Steve: Last week got away from both of us, I am ashamed to say.  My goal when we started our Mission was to post each week and I am afraid that I fell far short of my goal.  However, my promise is to try harder during the remaining time we have here on our Mission.  The weeks and days are flying so fast that I fear I won't be able to do all that I have to do before we leave our comfortable apartment and, more importantly, before we leave all of new friends.  This Mission is one of the few where we you get to greet hundreds of Missionaries each week and know that we all share the same feelings.

We have had one meeting with Brother Williams who is a a staff member in the FamilySearch Department to talk about serving as Church Service Missionaries after we go home.  He is anxious to have us help with an new concept that is being developed at FamilySearch which is to create communities (groups) that will expand the collaborative efforts for patrons across the world.  We are very excited and look forward to continue to serve as Missionaries after we leave our full time Mission.  The program is in the first testing phase and we hope to expand it to the Family History Centers in Cedar City and Peoria when we get back to our homes in Utah and Arizona.

My search for family members continues to grow and so does my love for this work continue to grow more and more each week.  My efforts have been centered in Prussia as I continue to find someone new each week.  I think that, after our release, when we get get settled down  for a while  I am going to order some microfilm reels from here so that I can start putting some families together.

This past week has been very hard for Lorene.  She has had to deal with some health issues that have lingered for some months.  I am not sure that she is going to recover from all these issues before we leave here; however, I think that the trial of these problems is to allow her to have a sense of peace that our Heavenly Father is near to her and that he knows what is in her heart.  The feeling of peace can provide balm of healing  even when your health issues are not completely healed.

Lorene: Another thing that happened last week is that my good friend, Suzi Lewis, passed away on Friday, January 13th after a long battle with cancer.  I will miss her terribly!  She was a special person and a dear, dear friend.  I have had some "tender mercies" associated with this event, however.  She went peacefully, which is what I had been praying for.  Another thing  is the "miracle" that I saw the phone call come in when her husband Vaughn called to give me the news.  We were serving at the library and I had my phone on "mute."  I usually turn it on "vibrate" so that I can hear it without it disturbing others.  When the call came in, I just "happened" to look over at my phone and see it light up.  After that, I went into the restroom and sat down on one of the comfortable chairs that are in there so that I could collect myself before returning to work.  While doing so, I felt her presence and got the distinct feeling that she had come to say "good-bye."

This morning brought another tender mercy as the message on "Music and the Spoken Word" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was concerning losing a loved one.  Lloyd Newell, who gives the message each week, said that although we miss them terribly, life goes on and we adjust, but there's always a vacancy where that person was.  We cannot fill it with someone or something else, nor should we, but that person will always hold a special place in our hearts.

I thank the Lord for tender mercies and for His love for us all.

Love,
The Walkers

Steve: It's been a cold week and we still have snow on the ground.  However, we are supposed to have rain this week, and if that happens the snow will probably disappear.  The bad part of the snow has been ice on the sidewalks, and the bad part about rain is the snow melting and flooding the streets. Some people just are never happy with mother nature.

The library has been pretty slow this week which makes the days go longer.  I think the snow and cold weather had a lot to do with it. I want to start putting on my flash drive the materials from the British Services floor that are only available on the intranet.  This material will help us to be better family history consultants when we get back to Cedar City and Surprise.

For  some time we have been been pondering how to spend our time after our  release from our Mission.  Obviously spending time with family is Lorene's number one priority and I too will enjoy time being with our grandchildren, but it isn't the only thing we want to do.  We want to make sure that we continue to do work on our family trees as well as helping others have a desire to do their own family research.  We still have a lot to learn and family members to find.  We also have considered becoming "at home" missionaries in some sort of family history facet.  Subsequently, we met with one of the staff members from the Family History Department last week and are now planning to work on the Family History Communities that are located on Facebook.  We are not completely sure what this will entail, but we'll get some training here before we are released as full time missionaries.  When we were talking with Brother Williams last week, both Lorene and got a warm feeling and confirmation that this is the right thing for us to be doing when we get home.

Lorene: We finally have a chance to speak in Sacrament Meeting.  Most missionaries get that opportunity in the first few months, but somehow we got overlooked.  Perhaps it was because I was somewhat out of commission because of my foot surgery.  At any rate, we have been asked to speak next Sunday.  Our topics will be on our mortal probation and how this life is a test.  The topics are very closely related, as you can see.   I have been pondering much lately on the purpose of trials, so I am looking forward to sharing some of my thoughts and experiences with our Branch.

