January 12 - 18 - Sunday to Saturday

Sunday Jan 12

We woke up to snow this morning.  I enjoyed throwing a few snowballs and enjoying the scenery.  

You can see the snow on the Salt Lake Temple

 

These snow covered cacti are in the median on West Temple Street

We enjoyed Music and the Spoken Word.  What a blessing this has been during our mission to attend each week.  We have one more week to attend.  The men wore their white jackets and the women wore light blue.  See the contrast in colors in the picture below.

We enjoyed dinner at mom and dad Seniors and then looked at some family pictures that they had on several CD’s.  Sister Tolman brought them home and then copied them to her computer on Monday.

Monday Jan 13

We woke up to snow this morning and it snowed until early afternoon.  We attended the Monday morning devotional.  At the end, our names as well as the names of the other departing missionaries were read and we all stood as we sung the closing song “God Be With You”.  We shed a few tears as we sang this song for the last time in our mission.  Sister Tolman took a few pictures of some of our missionary friends.

We decided to stay in the apartment and do some more cleaning and packing.  We were going to go out but with the continued snow we decided that we could wait until Thursday,

Our Book of Mormon class with President Fenn was very inspiring tonight.  This was our last class and we will miss these classes very much.  The focus of the class was on the prophet Mormon and the chapter titled “Mormon”.  There are similarities between Mormon and Joseph Smith.  Both received their callings at a young age with Joseph Smith receiving the visitation of the Father and the Son when he has 14 and Mormon being called by Ammaron when he was 10 and later seeing the Lord when he was fifteen. 

Mormon chapter 1:1-4 “ And now I, Mormon, make a record of the things which I have both seen and heard, and call it the Book of Mormon.  And about the time that Ammaron hid up the records unto the Lord, he came unto me, (I being about ten years of age, and I began to be learned somewhat after the manner of the learning of my people) and Ammaron said unto me: I perceive that thou art a sober child, and art quick to observe;  Ammaron then told Mormon that he should begin writing a history of the people on plates starting when he was twenty-four.

At age 15 Mormon states that he had tried to preach to the people but was forbidden because of the hardness of their hearts.  He also stated that the Lord had visited him.  Mormon chapter 1: 15 “And I, being fifteen years of age and being somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus.

At age 16 Mormon became the leader of the armies of the Nephites.  He continued as their leader and had hope that the people would change but they were sorry that they could not find happiness in sin.  He loved the people and truly mourned for them as they eventually were all killed except for Mormon’s son Moroni. 

President Fenn noted that Mormon thought he was finishing the Book of Mormon when he wrote Mormon chapter 7 as he testified of the importance of the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  Moroni then write Mormon 8 and 9 and thinks that he has finished the record and later Moroni writes the books of Ether and Moroni.

President Fenn noted the literary skills that Mormon had in his writing.   For example Mormon 4:18 `”from this time forth did the Nephites gain no power over the Lamanites, but began to be swept off by them even as a dew before the sun.”

He listed four reasons that the Nephites could no longer prevail over the Lamanites.  
  1) They went on the offensive instead of defending themselves,
  2) They boasted of their own strength,
  3) They willfully disobeyed, and
  4) They delighted in shedding blood.  
In chapter 6, Mormon mourns the loss of his people starting in verse 17. ”O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!”

President Fenn closed with his testimony on the Book of Mormon and the prophet Mormon and all he did to bring us this great book.

Tuesday Jan 14

We were actually early to our prayer meeting this morning.  It was warmer at 7:30 am than at 12:15 pm when we went back to the apartment.  Our appointment with President Fenn for our exit interview is changed from today to the Wednesday morning before we leave.

I helped several people in morning including Shirley from Alabama.  I helped her get her laptop connected to the library WiFi and then checked back with her.  The computer wasn’t displaying properly for another guest and I managed to get the files transferred to her flash drive and then I had her move to another computer.  I re-booted the computer she was using and it then worked correctly. 

