Friday Jan 24 - Sunday Jan 26

Friday Jan 24

We had a good sleep.  Unfortunately, it looks like I am getting another cold.   We decided to find somewhere close where we could walk to for breakfast as we didn’t want to take our fully loaded car into a public parking place in Las Vegas.  We ate an excellent breakfast at Denny’s and both of us were not able to eat all that was served but it will definitely keep us until dinner time.  

We left Las Vegas at 9:30am which is 10:30am Phoenix time.   We stopped at an viewpoint for an overlook of Lake Mead.

We stopped in Kingman for gasoline and then stopped in Wickenburg at the Dairy Queen for a Blizzard treat to hold us until dinner.  We continued to Phoenix and drove to our daughter Angie’s house and she shared dinner with us. It was so good to see Angie and Robert and their children. We hadn't seen Matthew since November 2017 just before he left on this mission.  We visited with them for about an hour. We had texted the couple who rented our home and they indicated that by 6pm we could be getting our belongings into the house.

We met the rest of the family at our home on Golf Ave at about 6pm and they helped us get unpacked.  It was good to see Michelle and Books and their four children, Becky, Julianna, Christina and Janny.  It was wonderful to see everyone. Here are a couple of pictures of all of us int he kitchen. 

Lynne, Christina, Becky, Julianna, Michelle, Savannah, Elizabeth, Brooks, Austin, Talia

 

Glen, Christina, Becky, Julianna, Janny, Savannah, Michelle, Elizabeth, Brooks, Austin, Talia

We unpacked enough to be able to make the bed and retire for the night.  Here are a couple of pictures of what was in the car and what was in the family room.

Glen and Lynne with all the stuff 

 The trunk was packed tight

The back seat was totally full as well

I contacted President Johnson and he indicated that about 3pm Saturday would work for missionary release.

Saturday Jan 25

Sister Tolman went food shopping first thing.  She has been planning what to get and where to go for about the past week. While she was gone, I got our desktop computer set up and connected the printer so we could print out any updates for our talks. 

We met with President Johnson at about 3:45pm for our release interview with him. We probably talked for about an hour. It was enjoyable to share the experiences of our mission with him and how we have grown and improved during our missionary service.  At the end of our meeting we heard the phrase “You are now officially released from your missionary service”.   This means we no longer get to wear our missionary badges.  Here is a picture with President Johnson with our missionary badges on last time.. 

Sister Tolman and Brother Tolman (just released as missionaries), President Johnson

We shared a book that Lynne put together of our mission with each of our children.. Mom and Dad Senior also have a copy. We will give Laura her copy when we see her next which will be soon.  The book is 110 pages with lots of pictures.  You can see the booklet at this link.

Sunday Jan 26
We spoke in Sacrament meeting in the Evergreen Ward.  Before speaking we were sustains as Ward Temple and Family History Leaders for the Evergreen Ward.  We are excited to continue to serve in Family History and Temple as we finish our mission.  We appreciate all the family and friends not in our ward who came to hear us speak. The Bishop gave us our missionaries plaque shown below.  After church we went to our daughter Janny's ward where I was able to ordain my grandson Elijah to the office of a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood.  These are followed by the text of our talks. 

Elijah following his ordination to a Teacher by his Grandfather - Glen K Tolman

Sister Lynne Tolman’s talk

It just dawned on me as I stood up that for the past 18 months we have been sitting listening to the Tabernacle Choir Broadcast.  Amazing how quickly things change.

We have had a wonderful mission with many great experiences.  We have missed being here.   It has been so good to see our family and they were so much help the night we arrived.  It is so good to be home. 

A little about the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission.  It has the second smallest mission boundaries in the church.  Smallest is temple square.  We surround temple square but we do not include it.  It is the largest mission as far as # of missionaries.  It has somewhere around 900.  This includes full time, church service and young elders.

                                                                                                                                                                                              

Church History Library (not museum) contains Historical papers, historical books and collections;

Church Office Building has many areas,

medical – dr.’s and nurses they do evaluations both physical and mental of all missionary submissions;

interpretation for VIP and world wide meetings;

Natural resources, land and mineral rights, oil, gas and water;

security;

humanitarian;

corrections-prisons;

senior missionary support;

the church owns 12 farms;

self reliance;

military and others.

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Data services which answer telephone questions about family search;

DIP Digital Image Processing which handle the images that come in from the 300 camera teams around the world;

The Roc which prepares the images for indexing;  

Support for the mission and training of new incoming missionaries

That description is for half of the mission

The other half of the mission is the Family History Library

After two weeks of training, we were assigned to where we would serve for our mission

W e were assigned to the FHL.  The library has five floors .  

