Family History Mission Week 16

Hi everyone;

Another week has past by with many activities.  We have been on evenings this past week and the Library has been rather slow.  This has given Sharon and I opportunities to work on our own genealogical lines.  We also had the opportunity to go to the Discovery Center in the JSMB (Joseph Smith Memorial Building) and that was a real treat.

While here our zone has a project call an " Elijah Moment". During our mission we are encouraged to look for remarkable happenings in our own genealogy.  For example, this week Sister Dykes had her "Elijah Moment".  She was researching out her parents; and came across an unexpected discovery.  She had never seen a picture of her father, and one of the young missionaries directed her to a different site and bingo there was pictures of her father.  She was overwhelmed with emotion.  This was her "Elijah Moment".  At the end of our mission we are given a handout containing all the 'Elijah Moments" of the other missionaries.  So Sharon and I are working hard to have that special moment, although mine has possibly already happened with the discovery or maybe I should say verification of my great grandmother Augusta.

Friday evening we attended a gymnastic recital for Charley and Evangeline.  There was a large crowd and plenty of gymnasts on hand.  They rotated through all the venues and did great. The young boys especially did well on the floor exercise, which made us think of Isaac Turnage doing his routine. Charley and EVB excelled on the balance beam with unbroken routines, and Charley did a back flip over perfectly. EVB had a great floor routine as well. We capped off the evening with a short stop at Apollo burgers for a snack!

Saturday evening we had our group social.  The group is made up of all the missionaries who entered the same month we did, October. We had a delicious meal and then played some games, it was a fun evening.

This week I have been also working on the new home teaching and visiting teaching routes.  We are having a number of missionaries leave this month and so many changes.  From our zone we are losing Elder and Sister Shafer, Elder and Sister



Kirkland and Sister Wilding, they will be missed.  We are receiving  a new couple this week; Elder and Sister Conlin from Soap Springs, Idaho and we think they will fit right in and do a great job.

Well I hope everyone has a great week and for those here in SLC, we hope you enjoy this great weather.

Love To all

Chuck and Sharon, Bama and Bampa, Mom and Dad, E/S Waller

                                            Charley and EVB doing the gymnastic salute                                               

                                                          Sister Wilding from Idaho Falls

E/S Shafer from SLC

Family History Mission Week 15

Hello;

It has been a busy week, here in the FHL mission.  I have been singing with two choirs; the men's choir and the Elijah choir.  The Elijah choir has to be one of the most unusual choirs in the church.  It is made up of Sisters over 55 serving missions here  ( generally about 30 sisters) and about 30 Elders all young men under 25 with about 4 older missionaries.  So it is quite the group, especially since most of the young men have some form of ADHD.  Many of the young men have had  years of voice or some form of music training, and are very good musicians. We performed 3 times this week; once at the Monday morning devotional and the twice at our Zone Conference.  Our mission is so large we have to hold two Zone conferences, because we don't have enough room in the Assembly Hall or Chapel to hold everyone at once.

We have been called as Assistant zone leaders and this week have been learning our new responsibilities. I also have been called as Home Teaching supervisor for the branch. Both are needed responsibilities but require little time to perform, of course it is nice when everyone is totally active and willing to help.

The weather has been great this past week, more snow in the mountains but little effect here in the valley. Yesterday was so nice I was able to get in 9 holes of golf.

We had a special visit from Alisha this week end.  She came down to visit her mother and sisters. They enjoyed a day together.  Alisha went and had her hair done, she is going to be like her mother and travel to SLC to do her hair. She liked Steven the hair dresser and plans on returning. The girls had fun yesterday shopping and just being girls.  We waited about 1 hr to get into Cheesecake Factory for dinner, but enjoyed just socializing.  We then headed over to Erika's and Aaron's house for a game or two.

We are losing a number of missionaries this month from the Hosting Zone; Elder and Sister Shafer, Elder and Sister Kirkland.  The Shafer's live here in SLC and the Kirkland's are from Idaho.  We will miss both couples. We have received a few new missionaries though; E/S Harvey from Wellington, New Zealand and E/S Collins from Soap Springs, Idaho.

Last week we had a spiritual thought from Sister Dykes it went something like this; a young lady living in  Texas came out doors to find a new mound of earth along the sidewalk filled with red fire ants. Now we all know how bad the bite is from a fire ant, they have a very appropriate name. Well the young lady went to the store and found a pesticide to treat the ants.  The label said to sprinkle a few  granules around the mound and that the ants would  be attracted  (can't resist) and carry the granules into the nest where it will kill the queen and the rest of the nest.  So she sprinkled as directed the granules around the mound,  She left the area and came back a few minutes later to find the ants really active in carrying the granules ( like some kind of treasure) into the nest.  Sure enough the next day the nest was inactive. The lesson the young lady drew from the experience is that how often do we allow deadly things into our homes; un-monitored internet, faith destroying music, films and movies that are anything but wholesome. We need to be constantly aware of  the things we silently allow to go on in the home.

We hope everyone is doing well and feeling the spirit in their lives.  Love to all,

E/S Waller, Mom and Dad, Bama and Bampa, Chuck  and Sharon

                   Alisha got hungry so all the girls opened their purses and behold, a feast!!

Here we are enjoying each others company in the food court.

