Well another week is in the books and we learned some new things.
Monday we were both feeling better so we went into the library in the morning. We did the basic stuff and attended a meeting and then went to host the escape room for a group of youth that was coming in to tour the library. We had a blast with them, giving them clues and helping them to try to get the puzzles solved. One of the things they have to learn to use is one of these old time microfilm readers. It’s fun watching the young kids try to figure it out. We have learned that these young kids have no clue about old technology. One of the other things they have to use is a cassette tape player. One group had a girl that called it a vhs player. One of the boys in the other group called it a record player. Hilarious. After helping three groups go through he escape room we got to go home, a little later than usual. Mom was starting to feel tired out, but we hung in there and actually attended our apartment-wide FHE before heading to bed.
Mom woke up in the night coughing up a storm. By the time I woke up she was taking a COVID test because she was worried she had it and didn’t want to go into the library and get others sick. Well she got the results and learned she had COVID…C for COVID. So Mom stayed home and I went into the library alone at noon. I was able to help a couple from the Netherlands look for information about his family. It was a great experience as usual and I learned that there are many ways to find information out there on the web. The first 3 places I tried didn’t have anything, but number 4 did and boy did get excited!
A little later in the afternoon this guy to the right walked into the library. A missionary from the main floor brought him down saying he would like to do some research about his family from Israel. Anyone recognize him? The missionary introduced him as David, his new friend, and then added that he’s the guy who plays John the Baptist in the tv series
The Chosen. I learned he is a typical actor height…5’ 8”…not very tall and his beard looked like it does in this profile pic, not like it does in the tv series. In the series he plays a
wild John the Baptist, loud and crazy with a wild beard. In real life he is rather subdued and calm. A very nice guy. I didn’t get to work with him because I don’t know anything about Israeli records, nor did I ask to take a pic with him which would be really weird and awkward. I probably would have wanted a picture if he was looking like he does for his part in the series…like this picture below…but probably wouldn’t have done it even then.
The next day, Wednesday, was Pday and Mom was still feeling cruddy. I hung around in the morning. I had learned there was an online class about records in the national archives from Sweden called Riksarkivet., so I attended that class and then decided I needed to go workout or go on a bike ride. I couldn’t decide which I should do, but finally decided to get on my bike and go for a ride. I learned pretty quick that I was pretty out of shape having not ridden for a week. So my ride wasn’t super long, only about 24 miles, but I did have to deal with some headwind on the way out. I got home just in time to shower and throw on some clothes and go to the practice for our Elijah Choir. I haven’t been going because it is on our Pday and we usually have a bunch of things going on, but one of our friends from the MTC who is in the choir called and invited me back, so I decided to go.
Thursday morning Mom was feeling better, but still not feeling great. She ordered more COVID tests because that first one was the last one she had from many moons ago, but they didn’t come that morning, so she decided to stay home just in case and I went into the library alone. She spent part of her morning watching the birds outside play with her tomato plants. She learned they like her plants, probably wanting to build a nest in there.
Friday Mom still didn’t have her tests, so she sent me out to do shopping. I did a quick run to Costco. I learned that Costco sells hard boiled eggs. What? That’s just seems wrong to me. I remember someone a long time ago talking about how bad his wife was at cooking, saying she couldn’t even boil eggs, and I thought, “Anyone can boil eggs!” Well apparently I was wrong. I guess some people need others to boil their eggs for them. Wild! I learned by accident that Costco sells boiled eggs because they were piled up where normally they have the DairyGold chocolate milk. But their was no chocolate milk, only boiled eggs. Not a fair swap I think. No chocolate milk for me. Mom texted me while I was shopping and said her tests had come and she was still positive. Ugh!
On Fridays we don’t need to be into the library until 3pm (we do a half day shift from 2-6, but they give us a lunch break at 2pm…weird) but I felt like I ought to go in early, so I did. I went to sign in at the main desk and the steward asked if I would be willing to help someone with Sri Lanka. I said, “Sure. I know nothing about Sri Lanka, but I can try.” While she was writing the slip explaining where the person was, into the library walked a man and a woman who came up to our desk and said they were from the Netherlands and had about an hour and would like to see what they could find about their families. Well the steward looked at me and said, “I guess you’re not going to help with Sri Lanka.” So she sent me to help these two. I thought they were a couple, but learned that they were KLM flight attendants and worked together.
