It's Christmas evening and we have had a great week.  We only worked four days in the library and those were half days.  However, they were productive for me.  Through the help of one of the consultants on the international floor we were able to find the Christening record for one of my greatgrndfather and the marriage record for his parents.  As a result of this effort I have been able to find some of my great grandfather's siblings, so all in all the search has been very successful.

At last Lorene and I have agreed that it is time for us to go home at the end of Februrary which is our original release day.  We will be heading to Cedar City for a few weeks for about three weeks and then heading to Arizona.  Lorene can hardly wait to get back to Arizona and get to develop and/or redevelop relationships with our grandkids there.  Also, after having a very White Christmas Lorene is anxious to have some sunsunshine.  Me, I am going to miss the snow.

We had some changes to our mission last Sunday.  The Church leaders over us called a meeting for all of the missionaries in our mission--both full-time and Church Service Missionaries. They changed the name of the mission and the way our Church branches are organized.  We are now in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission, and in the City Creek Branch.  Formerly, our branch, the Salt Lake 2nd Branch, was part of the Salt Lake Stake.  The other branch was the 3rd Branch, in the Ensign Stake. We had Branch Presidents who were non-missionaries, called to serve for a period of time.  Their counselors were full-time missionaries assigned to each branch.  We were assigned to one of the Branches according to when we arrived in the mission: those arriving in even months went to the 2nd Branch, and those in odd months, to the 3rd.  Now, both branches are being dissolved, the Branch Presidents released and new Branches have been formed.  The two branches are the City Creek Branch and the Ensign Peak Branch and we're assigned according to our mission assignments.  We are no longer part of a Stake, the Branch Presidents are the counselors in the mission presidency, and the mission president is our Ecclesiastical leader.  Our Church records will be returned to our home wards, and all tithing and other donations will be paid through them.  The young Elders were formerly all in the 2nd Branch, but now there will be some in each branch.  Another thing that will be part of these changes is that we will have oppotunities to do service in the inner-city wards of Salt Lake City.  We don't know yet how that's going to work; we'll find out later.

It's exciting, but kind of sad, too because our mision ends soon, so we'll only be part of this for a few weeks.  But, as Steve said, we feel it's time for us to go home.

We love you all and hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Elder Steve and Sister Lorene Walker

Steve: Another week has rushed by and with it some ups and downs.  On the up side the Family History Department invited all the Missionaries in our Mission as well as  the Department Staff to a Christmas Devotional and luncheon,  The meeting which was fantastic and the food was good, too.  Three members of the Quorum of 70's and their wives were the speakers and they related some of their favorite family Christmas memories, and they also selected their favorite Christmas song that we sang at the conclusion of their talks.  We don't often hear from the wives of the General Authorities so this was a pleasant change.  We are going to miss these types of events when we leave our Mission which build us up and help motivate us to do and be better.

On the down side, Lorene spent a couple days of being sick and not workingfor a day and a half.  I hate to see how run down she gets as I know she was promised that she would enjoy good health and able to not have sleep problems.  Compared to so many others, she does enjoy good health and her body gets adequate sleep most of the time.  I think that she has done remarkedly well as she has dealt with a series of setbacks, and each time as she recovers from one or another setback she is anxious to get back to work and serve in the Family History Library.  The next couple of weeks we will be working a modified work schedule because of early closure of the library during the Christmas season. This will be good to help Lorene recharge her physical batteries.

I have come to realize over the last serveral months how much family history work means to Lorene.  While I continue to add names to my tree, I see how committed she is to correcting her tree and making sure that the right people are connected to the right families.  This past week Lorene has dug  and dug to find records for an ancector and looked high and low for missing records.  After many long hours, she found some of the records and was able to add sources that confirm her feelings about certain individuals.  As I do my own research and talk with other Missionaries, the importance of adding sources is confirmed time and time again. When sources are not included, it is very difficult to put families together that have any meaning other than a name and a place. Another frustrating aspect of the families of  Family Tree is the number of incomplete families.  Time and time again I find one or two children that are attached to a family when the records clearly show additional children which are not attached to their family.

