We are at the end of week ninety-two and are actually on a single digit countdown of weeks left…seven! Wow, that seems unreal. Here’s what we learned this week.
We started our week with a devotional that we didn’t have to speak at. Wahoo. It was the Mission Office Staff who spoke this week. Two thoughts stuck out to me. One was Sister Brown’s little story of how a young sister missionary, who met the Brown’s son while they were in the MTC…he is a 33 year old young man that deals with some anxiety and other issues and is here serving as a missionary with his parents…realized he must be a bit stressed with his new responsibilities in the mission field. She reached into her pocket and pulled out several small miniature rubber ducks and had him pick one. Then she told him to put it in his pocket and whenever he felt overwhelmed or anxious to put his hand in his pocket and touch the rubber duck and remember the message she also gave him on a card, “You’ve got this!” I am pretty sure she too used her own miniature duck to help her with her own feelings of anxiety and stress and what a great example she was to recognize that in someone else and share what she had learned
of how to cope with it. The other was in the talk from Elder Barnes. He took this picture of a flower that had been planted behind a large boulder, he said close to four feet tall, but had found a way to quickly grow to find the light. He told about how he marveled at this flower’s ability to grow so tall when almost all of the other flowers around it were maybe eighteen inches tall at the most. He then compared this one little flower to an aspen grove or giant sequoia trees, but realized it was doing exactly what they were all doing, fulfilling the measure of their creation. Doing what God intended them to do. Becoming what they were supposed to become, despite whatever obstacle may get in the way. I thought about how much that little flower wanted to reach the light. I wonder how often I make that kind of effort in my life to reach The Light? Definitely not as often as I should. After the devotional we walked over to the library. It is definitely getting colder and I was glad that I had brought a jacket, but kind of wished I had brought a warmer one. When we got all settled and ready for the day I noticed a group of guys at the back of the library. Big Polynesian guys. They started
hauling in and setting up more microfilm cabinets in the back. I sneaked back there a little later to see that they had already dismantled and moved a bunch of the old cabinets and were now bringing in new ones for all of the microfilm to be stored in. Big job. Where the cabinets used to sit the carpet was a different color. I couldn’t tell if it was so much lighter because it really used to be that color and all the carpet around it had been walked on these many years and was darker because of use and abuse, or if the metal cabinets had somehow had some sort of chemical reaction with the carpet and affected the color? Either way, cabinets are going back onto those
spots, but I wonder what they plan to do when they remove all of the cabinets in the front rows? Hmmm. We then spent the next couple of hours with the Stapps, dumping on them a bunch of information. They were definitely in information overload mode. Luckily we had our monthly stewardship interview with President and Sister Brown, which the Stapps also came to, to break up the monotony. Lunch was a bit sad at the COB because it was BBQ day, but they only had ribs and pulled pork left. The ribs were good, but there was something “off” with the pulled pork. It didn’t taste very good at all. The rest of the day was working on some zone leader stuff and sharing files with the Stapps. We didn’t have very many guests to help at all. I am thinking the colder weather has chased many of them away. We did our typical close of the library at 6pm and headed home for FHE. The Nelsons from Bellingham (actually Ferndale) were in charge and did a lesson, a little like we have done in church before…What is your favorite hymn? And then we sing one verse of it. I didn’t share mine, but I think I have a favorite
hymn like Zoë used to have when we did
Best and Worst around the dinner table…and my best was…and my other best was….multiple bests or favorites. But as I thought about it I think I would have had them sing
My Heavenly Father Loves Me (Whenever I hear…). That was an important song to me on my mission and I still use it today when I want to feel closer to my Father. I’m not sure if it was the words or the music that first attracted me to the song, but I really like it. We finished FHE and went back to the apartment and I turned on the
Monday Night Football game. While I was watching I got a call from Scott. He was at our old gate to our
neighborhood in Pepeekeo and wanted to know if we remembered the gate code. I actually could not remember it at all, but just then a car was coming out of the gate so he just drove in after they came out. He turned his call into a video call and started showing us pictures of the neighborhood. The first thing I saw was that the bamboo house that the Grebes had built on the lot just in front of ours was up for sale again. Wow, that was fast. The lady who bought our house tore out all the flower bushes we had along the front fence line and replaced them with Hawaiian ti leaf plants. She also installed a different gate, which is kind of strange since we put in a brand new gate only months before we left. I wonder if it got run into? It was so fun to see our old stomping grounds and it made me wish to still be living there…a bit. I never thought I would ever have been living in Hawaii, or on a property like that with acreage and so much work to keep me busy, but wishes do come true now and then and it was a wonderful life while it lasted.
