hamilton (Family History department director) and Elder Duncan (Temple department director).  Elder Stevenson was the keynote speaker with a Christmas theme. He shared some interesting family history stories including one where a US ship was spared on Christmas Day during WW I when a German U-boat signaled “Merry Christmas” instead of sinking the ship.  Elders Hamilton and Duncan then spoke to us briefly along with Sister Reyna Aburto of the General Relief Society Presidency.

At the end of the meeting Elder David A. Bednar bore a wonderful witness of the Savior and talked about the acts of the Apostles where the current apostles go about doing good works.  He shared a recent experience about an ambassador from Nicaragua whom he met at Rootstech 2019 in London.  He was invited to meet with government leaders (contacts he was given from the ambassador) during a trip soon after that where he was sent to Managua, Nicaragua.  The experience opened up the opportunity for Elder Bednar to share with them the purpose of temples and will likely help with making it easier to get the necessary permits to complete the temple there.  We felt a very strong spirit during the devotional.

Reyna I Aburto

We enjoyed lunch after the devotional.  The food consisted of salad, rolls, shrimp, chicken cordon bleu balls and dessert.  Sister Tolman talked with Sister Hamilton wife of Elder Hamilton whom she had helped a month or so ago during a VIP library tour.  I had noticed her and suggested that Sister Tolman stop and visit with her since their table was next to ours.

I had wondered about my friend Ira Gentry and hadn’t heard from him for several weeks.  I received a text from him during our lunch.  I called him when we got back after lunch and we talked for about 30 minutes. While driving to Arizona recently he had an accident in his Suburban and it is a miracle that he was not hurt. 

Helped Elder and Sister Fosberg with scanning some photos.  They were passing their pyramid training and are new missionaries assigned to the B2 (British) floor.  With his background in music he can help conduct music for our branch either in Sacrament meetings or at the Hail and Farewell.

I completed a training document to help our MTC group learn more about Family History.  I emailed it to them on Wednesday and included our weekly schedule when they can visit the library outside of their work hours and get help from us. 

We went to dinner with Sister Tolman’s family at the Olive Garden restaurant. We picked up mom and dad Senior.  The occasion is partly to celebrate mom Senior’s birthday but mostly to get the whole family together (parents and the four siblings and spouses).  It was fun to be able to visit. We likely won't have another chance to get together before we leave in January.  Half the group ate the soup and salad.  I ordered the Lasagne which is my favorite Italian food.  

 Mike & Marn Coles, David & Shelly Senior, Mom Senior, Lynne Tolman, 

Dad Senior, Glen Tolman, Jayne and Greg Johnson at Olive Garden Restaurant

Wednesday Dec 4

I was assigned as the Floor Supervisor from 8 to 9 am.  The responsibility is to monitor the floor and look for individuals who need help.  This is what I do normally and very often find people needing help when I talk to them.   I helped Marilyn again when I stopped by where she was sitting and asked her if she needed some help which she did.

Helped Mary from Virginia several times during the day.  This is her first time visiting the library and she came with a tour group.  Some of her ancestors descend from slaves in the south.  She indicated that she had found some discrepancies between census records on names and birth years and I told her that I had found some of the same things doing the same type of research.  I showed her the research Wiki and how to browse all the published collections in Family Search in order to find the specific record collection she wants to search.  I showed her the Card Catalog in Ancestry.com and the Family History Guide.  Later I helped her install the Memories app (she already had the FamilyTree app installed).  After several times helping her, she said she had learned more today about searching records than in all her years of searching on her own.

A couple from Arizona was trying to access the husband’s FamilySearch account and several people including one of our research experts was trying to help them.  I stopped by and asked a few questions.  They were members and he was trying to attach his existing FamilySearch account to his church membership number.  I asked the wife if her husband had an account on the church’s website “ChurchofJesusChrist.org” and she said “yes” and even knew his username and password.  We logged on and connected to FamilySearch and presto, he now had a FamilySearch.org member account since it is the same.  

Helped Sister Chabries and Godfrey with some Tier 2 testing on Temple Ordinances.  Sister Chambries passed the test.

Thursday Dec 5

We attended the 8 am Endowment session followed by a Sealing Session at the Salt Lake Temple.   We completed two endowments, 1 couple sealing and 9 children sealings.  The couple and 7 of the children were for the same family with parents John William Alcock and Christina Joy.

In the afternoon, we went to Christkindlmarkt.  

We enjoyed a lunch of soup and bread for Sister Tolman and brat and sauerkraut for Elder Tolman.  We enjoyed wandering around all the exhibits.  The only thing we bought was a four pack of soft drinks from a local firm (Apple Beer).  They make some delicious bottled soft drinks.  Here is their web site  http://applebeer.com/    Here are some pictures.  

As normal, we started our shift at 6 pm.  I helped Elder Bradshaw with using the Research Wiki and gro.gov.uk.  He is a church service missionary and had arranged to meet with  me to go over some questions he had.  

Friday Dec 6

We were able to sleep in until 7am which is rare for us.  Today is our cleaning and laundry day.  I went to the JSMB to pick up a parking pass for JoAnne and Craig for Sunday.  They will be attending the First Presidency Christmas Devotional with us.  On the way I was able to give a family the directions on how to get to the Temple entrance.  For those who haven’t been to the temple before, the entrance is not easy to find.  That will change once the four-year renovation project is completed.  Before leaving, I purchased an item at the giving machine in the lobby of the JSMB.  The item that I chose was “Seedlings for a greenhouse” sponsored by a local charity “Neighborhood House”.  This donation helps low income families and seniors grow some of their own food.

We have had fog and a temperature inversion since Wednesday.  Today we can finally see around the valley including the mountains.  Here is a picture that shows the sun obscured by the fog.

