December 29 - January 4 - Sunday to Saturday

Just after Christmas I received a composite photo showing me with my two grandmothers helping me with my research at the Family History Library.  Sister Tolman received a similar picture with her great grandparents on her mother's side.

Marion Adeline Belnap, Elder Tolman, Lora Elizabeth Hatch

Sister Tolman with her great grandparents Olive Louise Corner Harris and Daniel Hanmer Vincent

Sunday Dec 29

We enjoyed Music and the Spoken Word at the Conference Center.  The Christmas décor is still up for this week.  

Today was my last Sacrament meeting as Branch President.  I conducted the meeting and Sister Tolman led the music.  The branch presidency will be changed next Sunday.

I talked to my brother Byron and we jointly decided that it would not be a good idea to travel to Jensen to visit them.  The weather would be OK traveling on Tuesday but six inches of snow is predicted for Wednesday and more on Thursday so the trip back to Salt Lake might be difficult.

Sister Tolman fixed chuck wagon stew and homemade muffins for dinner which we took out to the Seniors for dinner.  The food was really good and I had two bowls of stew and three muffins. We played a game of Five Crowns with them.  We hadn’t played a game with them for a while and it was enjoyable.  Sister Tolman pulled out the win when I got over 50 points on the last round to lose my 30 point lead.

Monday Dec 30

We walked out the door this morning to go to the morning devotional and it was snowing. With as cold as it has been the snow was sticking to the sidewalk and street.  After the devotional we went to the third floor in the JSMB and Sister Tolman submitted a book she has finished to get printed by the church printing office in the Church Office Building.  The book was printed and she picked it up on Tuesday.  It looks really good so she is working on additional ones to submit as well.  

I am resting today to work on getting over a cold that started on Saturday evening.  I started feeling better but that did not last as the cold turned worse overnight.  I have been taking a vitamin supplement titled “Airborne”.  They are chewable tablets and have helped Sister Tolman when she starts getting a cold. This is the first cold that I have had during our entire mission.  The side effects lasted until Thursday with runny nose, coughing and chest congestion, etc. We have been extremely blessed health wise during our mission.  Since I didn't go back to work in the library until Thursday evening, I had plenty of time to rest and recover from the cold’s side effects.  I really needed the time.

Lynne talked to her brother David and I talked to Ira Gentry who plans to visit the library on Friday.  I also talked to Byron again and based on my cold and the projected snowstorm on Wednesday and Thursday, we decided it didn’t make sense to travel out to see him.  This was a good decision as my cold turned worse on Tuesday and both Byron and Peggy got sick on Tuesday night.  It looks like we will have to wait for another time to visit them in Jensen.

We took inventory in our apartment to make sure we have all the items that we are supposed to leave behind when we go home and we do.  We turn in this list to the mission on Monday.

I attended my last branch leadership meeting at 3pm.  We have a couple of items to follow-up on.  Here is a picture of the Branch Presidency.  It has been so good working with these two men and also coordinating our efforts with the Relief Society leaders as we meet with them weekly.  

Elder James Challis (1st C), Elder Tolman (Pres), Elder Don Olsen (2nd C)

Tuesday Dec 31

We needed to venture out of the apartment at least for a little while as we were going a little stir crazy staying in the apartment all day.  We wanted to see the lights on Temple Square one more time and this is the last night.  So just before 6pm as went entered Temple Square we remembered that there was devotional in the Tabernacle.  It was geared toward young adults but we still enjoyed the message which encouraged us to receive personal revelation in our lives.   

We went to the JSMB for a short time where they had a band playing music from our era.  We enjoyed listening but didn’t feel like dancing.   

Dance floor and dance band on the main floor in the JSMB

We took a few last minute pictures of the lights around Temple Square.  

The reflecting pool just East of the Temple

We went to bed just before midnight and got up and watched some fireworks from our window. See picture.  

I was coughing a lot so Sister Tolman slept on the couch in the living room. In the morning about 5:30 am I noticed she was back in bed and I started coughing again so I went in on the couch.

Wednesday Jan 1

Happy New Year.  It snowed some in the morning.  We stayed in the apartment all day as I didn’t feel like going anywhere and Sister Tolman had a headache.  We had planned to go to mom and dad Seniors for part of the day today but they didn’t need to catch my cold.  Since I rested and slept off and on all day Sister Tolman thought that I would not be able to sleep overnight.  I slept all night and didn’t get out of bed until 8am Thursday morning.

I have been reading volume 6 (the last book) of Gerald Lund book series “Fire and Steel”.  It is titled “Into the Flames”.  I am over half through and still have just under 300 pages left.  Read more about this book at this link.

I reserved temple work for two cousins who just turned 110 years old.  One was John Affleck whose birthday was December 30, 1909.  He is my third cousin on my mother’s side.  The other one, Gladys Agett, is a sixth cousin on my grandma’s side (Lora Elizabeth Hatch).  She is the spouse of Irving Vick. I did a lot of research on the Vick family in November. 

I reviewed the Carolyn Perry / William White family whom I researched some recently.  Carolyn Perry is a second cousin of my ancestor John Perry (KWVW-GSF) who joined the church in 1840 at Benbow farm in England and was baptized by Wilford Woodruff.  I found another son of theirs (William White) and added him to the tree as well some descendants of their daughter Charlotte.   Here is a picture that shows what I found this week as I had a lot of time to research between naps as I recovered from the cold. 