Yesterday was bittersweet as I spoke with one of our Young Elders who is completing his Mission this week.  Elder Yowell is one of the older Young Elders (27) and has no firm plans as to what he is going to do when he goes home.  Watching him serve in the Library, it is easy to see that he has been successful during his time here in the Mission.  However, he lacks self confidence and is stymied and fearful of the future.  Apparently he also lacks support from his family, which contributes to his lack of self-esteem. I suggested that he counsel with our Mission President before he leaves this week, but that he should set out a plan for the future that the President can discuss with him.  I hope I can keep in contact with Elder Yowell after he leaves the Mission.

I am ready to move aside and let Lorene edit and add her own story for the week.  Next Sunday is Christmas and it will be a happy, sad time.  Happy because it will be Christmas and sad that it is our last Christmas as full time Missionaries and our last time with so many good friends.

Lorene: It's nice to read the good things my loving husband says about me.  I would not be able to serve this mission if it weren't for him and his support.  He does so much for me!    

As Steve said, the Christmas devotional and luncheon this week were a special treat.  I was unable to go on the day we were assigned, so I went the next day.  (The missionaries are divided into two groups so that our duties are not left with no one to do them.)  We had different Seventies come and speak--and no wives :( , but it was still very nice.  They had us do something special which they called "ornamenting the tree."  They had a Family History Christmas Tree that each of us contributed to.  We were to make an ornament (the outline of which was provided for us) on which we were to paste a picture and/or story about one of our ancestors.  It was fun to find pictures and stories about our ancestors for this project.

I'm looking forward to going home and being reunited with family.  However, I am really going to miss the many wonderful people we've met and worked with here.  Another thing I'm going to miss is the choirs, the branch and our mission choir -- the Elijah Choir.  It' been a special treat to sing with such talented people, especially at this time of year. 

Love and miss you all!
Steve and Lorene aka Elder and Sister Walker

Steve: Another week has come racing by, and it is Sunday once again.  I almost feel like I really am in a race and I don't like what's at the finish line - the end of a full time Mission.  One of the best parts of being on this Mission is the fact that I feel like I have purpose in my life.  Retirement can leave you empty if you don't find something useful and meaningful to do.  Although I expect that I can find things to do and friendships to renew when we finish, I fear that my days will just be busy days without meaning. Although it would be nice to go on another full time Mission, deep down I think it would be better if we do a Service Mission so that we have the flexibility to continue to spend time near our family in both Utah and Arizona.  Serving is serving whether its full time or part time so long at is for the right reason.  There are so many opportunities, it may be hard to decide what to do without feeling like we have to do all of them.

This past week has been pretty much the same as the last few weeks.  The library is rather slow and it seems that most guests that come into the library know what they are doing and don't need much help. However, we have been busy attending classes on Irish and Scottish research as well as mentoring two new Missionaries.  In addition, we still have been working on our own research and tree cleaning.  I have learned that I can make myself about busy as I want to be without too much effort in finding things to do.  There is so much information on line now that can help put families together that it can almost be overwhelming at times.

I have discovered the truth in the adage that those that don't learn history from the past are forced to repeat it.  A few weeks ago my flash drive crashed and I lost a lot information that I had put on it. Through the expertise of others I was able to recover most of what I had lost.  However, not being too bright, I didn't use that experience to remind me the importance of backing up my files.  This week it happened again with the same flash drive and again someone else had to come to my rescue. However, I don't think all that was lost was able to be recovered this time.😞  I went out yesterday and bought a portable hard drive so that I can backup my files.  Now I need to learn how to use it so that I don't have to go through this type of anxiety again.

Lorene:  I feel that I have grown so much on this mission. I started out feeling so happy, then went through a rough period when I wondered why I'm here and whether or not I had the fortitude to continue.  Through fasting and much pondering and prayer, I have received the strength to not only continue, but do so happily.  The Lord has truly blessed me with comfort and peace, and I have grown closer to my Heavenly Father, the Savior, and the Holy Spirit.

I am looking forward with anticipation to going home.  I miss my grandchildren terribly and I'm looking forward to some much needed rest and "down time."  However, I also am sad to leave the many wonderful friends we've made and experiences we've had while here.  I'm so grateful for the prompting to come on this mission and for the help and guidance of the Lord.  I love this Gospel and am amazed at the blessings I've received because of it. I am so glad to be a part of this wonderful work!