Well I asked who wanted to go first and Nadine said Eric could go first. So since they didn’t have a lot of time and weren’t interested in setting up an account, we just went to search for a record. We put his grandfather’s name into the search and it pulled up just one record. It was a death record for his grandfather’s son. Eric said, “Oh, this must be be my father’s birth record because he was an only child.” But when we started to look at it we discovered it was actually a death record for a boy who was born 3 years after his father, and had died the same day. There was no name given to the baby, but he was recorded as being born. Eric was amazed. He never knew his father had a little brother and he was pretty sure his father did not even know. He started to tear up and asked if he could take a picture of the file (btw the file here is not the actual file, just an example of what it looked like). I told him of course he could take a picture or we could print a copy or he could create an account and then access it when he returned home to the Netherlands. He immediately said, “I want an account.” Nadine chimed in then and said with tears in her eyes, “Can I have one too?” Of course we created accounts for both of them and they stayed longer than an hour and we were able to discover more family for both of them. What a great experience!
Saturday I decided to go to the gym to workout before I had to be into the library by 10am. So I got shorts and a tshirt on and headed to the gym. What I learned is that my memory is lacking. I was almost to the COB when I remembered that they are closed on Saturday. So I decided to go on a walk instead. I headed up City Creek Canyon where Mom usually walks. Well I was about a quarter of a mile up the canyon when I realized I needed to find a bathroom. I had planned to go when I got to the COB, but that didn’t happen and when I started my walk I didn’t feel the need at first . I had learned from my mountain bike rides that there were porta potties up the hill by a pavilion just across the street from where my bike trail starts, so I decided to head there. It was quite the little climb up the hill. Lots of SWITCH. BACKS. (inside joke for Mom and Kimberly and Scott) but I made it to the top without any incidents down below, if you know what I mean. But when I got to the top I learned that the trail did not take me to the pavilion where I thought it led, but to a street about a quarter mile below the pavilion. So up the street I went. When I finally got to the pavilion I went into the first porta potty. I was getting ready to sit down when I noticed there was no toilet paper. My condition needed toilet paper. So I went to the next one…no tp. Well of course I tried them all and they were all out of tp. Ugh! I wasn’t yet in dire straights so I headed on up the street to the top of the City Creek Canyon Park and turned and headed down as quickly as I could, through the park, without running, because you know what running will do to someone in that condition. I am pleased to report that I made it home, about a 4 mile walk/hike in all, without any racing stripes in my shorts. Whew!
Since Mom had still tested positive for COVID she stayed home and I went into the library. I had another great experience helping two more KLM flight attendants, Antoinette and Tessa. It was fun because I got them both started and then another missionary came to help Antoinette and I helped Tessa. She was younger and so she needed to go a little further back to find relatives who had passed away, but she was sure her mom and grandparents could help her when she got back to the Netherlands. I had another assignment so I had to leave her, but an hour later when I came back to our floor I learned that she was still there and had texted her mom about some names and voila! had found a line that went back to the 1700’s. She was so excited to show me. Antoinette on the other hand was sad because she couldn’t get her account to activate. So I ran down to our
guest services people to see if I could get some tips on how to help her. Well the young lady in
guest services just said, “I’ll come help.” So she came up and within 10 minutes she had her all logged in and away she went! (Our
guest services people are awesome!) I think they were both there for almost another hour.
Today was Sunday and since Mom had tested positive she decided to stay home from church, so I went alone. After church was our last
Leadership Pattern Journey class. When I got there I found that our facilitator was wearing a mask. I was wondering if maybe he had been exposed to COVID, but I learned that actually he was having some heart problems and is scheduled to go in tomorrow for a procedure to see if he has some blockages. So I felt like I needed to tell him that Mom had tested positive for COVID, that I felt fine, but maybe I should not come in. Instead he told me to go on up and he would stay downstairs away from me. We finished our class and I headed home. I felt bad and nervous that maybe I hadn’t taken the COVID thing seriously enough so I decided to do a test as well. So I did my test and then asked Mom what would be the sign that I was positive. She grabbed her other two tests and brought them to show me. So I asked her, as mine was going through its process, what the T was for. So Mom grabbed the instructions and started to read and learned that if there was just one line on the
C it meant there was no COVID. If there were two lines on the
C and the
T it meant you were positive for COVID. So we learned that she had been reading her test wrong all week, she has never had COVID, it was just a cold! C is NOT for COVID. Oh the joys of life.
We then let everyone know that she didn’t have COVID so that they didn’t need to worry and Sonia called and said, “Let’s go for a walk.”, which Mom immediately said yes to. She was so happy to get out of this apartment. We had a nice leisurely walk where Mom got to give away all of her candy to the sister missionaries that we came across. A great way to end our day.
Love you all.
BE GOOD!
Mom and Dad
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