Sunday, April 29, 2007

Another Busy Week

This week went by sooo fast. We started with a very nice but normal Sunday. I think that that was the only normal day of the week. This week went by sooo fast. We started with a very nice but normal Sunday. I think that that was the only normal day of the week. Monday we were at the FHC by 8:40 for prayer meeting before our missionary training classes started. We learned sooo much. It is almost mind boggling. The classes were on Computer Catalog and Books, Maps and Obituaries and Basic PAF, loading program: zip & ged.com, restore and import, etc. They were very interesting. We even had homework we had to do. I hope they let us know tomorrow how we did. We finished it last Wednesday and turned it in. We found out that they have all the cemetery records in South East Idaho and are digitalizing them to go to SLC FHC so they can be obtained from the familysearch.com. That will be so helpful. I understand that Utah has already done that. Monday night Elena, my Pilates teacher and personal trainer (I meet with her once a month for the rest of the year then I think that is enough.) called and told me that she missed me at Pilates. I reminded her that I told her the week before I wouldn’t be able to come on Mondays anymore because of our training classes. She isn’t a member of the church so I’m not sure she understands the commitment this mission call will take but I do know she doesn’t understand the blessings that will come with it. She had told me the week before that this week would be the last week on the contract and that I would need to sign a new contract. I told her that I had decided that I couldn’t work Pilates into my schedule, that I had found that the water aerobics was helping me more and more and I would get my workouts that way from now on. She more or less “ripped me up one side and down the other” and told me that I had come so far but would really regress badly if I didn’t keep up the Pilates. I tried to explain about the time element now we were spending three days a week at the Family History Center. And she just went on and on. After I hung up my sweetheart told me that I was almost starting to use my assertive voice with her. I told me that I needed to because she wasn’t listening. I felt like I had lost a friend. Thirty minutes later she called me back and apologized and said that I knew what was best for me. I felt relieved about that. When I saw her Wednesday for that last class, she acted as if nothing had happened. Tuesday, I started the day with the 9:00 water aerobics. It was a good class. Karl went to Tiebreaker Elementary School to help tutor first graders in reading. We met at 10:30 for the Silver Sneakers exercise class. The afternoon was uneventful until 7:00 when I went over to Adele Harper’s home to help the young women crochet. I got home about 8:30. Wednesday, I woke up before 6:30 on my own. I had been planning on going to the water aerobics but felt I had better get that last Pilates class over with. I hadn’t gone at all the week before to Pilates. I did work my “abbs” in the water tho’. The class was very hard for me. My back bothered me more than it had done for a long, long time. As I was walking down the stairs I felt like an old woman. I remembered that I went down so quickly the day before after Silver Sneakers. This time I had to go so slowly. I ached all over. Especially my neck and back. I knew then that I had made the right decision concerning Pilates. I went home and changed my clothes to get ready to go to the FHC. I had an 11:00 nail appointment and we had to be to the center by 12:15 for a special missionary meeting. So Karl took me to have my nails done and just read the paper and pulled weeds while he waited for me to get done. The work at the Center was very gratifying. I even was able to help a person or two and I knew who to ask when I was asked about something I didn’t know. Elder Hall (he has been there for 12 ½ years and is 81 years old; his wife died about 3 ½ years ago and even tho’ he lives in Rexburg, he seems to practically live there at the Center.) helped me re-download my father’s and then my mother’s lines from the Ancestral File. It took almost all night because he was the director from 5-9 and had other things to do. I helped Karl with things on his file while I was waiting for him. When we finally got it done, it was on two different floppy 3 ½ disks. We got home just before 9:30. Altho’I was sooo tired, I still downloaded my file to my PAF. (I was very thankful that I could do all four things. It hasn’t been too long ago that I was only able to do one thing per day so I had to choose.) With the two disks I had to put each one in three times to restore my program. I told Karl that that really got old fast and we needed to get a flash drive the next day for sure. I had talked to Bryan about them and he had sent me some info he had found online. I went to bed about 10:45. I woke up on my own before 6:30. I had plenty of time to take my shower, check out the weather on the computer and practice the piano besides drinking my protein drink before I went to the water aerobics. I had four things planned for the day, but I was still so tired from the day before that I cut it down to two. I just went to the water aerobics and then I had a 1:00 appointment with Shelley for a massage and after my last efforts at Pilates I really needed one. (My back still bothers me a little more than it did before that class.) In between, I called Wal-Mart, Office Max, Best Buy, and Circuit City to compare prices for flash drives. I found out that Office Max had a 2 Gig for $29.99. Karl strongly felt we should check that out so we did on the way home. When I found out that the regular price was $79.99, it didn’t take long to get one. I came home and stored my PAF and Karl’s PAF program to it. He says he’ll still use the floppy for now as long as it keeps working. I anticipate that that won’t be too long. It goes onto the flash drive just as fast as it does the C drive. That surprised me because it took forever with the 3 ½ floppies. Later that night at 7:00 I went to Book Club Enrichment Group. We discussed the Willa Cather book, My Antonia. I got home before 9:00. Friday, I went to water aerobics, then to the doctor’s office to get an iron infusion (this is because my gastric bypass has caused malabsorption of iron and my Ferritin levels keep dropping….if that’s the only bad result from it, that’s not too bad…I still would have done it.) I met a woman who just learned she had insulin resistance so I talked to her about that while I had the IV and then 30 minutes after it finished. I felt like I had made a new friend. (we talked of other things too.) We had zone meeting (we are a zone by ourselves—the missionaries at the FHC) at the temple and were to be in our seats by 6:00pm. Since we had some errands to run and wanted to eat supper there before the session, we left at 4:30. We had a meeting in the chapel and then went to the 7:00 session. And was it a big session! They brought in about 5-7 chairs to seat everyone. Elder Bob Anderson from the center gave the talk. He told us that each of us was meant to be there at the Center at this time in our lives. (My tho’t was “but I’ve had tho’ts about this for at least a year” wondering if I can do this. Then the tho’t came to me, “Where do you think those tho’ts came from?” It was a very nice session. I was very tired when we got home but it was a good kind of tired. Saturday, I woke up after only about 4 hours of sleep. Altho’ I would have liked to have gone back to sleep I couldn’t. ….my mind was too active thinking about the things at the Center etc. We had a very eventful day at the center. We were assigned tasks there just like all the other missionaries. We change stations every two hours. If we should finish our tasks before the two hours is up, then we can go to the computers. I was on the desk alone. I got along fine. Karl was on with Brother Anderson. I had stored by PAF and Karl’s to the flash drive. I tried to add something to it and it wouldn’t add. It came back with the message, “This is a read only file and cannot be written on. I asked Sister Carl if she could help me and when she came over she saw that it had U3 on it. This means that it keeps you from adding things to it which defeats our purposes. Anyway, Sister Carl was able to take it off. When I told her that I would have to go to SLC FHC to find the original records for my Johannes Rufener she asked why. I told her that they had special books down there for the 1700’s etc. She said but they’ve been put on microfilm and we can order them here. So she helped me fill out he order form and we got it ordered. It will be here in three to four weeks or so…hopefully sooner than later. It would be more than four weeks before we could go down, because we need to finish our training first, anyway. After the Center closed at 5:00pm, we went to Saving Center. I didn’t “let down” until after I got home. And, boy, was I tired! I was glad that we had gotten some TV dinners there at Savings Center and that’s what we had for supper. I didn’t do anything else last night, I was so tired. But it was a good kind of tired. I only got 5 hours of sleep last night and four the night before (because of going to the temple and being at the center yesterday, I didn’t get my water in earlier in the day like I had been and I had to wake up to empty my bladder.) I’m going to make sure I get my water in early in the day from now on and I should be able to get more sleep. Today, I’ve been tired but it has been a good day. The meetings were all very good and my piano playing went well. Oh, I almost forgot. Wednesday we were asked to be the official piano player and song leader for the afternoon prayer meeting. So we start this Wednesday.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Our Mission Call