  B2 is the British, which is England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia

  B1 is the international floor which covers Scandinavian countries, European countries, Asian countries and South American countries and other countries not listed

Each of these two floors has books, microfilm and microfiche and experts for the countries you are searching in.  Some areas very limited.

   Main floor is Discovery Floor.  They refer to this as the Disneyland floor because it is the floor where you can have fun with an I-Pad learning about you and if connected to your family your family.  You can record a story and take a picture and print out a 24 x 36 fan chart

  There are two US and Canada floors.  One of these floors has the microfilm, microfiche and readers.  The floor we served on had all of the books for these two countries.  There are 600,000 books in the library so there is probably something about the area your ancestors live.

That is a brief overview of our mission

We had the great opportunity of meeting many, many new and wonderful people.  Common statement “I don’t know why I am here, I wasn’t planning on doing this.”  Or My friends were here and said we should come here” or “the guy on the tour said not to miss this.”  We know that it was the spirit of Elijah that brought them through the doors because he is continuing the work he started with the vision in the Kirtland temple to Joseph Smith. 

Our Mission President said the purpose of our mission is found in Doctrine and Covenants 2:2 Where it states  “And he shall plant in the heart of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.”

We were given one day a week that was called our T & R day (Temple and Research day).  We were supposed to use this day to do our own research and attend the temple.  This was one of the things we were expected to do and found great joy in doing this.

We were blessed to have a great mission president that felt the importance of teaching the young Elders the truths of the Book of Mormon and we were privileged to be invited and learned many things and had our testimonies strengthened.

We also had the privilege of hearing from different general authorities including two apostles about the importance of the work we are doing.  In December in a combined Temple and Family History devotional both Elder Stephensen and Elder Bednar shared their testimonies of the importance of this work.  As you can tell from the calling we have received today we are being asked to help you find your place in being involved in this great work.  There are many ways to be a part of it.

About a month before returning home I talked to my husband and I also was talking to my brother and they both asked a similar question.  What have you learned on your mission? What are you taking home from your mission?

I have thought about this and here are some simple answers.

   I have learned that wearing this missionary name tag on the left side for 18 months has helped me imprint the name of my Savior Jesus Christ on my heart

   I have learned more about family history and FamilySearch.  I have added to my knowledge the ability to do better research and I know more and better how to look and help others do the same.

   I have learned that many people want to know how to do things but need help learning and we were able to guide them.

                                                                                                                                            I have learned compassion for others 

One evening two couples came into the library.  I was asked to help one of the women.  She started entering information and then asked if she could enter her brother.  She did and started to cry.  Her brother had been going to college when he was 18.  He and a group of friends were out one night and were killed when people in a car shot and killed four of the five of them.  It turned out this was a case of mistaken identity and those responsible are now paying the price but that didn’t help.  She said that she can’t even talk about him without crying.  We found a findagrave entry for him and she started to cry again.

I was prompted to show her my memories for our daughter Kim and how I am helping people to know her and the wonderful person that she was, and still is.  She was so excited about this.  She felt like ti would be a wonderful place to put memories of her brother, both stories and pictures.  She said it would help her to heal.  She said it would help her mother as well.  I can see that the spirit of Elijah was touching them in ways that they didn’t understand and I was grateful to be a part of this time in their lives.

I have learned to be more patient with people.

I have learned a little about boys. Since all we raised is girls this has been a big deal.   I have kind of been a guiding figure and a confidant to many of our young elders.  I have been blessed with a greater understand of disabilities both mental and physical.

I have learned to listen to the spirit better even though sometimes I didn’t realize it was the spirit guiding me.  I know I had that guidance on a regular basis as I helped people find their families

I am taking home an increased knowledge, understanding  and belief in the Atonement of Jesus Christ,  The doctrine of Christ and the Divine Sonship of our Savior,

I have been able to more fully understand how all that we have been taught is interwoven and hinge on each other.  There are other things but these are the most important

The Plan of Happiness or Salvation was put into place long before the earth was formed.  Part of that plan was The Atonement of which our Savior, Jesus Christ volunteered to be the one that performed this amazing task because of His great love for us.  It included the events of the evening starting in the upper room as He shared the sacrament with his apostles.  This was followed by His taking upon himself all of our sins and shortcomings, sorrows and all other frailties of any kind.  Next was the torture by the leaders of the government that was instigated by the religious leaders.  In the morning it was followed by the Crucifixion and days later by the Resurrection.  All of these things were a part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that He took upon Himself for us.