That's about all we have to say for this week.  We hope and pray that you are all doing well; you are always in our prayers.

Love,
Elder and Sister Walker

Steve - Another New Year's Eve has come and gone and once again we slept through the night.  It was fun when we were younger to stay up until midnight, but I have noticed in the last few years that the new year will come whether we stay up or not.  We went out to dinner with a couple of Missionaries from out zone, then we went to a couple of mini-concerts last night at the Tabernacle on Temple Square and finally came home to play some games.  It was a very nice evening.

 I am getting less anxious about leaving our Mission in a few weeks because it is time to move aside and let someone else take our place.  Also I know that there are still several things for us to do when we return from our Mission: attending our local temple, spending time with our familiy and friends whom we left behind, continuing to work on family history, and otherwise serving.  The future will only be unfulfilling if we go home and do nothing, but I know that we won't let that happen.

I have shifted my attention to my fraternal grandparents and, in particular, Prussia.  Although I did not find any new names this week, I was able to understand the geography of where they lived even if it was only on a map.  It's amazing that when you find names of towns in which your ancestors lived, and then see how close they are to one another, it makes sense and becomes reasonable to see how they can move from place to place.  One thing I have recently learned is that Germans where invited to relocate to Prussia and promised no taxes, a two car garage and a chicken in every pot, so to speak, but this was changed when these promises were revoked and then these Germans moved back to Germany, or further to the West (the United States).  I believe that this is what happened to my Janowski (Janousky) ancestors.  However, I still struggle to figure out if the Janowski's were of German origin or if they were actually Polish.  The hunt goes on.

Lorene-I've been pondering  a lot this week about our mission: what I've learned and the spiritual growth I've experienced.  It's been a profound experience and I'm very grateful that we make the decision almost two years ago to do this.  I've also learned much about family history and have been able to do much "clean up" on my ancestral lines.  I haven't found much in the way of new names because there's already been so much done, but I have been able to find a few names on some collateral lines. I'm looking forward to going home, reuniting with friends and family, and continuing to work in family history--both my own and helping others with theirs. However, I'm going to miss this wonderful place and the amazing people we've met here.

May you all have a wonderful new year, filled with blessings and the growth that comes from trials.

Elder and Sister Walker

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.

The week before Christmas brought some family issues that affected our blogging skills, so we took a week off to get our collective head screwed back on right.  Besides, I can't think of any other excuse for not posting last week.  A few days before Christmas resulted in a second round of antibiotics for Lorene to deal with an infection, and we think that maybe she is over it now and are hoping for no more recurrances.  Although she has had some minor health issues since we started serving here in Salt Lake City, they have not been debilitating and for the most part she has recovered very quickly.  We know that overall she has been blessed with good health and has been able to serve even with minor disruptions.

Christmas was rather quiet and, to our recollection, we have never had an entire Christmas morning just to ourselves.  The peace and quiet was rather nice, but a little lonely, and we able to enjoy just being together remembering why and what Christmas really means.  To top the day off we went to our Branch for a Christmas dinner with our fellow missionaries.  We were sad that several of our missionary friends were not in attendance as they spent the time with family members who live live close by, but we had no regrets about spending the time with our mission family.  We were especially sad that our adopted mom, Sister Sharon Walker, was not with us, as she has gone home and been released due to some health issues.  We love her so much and will ever be grateful for her friendship, and we call and check up on her on a regular basis.

In less than a week we will begin a new year and, with it, new opportunites as well as new challenges. The past year has gone by very fast; we are hoping that this year passes more slowly. We want to savor our new friendships as long as possible and want to be more effective at helping others find their ancestors and to continue to search and find our own family members (Steve) and clean up the records in Family Tree (Lorene).  Time passes too quickly to waste it, thus my New Years's wish is to be more effective with what time is allotted to me and to develop a more meaningful relationship to Him who we follow.  The Savior is only as far away from us as we put Him, and thus conversly is only as close to Him as we draw close to Him.

We have both recommitted ourselves to our Mission which has brought a great sense of peace and comfort to each of us.  We have been trying unsucccessfully to concentrate on our Mission as well as dealing with some family issues at the same time and it has been very hard on us emotionally as well as affecting us somewhat in our service at the Family History Library.  We have come to realize that we will likely have some of these family issues long after we are no longer serving as missionaries, but we won't always be here on a mission serving others and helping them find and become connected to their ancetors.  Although we still have love our family and care about them, their issues will no longer prevent or diminish our opportunnites to serve and help others as we put the Lord first and His work of bringing families together.  We also know that because we are here on a mission, the Lord will watch over our family and He will be there for them.