Love you all!
Steve and Lorene aka Elder and Sister Walker

Steve:This past week has been very interesting.  The first half went by very slowly and then when we hit the second half that raced through at lightning speed.  I think the speedy portion was because we were busier.  We also had a small snow storm that brought some colder days, but overall it was a great week.

We worked Friday night, and we had expected to be a very slow evening based on the previous nights during the week.  However, we were busy most of the night.  Lorene had some very positive experiences helping some guests.  One guest was a non-member; however, they were able to find some records that she was able to take home, and based on Lorene's suggestion she will probably seek out a Family History Center near her home in Denver.  I helped a guest with the cataloge and sent her on to the International Floor to try and find records of her Great-Grandmother who was a prisoner in the Dachua Concentration Camp during World War II.  Our other Missionaires were also very busy during the evening too, and we all came away feeling like it was a successful evening.

On Saturday we went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple to do work for my great-great grandparents.  It was nice to have that opportunity.  We met our sister-in-law, Cheryl, there and it was nice to visit with her over lunch afterwards.  We have now visited all the Temples within our Mission Temple Zone.  While they may not look the same on the outside, each has the same special feeling on the inside.  While some may think we spend too much on these buildings, because of their importance to us and our desire to please the One whose Gospel it is, I don't believe that they are too lavish.

The highlight of the week for also came towards the end of the week.  I think all of us had at least one teacher who was our favorite.  For some, the teacher could be while we were in elementery school, for some it was a middle or high school teacher, and for others it could have been a college instructor.  For me it was Doris Samuelsen at Eugene Field Elementery School in Pasadena, California. Mrs. Samuelsen was an older teacher, but one who was so very kind and loving.  I kind of felt during my time in her classroom that I was someone who she truly cared about.  She was one of those teachers who cared about you not only in the classroom, but also outside the classroom.  On Fridays after school, I would wait on the curb waiting for my father to pick me up and take me to my real home after a week in my foster home.  If I was still waiting on the curb when she left for the evening, Mrs. Samuelsen would pull up on the curb next to where I was waiting and ask if I was alright.  On more than one occassion, she would drive me to my foster home to wait for my father.

As I have said, Mrs. Samuelsen was the most favorite teacher of all the teachers I have had through the years.  In fact, as my thoughts have turned to herover the years I have warmed by them.  This week was very special in this regard, for a felt a nudge to try to reach out to her family and share my thoughts about her. The computer and the internet can be such a positive tool at times.  Not knowing whether she had any survivors, I searched for any any children and ulimatley found a son on line that worked for the University of California system at one time, but I could not find any contact information for him.  Being saddened by this search I did some more searching on line and found another son and there was some contact information.  Ultimately, I was able to make contact with Scott via email and then we were also able to talk on the phone.  It was a joy to be able to share my memories with Scott and tell him how much his mother meant to me.  Because eternal families are so important to me and to each of us,  I got enough courage to ask Scott if I could extend those same blessings to his parents.  Being prompted to ask to do this and Scott being touched by my feelings for his mom and my desire to bring them these blessings, I received approval from him, so now Lorene and I will have the opportunity to do the Temple Work for his parents. 

Lorene:  This has been a special week for me also as I have come to understand some things that have been troubling me over the last few months. It's been hard for me to understand why I have had so many health issues and trouble sleeping.  I didn't expect to miraculously be healed while on this mission, but I thought that I would be better than I have been.  As I've struggled with the "why" of this, I've realized a couple of things: (1) If this mission had be "easy" for me, I wouldn't have grown as much a I have spiritually, and (2) I've learned how to trust in the Lord and His will and His timing.  I've also learned how to more fully depend on Him for strength.  I'm still trying to accept His will and align mine to His, but I'm feeling much more at peace.  I know that He loves us and that things happen, or don't happen, for reasons that we sometimes don't understand, but will be for our good in the long-run as long as we strive to keep His commandments.

I know He lives, and I have a testimony of this great work and am glad to be a small part of it.
We love you all and hope you are doing well.

