The Latest

Sister Hunt has been discovered again for Navajo translation.  She will be helping in translating and interpreting for upcoming General Conference.  She helped with the Women's Conference where she reconnected with other Navajo translators: Shirley Clarke, Rosemary Jakubs, Susie Preston and Leo Platero.  Sister Hunt said that it was very exciting and wonderful to have renewed her kinship with them.  She loves translating.

We are still waiting for our visas.  The good news is that we received email from the Finnish Consulate that they received our visa application, payment, have confirmed our identities, and is being processed.  We believe that is good news.

We are enjoying our mission at the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Thank you all for your love, prayers and support in every way.  Also thank you to all who have visited us here.  We love you all and pray for you.

We have been very busy with Women's Conference and weekend with our family.  Here are some pictures of those events.

Here we are with Tara & her kids and Margo & her kids & us at Tara's house.

Just the grandkids and us no dog.

         Gathering of beautiful sisters for Women's Conference at the Conference Center 

not far from the temple.

Sister Hunt at the entrance to the translation stairway with fallen autumn leaves all around.

Visitors

We had some dear friends visit us: Norman & Marge Lyman from Blanding, UT.

It was so good to see Norman & Marge.  

We took our souvenir photo with them at our work site.

Our report on this blog is to tell you about our activities on Labor Day and after.  We were visited by our dear friends and family at our work.  Norman and Marge Lyman came and visited us on Tuesday. Our other visitors since coming to Salt Lake City are Jon and Jackie, Jeanie, Idonna, Billy and Karen, Margo and Dan, and Jay Redd, Jeanne's son who is a dentist is St. George.  We are very grateful for their visits it helps us stay closely connected to our family. 

We worked all day Saturday from nine to five at the Family Search Center.  It was slow in the morning, but from noon on it was very busy til closing.  There were some guests who wanted to stay and keep working on finding their ancestors.  There were also others wanting to get in at closing time. We just invited them back next week after the Labor Day holiday.  We were closed on Labor Day.  

Sunday morning we left for Heber City, Utah  to visit Margo and her family.  We attended church with them.  Their ward is very friendly.  They are enjoying their new ward.  They moved from St. George about two months ago.  Margo invited us for the holiday to teach her about the FamilySearch program.  We worked on it for a few hours on Sunday after church.  Monday we dedicated the whole day to work on FamilySearch.  Margo was blessed abundantly in her husband's line with a lot of names of ancestors that built their family tree .  Our granddaughters, Brynn and Sadee are also very interested in doing genealogy along with their Mom.  We were very successful in working on genealogy with Margo's family.  She plans on working on it regularly.

It was so exciting to help Margo with what we have been learning in FamilySearch on our mission.   We are very grateful for the hours of practice she has given us.  It is fun and exciting to read the stories and see pictures of our ancestors.  We get to know who they are through their stories.  They had hardships and challenges of their time that we can learn from.  

We are also grateful to those who have called us with their family search questions.  We may not know all the answers but we do our best to find the answers.  We hope we can still go to Finland where we can teach the things we've learned in FamilySearch.  We love the things we have learned and continue to learn many more things.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  We are all God's children and He wants us all to return to live with Him again.  We love attending the temple.  

We love our mission.  Thank you for your interest in our welfare.  Thank you for your love and prayers.  May the Lord bless you in all you do.

Still in SLC

This is the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we work on the main floor.

     

This is where we work.  It is a FamilySearch computer lab available for any visitors who come by and would like to find an ancestor they may have an interest in .  Ellis Island pictures are taken from the souvenir photo sign.  Then it is emailed to you.  We do our best helping our guests.

The day after Labor Day holiday we are back at work in the Family History Center helping guests find their ancestors.  It is fun to go into the FamilySearch program on the computer and find an ancestor. Just today Elder Hunt has helped a couple from Canada and Sister Hunt helped two brothers from Massachusetts.

The couple from Canada had less than 30 minutes before they were headed to the airport to catch their flight.  They wanted to find her great-grandmother.  They had her name and a death date and wanted to find what her birth date was.  They clicked on the search menu and then from the global they clicked on the country of Canada and it brought a pull down-menu with all the names of the provinces.  They knew which one she lived in and we clicked on it.  They put her great-grandmother's info in and clicked "Search".  Her name came up near  the top of the list.  They clicked on her name and it showed a death record from the indexed record with her date of birth and the country she migrated from.  She said this is so exciting I think I am going to cry and she did.  They wanted a copy of the record so they printed it.  They were so excited and happy about their find and how quickly they found her great-grandmother that they said they are going to sign up on the free account in FamilySearch as soon as they get home.  Elder Hunt was very happy for them because now the couple will continue their search for ancestors as they build their family tree.

The FamilySearch program also has a menu under Get Help where there are tutorials on how to build your tree and add information and other things like photos and stories.  It is a very helpful place to go to learn more about the program.

Now the story about the two brothers from Massachusetts.  They two did not have very much time to spend on finding their ancestor.  They were on a tour and the bus was leaving in a few minutes. They only had their great-great grandmother's last name and an estimated death year.  They clicked on the FamilySearch and then clicked on the Search menu and clicked on the title "all records and collections" below the global map.  They typed in her last name and approximate death year with a ten year range and clicked the search button.  There were over 12,243 records so they narrowed their search by typing in Massachusetts under residence and clicked on Search.  This time 101 names came up and they narrowed that down by typing in Massachusetts for the death place.  This time five names came up and they remembered that their mother called her by name and that name was the third one on the list and they clicked on it and it was full of valuable information like when and what country she migrated from which was her birth place.  It also gave her birth date.  They literally jumped up and down and couldn't stop shaking Sister Hunt's hand.  They also got a print out of their great-great grandmother's information.  They too said they will set up an account to continue to build their tree while their 95 year old Mom is still alive and can give names of their ancestors.

We wanted you all to know that it is so rewarding to help individuals (guests) find their ancestors at the Family Search Center where we have been assigned to work.  We are still learning a lot about FamilySearch program and we will continue to improve our skills.  We are happy to know that some of our family and friends are getting involved in doing their genealogy.  They are finding that it is fun and interesting to find stories, facts, and photos of their ancestors.  There are so many records recorded and digitized where we can find information.  It does take time and dedication to do genealogy research.  One hour a week without interruption will help in getting started.  It is frustrating at times when we can't find information we are searching for.  That is when the Get Help menu is very handy and helpful.

We are still waiting for our visas since we have reapplied.  The Lord knows where we are needed the most and that is where He will allow us to be His missionaries.  We love our mission and we love our Savior Jesus Christ.  This is His work.  Thank you for your prayers and support in every way.  We love you all very much.

                           
 To the left is the Cristus Statue at the Visitor's Center on Temple Square west of where we work.  To the right is the picture of the Salt Lake Temple.  The trees at Temple Square are being wired with Christmas lights in preparation for the Christmas festivities.  They are a sight to see and celebrate at Christmas time.