Tuesday was Pday. I decided to go into the gym to workout AND to ride so I spent about two hours there. Mom walked on the treadmill then headed home. When I finished I texted Mom to see if she was coming to the COB for lunch. She texted back that she had caught the beginning of lunch when she left and already had a salad, so I did the same thing, grabbed a salad from the COB and took it home for lunch. We then had to go into the library for the 3pm prayer meeting because it was the Kopps last day. It was a nice send off for them and then we planned to come back to the apartment to relax a bit before going back into the library to cover for the Stapps who were going to a Jazz vs Kings game. But we decided to go to the
Church History Museum. We kept saying we want to go see the Kirtland items they had on display, but just never did. Well, we learned that we had waited too long. The Kirtland items left the museum October 26th to go back to Kirtland for display there. Ugh! We did like seeing what they had on display instead though, so it was nice. We got home and started a movie, a “thriller” based on a true story called ??? It was actually so bad we can’t even remember the name of it. Anyway, we went back to the library to fill in for the Stapps and then came home and for some weird reason decided to watch the end of it. Then to
cleanse the palate we watched
Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness. That one was better.
Wednesday morning I woke up early and started reading
Saints:Volume 4. One of our missionaries, Delia Rochon, has her story in it and I am wanting to read until I found it. That’s her in the picture…bottom left. I then decided to go into the gym and workout and ride again. I got back in time to get to the library and work on extensions for some of our service missionaries. We taught our LPJ class and then I helped a guest with a Norwegian document. It is crazy but I can read most of what are in them, even though I don’t speak the language, although this one had a couple of words I just couldn’t figure out. Most of the others I knew, or used Google to figure out, which the guest was amazed at. She didn’t think you could get so many answers by searching that way. I have learned to rely on Google Search or Google Translate to help me with a lot of things in the library. I then worked some more on my Segerstedt line and left at 6pm to go home. I forgot to mention that on my way to the gym that morning I saw that part of Mom’s wishes are coming true. The little area north of the
Tabernacle had a bunch of their trees lit up with Christmas lights. I’m not sure if they were left on by accident or if they were testing them or if they are just starting earlier on that as well, but it was nice to see the lights. We then went into the library. Mom wasn’t feeling too good so she went home. I stayed and did the LPJ class and worked on some extensions and other zone leader stuff. I stayed a little later trying to decipher some of the records I had found for Sven Eriksson and Margeta Jonsdotter and I think I have a pretty good case for who they are and where they came from and who their parents are. I just want some other “eyes” on it to verify my findings.
Thursday we got up a little later and Mom started going through closets and trying to figure out what she wanted to start packing. Can you say
trunky? In the process she pulled out our Christmas decorations and decided to put them up. So Santa is in the kitchen and our olive wood nativity is on our desk and the Grinch and Max are on the tv stand. Wahoo. We went to the library and worked on zone leader stuff until President Pearson, the Area President, and his wife came to visit. I showed them around our floor and introduced them to some missionaries and then they left to visit another zone. We taught the LPJ class and then worked on more things with the Stapps. Mom
called Sister Rol to see how she was doing and learned that she wanted some things from Costco. After we finished our shift we drove down there to grab some things for her and a couple of things for us. One of the things we got for us was something I had learned from a Costco ad on my phone that was on sale right now…
Peppermint Bark Ice Cream Bars. Yesss!! They were $3.50 off so I got two boxes. I hope they last until we leave on December 20th. I am so happy that they are getting some of their “Christmasy” items in now. I wish they had them all year round, but at least my wish is coming true that they are here before Thanksgiving. After our Costco
run and dropping off the groceries to Sister Rol we came home and watched a BYU Women’s Volleyball game. They are ranked 20th right now and were playing 13th ranked Arizona State. They were looking pretty good until the fifth set and then they fell apart. Mom was so mad at them she didn’t even want to watch the end of the set. They are a young team though and have a lot of growing to do. I am sure they will be better next year.