This is the basis for the Doctrine of Christ.

Sometimes we make it complicated.  If asked what would you say is the Doctrine of Christ?  You know it and have been reciting it since you were young.  It is the fourth article of faith with enduring to the end and keeping our covenants added to it.

First it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we strive to learn of our Savior we are exhibiting faith and we are doing what we can to be good, to be righteous.  As we continue this process our faith grows

It talks in Alma 32 about the planting of a seed.  We know that when you plant a seed it needs to be nourished with water and sunlight and other nutrients.

The same is true of our testimonies.  As we exhibit faith by study and prayer and reliance on our Heavenly Father our faith grows.

Bruce R McConkie said:

“ Faith is a gift of God  bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness.  It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God’s laws the greater will be the endowment of faith.”

Second is Repentance

As we develop faith our Heavenly Father will help us know what we need to change and repent of in our lives.  He will then help us to make those changes in whatever way we need to make them.  Each Sabbath day as we partake of the sacrament we are allowed a chance to view our lives and make the changes we need to make.   I have gained a greater appreciation for the sacrament as I have served.            

                                                                                                                                                     

Third is Baptism

Our Savior was baptized so that He could show us the example of what we need to do.  It is special to participate in the baptism of anyone who has a desire to make those covenants with our Savior.  This is the baptism by water that is spoken of in the scriptures

Fourth is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost

This is a more powerful gift and blessing than any of us can realize.  It is only as we continue faithfully in our lives that we see how truly powerful this gift is.  It is through this gift that we receive person revelation.  He has guided my hand many times on this mission and throughout my life.

The final aspect of the Doctrine of Christ is that we must endure to the end.  This doesn’t mean that we just hang in there.  It means that we do this with Love for our Savior that is shown by our actions.  We must continue to attend the temple and keep the covenants that we have made there.  We must minister as the Savior showed us.  We must love as He loved.  We must serve others as He wants us to.  The path may be different for each of us but following the Savior is the way to achieve our goal of Eternal Life.  As we follow the Savior and live as He wants us to and as we continue to keep the covenants we have made, we are better able to follow Him

In Mormon as he is closing out his final epistle he does so with these words.  Think of this in terms of what are the last things you would want to tell your children.

8 Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the ^agospel of Christ, ……

10……. and if it so be that ye believe in Christ, and are baptized, first ^bwith water, then with fire and with the Holy Ghost, following the ^cexample of our Savior, according to that which he hath commanded us, it shall be well with you in the day of judgment. Amen.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior.  I know that the things I have talked about today are true. I know the Book of Mormon has many plain and precious truths in it to help us in our daily lives.  I bear witness to the truth of these things and testify that they are true.  In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen

Brother Glen Tolman’s talk - Jan 26 in the Evergreen Ward

It is so great to be back home among ward members, family and friends.  The time passed quickly since we spoke in Sacrament meeting in July 2018 and started our service as we entered the Missionary Training Center on Monday July 30, 2018.  Our last day serving at the Family History Library was Saturday January 18th.  Leaving the library for the last time at 5pm in the afternoon was very emotional for us and we cried as we left and made our way back to our apartment.  We said goodbye to family, friends, and missionaries at various dinners and get togethers over the past two weeks. We now look forward to becoming acquainted with ward members, renewing friendships and spending time with our family.  We really enjoyed our mission together and recommend this experience to others when individual timing and circumstances are right for serving a full-time or a church service mission.

I will first talk about our Sabbath Day worship during the time we served in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission and then share some thoughts about the Gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil and share some experiences from our mission.

One important part of our membership in the church is to attend our Sunday meetings and keep the Sabbath Day Holy.   Question 8 from the Temple recommend interview states.  “Do you strive to keep the Sabbath day holy, both at home and at church; attend your meetings; prepare for and worthily partake of the sacrament..?”

During the time of our full-time missionary service our membership records stayed here in the Evergreen Ward.  So, where did we go to church while we served as missionaries?  In our mission, the mission presidency organized two branches and half the missionaries attended one branch and half attended the other depending on their assignments.  We met at 1pm each Sunday in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building located directly east of Temple Square.  The mission president holds the keys and a branch presidency is called to organize the Sunday meetings and a few other things.  I had the opportunity to serve as a counselor and then branch president for 14 of the 18 months we served.
    

During the four months that I served as branch president, we had three General Authorities visit our branch - Elder Devn Cornish, Elder Randy Funk, and President Dallin H Oaks.  We knew about Elder Cornish and Elder Funk but President Oaks’ visit was a surprise.  It was an enjoyable experience to sit right next to these brethren during our Sacrament meeting.