I helped a couple who were working with the triple monitor computers get set up and working.  I helped Lee Terry and his wife who were missionaries with us get setup on the photo scanner.  I later helped Sister Terry with some questions on printing on tagging documents and photos on FamilySearch.  I spent about an hour working with an older man who wanted to printout some of his shared family names so he could have some ward members complete sealings.

I showed another woman how to use the dual screen computers and then showed her how to view her ancestors using the Descendancy view from an ancestor born about 1600.  She was really excited to see this view and I showed her how she could print this as well.  I helped one of our Zone Leaders, Sister Stenberg fix a few minor errors on her tree.

It really started snowing so I contacted my siblings and we reschedule our dinner to Thursday evening.  Here is a view of the Temple taken this afternoon,

Wednesday Jan 15

We attended the mission conference from 7:30 to 8:30am in the JSMB chapel.  The speaker was David Rencher, the director of the Family History Library and Chief Genealogist for FamilySearch.  It was enlightening to see how far we have come in the last 125 years and where we are going.

Elder and Sister Anderson (taken after the mission conference)

I helped a lot of people today with various tasks from adjusting photos using the photo scanner, learning to use the multi-screen work stations, adjusting the height of the new desks, scanning a colorful journal using the book scanner, printing and saving colorful fan charts showing the birth country of their ancestors.  I really enjoy being able to help people with various questions.  I said goodbye to my Tolman cousin Marie Kartchner who visits the library every Wednesday.  

Elder Tolman and Marie Kartchner 

One man wanted to enlarge a copy of a newspaper article about an ancestor.  Our copy machine doesn’t do that so I had another idea.  I copied the article using the photo scanner and we uploaded the digital image to his Gallery on FamilySearch and attached it to the ancestor.  I showed him how he could enlarge the image on-line and read it easily.  He thanked me and said that I went above and beyond helping him. 

I helped Elder and Sister Malie who are Polynesian and missionaries serving in the JSMB.  He is from Hawaii and she is from Tonga and their current home is in Orem.  I helped her with her temple list and then we connected Elder Malie’s ancestors to Sister Malie’s tree.

At the end of the shift Paula (I helped her last week) came up and shared an exciting find that she had made while attending SLIG this week.  She had discovered a newspaper article which documented the unusual travel that he had made just before he died.

We held our Zone going away social from 3 to 4pm for the missionaries leaving this month.  We enjoyed some food including cheese and crackers, veggies and treats.  We were both recognized and given certificates and cards signed by the missionaries.  It was hard to saw goodbye to so many missionaries who have become good friends.  Earlier today Sister Cluff fell at the library and broke her arm.  She and Elder Cluff went to the Emergency Room and had her arm put in a cast.  They were there for about four hours and returned to the library to be at the going away social to be able to see us.  They are true friends.  We shed a few tears and shared hugs.  

Sister Tolman, Sister Godfrey, and Sister Chabries  

Elder & Sister Tolman with the other missionaries leaving this month

David Young who is an employee in the library.  Shared the following email.  “Dear Elder and Sister Tolman, Thank you for your excellent service to the Family History Library.  It has been a pleasure to know you and learn from you.  Your feedback has been invaluable this past year.  Thanks so much for all that you have done to make the library a better place! Take care and congratulations on an honorable release!   David”

Here are our certificates.

Thursday Jan 16

We attended the 8am Endowment session at the Bountiful Temple.  This was our last temple session during our stay in Utah.  Next week we plan to attend a session at the Las Vegas Temple on Thursday afternoon.

Elder Tolman went to lunch with his Garden Park Ward friends and Sister Tolman went to lunch with her sister Jayne and Marn at the Nauvoo Café.  It has been good to spend time with family and friends as an added blessing to our missionary service at the Family History Library.  We didn’t realize the friendships that we would develop with those with whom we serve.

We enjoyed dinner at the Sizzler Restaurant at 13th East and 21st South with Elder Tolman’s siblings.  We got there early and had a table for eight arranged.  We enjoyed good food and good company for a couple of hours.  It was really good to visit one more time before we leave next week.  Here are a couple of pictures.  

Lori Neilson, Sister Tolman, Gerri & Dave Coombs, JoAnne & Craig Barlow, 

Elder Tolman, Glenna Neilson  

Friday Jan 17

We woke up to another snowstorm this morning and it continued to snow most of the morning.  Here is a picture of our car covered with snow and it is under covered parking.

