December 8 - 14 - Sunday to Saturday

Sunday Dec 8

We attended Music and the Spoken Word in the morning.  The music and setting was beautiful and inspiring.  We needed to go through extra security to get into the Conference Center due to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional in the evening. 

Our Sacrament meeting subject was on sharing the gospel which is the subject of Sister Franco’s Sunday morning address from the October General Conference titled “Finding Joy in Sharing the Gospel”.  The talks were well prepared and we enjoyed the meeting.  The Relief Society and Priesthood lesson was based on President Nelson’s Sunday morning address “The Second Great Commandment”.

Sister Tolman fixed dinner consisting of Mexican Chicken Chowder.  JoAnne and Craig Barlow joined us for dinner as they attended the First Presidency Devotional with us at the Conference Center.  It was very enjoyable to be there in person.  We got there at about 5:15pm and got good seats in the Plaza 2 Section.   The speakers were Sister Joy D Jones, Primary General President, Patrick Kearon, Presidency of the Seventy, Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and President Dallin H Oaks.  The speaker’s talks were interspersed by beautiful music from the Tabernacle Choir.   To be reminded of the broadcast or to review a little about what was shared access this link.

On Monday we received a text from our daughter Angie that showed a picture of us at the Conference Center. 

Craig and JoAnne Barlow, Sister and Elder Tolman before the Devotional Started

Picture taken during the Devotional and sent to us by Angie

After the devotional we walked around Temple Square to see the Christmas lights as JoAnne and Craig will not likely be back up here from their home in Santaquin, about an hour’s drive away in the southernmost part of Utah County.  Below are two pictures taken on Temple Square.

Monday Dec 9

We attended the Monday morning devotional and took back the parking pass.  While I was there, one of the sisters in our Branch, Sister Kara Alan, wanted a parking pass for this weekend and there were no more left.  We saw her as we were walking back to our apartment and found out that she needs the parking pass for Saturday night so we can share the one that I obtained for Glenna for Friday night.  We will get it to her on Saturday morning after we return from having Christmas breakfast with mom and dad Senior at their ward building.  Here are pictures of us with Elder Slack who is going home next week.   

After the leadership meeting, we went to the Church History Museum and toured the exhibit on Sisters for Suffrage about the history of women and the right to vote in Utah.  This is a brief summary about the exhibit. “Celebrating 150 years since Utah women became the first in the nation to vote under an equal suffrage law, this exhibition highlights the pioneering role of the Relief Society in the local and national woman suffrage movements. Intriguing historical artifacts, interactive kiosks, and hands-on activities for children make this exhibit an engaging experience for visitors of all ages. Come and learn the inspiring stories of Latter-day Saint women who organized to secure and defend women’s rights in Utah and across the nation!”  Here is a link to see more information.  Below are several pictures from the exhibit.

45 star flag between 1896 with Utah Statehood and 1907 when a new state was formed

We attended the Book of Mormon class at 6pm with President Fenn.  He asked the missionaries to share favorite scriptures about Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon.  It was an enjoyable, uplifting and spiritual meeting.  Here are a few scriptures that were shared.  Moroni 7:41, 1 Nephi 15: 21-24, 2 Nephi 31:20 “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.”, 2 Nephi 25:24-26.  Verse 26 is our scripture for our prayer meetings for this month.  “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”

While we were relaxing in our apartment, Sister Tolman’s sister Marn called and she and her husband Mike were at Temple Square with some of the YSA ward members (Mike is the Bishop) and they called to see if they could stop by for a short visit.  It was fun to have them visit.  Here is a picture.

Mike and Marn Coles and Sister Tolman

Tuesday Dec 10

I completed some City Creek Branch work first thing in the morning including sending the weekly bulletin to the mission office for copying for our Sunday meeting.  Later in the morning, I helped Don Attridge.  Several weeks ago, I found a cousin to add to the tree and left three siblings for him to add as well.  I showed him where to find the ancestor and helped him add the additional family members.  He had seven baptisms and confirmations to complete at the temple and them complete some Initiatory ordinances.  He will be here next week and then will have a difficult time making it to the library as those who give him rides from Tooele come in to work at or attend the Salt Lake Temple and the temple will close the end of December.

I helped several people with minor things such as finding a book or using the book scanner.  I helped a member, Sister Thomas, whom I have helped before.  The had a question that I couldn’t quite figure out and when she showed me the problem, I was able to help her.  She had found a “Record Hint” that was attached to someone else.  I showed her what needed to be done and that was to resolve a duplicate record for this person.  Just as we were leaving for the day and it was past time as I was walking past a women, I saw her looking at the WW II draft registration card for a family member.  She thought she downloaded it to her flash drive, but I noticed she did something wrong.  I sat down and made sure that she completed the download correctly as otherwise she would have returned home and not had this document downloaded in the correct format.