Since becoming our prophet just over two years ago President Russell M. Nelson has talked about staying on the covenant path and participating in the Gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil. 

On February 10, 2019 in the State Farm arena here in Arizona, President Nelson spoke to 65,000 people. “I have an invitation for you as the Arizona battalion of the Lord’s army to help gather Israel on both sides of the veil,” 

President Nelson posed the question of what the gathering of Israel looks like, then listed four examples.

• “As you work together to remodel your home into a sanctuary of faith — filled with learning together from the home-centered, Church supported curriculum — that is gathering Israel.
• “As you parents create experiences where your children can learn to feel the Spirit of the Lord — that is gathering Israel.
• “As you do family history, serve and worship in the temple, use your discretionary time to draw closer to Heavenly Father and to His Son and to help someone else do the same — that is gathering Israel.
• “As you help to strengthen the testimonies of others; as you repent and help others to repent; as you reach out in your communities and participate in worthy efforts to alleviate suffering — that is gathering Israel.

In his April 2019 General Conference address, Elder Quentin L Cook stated “When it comes to gathering Israel, we need to align our hearts with love and move away from feelings of mere responsibility or guilt to feelings of love and participation in the divine partnership of sharing the Savior’s message, ministry, and mission with the world.”  He continued “Love is … at the center of our temple and family history effort to gather Israel on the other side of the veil. When we learn of the trials and hardships our ancestors faced, our love and appreciation for them is magnified.” 

A little more than a year ago a team in the Family History Department was commissioned to develop a meaningful purpose statement.  This purpose statement has become very personal to me and is consistent with our involvement in the gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil.

“We create inspiring experiences that bring joy to all people as they discover, gather and connect their family, past, present and future.” 

The purpose is to bring joy to all people, not just members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  How do we bring joy to all people?  We do this as they discover, gather, and connect their family.  Not just their ancestors but those living and those yet to come.  Our ancestors come to life as we learn about them. 

Our family members and our descendants can find joy as they learn about us as we share our stories.  During our 18-month mission, I shared weekly blog entries with family and friends highlighting our experiences for the past week and Sister Tolman sent out regular emails.  She also recently put together and printed an illustrated history of some of our experiences. 

I would like to share a little about my third great grandfather John Perry.  I learned these details by reading stories that others put on John’s profile on FamilySearch.   John Perry was born in 1799 in Herefordshire, England.  In the early part of his life, he became a master carpenter, cabinet maker and wheel-wright.  He and his wife Grace Ann Williams belonged to a group known as the United Brethren.  This group of 600 people of whom John was one of the ministers prayed for light and knowledge.  Wilford Woodruff was led by inspiration to travel 80 miles south from Staffordshire to Herefordshire to visit this group at Benbow Farm and share the gospel with them.  Wilford spoke of the ensuing months in Herefordshire as one of the highlights of his life. He rejoiced in the revelation that called him there, always acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the rich spiritual harvest he helped gather. John was one of the first six baptized on March 8, 1840 after first hearing Wilford preach 3 days earlier.  John traveled to Nauvoo later that same year with his family and 200 others from the United Brethren.  He traveled West with the pioneers in 1847 and settled in Bountiful.  His life was not easy but he remained faithful.  He and Grace were the parents of nine children but only two, both daughters, lived long enough to marry and have children. All twenty of John and Grace’s grandchildren lived to maturity and married and had children.  John was called on a mission to England in 1852 and served faithfully. His life was cut short when he contracted cholera and died as he returned home from his mission in 1855.  His wife Grace then lived with their daughter Elizabeth Melissa Perry and Orin Hatch my great-great grandparents.

  

As part of our weekly assignments at the library, we have a half day set aside for temple attendance and for personal family history research.  I recently felt prompted to look for additional family members related to John Perry.  Since John had so many descendants who are members of the church, I had not thought previously that I would have success doing research in this family.   I looked at the descendants of John Perry’s grandfather.   I found grandchildren and great grandchildren of John’s second cousin Caroline Perry and her husband William White who had not been found and needed to be added to the tree.   In total I found about 20 people that I either added to the tree or reserved temple ordinances or both. 

During our mission I was continually blessed to find relatives to add to Family Tree and have temple work completed for them.  My brother and his wife are temple workers in the Vernal Temple in Utah.  They have helped me complete some of the needed temple work.  I like to share the work for an entire family with them so they can complete all the temple work from baptisms through sealings.