Soon after this picture, the skies really cleared up and then the fog came in again at about 5pm and the visibility is now restricted again.

Sister Tolman went shopping at Lucky and Dollar Tree and enjoyed going without Elder Tolman for once.  For the LightTheWorld, today was a day to find a way to provide service to a family member.  I made the bed with the newly washed sheets and folded all the clothes for both us of.

I led the prayer meeting and Sister Tolman gave the spiritual thought about the importance of how Family Search Memories can bring us and our guests closer to their families.

I helped Marilyn whom I helped on Tuesday and Wednesday.  She was trying to find the 1894 Michigan census which was critical to helping her identify her ancestor.  She thought that she had saved it to ancestry.com.  I remember seeing the census record so I started trying to help her.  Neither of us were successful searching on ancestry.com and I decided to check FamilySearch.org.  I found the 1894 Michigan census collection on FamilySearch and entered the ancestor's name and I found the record for which we had been searching.  Marilyn was overjoyed and so happy we had found the record.  We downloaded the image to her flash drive and attached the source to her ancestors.  I continued to help her but this was the help that she really needed.  I made a few corrections and merged some records for her and pointed out a death record for the ancestor in question.  I am so glad that I was able to provide the needed help.

I also helped Thomas and Elizabeth from Apache Junction, Arizona.  They are the church members that I helped on Wednesday when we recovered Thomas’ account.  They had found a possible ancestor connection and with some checking we believe that the connection is correct.  They shared that they were able to complete all the temple work for his father today in the Salt Lake Temple.  They were really excited to have been able to get his work done.

Bruce McOmber came into the library for a few minutes tonight and we talked about some of the interesting experiences that he had growing up as a twin with his brother Brent.  He and his family lived on the corner of Princeton Ave and 11th East which is just down the street from where I lived growing up.  Brent and Bruce were my age and our father’s served together in the stake 70’s quorum.  I remember both fathers going to some of our Aaronic Priesthood outings in the summer in the Uinta Mountains.

Saturday Dec 7

This is our early shift at the library.  We worked from 7:45am to 5pm.  This is our longest day of the week as we work an extra hour when we are assigned the early shift on Saturday, December 7, 2019.

The weather couldn’t decide on fog or clear and alternated back and forth and it is finally mostly clear as we end our shift at 5pm.

Sister Tolman helped Sister Ashcroft from our MTG group.  We had a volunteered to help them and she took us up on the offer.  Sister Tolman helped her for several hours.

I helped Marilyn Shafer again today and helped her get her tree ready to be able to print a fan chart.  She currently lives in Florida.  It was very enjoyable helping her this week.  Here is a picture.  

Elder Tolman and Marilyn Shafer from Florida

I showed a library staff member how to print a country fan chart.  She is here today helping guests who are part of a group called Ancestor Seekers.  She indicated that guests have asked her how to print this type of fan chart before and she now knows how.

I helped a member sister whose name is Stacey.  She had a lot of questions about FamilySearch.  I showed her how to increase her expertise using the on-line Help from FamilySearch and the Family History Guide.  There are some problems in her tree back in the 1700’s that need correcting but are beyond her scope of knowledge at this point.  I suggested that she not worry about it for now as she has a tree in ancestry.com that has this information well documented and she wants to share this information at an upcoming family reunion.

A missionary from the 2nd floor came to our floor and asked me to go down and help a guest with Relative finder.  The guest was having trouble getting her account to work.  I have had some experience with what to do when this happens and I was able to get the system to work on both her IPAD and the desktop library computer.

I helped Deanne from Denver.  She was here with her sister.  They had documented some information on a tree on myheritage.com which they already shared.  We tried to set up a FamilySearch account for her and found out that she already had an account which surprised her.  We found that a lot of her family was already on the tree.  We added her mother who is still living and found her mother’s parents and her father and his family.  We resolved some duplicates and corrected some information.  She was excited with what she had found.  She and her sister are now going to compare notes as they both worked independently at the library except that we gave her sister the ID of her father so she could connect to him on her FamilySearch account.

Sister Tolman fixed an excellent dinner of lasagna cups. 

Update from Sister Tolman

This week was a wonderful week with so many things going on.  As you can tell from Glen’s update we were able to have a devotional with Elder Stephensen and Elder Bednar.  It was a wonderful event and we were totally blessed by their testimonies.  The spirit was very strong.

A young woman came in and she wondered if there was anything we could do to help her.  She was from Tennessee and her grandmother had come to visit from Argentina.  While she was here she was baptized.  She later returned to Argentina where she passed away.  The young woman wanted to do her temple work but she didn’t know what had happened to her membership because she lived in a small village where they had no ward.  We discussed ideas of how we could resolve this.  She said  she had turned in a case and wondered how long this took, which is always uncertain.

She  finally got onto family search on her phone and all of the ordinance showed green, or ready to be done.  She was so excited. She went with one of the missionaries over to the computer and printed out the temple card and she was so happy.  It brought tears to my eyes as I saw the sweet spirit of this young granddaughter wanting to do this for her grandmother.

Another woman came in Friday evening and wanted to scan some negatives.  She had a few pictures and we started with those.  Then one of the people from library services helped her with a different type of scanner.  She was able to get a few negatives scanned before we closed.  We were open at eight this morning and she arrived shortly afterward.  She had to leave by 3:00 but she sat and scanned negatives for about seven hours and was able to get 3000 scanned.  She was elated.  She said she will be back to finish what she started.  She said she never thought it would be so easy.  She was really happy.

This is what we do.  We try and help people to leave happy and satisfied with what they have accomplished.  It really is a wonderful work.