We received our mission call two weeks ago yesterday. It was hand delivered by President Fulks, second counselor in the Stake Presidency. We were set apart the next day. I asked Pres. Fulks, "What do we do now....just wait to be contacted by the director?" He told me yes. So we waited and waited and waited and finally I called the FHC on Thursday. They told me that there was a new missionary training meeting starting Monday @ 9:00 Am with prayer meeting at 8:45. Well, we didn't know for sure how long it would take to drive there and with all the lights against us and construction going on around the building, we got there late....about 8:55. We were welcomed anyway. Sister Hendricks took us in hand and showed us the ropes. Elder Killian, the FHC director, told us that this is the best mission we could possibly serve because we are able to live at home, and keep up with our family and friends. He told us it would also be the hardest mission we ever served because we were living at home and keeping up with our family and friends. He said we would have to set boundries, because family and friends tend to forget that we are on a mission because we are living at home. We would have to be commited. We were given a binder with a schedule in it. We will have the training classes for the next five weeks on Monday morning. We were told that we are to wear our name tags every time we are wearing our Sunday clothes whether it is to go to church, the temple, a reception, or funeral. It is good advertizing and a great conversation starter. We got home about 12:30. We also were assigned that morning to the days we would work. Wednesday evening, 1:00pm to 9:00pm and Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm. I didn't realize that they had prayer meeting before the 1:00pm shift also (I should have tho't) so instead of being ten minutes early we were five minutes late. We were on time Saturday morning.