With about three months left on our Mission, we decided to try posting on our blog once again.   When we started we had high hopes about how consistent we were going to be.  Well, we shall have to see how the next several weeks go.

I wish I could say that we have had great things happen since our last post.  However, that is not necessarily the case.  We have completed our trek to visit most of the temples in the area that we are allowed to travel and that has been great.  Almost every time we have been able to do family names which has been very rewarding.  Our goal is continue to take family names so long as we have a supply of them.

Lorene has been able to find a few new names for missing children which always brings her a great sense of happiness.  In addition, she continues to try and correct her tree which is a never-ending process.  As for me, I continue to try and put my family together, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to do so. With the help of a good friend I have been trying to find my great-grandfather's family in Canada, but so far I have not been able to connect all the dots yet.  However, I have one particular family that I have been working with and it looks somewhat promising.  I am almost to the stage where I am ready to adopt this family and add them to my tree or put them in Family Tree without connecting them.

Our children struggle and it's hard to be away and not able to do much to help them.  Our son's two boys will be probably be sent again to live with their own parents soon.  The youngest likely will go live with his mom starting sometime next month.  The oldest of the boys likely will be returned to live with his dad.  We are concerned about how that is going to work out for him but understand that he's made some progress in getting his life in order.  Our daughter and her family who have been caring for the boys could use a breather, but I think it is going to be hard on all concerned when these placements are made.

Our family has been blessed as both are oldest and middle daughter are now employed full time -- both in Cedar City.  Cyndie is working for Southwest Applied Technology College in the testing department.  If all goes as planned she should complete her online courses and be able to graduate from Utah State University next month.  She has worked so very hard and it has been so stressful, but we are hoping that she will feel a great sense of accomplishment.  Laura is now teaching at Southern Utah University in the English Department and loves it.  Teaching at a university has been a long- time goal of hers and we believe she has found the niche she has been looking for.

Well, its time to turn over the keyboard to my editor to make sense out of what I have written.

I have had a couple of experiences which I would like to share with you.  One is what we call in our mission a "heart-turning experience."  We had the son of an old friend from California (who now lives here in Utah) come in with his wife to visit us.  We talked for awhile and encouraged him to come back and we'd help him work on his family tree.  A couple of weeks later, he did come back by himself and I proceeded to get him into FamilySearch/Family Tree to see what we could find.  We were hoping to find some names for ancestors that needed temple work done.  We did find a few names, but then I had to leave to attend a meeting so I encouraged him to return again so we could do more.  I couldn't tell what his feelings were, but hoped that he had had a heart-turning experience that would lead him to continue to work on his family history.  The next day, his mother called me and told me that he came to her very excited about what we had found and wanted to do more.  It was a d touching experience.

The other thing I want to share is a difficult thing to speak about because it involves a good friend who is dying from cancer.  My friend, Suzi Lewis, was diagnosed with multiple myloma about 4 years ago. It seemed that the doctors were able to keep it under control with medication.  In addition to the cancer, she had a series of small heart attacks about 18 months ago and had to have open-heart surgery to remove a blockage. At that time, I was able to go and spend about a week with her as she recuperated from her surgery.  While there, I observed that she was having trouble with her memory, but I attributed it to the surgery and medication she was taking. However, I noticed that it improved little, if any, as I visited with her on the phone over the next several months. I spoke with her husband about it and he said she was suffering from dementia. Then, about a month ago, I received a group email from him updating friends and family of her condition.  The doctors had determined that the cancer treatments were no longer working and had put her on palliative care, which basically means "there's nothing more we can do and we will now make her as comfortable as possible."  Steve and I decided that it would be a good idea for me to go see her as soon as possible, so last week I was able to fly to Oregon where she now lives and spend a few days with her.  It was a bittersweet experience--very hard to see her so weak and unable to do things for herself. In addition, her dementia has gotten worse, to the point where her husband has to make a sign for her every day to tell her what day it is and if they have any appointments.  Saying good-bye was particularly hard, but I'm very glad that I was able to go spend some time with her.  I'm also very grateful for our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation--to know that this life is not all there is and that there is a great and glorious resurrection and re-uniting of us to our loved ones that have passed on.