I just want to add a note about what Steve wrote in the last paragraph.  I was writing in my journal this morning about how difficult it has been to balance our time, efforts, and emotions between the family issues, health concerns, and our missionary responsibilities.  As I finished writing about my concerns in these areas, the thought came to me through the Spirit that we must "Seek . . . first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness . . ." (JST Matt. 6:38).  I didn't share this with Steve until after he wrote (and I edited) the blog. I am awed that he and I had the same inspired thought about putting the Lord first.  One blessing that has come to us as a result of our missionary service is that we are becoming more united.

May your new year be a joy to you in all the aspects of your life.

December 6, 2015

Another week of our Mission has come and gone as quick as all the rest which is rather scary.  Things continue to be rather slow on the British Services Zone.   However, that is a good thing as it has given us both time to concentrate a little more on our own research.  Lorene is becoming an expert in correcting errors on Family Search and I am becoming more confident with Ancestry.  It still is rather difficult for Lorene to find new names, and I have been able to find some new names that need to be verified,but the names, dates and places seem to be a good match.

Last night helped put some of my feelings about my grandmothers family come alive and the following is a summary of what felt and learned:

A Trail of Personal Discovery

As missionaries we have been encouraged to share Elijah moments with our zones, and as a fairly new missionary I had always thought those moments were to be about our experiences with our guests to the Family History Library.  However, I have come to realize that such moments also include our experiences with our own family research.  Last night while I was sleeping, I had a dream and a very strong impression that made me realize how pleased I will be to meet my great-grandparents and my great uncle, Gustav Janousky.  This impression was manifested to me as a banner on my FamilySearch Family Tree which simply said: "You will be pleased someday to meet Charles, Clara, and Gustave".

Many years ago when I first expressed an interest in Family History, my Grandmother Walker told me that her parents and step-brother, Gustav, immigrated to the United States from Germany before she was born.  She further told me that Clara, for whom my grandmother is named, was initially Gustave's nanny.  With only their names, dates of birth, and information as to when and where they lived in the United States, I began a search that has lasted many years.

Thanks to my wife's encouragement over the years to do my family history, perseverance, and modern technology, I have been able to piece my grandmother's story together.  I have found several U.S. census records that include my grandparents, ship passenger lists, pictures, and marriage and death records which have verified what she told me.  We all have a story to tell and now is the time to ensure that future generations will know our stories through our own family histories.

In my quest to discover my great-grandparents and great uncle, I found the passenger list that tells me that they immigrated from Prussia on the ship "Rugia," they left from Hamburg, were going to live in Washtenaw County which is in Michigan, and arrived in New York on May 2, 1892.  After being in the United States for only a few days, Charles and Clara were married in Ann Arbor, Washentaw, Michigan on May 7, 1892.  Now, seven-year-old Gustave had a mom again.

Until recently I had run into a brick wall with my great-uncle Gustave.  Gustave is included in a special 1894 Michigan Census and in the 1900 U.S. Census living with my great-grandparents,  his two half-brothers and half-sister, my grandmother, in Ann Arbor.  However, that's where his trail ended.  Recently I found Gustave's death certificate which brought a sad closure to my sleuthing.  Gustave died in 1909 at the age of 22 just before the 1910 Census, and had been recently been discharged from the U.S. Navy. The fact that as a recent immigrant Gustave enlisted in the U.S. Navy tells a whole lot about his allegiance to his new country and also makes me proud to be a military veteran myself.

The research of the census records helped to fill out my grandmother's family unit.  Four boys and two girls (one of which is my grandmother) were born to Charles and Clara in Ann Arbor, and all but one were buried in the same cemetery in Ann Arbor as my great-grandparents, which makes me feel that they were a very loving family.  After my grandmother married in Ann Arbor, she and my grandfather moved to California in the early 1950's and they are buried in same cemetery as my parents.  Researching the Death Certificates of Charles and Clara have provided clues about my great-great grandparents that have sparked an interest in finding the next generation.  Hopefully, I will be as successful in finding out and tell their story too. 