Family History Week 14

Hi everyone;

I have placed on the blog this week one of Sharon's ancestors, Francis Edmonds. Francis was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England on 14 Jul 1822; to William Edmonds and Susanna South.  He married Ann Brunning on the 25th of Dec 1844.  He immigrated with his family in 1860 to Utah. He died 9 Jan 1914 in Salt Lake City, Utah. To most, this would seem like a complete record of Francis' life, but indeed it is just part of the picture. (Pictured to the right is Francis and Ann Edmonds)

Sharon and I are learning that genealogy is more than just a few dates. It encompasses more details of one's life. When Sharon and I were first married we had little money to decorate our home; so we resolved on picture puzzles. We would spend countless hours putting together our   puzzles.  We learned tricks to getting started; like finding the corner pieces and the straight edges of the picture. We also would put pieces together according to color as show on the box picture.  Then with time, trial and error the puzzle would slowly come into view.  Finally we would have the completed work, and would turn it over and glue it together.  Then we could hang it on the wall.

Family history is much like putting a 1000 piece puzzle together. Unfortunately many of us stop at just the edges and corners. We fail to keep going to get a full picture of the history of the person. Locating all the children, places of residence, military, community service, probate records, religious records and journals; all these pieces add to the tapestry of the life of the individual and the family.

In our studies we have found that we commit many of what are called "Rookie Mistakes" in genealogy. To get an idea of what are the common mistakes, go to the search category of family tree and click on "wiki".  The in the search field type "rookie mistake".

Hopefully we can all become better researchers and fill in the full picture of a family.  Sharon and I have started the US/Canada training manual and we are trying to learn how to be good genealogists and do justice to researching out of our families.

This week we have been busy in all aspects of the hosting zone. I will start my functions as assistant zone leader this next week.  Sharon also has some new responsibilities.  I have been asked to participate in the upcoming Roots Tech conference. This is a large annual conference held at the Salt Palace Conference center for genealogist, who come from all over the world to participate.  The key note speaker this year is Laura Bush, wife of former President George Bush.  Evidently I will be working as a volunteer in the cyber cafe. I will find out later what all my duties will be during the 3 day conference.

Last night we held a dinner with Sharon's family. Everyone  was in attendance except Craig.  We met at Miriam and Darrell's home. It was good to visit and share the evening with them. Darrell is heavily involved in the indexing program and serves as an arbitrator.  He works specifically with obituaries, which are difficult to index.


May this week find all healthy and happy. Until next week, Tchau!!

E/S Waller, Mom and Dad, Bama and Bampa, Chuck and Sharon

Family History Mission Week 13

Happy New Year;

I am a little late in getting my New Year message out but better late than never.  We enjoyed a nice evening with Richard and Kalynn in our apartment on New Years eve.  Watched the ball drop in New York, glad I wasn't in the crowded " Time Square".  We have been enjoying our half day schedules during the holidays and are now back on full time schedules.

The Family History Library is going through some changes with the new year. President Johns has us now starting an in-service program every week. This is to help us become more diverse in our service.  We will be starting more Family tree classes next week and can begin starting the US Canada training manual. The missionaries on the US Canada floors have a training manual that helps them develop better researching skills in Family search and Family Tree.  This in turns help them to be better helpers to our guest at the library.  So now the Hosting Zone is being trained as well.  We have a need to all be well prepared to help the guest, as the number of missionaries in the Library has decreased.

This year we are being encouraged to memorize the  "Articles of Faith".  Sharon and I are doing well on #1.  I have been called as the assistant Zone Leader for the Hosting Zone and will be taking n some new assignments.  Sharon also will be doing some additional work in support of the Zone.  We have also been called to be home teaching and visiting teaching supervisors for the Branch. We are happy to report that generally we have 100% in both HT and VT each month.  But with the constant change of full time missionaries coming and going, we have to keep up on route changes.

I have been thinking of working in Roots Magic to create a book of descendants of one of my ancestors. I was looking at Jeremiah Dumas .  While in Family tree I searched in the Library catalog for Dumas records and found some. One of the instructors told me to use the keyword search  instead of the main search engine and use just one word.  So I inputted " Dumas" and whallah!  Some has already done a descendant book on the Dumas Family and it was in the Library as well as online. So I downloaded the book ( both volumes) onto a  flash drive, for further reference. So check out the catalog under the Search heading in family tree, good stuff.

Tip of the week: If you are on Family Tree, and everyone should log in and get an account. Check this new app.  Google the following site which can connect to family tree.  "rootsmapper".  You can then log in to family tree through rootsmapper and view where all you ancestors came from. By zooming in you can find areas to look for new searches. It is really cool!

A week or so ago we had lunch with some good friends from. our Brazil Mission. Sisters Sylvia Webster, Heidi Bowhius and Christina Savage met us for lunch and we had a good reunion.  Sister Bowhius Pugmire and Sister Christina Savage Waters brought their children and they were adorable. We also met in the Conference center elevator Elder Hillburn from our Sri Lanka Mission. The world of missionaries is small and so fun to link up again with old friends.

Well must close and wish everyone the best New Year!

E/S Waller, Bama and Bampa, Chuck and Sharon, Mom and Dad

Sister Christina Savage Waters and Olivia

Sister Heidi Bowhius Pugmire and children

Sister Sylvia Webster

Red Robin for Lunch, great fun!