We hope you are all doing well and that the upcoming Christmas Season will bring you happiness as you contemplate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and time to spend with those you love.

Steve and Lorene Walker

Somehow when I waved my magic wand so that my blog would somehow get written, I discoverd that it didn't happen.  I wish there was an excuse for laziness, but there isn't one, and I can't even think of a good excuse even if I wanted to.

The Mission is going fairly well and we are even able to help guests now and then.  The summer crowds at the library must be waiting for cooler weather as they have not materialized yet.  Our Friday nights are slow for the most part.  We continue to realize that there is so much more that we should be learning and doing.  I just hope that when we leave here in about 8 months that we can use what we have learned to help others.  Lorene spends a lot of time trying to make corrections to her family tree and also trying to get families put together that need to be put together.  As for me, I am making some progress, but most is on collateral lines.  However, I have been able to put a third great grandfather together with his wife and children.  One of my most difficult tasks is my maternal great grandfather, I have his marriage record and death certificate but they do not provide enough information about his family.

Our family seems to be doing well without us, and life is improving for some of them more than others. Blessings came when two of our daughters interviewed for different jobs in the education field and both were hired with full time jobs in Cedar City, Utah.  Cyndie will be working at Southwest Applied Technology College in the student success program and Laura will be teaching English at Southern Utah University.

I am going to turn this over to our local Editor in Chief for correction and embellishment.
--Steve

We had a wonderful opportunity on Monday to help the Family Search Department by teaching the new employees how to work on their family trees.  We were each assigned an employee to work with, given access to their tree, and had about 3 weeks to prepare to help them find names of people in their tree that need work done.  It was a great experience which we have volunteered to do again in about 6 weeks. 

On Friday, we decided to go to the Church Office Building cafeteria for lunch.  While there, we ran into my cousin, Brent Eggleston, who works for Family Search as an engineer.  We had a nice visit with him and found out a little more about the major change that they're making tomorrow morning. (Actually, it starts at midnight tonight.)  For those of you who don't know, the system has been needing to be upgraded for a long time because it's functioning far above it's capacity.  It's a miracle it hasn't crashed.
 
We also had a family come to the library that evening that had a wonderful experience.  I happened to be at the greeter desk (the front desk where we greet people that come onto our floor and ask if they need help) when this family were leaving. The missionary who had been helping them told me that the mother and her 3 daughters had been to the library earlier that day, then when the dad came home from work, the youngest daughter (about 8 years old) wanted them all to come back with him.  They did, and he was able to find records for some of his ancestors.  Another daughter was able to find records for more members of the same ancestor's family.  They left very happy--all because a young child wanted her dad to come to the library. 

This is a great work, and the hand of the Lord is in it.  We're so grateful for the privilege of being a small part of it.

I have said it before and I guess I need to say it again.  Maybe someday I will understand that the message is really for me, but I will share my secret with you.  Procrasination is a terrible master and it is not very forgiving.  It is hard to believe that almost a month and a half has passed since we last posted.  I know that I need to be more dilligent in writing about our Mission.

What is even harder to believe is that we have been on our Mission for a little over six months.  It is scary when I think that so much time has passed and I still have so much more to learn, and there's so much that I want to learn, I fear I won't be sucessful in either of these endeavors.  I guess I should be happy with even little positive experiences and feel that they will counted to my good.  The library still is isn't as busy as I had thought and maybe for me that is a good thing because I still tend to be intimidated by our guests.  I hope that in the next couple of months those feelings will go away.

Our assignment as Assistant Zone Leaders is going well.  I still feel that our Zone Leaders are carrying too much of the load, but we try and help where and when we can.  It is interesting tht I find that I share some of the same thoughts with our Zone Leader  although we have never discussed the need or the idea in advance.  Maybe there is something to the adage that great minds think alike (however I am pretty sure my mind is not all that great).

We recently found out that some friends of ours from Cedar City have been called to this Mission here in Salt Lake City.  We are anxious for them to get here and we have heard that they might even be assigned to our Zone.  We shall see.

