What Else I've Been Up to Doing

Over the past month I have discovered the Family History Center. Let me tell what led to this. In 1999 Bryan & Sandy lived in Albequrque and while they lived there Sandy's ward calling was working in the Family History Center. They sent our daughter Karen some pink and blue cards for people that needed their temple work done. Some of them it turned out were duplicates of ones my sister Mildred had sent to me and that my husband and I did. Anyway, Karen set them aside and a couple of years ago gave them to me. At that time I went thro' them and went onto the IGI and found out that all the work had been done except for the work for Johanes Rufener, my 3rd or 4th great grandfather on my father's side. It had been cleared. I set them aside and didn't think any more about it until about a month ago. Since my health has improved greatly, I have been thinking that I need to go to the family history center and get some work done there and see what needs to be done. My sweetheart has been tutoring first graders and helping them read. He has done it other years but didn't last year because he was never called. They had been calling him every year since he first volunteered. Well, he saw Mrs. Sherry Marineau at the DI one day last summer (she was volunteering there) and she asked why he hadn't come back to Tiebreaker Elementary School to help her with her students. He explained that he waited for the call and since it hadn't come he found other things to do. They exchanged phone numbers and she said she would call him if she needed him. She called when school had been in session for only two or three weeks. He has been going every Monday and Wednesday morning for approx. an hour each time. He is working with three first grade boys right now. Deigo, Julio and Nathan. Deigo is a delight. Julio and Nathan have to be reminded to keep on track. So it can be challenging and sometimes stressful for him. But he enjoys it on the most part. Anyway, four weeks ago as I just before I fell sound asleep (I am more susceptable with the Spirit when I'm in what I call the "twight zone") the tho't came to me that I could go to the FHC after he left for Tiebreaker. The reason I have to wait for him to leave is: he parks his car behind mine in the driveway. I cannot drive his '79 Buick because it has a bench seat and is very difficult to move and my legs aren't long enough to reach the pedals. It is very difficult for me to even back it out of the driveway. This way it would already be moved and I wouldn't have to ask him to move it. So I went the next morning after Karl left. That day I relearned how to get on the IGI on my home computer. (It had been so long since I had done it that I forgot that it could be accessed at home.) So that week I spent time going back and forth between the IGI and my own PAF and getting more names and data. I soon found out that Johanes Rufener's work was still only CEARED. That it had never been done. I remember thinking, "I wonder why it hasn't been done yet. It has been years since it was cleared. The next morning when I was in the "twightlight zone" the Spirit whispered to me, "The reason why Johanes Rufener's work has only been cleared on not done is because you are holding the card." Wow! That woke me up. I had written cleared on the card in each of the squares and also his wife's name, Anna. I wondered if we could still use the card with it written on. I asked one of the officiators at the temple the next time we were there and he said yes, to bring it in and they have both blue and pink "whiteout" that they can use or they could just issue a new card. I told him the situation about my experience and he said, "Sister, he is probably the one who has been prompting you to get his work done." To which I replied, "I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find that was the case."

Anyway, I have gone to the FHC each week except for the weekend we went to Utah to see our chidren and grandchildren and my mother. (Incidently, that was a most enjoyable experience. I am sooo glad we went.) I have gone thro' by PAF and "cleaned" it up, took out abbreviations to states and approximated birth dates or marriage dates where it was needed. It turns out that if you have a birthdate and no marriage date but a spouses name, you can add 21 years to the birthdate and put abt before it. For the birth date if you have a marriage date you can subtract 21 years and put abt before it. I spent my spare time for four nights doing that. The next time I went to the FHC I was able to put my PAF with both my side and my husband's side of the family (I may eventually put them in separate files when I get to working more on them.)thro' temple ready. I found 119 individuals who need ordinances done. With Johanes Rufener that is 120 individuals. Some of them need baptisms, confirmation, initiatory and endowments, others need sealing to spouses and still others need only sealed to parents. I found a 4th great grandmother on my mother's side that hasn't been sealed to her parents. All other work and her siblings were sealed but she wasn't. I also found that my mother-in-law's grandfather wasn't sealed to his parents altho' his other work had been done and his siblings had been done and all the work had been done vicariously. Also a sister of my father-in-law was not sealed to her parents. That was a unique situation where their father was a member of the RLDS church and his work wasn't done until after his death. None of his chidren were baptized until after his death. My father-in-law was 22 years old when he was baptized. Anyway, Aunt Fern was already married at that time and she wasn't active in the church at that time. I checked on the IGI for those things and they weren't there.

Anyway, Karen is YMMIA president in her ward and she asked if they could do the baptisms on the 29th of this month. Then Karl and I and others, my mother and brother have volunteered to help with the work too as well as Karen and Kent and Shani and Jon. All of our children live close to a temple so they could all help with it. I have found this very exciting and rewarding. I think I have caught the bug and will go to the FHC often. I'll have to start on research from now on. I am back in the 1700's and some of them the 1600's even on the Wendel side. The people there at the FHC have told me that the church only lets us go back to the 1600's for right now. That is good enough.