Job Shadowing at Family Search

Hello Family and Friends,
This week has been very interesting and fun at the Family Search Center where we work.  Our week consisted of regular work hours, doctor appointments, p-day, temple and research day as well as a one-day whirlwind trip to LA to visit the Finnish Consulate.

This was our week to job shadow in the Family Search Center at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  The jobs are receptionist, floor manager, helper, and greeter.  We change jobs every hour. All these jobs serve the people (visiting public) who come into the Family Search Center. The hardest job to change at the end of the hour is the helper because you don't want  to leave your guest to the next helper or alone but it always turns out okay.  There are so many things you have to know and do for each job.  When you are at your post you just have to be alert and know what is going on.  It was all scary at first but we are starting to get the hang of the different jobs.  We still both have a lot to learn about FamilySearch and other genealogy sites like Ancestry.com.

It is fun to help a guest find an ancestor that they want to find.  It is rewarding to us and our guest when they can find their ancestor.  They get so excited to learn about finding the individual ancestor who is no longer a stranger to them.  We are happy to be learning the tools from the FamilyTree program.  It is a free of charge program where you can build your family tree, pedigree chart, and other features.  It is a place where you can attach pictures, stories, documents, and any worthy material you have to share with the posterity of the person you are researching.

If your ancestor individual is already in the tree you might find interesting stories that other posterity have written and attached to them.  That is one way to get to know your ancestors.  Sister Hunt has been writing stories that she knows about her ancestors and attaching them to individuals.

We have learned so much about ourselves, the church, Family Search Center, Family Tree and about our current mission.  We thank the Lord for it all.  Remember that we love you and thank you for all you do for us.  Thank you for your prayers.

We have done a slideshow for you from some of this week's activities.

    

So far each week we have been able to take family names to the temple.

We truly enjoyed our visit
with President & Sister Jones
on Tuesday. 

  

   

     

                    

The church flew us to Los Angles to the Finnish Consulate.  We landed at LAX.  An all day event.

                                   

Behind Sister Hunt beyond the green light is the Finnish Consulate under secured locked doors with no windows.  Elder & Sister Hunt waiting for their appointment in front of the Finnish Consulate building.  

                            

   

This is the Assembly Hall on Temple Square where we have our mission conference every month. It is also a building that is most photographed by the Asian visitors.  It is a very unique building.

The Salt Lake Temple is very beautiful no matter what time of the day it is.  This is an evening view.

New Friends

A senior couple from Finland is serving in our mission.  They are Elder and Sister Aromaa.  We have enjoyed visiting with them.  They have been here for 3 months.  So, if we do get to go to Finland we will get to see them there before we leave Finland.  After they have served in the Family and Church History Mission for 18 months they will really be an asset to those in Finland who are trying to do their genealogy.

Elder and Sister Aromaa

We always enjoy taking a picture of the temple from different locations.  We were told that this fountain that is in front of the Church Office Building is designed to represent the shapes found in the spires of the temple.  

When ever you have a chance to come to Temple Square, be sure to enjoy all the sites.  There are lots of different tours that will tell you things you never knew before.

We are still learning so much about FamilySearch.  We are learning a lot about our own ancestors.  It's fun to get to know them through FamilySearch.  We are truly enjoying our mission.

Thanks for your prayers.  We love you all very much.

Training Continues in SLC

Elder Hunt is taking this picture from our second floor apartment.

We live in a nice place with other missionaries as neighbors.  The gazebo is frequently used by senior missionaries and young missionaries.  The seniors use it for gathering to play board games or picnics. The young Elders use it for cook-outs and picnics for their districts.  Once last week Elder Hunt saw a chipmunk running from bush to bush.  Wish we could see him again, we have some bread crumbs we can give him.