Friday morning I went to workout and ride again. We had our first “switched” T/R day. We are needed in the evenings, so we took our T/R day from 10-2 and planned to work from 2–6. When we went to the COB for lunch we learned that they are starting Christmas earlier too. There were Christmas trees up in the lobby. I guess the season starts the day after Halloween now, not the day after Thanksgiving. When we got back to the apartment Mom’s stomach was acting up so I went into the library without her. It was pretty quiet, much like it had been all week. I did learn however that we missed finding a guest before locking up Monday night. Apparently a lady down on B2 went into the bathroom shortly before closing at 6pm. She was wearing headphones and did not hear any announcements nor the security people who called into the bathroom to make sure it was clear. When she finally came out the place was empty. So she went up to the main floor and discovered it empty as well. She tried to go out the doors, but they were locked. Luckily Suzi, one of the staff from our floor, was leaving late and found her there. Wow, we better check those bathrooms better! In the afternoon
I was helping a guest with her Swedish line and she had a woman who was married to two men, but the second marriage was in 1888 and the FamilySearch entry for the woman said that she died in 1882. That's a problem. So we started looking for records and discovered that her first marriage indeed ended with the death of her husband, and that happened in 1882. But continuing to search through the records we found that she was still alive after that. She didn't die in 1882. We decided that we needed to find a record to show her real death date to verify that she could have been married a second time in 1888. We searched, but couldn't find it, although we did find a record verifying that she married her second husband in 1888. The guest then let me know that her parking time was coming to an end and she needed to leave. She thanked me for my help and said that she would come back another day to find the death information. I said goodbye and then went back to the computer to close the windows we had open. As I went to close the page on ArkivDigital, where we had been searching household records, I noticed the farm name at the top of the page was the one she supposedly lived in and the one we had been searching for. I forwarded quickly through the next two pages and on the second page I found the woman's name and a notation that she had died October 14, 1913. I quickly ran upstairs and caught the guest just as she was heading out the doors. I told her what I had found and we went over to the welcome desk and got a pencil and wrote the information on the records she had been using. She was so grateful and thanked me numerous times and left with a huge smile on her face. I know the Spirit is involved in this work. I finished the night and closed down our floor after double checking all of the bathrooms! When I got home Mom was feeling better and went off to play pickleball. I watched a couple episodes of Elementary.
Saturday was a pretty slow day. We got into the library and I think there were only two guests on our floor. I worked on the agenda for our Monday meeting and Mom got to help a man with research in the Netherlands. I later was able to help a couple from France, but that was it for the day. The rest of my time was spent working in administrative stuff or on my Segerstedt line. I did learn that there were a few people who were working on the Sven Eriksson line using Ancestry and My Heritage so it helped me verify what I had found was correct, or we were all wrong together. Mom said the day actually seemed to go by slower than normal, but it seemed pretty quick to me. We closed up and headed home. Mom went to play pickleball and I watched football. I also called Chris. He had called earlier in the day asking about our Christmas plans, so we chatted about that for awhile. Mom got home before we ended the call so she then chatted for awhile.
Today the clocks fell back so I had a long morning of reading. It was quite nice just sitting in bed and reading. We then got ready and walked to church. Mom got to teach her primary class, which she said was a bit difficult because they didn’t stay focused very well. Could be post Halloween sugar highs? As we walked home the wind picked up and it was quite chilly. We cut through the Conference Center to try to warm up a bit. Our noses and ears were very cold by the time we got home. I got to work on this blog post
almost immediately. Tonight we had another of our
lasts. It was the last time that I will need to haul tables down from our apartment to the lobby for break-the-fast. Elder Ray, who is our apartments’ ministering coordinator asked about using the tables after we were gone. I suggested he ought to see if there was anyone on the first floor that would be willing to house them. Apparently he spoke to them tonight and they were ok with that, so now I have an empty wall in our second bedroom that has had tables against it for over a year and a half. Wahoo. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures down there. I believe we had about 55 people there. Good showing.
I did learn one more thing this week. When reading in my scriptures I came across a quote I had put in there quite awhile ago and had forgotten about. Here is the quote…
“Live your lives according to the principles of the gospel. You live in an age when there is so much of filth. You must not stoop down to that. You must rise above it. You must have the strength to say no and to stand tall. I promise you that if you will do so, those who would otherwise invite you to their kind of living will wish that they too had lived above those things” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 716).
President Hinckley said that over 27 years ago. I had attached it to Mormon 1:19. This world is a wonderful place, but there is a lot of stuff in it that is not so wonderful and is being made to look less and less horrible. I hope you all enjoy the wonderful things that make this a “beautiful world” and avoid the filth.
Love you all very much.
BE GOOD!
Dad and Mom
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