This journey of confirming and discovering the story of Charles, Clara, and Gustave is a personal witness to me that the scriptures are true as they tell us "the heart of the fathers will turn to the children and the heart of the children will turn to the fathers."  Further-more, I know that just as the Holy Ghost is a Being of Spirit that can come to us, Elijah has a tangible spirit that can come to us also. It is through this spirit of Elijah that I have taken this journey and will be pleased to someday meet Charles, Clara and Gustave.  

Steve and Lorene 

December 6, 2015

We certainly are not part of the milineal generation.  The previous post was supposed to have been published last week because that was almost the end of November and it didn't make show up in our blogs, so now you have two blogs to catch up with to see how things are going with the Walkers.

Things have slowed down on the British Services Floor and I think it has more to do with the time of the year rather than a lack of interest in Family History.  Most of the guests in our zone know what the are doing and who they are looking for, or they go directly to the Staff for assistance.  However, we do have some who need help and otherwise we keep ourselves busy doing our own research, or in training.  We have made friends with one of the guests who is from New Zealand and we have been able to help him with his family tree on Ancestry.com or in correcting things in FamilySearch.  He is going to be here for almost a year, so I am sure that we will get to help him many more times,

We have both been given extra assisgnments in our zone which we give new experieces and allow us to be of assistance to our zone leaders.  Our zone leaders are so very dedicated to running the zone and put in so many extra hours to ensuring that the zone runs smoothly, I am glad we help them.  It feels great to be needed and to feel like we are contributing to the zone.  However, Lorene's first love is to be able to help the guests when they come to our floor.  I am not quite there yet, but working on it.  We will be helping with weekly devotionals, music and daily thems, some reports and reviewing new training modules.

On Friday night we took Lorene's brother Wayne out for his birthday and we had a nice visit with him.   Wayne and our son Michael could almost be brothers.  They are both unmarried, live alone and its take little to satisfy them.  Saturday we went to a musical production of "A Christams Carol" at the Hale Centre Theater, and it is what the name implies, a theater in the round.  We thoroughly enjoyed and had the opportunity to spend some time with many of our fellow Missionaries. We had a nice, although very short visit with our daughter and her family last night.  They were here for a couple of family activities for LaVerl's family.  We went over to Temple Square to look at the Christmas lights and then came back to our apartment for hot chocolate to ward ourselves up.  It was nice to spend some time with them.  

We continue to have time to worry about all of our children the problems that have to face in their lives.  Some problems and issues and concerns are greater than others and some times they make good decisions and some times they don't.  However, agency gives them the right to make their own decisions and we continue to hope that when they make the now so good choices that they will learn a better way and not to repeat them.

Steve: It's hard to beleive that November is almost gone and over with.  Even harder to believe is that tomorrow will mark three months that we have been serving as full time Seasoned Missionaries. (Doesn't seasoned sound so much beter than being called Senior Missionaries.  I haven't figured out the average age of the Missionaries that are here, but I belive that we are on the younger side; however, that may be just hopeful thinking.)  This weekend was a little strange for us, we actually had a four day weekend due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, our Thanksgiving Day was great, we only had to cook one dish -- green bean casserole.  I guess as a Missionary I should be be more truthful, Lorene actually cooked the casserole, and I forgot which one was hers and didn't even get any of it.  At any rate, we had dinner with about two hundred other Missionares, played games and, most importantly, we had great company.  We ended up sitting at a table with six young elders, and it was the best part of the afternoon.  Our daughter, Katie, encouraged us to have dinner here in the Mission rather than trying to go home, and I am so glad that we did.

This week at the library was a little slow, which didn't surprise me due to the holiday.  I finished my training workbook this past week which was a relief to our Zone Leaders, and which I probably should have done before I received my certificate, but it all worked out in the end.  I am now starting to create my own cliff notes to help me learn how to find ancestors in the various countries included in our Zone which should help me.  Additionally, my mentor seems to be a little more accessible which should be helpful.  We have two new Missionary Couples starting this week in our Zone which will be of great assistance to our guests.  It will be interesting to see how many guests we have come to the library for the next month.  It was a little sad, a group came from another country this past week to primarily do research in our zone and they did not know that the library was closed on Thursday and Friday.  We continue to be happy to be serving in the British Zone and for the knowledge we are gaining.

Lorene has been commenting for the last couple of weeks about how surprised she was that it hasn't snowed.  Well, yesterday Mother Nature must have been tired about hearing the inquires and blessed us with not only cold weather, but also some white, powdery covering to go with it.  I rather liked it, but Lorene would have been more than happy to let the white stuff stay up in the ski slopes.  As for me, I hope this was not the the only snow we get for the rest of winter, but please don't tell Lorene that I said that.