We continued working on getting ready for our move.  We need to take some more things to the swap meet area on Saturday morning. 

When we arrived at the library, one of the staff (Lynn Rasmussen) said she thought she saw my picture on the Rootstech website.  Sure enough my picture is there from when Sister Tolman and I worked last year.  Here is the link and below is the photo.  

Elder Tolman helping at the Cyber Cafe at Rootstech 2019

I helped a lot of individuals with a variety of tasks including using the books scanner several times, looking up information on the FamilySearch Catalog, finding where the books were located for a particular county and state, using the fan chart and descendancy view for ancestors rather than just the landscape view.  Linda from Seattle who has been here all week asked for help.  She was trying to read an on-line book and the browser wasn’t letting her read the pages.  I tried using a different browser (Firefox) and the display worked.  I then cleared the browsing history on the browser she was using (Chrome) and the display worked.

From 2 to about 3:30pm we had an interview with one of the Young Elders (Elder Malolo from Mesa).  He recorded our responses and thoughts on a variety of questions and topics.  We enjoyed remembering and sharing many of our experiences while serving here in the mission.

I spent some time talking to Bruce McOmber.  We looked at both our family trees including some family pictures.  I showed him the East High website that we used for the 50-year reunion.  He was interested in looking up information about our old classmates as we graduated in the same class.  I helped him get an account and he spent some time on the website before going back to looking at some family history books.

We took a picture with Elder Benton and the two of us.

As we were leaving, I said goodbye to Elder Hal Bradshaw as we won’t see them again.  He and his wife stopped by earlier and introduced their daughter who was visiting.  I have helped him with his personal Family History research.  When he and his wife first started (they are church service missionaries on the first floor), they attended our prayer meeting by mistake and I met him and ending up helping him learn how to do descendancy research and be able to find relatives to add to the tree.

Saturday Jan 18

Today is our last day working at the library.  The day started slowly at 8:00am.  Sister Tolman went back to the apartment at 9:00am to take our last batch of stuff to the swap meet area.

The floor got really busy by 9:00am and most of our workstations and tables were full of guests.  It is probably the most people that we have seen in the library at one time.  I helped a lot of different people with a lot of different tasks from using the photo scanners to checking the catalog to saving information to a flash drive to sharpening a pencil.

I will share just two with some detail.  An older woman needed help with using the three screen workstations.  I showed her how they worked and also increased the size of the cursor display on the mouse so she could navigate more easily.  She later came up to the desk and thanked me for helping her.  She said that this helped her find information and a certificate for which she had been searching for a long time. 

I helped cousins who were working to make some corrections on their tree.  They wanted to delete an

 ancestor from the tree and I showed them how to disconnect him instead.  We found what we thought was a duplicate of an ancestor and one of them said that the picture was of his brother.  After looking at this for a while we found out that someone had put the wrong name and the record we found was indeed the brother so we changed the name and updated the birth and death information so the tree now shows the two brothers.  I helped them for probably 30 minutes or so ant they thanked me for all the help.  They met through family history connections.  One is from Idaho and the other is from Minnesota.

Ira Gentry stopped by for one last visit and we were able to talk for about an hour or so.  It has been so good to be able to continue our friendship and visit regularly.  We will now need to continue our friendship with email and phone calls.  Here is a picture.  

Sister Porter took a picture of us to document our last day at the library.  Here it is taken at about 3:30pm.  As we left the library at just after 5pm it was really hard and we could not hold back the tears.  This has been a place where we have served the Lord for 18 months.  We have many wonderful memories of helping others and working with the other missionaries. 

Mark and Ilene Ethington invited us to dinner at the Garden Restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  They are my East High classmates and Mark is Sister Tolman’s uncle (Rowland Senior’s half brother).  The food was excellent and we enjoyed the conversation.  We have helped Mark and Ilene several times at the Family History Library. 

Mark & Ilene Ethington, Rowland & Lois Senior, Lynne & Glen Tolman