It is mid-August and we have been here in our apartment for one month exactly yesterday.  We love our mission.  We've had a couple of family visitors since we've been here.  Yesterday we received some fresh garden vegetables from Idonna (Calvin's sister) who came to visit with Billy (her son) and Karen (his wife).  That was a very nice gift--gift of family and a gift of nature.  We made a wonderful and tasty veggie casserole.  They also brought some fresh strawberries.  We made yummy treats called banana-berry frozen yogurt bars made with the strawberries.  We love it when we have time to make things that taste so good.  Most of the time we enjoy whatever is in the fridge because we are always rushing off to our next assignment.

Last Monday all the new missionaries had a luncheon with our mission presidency.  We sat at the table with the first counselor Elder Oliver and his wife Sister Oliver.  We enjoyed our visit with them and the new missionaries.  These were new missionaries who came from MTC.

Tuesday we had a mission conference in the afternoon for the first half of the mission.  The next day was for the second half of the mission.  President and Sister Tate spoke to us.  Like always they were inspiring talks.

Sister Tate talked about changing hearts and gave six steps.  From Alma 5:7 "Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God...."  (1) To learn and internalize who we are by having faith and trusting in God.  (2) Be in control of our thoughts and behavior by teaching our brain that we are in control and by turning difficulties into opportunities.  (3) Make peace with our past and our attitude will change.  (4) Relationships are opportunities to grow.  (5) Be a beacon of joy and happiness by choosing to be kind and friendly.  (6) Forgive everyone for everything.  Look to yourself for change.  Look for goodness.  By doing all these things it will get you closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.

President Tate spoke after Sister Tate.  He talked about making a difference through respect and honor.  He had us all turn to Doctrine and Covenants 31 and told us to substitute our names in place of Thomas B. Marsh.  We are called to serve in working miracles of turning hearts of children to their fathers.  Like in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah where the Lord had heard the prayers of his people. He told us to exercise our faith and go forward and miracles will follow.  He encouraged us to read the Book of Mormon and it will fortify us against the evils of our day.

We have been reading the Book of Mormon.  Our mission has a challenge to read the whole book in 90 days so by the end of October we should have read the whole book.  We are promised that it will make a difference in our missionary work.  We believe it so we are reading it.

We enjoy our mission and we are happy to have chosen this time to come on our mission together as senior missionaries.  We love it!  The church travel office had us reapply for our visas so it will take at least two more months.  Thank you for your prayers.  We truly are grateful for your love and friendship.  Have a wonderful week.

Beginning A New Week At The Family History Library

Even though this looks somewhat like a European city with its cobblestone street, it's not Helsinki, Finland.  Just wishful thinking.  We are still in Salt Lake City.  Trax is turning left on South Temple.

We have started training at the Family History Library.  Today we took lots of tours and several classes.  Every morning we start our day with a 30 minute devotional.  This morning it was an hour because the new missionaries who arrived from MTC were introduced.  We are not new but we will be training with this group.  We went to our Mission Presidency's luncheon.  The mission has this event for all the arriving new full-time missionaries.  We missed it last month so we were invited to go with them today.  We enjoyed a nice fancy meal and a wonderful visit with the Mission's First Counselor and his wife, President and Sister Oliver. We sat at their table along with other new missionary couples and single sisters.

We have been walking every day to the State Capital building.  The first time we went there we went inside and looked around.  It is a beautiful building.  There are always lots of visitors there.  Elder Hunt has been to the State Capital building on number of occasions for his state meeting when he was the Vice President for Applied Technology College.

The west side of the State Capital building.

All day, every day we associate with good people.  It is a blessing to be in this spiritual setting.
We send our love.

Another Week of Training at F&CHHM

We are still enjoying the security of Family & Church History Headquarters Mission in Salt Lake. Security means there are 1100 missionaries walking to and coming from their work-sites on and near Temple Square. It is the most awesome sight. It is even more exciting when you are a part of that group. We are getting to know our way around the mission campus. There is an endless number of jobs that the missionaries do.