Lorene: I always like to say that I like snow as long as it's outside and I'm inside keeping nice and warm.  It's so pretty to look at, but it's also very cold.  I don't do well with being cold, but I think I'm doing pretty good as long as I bundle up as much as possible. 

I want to tell you about an experience I had this week.  On Thanksgiving morning, I received an email questioning something I did in Family Tree.  Both the woman who wrote and I have ancestors named William McKenzie, and when I did something on mine it somehow affected hers.  So I went on Family Tree to see if I could figure out what I did and why, but it was something I did during our first 2 weeks of training here and I don't remember.  I emailed her back and told her that, and I promised that I would do more research and figure out who belongs to whom.  I told her that as a missionary in the British Zone I have access to many records and professional consultants that can help me.  She emailed me back the following:

Sunday night and all is well here in Salt Lake City.  We have just finished another week and continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve here and for our new friends we have made over the last couple of months.  Its refreshing to have so many friends that you can rely upon to help you out when needed and just to meet and greet them as often as you can.  Its also nice to be able to borrow things that you don't have here but need to use for a dinner such as an extra chair or a crock pot or potatoes and a roast in order to feed the young Missionaries.

We both had positive experiences on the British Floor this past week helping the guests that were here doing family research.  Its always brings a smile when you either able to help them or to hear about their successes with their own research.  We are feeling a little more confident and I am sure we will as time goes by.  It seems that each week brings a new group who have traveled from long distances to use the resources of the library.  In time we will feel more positive about our own skill levels, but in the meantime there are many other Missionaries in our zone that are willing to help us.  We also are starting to develop a relationship with our zone leaders and appreciate their patience with us, but more importantly to befriend us.  You can never have too many good friends.

In addition to going to the our assignments last week we also traveled to the Bountiful Temple and attended an Endowment Session there.  Its a very beautiful temple and we are glad to have had the means to go there.  We traveled back to Bountiful over the weekend to attend the reception of the daughter of our Financial Adviser, Mark McKell, from California.  Mark is connected to Lorene's family via two Sisters. You'll have to wait for her to get the connections correct.  We also discovered today that one of the Sister's in our Mission is as we figured out so far a third cousin to Lorene.  She has way too many relations here in the Mission.

We had a scare late last week when we heard that my adopted Mom, Sister Sharon Walker, here in the Mission was considering planning on getting released and returning home to Rigby, Idaho.  She is still recovering from here breast cancer surgery and this week marked the one year anniversary of her husband's death.  She is such a sweet lady and we all love her dearly.  We think she has made the decision to finish her Mission here in Salt Lake City. We just need to let her know of our love for her and support her as often as we can.  Its hard to watch her struggle so much.

Its almost time for the editor-in-chief to do what she does best, edit my work.  However, she does not point out my mistakes as much now days, rather she just makes the changes and sends the messages out.  Alas I have been given a reprieve.  The Editor is on her way to get her beauty rest and has ordered me to publish this post.

Steve: It's the ides of November which means that the holidays are right around the corner and that another week has gone by us at the amazing speed of light.  We continue to have more good weeks and good experiences which makes serving on this Mission so worth- while.  I hope that our fellow Missionaires also have good experiences as they serve.

Our Church meeting times have changed beginning today and that is going to be very interesting.  Our meetings will begin at 2:30 and will run until 5:30 which for us Seasoned Missionaries is either the time for a late nap time or late dinner.  The trick will be to have our main meal in the middle of the day and then see if we can stay awake during our meeting times.  The most common thing in the Church is change, and thus we are striving to work with the changes that have been given us.

During this past week my teaching experiences have been somewhat limited.  However, I have been able to shadow a couple of the Missionairies and that has helped my self confidence a little, but I need some more confidence to feel like I can assist our patrons on my own.  I have made a commitment to our zone leaders to get more involved in my own training which should be beneficial.  I also want to start doing some case studies on my own to see if that will point me in the right direction.  We have a new Church Service Missionary that has finished her training and should be joining us beginning tomorrow.  