I helped a missionary Sister Malie who works in the JSMB and is from Tonga.  She was having trouble accessing her account. She had turned the caps lock ON.  Once she logged on, she was looking for ancestors who needed temple work.  One end of line ancestor needed corrections made.  The more I looked at her tree, the more problems I found. I suggested that she give me access to her tree as a “Helper” so I could see what I could do to help her. I spent some time on Friday documenting the parts of her tree that need some attention. She will come back next Tuesday afternoon and we will continue working on her tree.  She attends the temple every week so I suggested that for now she complete names given to her by the temple.

Sister Tolman helped Karen and Gordon Graff who are Ward Temple and Family History Consultants in their ward in Eastern Washington State.  They had a lot of questions about what they should be doing and she helped them out a lot.  I spent some time helping Karen and showed her how to look for possible problems on FamilyTree.  We looked at her tree and I showed her the indications that show possible problems that need to be corrected.  We found two problem areas.  I showed her how to use the “Action List” to follow-up and correct these problems if she didn't want to correct them now.  I also helped her submit a case to have some temple information corrected for her sister.

I had a very enjoyable visit with Sister Noelani Webster Maleaki.  She thanked me for the encouragement and help that I had given her recently after she had a disagreement with her son. I gave her some suggestions and these really helped her.  It has been a very enjoyable part of my mission to become friends with Noe and visit with her and provide help.

Wednesday Dec 11

We attended our prayer meeting at 7:30am and Sister Tolman led the music. 

I noticed a record hint for a cousin’s family, Francis (992M-KM3) and Mary Duncan.  This was the 1891 Scottish Census for the family.  I was able to add one son and identify the birthplace for another son resulting in two new additions to cousins needing temple work.  The Duncan family descends from George Mercer Kerr’s grandfather George Kerr.

Sister Tolman asked me to help Leslie Cone who is from Denver.  She has done a lot of research and wanted to use data from her ancestry.com tree to add to FamilySearch.  She had already uploaded a GEDCOM file from ancestry.com to FamilySearch but didn’t know where to find it and what to do.  I showed where it was located and then found out what her main goal was.  She wanted to put enough information in the tree so her grandchildren could learn more about their ancestors.  I helped her use the capabilities on FamilySearch to add and compare.  I figured out how to added living people using RootsMagic and she completed the additions.  She was very grateful for the help. 

I helped a church member Brother Hodge who wanted to check on some information for one of his ancestors.  He had trouble logging on to his account due to a long and complicated password.  Rather than reset his password since he has the password written down at home, I signed on to his account as a “Helper” using his username and helper number and he was able to get done what he needed to do.

One of our former Shalimar Ward members stopped by for a visit – Sharon Hawley.  She flew up for the day from Phoenix to attend the Salt Lake Temple and stopped by the library for a visit.  Here we are.

Elder and Sister Tolman, Sharon Hawley

I worked on the Tier 2 Library training module and completed some of the Guest Interaction training.

We went to mom and dad Seniors for a visit and talked to Becky.

Thursday Dec 12

We talked to Laura this morning and had a good visit with her.  We asked her to give our oldest granddaughter Aspen a hug for us as she will be graduating from Angelo State University in Texas this Saturday.

I went to the mission office in the JSMB this morning to pick up the parking pass for Glenna and Lori.  Glenna stopped by around 11:30am to pick of the pass.

Ira Gentry texted this morning and I called him back.  He stopped by a apartment for a visit. He showed me his new vehicle which is a 2006 Chevy Suburban that is in really good shape.  He shared more about the accident that he had just before Thanksgiving.  He was driving to Arizona and ended up taking US 89A from Kanab to Jacobs Lake and then on down the mountain to connect to US 89.  On the way down from Jacobs Lake he encountered a very slick area on the highway that was not visible due to a shadow from the mountain.  He lost control of his Suburban and it ended up smashed down on the top.  He was hanging down still restrained by his seatbelt. It was a miracle that he was not hurt.  He was able to get out and go up the highway to warn other drivers and as a result no one was hurt.  Soon after they closed the road.  Here is a picture of the car after the accident.  

A tow truck took the vehicle to Kanab and from there he was able to get a ride home,   Here is a picture of Ira with his new vehicle.  It was good to get a chance to visit.  We have been friends since I started visiting him in December 2007.  

Friday Dec 13

The day started out with a lot of texting among our girls about the events of the weekend with our grandson Matthew coming home late today from his mission and our granddaughter Aspen graduating from college on Saturday.

We attended the temple this morning as Sister Tolman wasn’t up to attending yesterday.  We attended the 8am Endowment session and it was almost full.  We were surprised that the there were so many people there until we remembered it was Friday and not Thursday and that lots of people are visiting the Salt Lake Temple before it closes.

I helped woman with scanning pictures of her husband’s father who just passed she wants to give them to her husband.  She was amazed at how quickly we were able to scan all the pictures.