Friday was our "Go Forth" exercises which means that it was like a mini graduation from our basic training. The day before, on Thursday, we were interviewed by each of our Mission Presidency and their wives. It was kind of scary but we did fine. Then on Friday as a part of Go Forth we were given our new work assignment. After training for two weeks we are now trained with the basics for Family Search. With the help of the Holy Ghost we feel we can Go Forth even though we are still scared. We have been assigned to the Family Search Center where families/tourists from all walks of life are welcome to learn about their ancestors through modern technologies. The place is a fun place for young children, teens and their parents, grandparents and friends to try out the Discovery Station or computer lab.

In the Discovery Station you check out an iPad and login. Then you plug it into a port where you learn about your name, what it means, where it comes from, how many registered in the world by that name and also how many in the United States by that name. It tells you lots of information about your name. It tells you who some of the famous people whose name is like yours. It also tells you what things were invented during your birth year and what the prices of things were. You can also go into a lab where you can find out where your ancestors come from and what percentage your lineage is from that nationality. You also get to write your personal history, the highlights of your life up to the present time. Every one has interesting story to tell about themselves. Even if it is just telling about your likes and dislikes. You also go to a station where you take a photo of yourself in the traditional dress of where your ancestors come from, for example if your ancestors come from Denmark you get to take a picture standing behind a painting of a Danish man or woman with your head showing on the picture dressed in Danish outfit. At every station you plug in your ipad and you get to do the things that station is designed to do to help you learn who you are and where you come from. It's really fun and you can take as long as you want at the Discovery Station.

That is one of the learning labs at our work site. This and other labs which include Family Tree will keep us busy. It will be fun and interesting to see who all we can help at our new assignment.

Elder Hunt has been helping members who are not missionaries on solving problems with their Family Tree. This is the program we have been trained on. We are still learning new things every day. We also need to practice what we've learned as often as we can so it is always fresh in our minds. Our mission let's us practice with our own families on Family Tree daily. There are so many spiritual things going on that it is impossible to keep tract of every single one of them. There are also temple experiences. We get to to to the temple twice or more a week.

We truly appreciate our families and friends and their prayers and support. Thank you very much. We pray the Lord to watch over you and protect you. We send our love to you all.

Elder Hunt & Trainer Sister Mallon

Sister Hunt & Trainer Sister Litchfield

Sister Hunt presenting Navajo traditions to FHE group.

The temple is surrounded by huge towers but it is still the most powerful.

No matter what angle you view the temple it is still magnificent.

Finished 2nd Week in SLC

Family History Mission is very unique and exciting. Like at MTC we have found new friends. Our day is something like this. Wake at 5:30. Report to work station at 7:30 for morning devotional. One on one training with our trainer. Sister Hunt's trainer is Sister Litchfield and Elder Hunt's trainer is Elder Gumaleius. They are very good trainers.

We are learning how to navigate through Family Search program on the computer. We often hear the phrases, "put them in the Tree", "are they in the Tree?", "let's go see who is in the Tree". It means to put the individual's name that we are researching in one of the places in the Family Tree or find out if their names are recorded there.

You start by signing up for a free of charge online search for your ancestors.  You start recording your ancestors' names in the program called Family Tree. We are told that every person who is or has been born to this earth should never be alone. We all belong to a family here on earth as well as in heaven. It is like a pedigree sheet but it does more than a chart of your ancestors names. It is fun to find out where you can find information on them.

What Sister Hunt has found out is that her ancestors have Navajo names and only one name spelled phonetically in English. She has found names in the late 1800's and early 1900's and is having fun with those names. With the temple right by our workstation we get to do our ancestors temple work regularly. It is a wonderful experience.

We love our mission and are learning a lot. The church travel office has restarted our visa application. That is what the attorneys wanted us to do. So we don't know how long it will take. The last time it took two months. We are willing to serve wherever the Lord wants us to serve.  We are grateful for all of your prayers and support in every way.  We love you all very much.  May the Lord bless you all.

P/S Next week, Monday, August 3rd we will be training for one week with the new missionaries coming out of MTC. That will be fun and we are looking forward to it. :)

            

Here we are at Family & Church History Mission.

We attend Salt Lake Temple regularly.

A view of the Temple from the Church Office Building. :)