We are learning lots. Altho' I'm comfortable with the computer and know a little around the PAF program, I am learning something new everytime I turn around. My sweetheart knows nothing about the PC nor the PAF program, but he is willing to learn and I hope is not getting too overwelmed. He spent about three hours yesterday working with Elder McCary learning to get into and out of the PAF program the FamilySearch.com site and to cut and paste. He has to keep practicing patience with himself. I'm thankful that he is willing to get out of his comfort zone and do this with me.

I've been having trouble identifing my third great grandfather on my father's side. It is my Grandma Wendel's great grandfather, Johannes Rufener, born 22 Dec 1780 in Blumenstein, Bern, Switzerland. There are only 53 Johannes Rufener born in the same place in a ten year peroid. The Johannes Rufener that my thrid great grandmother and her daughter have been sealed to (and therefore me too) was born in 1792 in the same place and I recently learned he must have died before his brother, Johannes Rufener was born in 1796. So therefore he could not possibly be my progenitor. (The one born in 1792.) Just this last Friday, I called Renda Smith in our ward to see if I could use her ancestry.com. She told me to tell her the names I was looking for and she'd look them up for me. She found Susanna Rufener who is my second great grandmother and had her parents as Johannes Rufener born in 1792 and Anna Rufener born in 1794. I felt so terrible when she gave me that information. I really felt bad. I said, "What do I do now?" Renda told me that's the way family history goes. Shortly after I had the impression to put into familysearch.com Anna's death date, 3 Dec 1822. When I did, it brought up her husband, Johannes Rufener, born 22 Dec 1780. And a death date!! 14 Jun 1848. I got the most wonderful warm feeling come over me. I was thrilled thro' and thro'. I received the confirmation that these were my progenitors and they were the ones I need to be sealed to. This Johannes Rufener will need to have his work done for him then I can call Salt Lake and have the sealing changed. I will have to take a trip to the Family History Center and look at the original records and find out the parents for my Johannes Rufener.

Last Wednesday evening, Elder Hall helped me divide my and Karl's lines onto two different programs. He took us to the old Ancesteral File and put them on our respective lines. I started out with 712 names and now have over 10,000 names! I'm not sure how many my sweetheart has but more than he started with I know. While we were in the Ancesteral file, he went in and found out who had Johannes Rufener, 1792 sealed to Anna Rufener; it was Aunt Pearl! When I was telling someone about that Friday, I got the tho't that maybe she got over there and found out she had made a mistake and she's the one who has been "bugging" me. My Johannes Rufener also may be ready now and trying to let me know too. Anyway, I am quite thrilled to say the least and feel very blessed and thankful for this oportunity to serve this mission. It is the fourth mission for my sweetheart but my first.