Ira Gentry came into the library while I was helping a young woman try to find her family.   Sister Tolman found a replacement for me and I checked with Ira to see what help he needed. He was at the library with his son Garrett and partner Jason to see what we could find out about Jason’s family.  We found some information about his grandfather including his grandfather’s birth certificate.  He was excited with what he found and may set up a familysearch account later.  I logged on to Ira’s account as a helper and showed Garrett what was there for him as Ira had added his children and his wife Lynn’s information.

Bruce McOmber came in the library and I showed him some pictures of the Garden Park Ward dinner from last night.

We left the library early just before 7pm as we were able to attend the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert.  My sister Glenna had tickets and was unable to attend so she gave us the tickets.  The performance was spectacular and we had really good seats. The theme for the concert is “An American Home Christmas” featuring music, dance, storytelling and visual effects. Kelli O’Hara has a beautiful voice and we enjoyed Richard Thomas’ narrations.  The parts that I enjoyed the most were “The Hallelujah Chorus, from Messiah”, Mashing through the Snow with Richard Elliot and Cold Creek (a local bluegrass band), and the closing number “Angels from the Realms of Glory”.  Here is a link with more information including a two-minute extract of some of the music and a lot of pictures.  Link

Here are a couple of pictures plus a copy of the program and one of our tickets.

We ended staying up late and were able to see a short video and picture of our grandson Matthew Glen Griffith when he arrived at the airport at just after 11pm.  Here is a link for the video that our daughter Michelle recorded when he first arrived to greet his family.  Elder Matthew Griffith greets his family

Saturday Dec 14

We went to mom and dad Senior’s ward this morning for a Christmas Breakfast starting a 9am.  It snowed this morning so we picked them up just after 8:30am and took them to their ward building.  We enjoyed visiting and a breakfast of ham, eggs, breakfast casseroles, sweet rolls and juice.  Before we left their house, I shoveled their ramp and driveway so they could get to the car easier.

Soon after arriving at the library at 1pm we tuned into our granddaughter Aspen Lynne Will’s university graduation.  It was fun to have most of our daughters tuned in to the graduation that was broadcast over YouTube.  We were so excited to participate in the graduation and see Aspen walk up and receive her diploma.  Here is a link to a short video shared by our daughter Christina.  Video Link.

Aspen receiving her diploma 

A picture of Aspen on her graduation day

Helped a member couple, Lon and Lily Child, who are visiting the library today.  They live near Ogden, Utah.  He had a question about a man who was his grandmother’s second husband.  Both men had the same last name and he had heard that they were brothers.  We checked both of their trees and found out that they were first cousins. 

I helped a man with the document scanner.  He was just finishing and I noticed that most of the documents that he scanned were upside down or otherwise needing to be straightened out.  He was going to scan some slides so while he scanned the slides, I corrected his 143 documents and copied them to his flash drive.

At 8:30pm two friends came to the library.  One was Hannah from Florida her friend was from Colorado.  Sister Tolman and I were able to help them get started with their family trees.  They plan to come back to the library on Sunday between 1 and 5pm before they go home.

Input from Sister Tolman for the week

This has been an interesting week.  I am grateful for youtube and Facebook, though I didn’t know if I ever really would be.  This week because of youtube and Facebook we saw Matthew return from his mission and his mom hug him.  I understand what a special feeling that can be.  We also watched as Aspen walked across the stage as she graduated from College.  We are so very proud of these two grandchildren for their accomplishments.   This makes me think of the amazing children and grandchildren that we have.  There have been many programs, concerts, finals and other things that have happened recently that our grandchildren have been a part of and we are sorry that we have missed so many things.  Coming up is the birthday party for Jaylin.  It is so hard to believe that she is a year old already.

Anyway back to the week.  I help a lady in the library on Friday and she was so excited about everything that she had found and was excited to do more but wasn’t sure how she was going to do this at home.  I spent a fair amount of time helping her with the workings of FamilySearch / FamilyTree and then showed her places she could look to get help.  After we were through with this she asked me a question.  She said I know that you are Mormons and I know about genealogy but I don’t understand why this is important to you.  We talked about this for a while and other things came up that she also wanted to know the answers to.  One of the things that came up was the Book of Mormon and I asked her if she would like a copy and she said she would so I went back into the office and got her one.  She said she had to leave because she had gotten two tickets to the concert and a young man had been very kind to her and she knew he was in the standby line and she wanted to go and give him one of the tickets.  I thought this was very sweet.

The concert was amazing and the during the first part I couldn’t help but think back to McClintock High School and how our girls used to come down into the audience at the end when you sang Song of Mary.  The Tabernacle Choir did it differently because they came from the back of the conference center and walked up to their seats holding battery lit candles.  They wound around and ended up in their seats just as the song was coming to an end.  It was very impressive and there is no real way to describe it.

There was a lady that I met today and she was fulfilling a wish on her dad’s bucket list.  He had always wanted to see the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program and they had gotten tickets this year.  She was here from Dallas and fulfilled his dreams.