During this week I did have some positive experiences including the finding of four death certificates of individuals on my family tree, including my great-grandmother, her parents on my mother's side, and a half-brother to my grandmother on my father's side.  In one of the certificates on my mother side I was able to find the name of my great-great grandfather which I did not have before, now I just to find more information about dates and places for him.  I knew about the half brother before, but I only had a name for him.  I previously had his name from the passenger list when he came to the United States from Prussia in 1892 and his name on the 1900 U.S. Census.  However, during this week I found him living with my great-grandparents in 1894 during a Special Michigan Census in 1894 but after 1900 he disappeared from my radar.  Then this week I found his death certificate showing that he died in 1909 thus answering why I could not find him in the 1910 U.S. Census.  Gustav was only 22 when he died and may have have been married according to the certificate which also indicated that he had recently been discharged from the Navy and included his mother's name.  My great-grandmother was originally Gustav's nanny and came to the U.S. with my great grandfather and married him shortly after their arrival in the U.S.

May your coming week be as good to you as our past one has been to us.  

Lorene:  I don't have much to add this week except to say that I have felt the Spirit of the Lord much this week.  I especially have been filled with gratitude for my many blessings and for the Atonement of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am so grateful to be here on this mission and know that the sacrifices we're making to do so are minimal compared to the blessings.  We love you all!
 

Steve:
Another week has left us and it has again been one with both good things as well as things that make us sad.  We both continue to learn and feel that we are moving forward, even though it may be at a snail's pace at times.  We also had a new missionary join our zone and she is from Glendora, California which is near where my family lived after I was discharged from the Air Force.  She knows one of Lorene's cousins who is in her home stake.

We both had good experiences at the Family History Library including the following "Elijah Moment" that I shared with our Zone Leaders:

"Earlier this week I was helping a guest find her 3^rd Great Grandmother and her family.   The guest had information on the 2^nd Great-grandmother and we began a search for number 3.  As a result of our search, we discovered that the information was incorrect as it related to both the formal birth date and name of her 2^nd Grandmother.  We researched FamilySearch to no avail and then moved onto Ancestry to try and find information on her 2^nd Great-grandmother where we discovered the correct name, the marriage date with a copy of the banns record (formal announcement of intent to marry), and her birth year.  The following day I continued, on my own, researching information for this family and was able to locate information from both the 1901 and 1911 England/Wales Census which provided information on her 3^rd Great-grandparents and their children.  To put closure to my research I sent by email copies and images of the information that I discovered to the family in Australia to help them grow their family tree.  I have since found that the associated information has now been added to their FamilyTree. 

As Missionaries we don’t necessarily have huge spiritual experiences as we conduct our own research or help guests with their research on a daily basis.  However, through the Spirit of Elijah we are able to find our hidden ancestors and provide names for temple work to continue our family circles.  Our research efforts are enhanced as we not only let the Holy Ghost guide our efforts, but also as we utilize the efforts of our fellow Missionaries to assist us in our research.  I am grateful also for the assistance of other missionaries for their patience with me and their encouragement to not give up.  Truly line upon and line and precept by precept we are able to help the Lord as He hastens His work."

 
Towards the end of the week came some very sad news.  While checking the local San Bernardino news on line, I came across an article about how the death of local police officer had hit the faculty "hard" at San Bernardino High School.  Upon reading the actual article, I discovered that the police officer was a friend of our family, and he was killed on duty after his car was broadsided at an intersection by a driver who may have driven through a red light.  Bryce Hanes leaves a widow and three children under the age of thirteen.  I have been very touched by this incident not only because of the sorrow I feel for the family, but the remembrance of our own mortality and especially that of our children.  Bryce was only a little older than our oldest son and they were good friends.

To end my portion of this post before turning it over to the Editor in Chief, I would like to report about the Music and Spoken Word broadcast that we attended this morning which was a touching salute to Veterans.  It was very meaningful to me as a Veteran and made me proud and grateful for the opportunity to serve in the U.S. Air Force as well as serving in the Vietnam War.  I am proud to be an American, although at times I am very saddened by the actions and beliefs of many of our citizens.

Lorene:
I don't have much to add this time, but I did find a missing son in a family on one of my collateral lines this week.  He showed up in a census as having the same first name as a son born 2 years after this census was taken.  At first I thought that it was the same son, but then I realized that the differing middle initial was not an error but was indeed a different child.  Through this and another experience with a census record, I have learned not to be hasty with my assumptions.  This other record (of a different family) had the names of two of the three children spelled wrong, so at first I thought it wasn't the family I was looking for but on closer examination I realized it was.

This is a great work we are doing and we are glad to have a small part in it.  We are grateful to be here and grateful to all of those who support us with love and prayers.