I have had the opportunity to help other missionaries in our mission have this experience of finding ancestors needing temple work done.  Early in our mission we attended a concert at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and we talked to a missionary couple, Elder and Sister Hendricks, who did not serve in the library but worked in the area that coordinates efforts preparing records for indexing. The subject same up about finding relatives for whom temple work is needed.  Sister Hendricks indicated that she had never had this experience.  I told her that I would help and invited her to come to the library when she didn’t have work in her assignment.  I found areas where family could be added and showed her how to continue and how to look for other areas on her family tree.  She was so excited when she came the next week to the library and shared with me that she had found ancestors to add to Family Tree and had started on completing their temple work.

  

Here is a note from the blog that I kept during our mission.

Tuesday Feb 12, 2019.  “I helped Don Clarke.  He is an Emeritus General Authority Seventy.  He and his wife live in Park City visit the library and then go to the Salt Lake Temple on Tuesdays.  He had a lot of questions about two people that he is helping in his ward which I was able to answer.  I showed him how to use the helper function on FamilySearch.  I had also done some research for him and shared what I found.  We made some corrections to a family and then added three children who died as infants.  I will help him more next Tuesday.  He and his wife visit the library on Tuesdays and then go to the temple. He thanked me for my help and said he would work on getting me a raise”.  I helped Elder Clark most weeks over the next five months.  He was the Temple and Family History Leader for his Ward and I helped him with lots of questions and gave him some suggestions.  I helped him learn how to use the “Ordinances Ready” feature in FamilySearch and he trained his ward temple and family history consultants on how to use this feature of providing an easier way for church members to get names to take to the Temple.

Here are other experiences that I recorded in my mission blog.

Nancy Johnson a young woman in her 20’s attends San Diego State University and visited the Family History Library in January of 2020 and like most of those who visit the library was not a church member.  She was able to find her ancestors with the help of another missionary.  I checked with her later to see how she was doing.   I helped her discover more about and connect to her family.  I showed her how the Fan Chart view of ancestors shows information at a glance about her family.  We entered the option to see the countries where her ancestors were born.  We then looked at the option to see which ancestors had Memories added.  Memories are photos, stories, documents and audio recordings.    We noticed one area where there were a lot of memories.  We discovered that this couple lived in England.  The father died in 1852 and the mother worked and was able to bring her family to Utah and settle in Manti in 1857.  She had heard about having ancestors who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but didn’t know about them.  She really admired this woman for her efforts to take care of her family even though her husband had died. Here we see the principle of discover, gather and connect with family.

In September 2018 a Filipino couple visited the library.  Their names were Mario and Remy.  They wanted to find out more about their parents who were born in the Philippines but were involved in World War II.  I wasn’t hopeful that we would find out very much.  Mario told me that his father fought in WW II and after that he came to the United States.  It was amazing what we found. He didn’t know his father was in the US prior to the start of World War II. We found his father’s military records as he joined the US Army during the war.  We also found him living with his brother on the 1940 US census.  This was a total surprise to Mario as he found out he lived in the United States before WW II.  Sister Tolman found information about Remy’s family.  I was really amazed that we were able to find so much about their families.  

 In October 2018, I helped a man, Luis, who is a truck driver based in Florida.  His family comes from Puerto Rico and moved to New York City.  I prayed that we might find something that would connect him to his family.  He knew most about his father’s side.  His father was born in 1926 in Puerto Rico along with a twin sister.  His grandmother died at their birth along with the twin sister.  We added as much to his tree as he could remember and installed the FamilyTree and Memories apps on his mobile phone as this is what he will use most since he is on the road so much with his job as a truck driver.  We did some searching and finally found information about his grandfather. We found him on the website findagrave.com.  This findagrave memorial showed the headstone in a military cemetery on Long Island in New York.  As soon as he looked at the headstone he remembered going there as a child.  I think I detected a tear or two when he realized that we found information about his grandfather.  He plans to talk to his parents and a cousin when he gets back to Florida to learn more about his family and to get some pictures to add to FamilyTree.  Luis is carrying his family tree with him as he had the FamilyTree app installed on his smartphone.

I will close with a message from President Nelson shared in the April 2018 General Conference, “Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.”

I testify that as we attend the temple regularly, our lives will be blessed.  I testify that the sealing power was restored to the earth in 1836 by the prophet Elijah.  I testify that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration.  I know that he translated the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God and that reading and pondering this book daily will help keep us on the covenant path.  Russell M Nelson is the Lord’s prophet today.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  We have a loving Heavenly Father.  I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.