Thursday Jan 2

I am feeling much better today.  It looks like my cold is close to being over.  We went food shopping today.  We didn’t buy much, just milk, orange juice and bread.  Our focus now on food is to eat what we have left.  Anything groceries worth saving when we leave on January 22 goes to mom and dad Senior.  I felt tired about 4pm or so and took a nap.  Sister Tolman woke me out of a deep sleep at 5:30pm as we needed to go to the library for our 6 to 9pm shift.

I started working on putting together information for the new branch president.  I found out that he was looking for me on our floor earlier.  I got the paperwork together that I need to give to him.  I heard one of our missionaries Sister Park as she was helping a guest and I gave her a suggestion which she thanked me for later in the evening.  The person knew the name of her great grandfather so I suggested that they start out trying to find information about him.  Sure enough, that worked.  He was already on the tree with his wife and children so they were able to connect this part family to her immediate family.

I thought that I wouldn’t be busy during our shift but I spend up until about 8:45pm helping guests.  I was assigned along with Elder Park to help a couple and their two children.  I helped the father and his son.  The teenage son Zev did the data entry and his father Brock Benjamin knew some about his family.  They are from El Paso, Texas.  With some work we connected to an area on his tree where a lot of research had been done and we were able to go back to ancestors immigrating in the 1700’s.   We found a 1910 census that might be his ancestor so we printed that out and he will check with his father to see if it is.  I showed them the Help function and where to get find a local Family History Center in El Paso when they get home.

I also helped Sister Mee (maiden name Wolfgramm).   Her heritage if Tongan.  I helped her fix some problems on her part of FamilyTree and helped her request the temple work for her husband’s deceased brother.  Her husband doesn’t use the computer so he couldn’t reserve the work himself.  When we were looking at her husband’s family, I was amazed to see that he was one of twenty-four children all born in Tonga and all born to the same parents.

Friday Jan 3

We were both feeling well enough that we decided to attend the temple.  We went back and forth between doing sealings or endowments and decided to attend the 9am Endowment session at the Bountiful Temple.  The session was about half full but when we left the temple, the parking lot was full and we had a hard time getting past all the people congregated around the entrance waiting for weddings to complete.

We stopped by the state capital building to take some pictures of the snow covered Oquirrh Mountains. 

Sister Tolman got her British pin today.  She now has earned her purple and blue pins, plus the US & Canada pin and the British pin.  Congratulations!!  Here is a picture.  

I was able to help several guests with items such as finding a book that was available only on microfilm at the library, finding a 1850 US Census record on FamilySearch that she had found on ancestry.com, answering several questions about ancestry.com features and what resources are available at the local Family History Centers at church buildings. 

I met with the missionary who will be sustained as the new branch president at Sunday’s Sacrament meeting.   I emailed him the key documents that I use to keep track of branch responsibilities.

Spent time helping my friend Ira Gentry with his family history.  Somehow he ended up on the second floor in the library looking for me for about 30 minutes until he asked someone where I was and they said on the next floor up.

The last person that I helped was Danielle from California.  She is in her 20's and is here with her boyfriend and his family (total of six).  She had started an account earlier but wasn’t making much program.  She had entered living ancestors including some born before 1940 but had not put dates and places in the standard formats so she was not getting any record hints.  I showed her how to make these corrections and then after a phone call from her mother where she got some more information, we were able to make some excellent progress on finding more family members and associated historical records for them. They left about 7:45pm as they had an 8pm dinner reservation at the JSMB.  After they left, I noticed Danielle had left a small picture of her and her boyfriend.  I immediately left to try to catch up with them which I was able to do and returned the photo. 

Saturday Jan 4

We started out at the library at 7:45am as this is our early shift Saturday working from 7:45 am until 5pm.  I had the spiritual thought and talked about the importance of asking questions and always learning.  I showed those who attended how the home page at FamilySearch.org before signing in has some excellent overview information.  None of the missionaries had looked at more than what shows on the screen where they sign into their accounts.  

Right now what shows first is information about RootsTech 2020.  

 - Right below is an option titled “Learn about your family” where you can find information about an ancestor without logging on to FamilySearch.  

 - The next section is “Discover your family’s story through historical records".  

 - The next section is titled “Find your family in the world’s largest shared family tree".  

 - The last section is “The Family Tree app connects you with your ancestors wherever you are”.  

Just scrolling down the home page gives an excellent introduction to Family Search.

I spent a lot of time helping individuals with various requests.  One couple was here looking to connect with the Mayflower group.  I helped several women here wanting to be able to join DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).  The DAR had a training meeting today for individuals wanting the join.  I made myself available to answer questions and helped a lot of people with questions from printing, scanning, downloading and uploading documents, etc.

I helped a member from Tooele, Julie.  Actually she lives in Lakepoint where my sister Glenna lived for a while.  She is wanting to join DAR.  I showed her how to use the Research Wiki on Family Search as she had some questions about finding a death certificate in California.  I showed her the Help Center and I showed her which partners she had accessed.  She had her ancestry account but wanted to get a Myheritage account.  I showed her how to get the free account and I asked her if she had previously set up an account which she said she didn’t.  It turns out she had tried a free trial some years ago.  We recovered her password and then I showed her how to convert her account to a free account.  She thanked me for all the help.