We both continue to work on our own family lines and get frustrated about or progress, but for separate reasons.  I continue to find more brickwalls than people and it is all the harder because I don't have too many people to collarorate with.  However, I do have a second cousin in Indiana that I have been trying to contact, and I believe that we may contact each other this week.  I previously sent her some information and am looking forward to discussing it with her.  With more and more records being uploaded to the main Family History Websites, the work is getting a little bit easier and if I can ever really learn to be more patient, then maybe I can be more successful.  Lorene continues to try to clean up her family tree and has spent a good amount of time trying to shake some people out of her tree that don't belong there.

Time to turn the keyboard to the person that can take my jumbled thoughts and make some sense out of them.

From Lorene:

I had an experience last week that I’d like to share.  For the past few months, off and on, I have been looking for a 4^th great-grandfather on my mother’s side.  I discovered before coming on this mission that his daughter, my 3^rd great-grandmother Johanna, was probably connected to the wrong family.  She has been listed as the last child of Abraham Winn and Elizabeth Warren for several years, even on the genealogies that I received from my mother.  What I discovered is that Johanna was christened in a different parish than all of the other children.  Upon further investigation, I also discovered that Elizabeth Warren was 52 when Johanna was born and there is a 15 year gap between her and the next oldest child. Although this is possible, it caused me to wonder about her parents.  As I investigated further, I found 3 other children christened in the same parish as Johanna who are closer to her age. The christening records for all of these children have Abraham Winn and Elizabeth (with no maiden name) as their parents.  I decided to try to find another Abraham Winn married to an Elizabeth who is in the parish in which Johanna and these other children were christened.  I started looking in parish records for a marriage record, but after several days of looking I was having no success.  As I continued my search, I had a strong impression that I was taking the wrong approach.  The Spirit prompted me to try a different tactic and to look in Ancestry.com for a birth record for an Abraham Winn who could be Johanna’s father.  After just a few minutes, I found one!  He was born in the same parish where Johanna and the other children were christened and his birth year is consistent with the births of these children.  I feel strongly that this is Johanna’s correct father.  I still need to find her mother, but I know that the Spirit will continue to guide me in my search.

The Family History Library has been rather slow this past week.  However, that should change shortly as in a little more than a week the RootsTech conference here in Salt Lake will take place.  I expect that the library will be fairly busy then.  On our British Services Floor we were all a little saddened as one of the young Full Time Elders was released and sent home due to some health issues.  A new Elder has been assigned and we expect some other significant changes this week.  More info as it becomes available.

In light of a bunch of filler for the remainer of this post, I am including a talk that Lorene and I will be giving tomorrow at the Weekly Monday Morning Mission Devotional.  Generally the Senior Couple Missionaries speak individually, however we have determined that we will stand together and give our talks by alternating back and forth.  The text in regular script will be presented by Lorene and the italicized script will be presented by me.  Our comments are suppose to be three minutes each, however ours is around seven minutes so we expect to beshown the red card which means its time to finish and sit down.  It should be interesting and we are excited to have the opportunity to speak to almost three hundred missionaries - well maybe excited is a little bit of an exaggeration.

"Good morning Elders and Sisters.  My name is Lorene Eggleston Walker and I am the daughter of Selar Orland and Arva Williams Eggleston.  I am the second of 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys.  My parents both grew up in small Utah towns, my father in Eden and my mother in Vineyard.  They met in California while visiting family and friends and decided to stay there to raise their family.

I was blessed to be born of goodly parents who loved the Lord.  They both went on missions as young adults and have been called to serve missions on the other side of the veil.  I know this because of a dream I had after my father died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 50 when I was 19 years old and in my first year of college.  In my dream, he came back and told me that he was called by the Lord to do His work on the other side.

Sister Walker and I met at the Institute of Religion adjacent to Mt. San Antonio Jr. College in 1968 in Southern California.  Upon asking Sister Walker what college classes she was taking, she informed me that her hardest class was in ear training which was a music class.  However, not wanting to let the opportunity to pass me by, I pulled her hair away from the side of her head and said as politely as I could:  jump ear, jump.  From that moment on she reveled in my sense of humor as she has for the past 43 years.  Leaving college, I joined the Air Force, and we saw each other one more time before our summer reunion in 1971.  We both happened to attend a Young Adult dance in Sacramento not knowing the other one of us would be there.  It had been several months since we had seen each other, and at the dance we both saw each other about the same time.  However, Sister Walker was a little bit unsure if it really was me.  I still don't understand her hesitancy, as the only thing different about me was my toupee and, golly gee, just because she never saw me with much hair on my head is no reason not to recognize me.

