We did it, we finished our last week of full Family Tree training.  Much of the training including things we already knew, but we also received a lot of new information.  The real test will be if we can remember the new items and as well as helping the guest use some of these helps.   We learned the importance of including family stories in our Family Tree as well as some great hints on recording research in Census Records.  In addition, we also learned how to navigate more effectively record hints that now include the main genealogical partner sites.  Our Zone Leaders over this past week are going back home to South Carolina with a new assignment in Church History which will be quite a change for them.Elder Bass is so soft spoken and is a southern gentleman through and through.  Sister Bass is passionate about what she teaches and what she wants us to learn and put into action.  She lost one eye to cancer a few years ago and jokes about keeping an eye on all her students.  The Basses will be sorely missed.

After being here in Salt Lake City for about a month, we were at last able to see Lorene's younger brother Wayne.  Wayne lives here in the City also and works for the Church in Food Services.  For all of his problems and loneliness he continues to have a very positive outlook on his own circumstances as well as life in general.  Like our son Michael, his bike is one of his main forms of transportation.  Bad health is an issue for Wayne and he still struggles with major headaches which affect him unfortunately too regularly.  I am so grateful that our health issues are generally easy to manage with good diet, exercise and adequate sleep.  By the way, Lorene's older sister and brother-in-law are suppose to be here in Salt Lake this week for some training before they report to the MTC on October 5th and we are planning on going out to eat with them sometime this week.

Starting tomorrow we will begin our service in the British Services Zone.  We are anxious to learn as much in as little time as possible.  Our mentor is Sister Rusk and thisis  at least her second time serving in the British Zone.  I am sure will be a great help to us.  For the next several weeks we will be dividing our time between skill development, training from our mentor, shadowing our mentor and the all important lunch hour.  This should be a very interesting week and hopefully will set a positive tone for our service in this zone.

This past week we had our planning meeting with our social group (the 30 of us missionaries that came here together from the MTC.  It surprises me how close this group really is and how much they want to support and be with each other.  What makes it remarkable is when you think we all come from such varied backgrounds, but in the end we all have the same goal of service.  We all volunteered as couples or small groups to be responsible to plan for an activity each month.