Thirteen years after my father died, when my mother was dying I was comforted by the Spirit with the knowledge that everything would be alright.  After she passed away, I questioned the Lord–His definition of “alright” and mine were not the same.  This period of time was very difficult for me.  I was a busy mother of 4 with one on the way, going to school to finish classes I needed to earn my California teaching credential, and of course serving in the church.  As I pleaded with the Lord to understand why my parents were taken so early in life, the Holy Spirit comforted me and I was blessed with the knowledge that Heavenly Father was in charge and it was His will.  Although it’s been difficult, I have learned to accept His will through this and other trials in my life.  I have also learned to depend on the Lord.

I, too, was born of goodly parents, or more to the point, I was born of a goodly number of parents.  First there are my natural parents Richard and Eleanor Walker, although actually Gray is my grandfather's last name and he was either adopted or hijacked the name Walker when his mother married John Walker after her marriage to Ora Gray ended.  Secondly, my natural mother returned to work right after I was born and I was placed in a foster home where I was welcomed into the Weberg family until I started high school then I returned to my real parent’s home.  While in High School, discovering my parents alcohol abuse problem , I spent a lot of time with the family of my best friend, Mike Vehawn.  After my parents died in 1985, Brother and Sister Vehawn became surrogate grandparents to our children. Lastly, there is my Mission Mom, Sister Sharon Walker, who we met in the MTC when we started our mission at the end of August.  So as you can see, I have a goodly number of parents and for that matter a good number of family lines to do family history work for.  It is almost overwhelming at times.

My husband’s parents died within two months of each other 2 years after my mom’s death.  Our oldest daughter was 11 years old and our youngest was two.  Because our children grew up pretty much without the privilege of having a close relationship with grandparents, we decided after we retired to move close to our children so that our grandchildren would have that privilege.  Hence, we bought a home in Cedar City, Utah where we would spend the summers and one in Surprise, Arizona, where we would spend the winters.  Of course, the nice weather in each place during those seasons had nothing to do with our decision.  We have spent the last 4 years going back and forth between our two homes.

Almost from the beginning of our marriage, my wife and I have talked of serving a mission after our children were grown.  As the years came and went, however, she developed some health issues so that when the time came that we were retired and would otherwise be considering full-time missionary service, we figured that her health problems would prevent it.  So we decided that we would serve as Church Service Missionaries.  We looked at a few possibilities and ended up serving at Deseret Industries. 

We were able to serve in Cedar City while we were there, and in Phoenix when we were in Arizona.  It was a wonderful experience which lasted for a little over two years.  After that, my husband started volunteering at the family history center in Cedar City.  After a short time, he tried to convince me to come and serve there also, but I felt that I didn’t know enough to be able to be of service.  Having come from a long line of pioneer ancestors, there was little, I thought, that I could do family history-wise.  Boy, was I wrong!  After I got started on family history, I discovered that there was much I could do to clean up the records that were on Family Tree.  I also found some ancestors which needed their temple work done.  It wasn’t long before the Spirit of Elijah took over, so, after a few weeks of my husband nagging, opps, I mean encouraging me, I too started volunteering at the Family History Center.  We also went to the temple regularly and did the work for several family names that we had found.

This continued for another year and a half.  Then, last spring, we felt like we needed to do something more.  I started looking at other volunteer opportunities, and Sister Walker did some sewing, but we both spent a lot of time watching TV and otherwise wasting our time. 

Just before April Conference, I knelt and prayed for direction and the Spirit whispered, “Go on a full-time mission.”  Some other things had led up to this point: for example, a conversation with a sister at the temple while waiting to do initiatory work and a comment from my doctor who is a member of the Church.  I had heard that the mission to the Family History Library in Salt Lake (I didn’t know the full name of the mission at that time) was a good mission to go to if you didn’t have the stamina to serve a proselytizing mission so because of that, and our love for family history, that was where I wanted to go.  So on the Thursday before April Conference, I told my husband that I thought we should go on a full-time mission.  He was so excited, as were our children when we told them.

When we got here and the Mission Presidency said that they had prayed us here, we knew it was true because we had felt the gentle nudgings of the Spirit which brought us to this place at this time.  The Lord has blessed me with improved health and I have discovered that there are some others that have health problems that are worse than mine yet they continue to serve faithfully. 

Being a convert to the Church has resulted in my search for my ancestors a little bit more challenging then Sister Walker’s.  However, since coming to this mission I have had an Elijah moment that I will remember forever.  My paternal grandmother told me that she had a half brother who immigrated to the U. S. in the late 1800's with his father and nanny from Germany; his nanny became his step mother within days of their arrival.  I had found Gustav on the 1894 Michigan State Census and the 1900 U.S. Census, but could find no more trace of him.  About a month ago at the Family History Library I found his death certificate indicating that he died in 1909 at the age of 22.  Shortly after finding this certificate, I had a dream that there was a banner across my family tree on FamilySearch that said "You will be happy to meet Charles, Clara and Gustav." At first I thought this message was for anyone who looked at my family tree, but I have come to understand that the message is just for me, and I look forward to the time on other side of the veil when I will meet my Great-Grandparents Charles and Clara and my Great-Uncle Gustav Janousky.  Recently I have completed his temple ordinances and we plan shortly to complete his temple sealing to his father and step-mother.

We are enjoying our mission here and love serving with so many wonderful people.  We know the gospel is true and bear this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

January 10, 2016

NEWS FLASH - SALT LAKE CITY

This item has just come in from our correspondent in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It has been reported that the casts from Steve Walker (aka Elder Walker) hands have been removed.  Furthermore, the doctors report that he can once again use the keyboard and resume weekly posts.  Ha, ha just kidding.  I hate to admit it but once you take a break from posting to your blog weekly it gets a little harder to resume writing again.

Things have been rather slow at the library on the British Services floor as most guests that have visited our floor lately seem to be able to find what they need without much assistance from us Missionaries.  However, when we are able to assist they seem to have a variety of needs which give us a little broader perspective and increase our skills a bit.  My assistance has been a little bit more basic than the aid that Lorene is asked to render, but still is important to the guests.  Lorene has had the more complex searches, but she has been able to rise to the challenge.  I am starting to mentally figure how to navigate the aids that allow our guests to search and find their ancestors and am hoping to begin implementing those tools in seeking some members of my own family tree.  Lorene continues to try and fix errors that exist in family tree and it is very frutrating when some of the information that is entered is obviously incorrect or not even possible.  I still am trying to understand why our ancestors want to us to seek them out yet seem so hard to find at times, but it's probably because the things that are most important sometimes take the most effort to achieve.

We still have not been asked to speaking at the weekly Mission Devotional and that is a little discouraging.  We only know of one other set of missionaries who came in with our group back in September that have not spoken, and they are scheduled to speak at the end of the month.  We don't know if we have been overlooked, or if we are on their radar and just have to be patient a little more.  We have our four month interview with the Second Counselor in the Mission Presidency and his wife tomorrow and  we are looking forward to that opportunity.  We have some a great Mission Presidency and their wives are just as awesome.  Their concern for each of the missionaries is matchless.  We continue to grow as we serve and are so appreciative of the support that our fellow missionaires and family give us.

I'd best set this aside so that your favorite Editor-in-Chief, well at least my favorite Editor-in-Chief, can reveiw, revise and otherwise redact my writing.

I "redacted" that statement because Elder Walker is a little too generous with his praise.  I don't think I'm doing any better than he is, but I'm trying!  (I didn't even know what"redact" meant until he explained it to me.  I thought it was a typo!  So I had to redact something just to be funny, but what I said about my abilities compared to his is true.)

We've been given another assignment.  We have been asked to serve on the "Hail and Farewell" committee.  We have our first one tomorrow night.  It should be fun, but I hope we can keep up with all of our responsibilities.  This is the fourth thing we've been asked to dobetween our zone, our branch and the mission.   We've been greatly blessee, however, and continue to enjoy serving the Lord.